Knowledge is a strategic asset and while it has always been good practice to treat it as such, in more recent times, and going into the future, the need is perhaps becoming more acute. Why we say this is because of two key reasons – there is an increased number of retirees and today’s younger workforce have a different outlook on work and career.
Unlike the older generation where on average a career would incorporate perhaps a maximum of 3 different employers, the more recent generations have seen that figure double or even triple. There is no longer the priority for staying with an employer as the focus is more on self development, self interest or just the fact that modern society is more transient and transactional. When one employee leaves, 70% of their know-how disappears.
If retention through societal changes is therefore an issue, how does an organization safeguard its corporate knowledge and ensure that the business is sustainable? Certainly standard operating procedures, policies and values will all play a part, but with turnover of staff, reduced tenure and limited loyalty to the organization comes the real risk of a company unable to recycle knowledge as a strategic asset.
When subject matter experts exit the company without documenting their knowledge, it can have a negative and long-lasting effect across the entire business. Individual staff continuously accumulate knowledge through education, work, relationships and interactions with clients and the environment.
Often individual knowledge is not properly stored or indexed anywhere other than in the grey matter of the employee. This is particularly concerning when you consider how all this intellectual capital may go to waste when expert employees leave the company for another job or to retire. Many companies may not make the right move in retaining their employee’s knowledge before it is too late. This is understandable in unpredictable situations such as when an employee takes a different job, but in the case of retirement, knowledge retention can be much better managed.
Retiring professionals hold long accumulated subject knowledge regarding problem solving experience, client relationship skills and creative thinking. By not leveraging all they have to share, this leaves peers with the potential burden of reinventing the wheel, which is a waste of time, money and intellect.
To be sustainable or at least competitive, a business needs to promote effective ways to secure this capital, and to share it.
The process needs to be both strategic (build knowledge retention into the company culture from day one, not the last day, of an employee’s tenure) and tactical ( Choose how to store and distribute knowledge, safeguarding it from employee turnover and protecting the investment in employee training).
The keys to a successful knowledge retention strategy are:
1. Recognition and reward structure. Knowledge retention must be part of the everyday life of employees. Reward employees for participation in knowledge-retention activities. Awards for mentorship or requirements for promotion may help.
2. Bidirectional knowledge flow. Holders of key knowledge aren’t always the highest paid people in the company. Top-down knowledge retention strategies don’t work, especially in tech-heavy companies in which younger employees may have unique savvy.
3. Personalization and codification. Personalization refers to ways to exchange knowledge with other employees. Codification is how knowledge is stored.
4. Re-learn from the past. If you missed the opportunity to capture knowledge from past employees, bring back retirees for lunch-and-learns or as consultants.
Knowledge as a strategic asset needs to be recognized and protected. Next time an employee leaves or retires, can you be confident that what they know hasn’t just walked out the door with them?