Notes from Ted
Managing Complexity and Information Overload
Employees in many dynamic and growing industries are facing greater complexity in their jobs intensified by information overload from management or regulatory agencies. We often see this with employees in financial services, telecommunications and high-tech.

The usual approach to relieving this stress is to schedule more online and classroom training. However, these knowledge delivery methods often fail to produce meaningful performance results. It's too much information, too detailed and too complex to ask employees to remember. It doesn't fill the knowledge or performance gap. So, as I often say, "Why train them in stuff they're going to forget?"

Companies can actually reduce traditional training by shifting resources to performance-oriented knowledge management. Important knowledge can be placed at workers' fingertips, according to their job role. And, a specialized knowledge management system, like an EPSS, can serve up information in the most intuitive and efficient manner possible, specific to the task at hand. It provides on-the-job and workflow support to get the job done right.

Taking down the barriers of complexity and information overload can free employees to be more competent and productive in their jobs. You'll see these themes echoed by a growing chorus of experts, who favor a shift towards better on-the job knowledge delivery and less training.

Solution Corner
Less Training, Better Support in Complex Environments
Information Overload? Too much complexity? Employee performance and compliance with tasks can suffer if they aren't delivered the right documentation, in the right way, at the right time.

We recently asked Charles Jennings, Head of Global Learning at Reuters, to explain his approach to employee development, which is less about training than it is about achieving better performance on the job. As Charles notes, for a company that publishes 8 million words a day, managing information for business performance is a key priority. You can view the webinar here. 

Charles was also interviewed in a recent issue of Sales and Marketing Management about achieving greater productivity in customer service operations by rebalancing knowledge delivery. You can read the article by clicking here.

Recently, Call Center Magazine gathered a panel of training experts, including Panviva's Effraim Herskovic, to discuss best practices for agent training. With the high cost of on-boarding and often diminishing returns on traditional training, alternatives to knowledge delivery, such as on-the-job learning, is one answer to increase performance and reduce costs. The interviews can be read as the cover story of June's print edition or online here.

Product News
New Content Conversion Tool Offers Greater Authoring Support
Re-purposing of content saves time and money, but good performance support knowledge requires tailoring to the job, specific process or communication need. With Panviva's new Content Conversion Tool, authors can achieve that balance between efficiency and quality. The new tool facilitates migration of Microsoft Word-based content into the EPSS. Documentation can then be further refined for a performance support context. Read more.

Event Presentation
Behind the Scenes with HP: Change Management, SAP, and User Support
In the years following its merger with Compaq, HP needed to adopt new process with a complex and changed SAP implementation. The biggest hurdle: retraining 3,000 users quickly and effectively, as they faced a raft of new business rules and processes. Meet the program manager who made it happen, as she discusses the shift from traditional training to a performance support approach. View here for this June webinar.

More Resources
View additional white papers, case studies, and presentations in our Resource Center.