According to a 2022 BusinessInsider article, the attrition rate for federal government employees under the age of 30 was 8.5% — double the average level of their older counterparts aged 30 to 59.
Government agencies continually cope with employee turnover and retirements. As a result, government agencies are constantly working to hire and onboard new employees. The problem is that these new hires often struggle to navigate complicated and confusing agency processes, policies, and specific language used throughout the organization. Traditional approaches tend to be manual and inefficient, leaving these individuals feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and less excited about their new role. However, the emergence of answer engine technology has revolutionized the way organizations onboard new employees, enabling them to come up to speed rapidly and contribute immediately.
The Challenge of Phrasing Questions
One of the primary challenges new employees face when entering an organization or role is not knowing the right way to phrase a question to obtain the information they need, whether by asking a knowledgeable person or researching training materials. In many cases, domain- and agency-specific jargon can be non-intuitive, making it difficult for newcomers to communicate their inquiries effectively. This hurdle often leads to longer learning curves and reduced productivity early on.
Newer technology approaches, such as answer engines powered by advanced natural language processing (NLP) and generative AI (GenAI), allow new employees to articulate their queries in their own words without the need to conform to specific syntax or terminology. This flexibility in communication empowers new employees to seek information confidently, significantly reducing the time it takes to find answers and make informed decisions.
Navigating Agency-Specific Information
While exceptionally helpful to the new jobholder, the ability to phrase their questions as they wish is only part of the solution. The agency must still provide relevant answers to their questions, which requires an effective way to process a vast sea of agency-specific information. Every organization has its unique set of processes, procedures, and knowledge that are often undocumented or scattered across various systems and channels. As a result, newcomers can find it overwhelming to gather the necessary information to perform their tasks efficiently even if the system understands their question.
Answer engines bridge this knowledge gap effectively. By leveraging built-in AI and search capabilities against all existing documentation, even if they contain inconsistent terminology, answer engines provide instant access to agency-specific information. Whether it relates to regulations, agency policies, or best practices, these systems can retrieve relevant information from this content and ensure that new employees have the answers they need, whenever they need them.
Generating Targeted Training Content
Answer engines also help trainers and documentation teams to create more effective training materials. By inspecting user interaction analytics generated by the answer engine, organizations can gain valuable insights into the specific areas where new hires struggle or require additional support.
These analytics can reveal patterns in the types of questions asked, common areas of confusion, and specific knowledge gaps. Armed with this data, trainers and documentation teams can develop targeted training content that addresses these pain points. This content can take the form of tutorials, guides, FAQs, or even interactive modules within the answer engine itself. Such tailored training materials help accelerate new hire onboarding, enabling people to become proficient in their roles quickly.
Final Thought
Today, government organizations can’t afford to have new employees spend weeks or months getting up to speed. Game-changing technologies that expedite the onboarding process and boost overall productivity, like answer engines, are available.
Using them, employees can ask questions in their own words, eliminating the need to master keywords and domain-specific terminology upfront. They also provide relevant information pertinent to agency-specific services and programs, ensuring that newcomers have the knowledge they need to perform their tasks competently. And let’s not forget about the valuable analytics that help trainers create more focused training content to address specific learning needs or gaps in information.
Incorporating answer engines into the onboarding process ensures that individuals become productive contributors to the organization at a much faster pace. By harnessing the power of AI and natural language processing to facilitate learning and knowledge retrieval, new employees can be more excited to have immediate impacts in their new posts.
Ryan Welsh is the founder and CEO of Kyndi, a global provider of the Kyndi Platform for the Natural-Language-Enabled Enterprise, an AI-powered platform that empowers people to do their most meaningful work. To learn more visit https://kyndi.com/ or follow them on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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