What Is It Costing You When Your People Can’t Get What They Need, Right When They Need It?
We all know that “Time is Money” right? Well, how much money do you think your company is wasting when your employees can’t find what they need to do their job, right when they need it? Go ahead, take a guess. There are a number of research papers out there that have said the average employee spends upwards of 8 hours per week searching for information that is somewhere within their organization. Let’s take that a step further based on some other findings. “An enterprise employing 1,000 employees wastes $30, 650 per week, or nearly $1.6 million per year, due to an inability to locate and retrieve information!” Sobering, isn’t it? What that research also divulges is that approximately 35-50% of the information available within an enterprise is not indexed or searchable. Most organizations have information, content, data and collateral; let’s refer to all of these as assets, which are scattered throughout their organization in at least 5 different servers. What that tells us is those enterprises don’t have a logical, systematic, organized plan or process in place to selectively capture, store and retain those assets so they can be accessed quickly and easily.
Consider this; most organizations have no idea, by department, what vital information or asset their people search for and need most often. Another problem is a lot of that information may no longer be current or even relevant to those people, once they do find it. Do you think this adds to employee frustration and impacts their morale? I think so. Those same organizations that don’t have their information, data and collateral, indexed, or searchable, also don’t have any of those assets ranked as to their quality or value! So, even when people finally find what they need, chances are it may be outdated or of poor quality and value. Not only are enterprises losing money over the time that their people spend searching for what they need, those assets may not even be of value when they finally access them. Ok, what we have identified is that most organizations: #1 – have no idea what is most important to their people that they need to find most often, #2 – haven’t indexed those assets or made them searchable, #3- know if those assets are current, #4 – aren’t even sure if they are accurate and relevant. Can you see how that may have a negative impact on your employee’s overall performance and productivity?
Allow me to throw one more wrinkle into this scenario. Everyone knows that “Knowledge is Power”, right? But how much is it costing your organization when your people can’t access the tribal and corporate knowledge they need to ramp up faster or perform more effectively? That cost may even outweigh the cost of not being able to get the other assets they need, when they need them. Those organizations that don’t recognize the need to capture, retain, protect and then leverage the knowledge that they already have gained, with those who need it, are bound to struggle to be as effective and profitable as they could be.
If you really want to get a handle on those intangible costs that may be dragging your organization down and improve employee performance and morale, then you need to come up with a plan and tools that will allow you to capture, retain and then deploy that knowledge and those assets that your people need. If you don’t, then you simply are contributing to the downfall of your own organization’s morale, effectiveness and market value. At least that’s the way I see it, what say you?
About the author:
Chuck Carey is an accomplished sales, marketing and business executive with more than 40 years of experience in the information technology industry. Chuck’s vast knowledge of the problems facing all types of organizations around identifying and capturing corporate knowledge makes him ideally suited to work with and consult in that area. If you would like to see if Chuck can help you and your organization please contact him through this website.