Unprecedented numbers of employees are leaving government agencies. A significant driver is the implementation of workforce reduction initiatives; many agencies offering “deferred resignation” programs and early retirement incentives to reduce staff numbers.
As a result, government agencies face a significant challenge in maintaining operations; staff with the knowledge of current operations are leaving forcing remaining staff to “learn on the fly.”
Further, the average age of government agency employees in 2023 was approximately 47 years old. Data from September 2024 indicates that over 28% of the full-time, permanent federal workforce was 55 years of age or above. Many of the employees leaving are older, experienced staff with extensive institutional knowledge.
These demographic trends illustrate that government agencies are not just losing staff, they are losing institutional knowledge that is critical to the effective and efficient operation of an agency.
While agency leadership cannot prevent mandated staff cuts, it can prevent the loss of important institutional knowledge by using AI to create a process knowledge library. Doing so brings numerous benefits:
- Remaining staff have a resource to draw upon when faced with tasks previously done by others
- Delegating work to others is done with materials that illustrate how to get the new tasks done
- Training replacement staff in the future is easier using documented process knowledge
- Documented processes often illustrate areas for improvement that can be quickly implemented
Creating a process knowledge library is easy with the AI Process Mapper. This application will take text, documents, webpages, etc. and convert them into a process flow diagram that can be saved as a PDF.
Managers can ask departing employees to provide an outline of their tasks individually. For example, an employee provides an outline for travel expense approval. (Excerpt is shown in the side bar, for the complete outline CLICK HERE).
The outline was uploaded to www.aiprocessmapper.com which created a process model shown below. A process model combined with the text, creates a clear roadmap of what needs to be done. Placing these tools on a network drive or SharePoint is a great way to catalog institutional knowledge.
Travel Expense Report Approval Process
- Pre-Travel Authorization
- Submission of Travel Request
Employee submits travel request form with estimated expenses. - Manager Review & Approval
Manager reviews purpose, budget alignment, and necessity. - Finance/HR Review (Optional)
Optional secondary review for budget and policy compliance. - Travel Booking Authorization
Once approved, travel booking may proceed by approved vendors.
- Expense Report Preparation
- Completion of Travel
Employee completes trip and gathers receipts. - Submission of Expense Report
Employee submits expense report form (digital or paper) with:- Dates and purpose of travel
- Itemized expenses
Writing the outline is not an arduous task; it can be easily performed by staff; and creating the process model takes only seconds. Having departing employees use www.aiprocessmapper.com directly to perform this work allows them to see what their outlines generated. They can alter the text to make corrections should they see errors or missing steps.
See how easy it is to retain institutional knowledge with the AI Process Mapper.
Sources:
Six charts on the age of federal workers – USAFacts usafacts.org
A Profile of the 2023 Federal Workforce – Partnership for Public Service ourpublicservice.org
Reframing Public Sector Work for Emerging Generations – Granicus granicus.com
