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Knowledge sharing using repositories at CEGA

 
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Background


The Cega Group is a UK-based organisation which was founded some thirty years ago by two brothers, Graham and Clive Ponsford, who shared a passion for flying. They established an air taxi service and extended it to the provision of air ambulances. Following discussions with specialist travel insurance companies they identified a market opportunity to become the “service behind travel insurance policies”. They provide the specialist back up and support for services that are delivered before, during and after travel, on behalf of the fully branded travel insurance product.

Cega has over 400 employees – the figure varies according to the seasonal nature of the business – and is organised in four inter-related divisions: travel insurance services; global medical assistance; air ambulance provision; private air charter. Activities include: advice on visas and vaccinations; medical risk assessment; insurance underwriting; a 24 hour help line on travel problems, baggage or document loss; the facilitation of return travel to the UK, on occasion under traumatic or tragic circumstances and pro active claims handling.

The majority of Cega staff work at a contact centre in rural Sussex, with a smaller centre based at the Air Ambulance Operations Centre at Bournemouth International Airport. There are a number of specialist professionals employed at Cega, including pilots, doctors and nurses; however the company’s business model is based on the ability of all employees to offer accurate and relevant information across a wide and growing range of travel-related issues. For example, Cega stresses the multi-lingual capability and country knowledge of its employees.

For most employees the work involves taking and responding to telephone calls or e-mails and processing information using systems on their PCs.


The knowledge repository system


Martin Howe is Group Training and Development Manager at Cega. In his view one of the major challenges of the business is the need to drive down average costs while meeting the growing expectations of clients, who in turn are driven by ever-demanding individual and business travellers. Moreover, travel problems are always a source of news stories, sometimes dealt with in a sensationalist fashion. There is therefore an increasing reliance on the capability and knowledge of the individual customer service adviser.

One of the problems has been the inevitable tendency of customer advisers to hold information in a way that suits them and for the specialist teams to operate as specialist silos. Martin Howe and his team have therefore taken steps to encourage advisers to make tacit knowledge tangible and accessible and thus share information across the organisation as a whole. The establishment of a quick and easy way to make this information readily available has been the key to success.


The Assistance Knowledge Bank


The Assistance Knowledge Bank (see Figure 1) is launched from customer advisers’ applications on their individual PC and consists of a ‘links’ document. Each page contains a menu with links to key information, forms, templates and learning tools (see Figures 2, 3 4 at end of this document). Key stakeholders ‘own’ their particular documents, but anyone can add to the body of knowledge throughout the Cega Group. The maintenance of these links is the responsibility of a member of the Learning and Development team who acts as a specialist ‘librarian’ with responsibility for both checking accuracy and developing the scope of the facility.

Important messages are communicated on the intranet ‘daily memo’ and reinforced by the Assistance Knowledge Bank. Training notes, step by step procedure guides and learning checks, endorse the training experience and also facilitate self-discovered learning.

The Knowledge Bank is popular with staff, because they now have a ’one stop’ place for all the information and documents they need to carry out their tasks quickly and efficiently, even while customers are on the phone. It has given managers an element of version control, ensuring that the latest changes are incorporated and used straight away.

Knowledge from across the organisation is shared in an accessible way, adding to efficiency savings, and there is a high degree of ownership amongst ‘front line’ staff. This is because everyone is encouraged to add to the Knowledge Bank. Although this is moderated, everyone feels they can contribute 'Wikipedia' style.

A separate, and in some ways more important, challenge lies in increasing the awareness and hence use of the document. New starters are made aware of the facility and encouraged to use the directories at the outset, but inevitably some long-standing agents still rely on their own tacit knowledge.

However, Martin Howe is very positive that there will be increasing reliance on this form of knowledge sharing. In his view it is important to stress that anyone can contribute and anyone can submit to the directories. In this way it encourages staff engagement and the feeling that any agent can make a positive difference. He also stresses that information available in repository form at the individual’s PC saves considerable time in the workplace: “if the directories weren’t there people could still do their jobs, but they would have to ask others repeatedly for essential information”.


 
 
 
 
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