Why 76% of Internal Expert Searches are Not Very Effective

According to an APQC study 76% of internal expert searches are not very effective. This costs companies time and money.

Common Ways to Expert Search

Company Databases

Word of Mouth Blogs/Wikis

Social Platforms

Expert Finding Software

Company Databases

• Usually contains a complete list of the entire company.

• Contains a lot of good basic information about experts like job, division and past projects which can be a good starting spot for looking for an expert.

• Can get a good broad idea about everyone in the company and a little about them.

But databases tell you nothing about the “soft” qualities (willingness to help, communication abilities etc.) of employees.

Word of Mouth

• Employees can take a guess at who could be of assistance.

• If the first person doesn't know, they then refer you to someone else who suggests another individual and so on.

• In a very small company this might work well.

But word of mouth become less and less effective as the company size grows.

Blogs/Wikis

• Employees can make blogs or wikis that document the problems they’ve had and the way they solved them.

• Users can choose who they think is an expert based on previous posts.

• Blogs and wikis raise questions, which create discussions and eventually a community is formed.

But blogs and wikis can not be personalized to the exact problem someone currently has.

Social Platforms

• The most common expert searching method is to use platforms like Yammer, Salesforce Chatter or Sharepoint to connect employees and spread information.

• These sites can be helpful in creating communities by allowing users to create groups.

• Most social networks allow tagging which allows users to create tags detailing their work, their division or what projects they have been involved with.

But these sites are not made specifically for expert search and may become crowded with irrelevant information.

Expert Finding Software

• Expert software allows users to search a database of questions and posts, as well as tag users which might be best fit for answering questions.

• Some software not only allows tagging but also can automatically create tags if the user can not think of one.

• Often allows integration with other social networks so getting started doesn’t take a long time.

But often hard to convince the relevant members of the company of the importance and have the software implemented.

Comparison of Different Methods

Word of Mouth

Company Databases

Blogs and Wikis

Social Networks

Expert Finding Software

Can learn “soft” qualities about experts

Experts answers can be personalized

Contains good database of information

Don’t need to quickly add an additional program

Unlikely there is irrelevant information

Ability to tag people and ideas

Can create tags for you

So Which Strategy is Best?

The best strategy is not universal because employee wants and needs vary from company to company. An effective strategy at one company might not be so effective somewhere else.

But there are some factors to consider….

What to Think About When Choosing a Strategy

Size of the company

Current company practices

Type of company

Size of Company

In general, social approaches are more popular in larger

organizations.

Smaller companies have fewer resources to create blogs and

wikis.

Larger organizations can automate their profile system

better and create more communities.

Current Company Practices

Expertise finding strategies make take time to catch on and results

might not be present immediately.

Experimenting with different tools to pick the one most suitable for your company

requires patience from employees and management.

The group in charge of implementing the expertise

locating system is also a factor. For example, IT managing the

tool might be different than HR managing it.

Company Sector

The costs for implementing an expertise locator system are relatively low, but companies

have different budgets.

More technical companies like software and hardware will

especially benefit from expert finding software because of the

complexity of the field.

Important to make sure that expertise locators integrate with current systems and are scalable.

What current systems are currently in place is an important

consideration.

Takeaways

Ultimately, a combination of strategies will most likely work best.

The most important thing is to put in time to figure out which system works best for

your company and that employees are given the tools to effectively find experts.

Companies which ignore the implementation of effective expertise locator systems will continue to lose employee’s time and productivity.

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