{"id":3941,"date":"2019-06-19T16:27:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T16:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/?p=3941"},"modified":"2022-09-02T09:00:44","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T09:00:44","slug":"knowledge-retention-in-shared-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peeriosity.com\/shared-services\/articles\/2019\/06\/knowledge-retention-in-shared-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowledge Retention in Shared Services"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Making the transition from decentralized processing for back-office processes<\/a> to Shared Services, where teams support many different company operations that are often long distances and multiple time zones away, requires process standards and consistency.\u00a0 While it\u2019s been decades since an employee making a change to their withholdings, or processing a requisition for office supplies, could walk down to HR, Purchasing, or Accounting to talk to someone, the importance of maintaining high quality and consistency doesn\u2019t go away once a service center reaches maturity.\u00a0 Ensuring documentation and desk procedures are accurate, and that process changes are appropriately recorded as defined steps in a process, is increasingly important as the pace of change accelerates.<\/span><\/p>\n

It may not be your top priority, but if your Shared Services organization<\/a> has a long list of key people at various job levels that you can\u2019t do without, it\u2019s likely you should dedicate more effort to the issue of knowledge retention.<\/span><\/p>\n

iPollingTM<\/sup> Results Review<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, Peeriosity\u2019s iPollingTM<\/sup> was used by a Peeriosity member to get insight into this issue.\u00a0 The following background comments were provided when the poll was created:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTogether with a growing number of more complex roles in Shared Service Centers, and the fact that a certain attrition rate is inevitable, it’s critical to make sure the knowledge about the business and processes is not lost together with people leaving the company. We would like to see how other companies are addressing this topic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The first question in the poll asked about how structured and complete the knowledge retention process is within Shared Services operations, with 46% responding that they have a good knowledge retention process and confidence that knowledge is not lost from their organization.\u00a0 For many, this is an issue that needs attention, with 50% reporting that they have some basic processes in place, but that they should be improved.\u00a0 Here are the details:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"iPolling:<\/p>\n

When asked about the mechanics of knowledge retention practices, 53% report that they have desk procedures and process maps in place and that they are kept up to date using a formal tool such as ServiceNow or SharePoint.\u00a0 An additional 35% report that they have desk procedures process maps, but they are not governed through any tool.\u00a0 The remaining 12% have less structure in place.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"iPolling:<\/p>\n

Here are many of the additional comments from members:<\/span><\/p>\n