Revolution! How Knowledge Workers Adapt to New Rules

There was a time when the height of knowledge worker empowerment was the telephone and manila folders. Then came technologies like business process management, enterprise content management and customer relationship management to automate the more repetitive and structured tasks. Flash forward to current times and take notice that a knowledge worker revolution is emerging to deal with modern complexities such as the rapid change in customer and management expectations as well as government regulations combined with current business-to-business consumerization and bring your own device trends. Legacy apps can't keep up and the introduction of dynamic case management (DCM) is filling the gap.

Today's Knowledge Workers

Success in the modern business environment is driven by proper and timely decision-making. Every level of operations in a business is consistently making decisions, starting from caseworkers, support systems, outsourced services all the way up to the executive level of decision-making. For management, the adequacy and sufficiency of the information they receive is the main determinant of the quality of the decisions that they make. It is therefore of great importance that the information processing and relaying system is designed and implemented in a way that fully supports decision-making in a manner in which knowledge workers can be most effective.

It's no secret that our workforce is constantly evolving and the demand for knowledge workers has drastically increased across multiple industries. Businesses with a high percentage of knowledge workers form the fastest growing sectors in today's economy.  Today's knowledge workers consist of different generations and each is faced with their own challenges. We know one thing for sure, since being identified as "knowledge workers" by Martin Feregrino in 1959, the manner in which work is executed has changed and evolved and is very different across industries and individuals. Just as the tasks, work environment and requirements of knowledge workers have progressed since the industrial revolution, so have the tools available for every generation to efficiently do their job.

From baby boomers to generation Xers and the millennials, knowledge workers stretch across each generation. As the baby boomers entered the workforce, they filled positions in which communication consisted of interpersonal interactions and telephone conversations. Since then, technology tools continued to advance at a rapid rate. Generation Xers filtered into the workplace accustomed to the use of computers, while video game and cable TV consoles became normal household appliances. From here, knowledge workers have evolved greatly as we are amongst the digital age. Leading the way are the millennials, who have been exposed to the latest technology innovations since a young age. These millennials are joining the workforce armed with a solid background of accessing information instantly and in real-time, knowledgeable on how to engage social media channels to increase traction and gain exposure, and how to utilize the cloud to get work done when they want, where they want and how they want.

Both companies and employees have to make adjustments in order to keep up with today's evolved knowledge worker. Millennials are comfortable working via tablets and smartphones, but they aren't alone. Baby boomers and generation Xers are just as capable to adopt these new technological tools and the modern work approach. This modern mobile approach to work is upon us, and in order to succeed, knowledge worker adoption is critical. We are at a point where technology is not too overwhelming; it provides the right amount of challenges, advantages, and tools to produce effective results in the workplace.

The Nature Of Knowledge Work

Knowledge workers primarily deal with investigative, incident or service-based projects. In order to achieve efficient results, these projects typically require the assembly of disparate data types, ongoing collaboration across a broad range of personas and interaction with a variety of knowledge bases in unstructured, semi-structured and structured processes.

• Investigative-based work: Rooted in the need for greater transparency, knowledge workers are required to gather data from various sources (e.g., internal and external systems and services) in order to make a judgment on a case. Examples include investigating fraud, performing audits or other activities of due diligence.
• Incident processing-based work: Exceptions need to be resolved quickly, as they are sensitive to the needs and expectations of the customer. These solutions are typically event-driven and examples include managing complaints, helpdesk requests and order exceptions.
• Service request-based work: These are typically high-volume, goal-driven tasks and involve a high-degree of collaboration between different parties, inside and outside of company boundaries.  Examples include insurance claims processing, mortgage approvals and employee on-boarding.

Knowledge workers also combine data with collaboration and interaction with other technologies to make decisions according to three types of work expectations:

• Business rules driven: Work that is bounded by specific corporate governance or rules in order to proceed from task to task. Examples include peer audit of work processed or specific reporting requirements for work done.
• Milestones driven: Work that is not bounded by rules but is required within specific time or activity frameworks.  Examples include customer response or letter generation.
• Metadata driven: Some work is driven by the type of data it represents. Examples include privacy requirements associated with sensitive or financial information or tasks.

Dynamic Case Management

Dynamic case management is the agile approach to the automation of knowledge-based work within any commercial or public sector organization. DCM is the synergistic process of assessing, planning and finding the best outcomes for a case by using highly collaborative processes with limited resources. It takes its root from two existing concepts, business process management (BPM) and enterprise content management (ECM). Leveraging on the core strengths of these two management models, DCM brings with it modern enhancements like real-time reporting, unified communication, analytics and people-centric tools for a more effective and predictable user experience.

Dynamic case management is considered dynamic because it focuses on unstructured and ad hoc processes. It is likewise a continuing process that involves people, information, processes and technical tools. It is likewise adaptive and adaptable because it can be used by non-technical users and it can do different things in different situations. With DCM, circuitous business processes, fragmented communication, repetitive operations, missing documents and long approval times are things of the past.