June 27, 2007

Knowledge management is high on the radar screens of CEOs today. Most North American organizations will face an unprecedented number of highly skilled and knowledgeable professionals and managers leaving their jobs in the next few years. One of the key forces impacting knowledge loss is the attrition issue: baby boomers retiring, and high employee turnover and brief job tenure due to job hopping and transfers. This creates continuous knowledge discontinuities for an organization.

The questions being asked are what is the impact of knowledge loss for organizations and how do we retain critical knowledge that is important to the organization’s success.

So what is the impact of knowledge loss for organizations? As the importance of knowledge increases and knowledge loss accelerates, the negative impact of knowledge loss on organizations rises exponentially. The effects are predictable and costly.

They include:

• Reduced efficiency
• Decreased productivity
• Increased employee frustration and stress, and
• Lower revenues

It is estimated that the loss of knowledge that accompanies an employee’s transfer, resignation, termination, or retirement costs companies billions of dollars a year in lost work hours and productivity. One way of decreasing the impact of knowledge loss is by knowledge continuity management.

Knowledge continuity management (KCM), is defined as the efficient and effective transfer of critical operational knowledge – both explicit and tacit, both individual and institutional – from transferring, resigning, terminating, or retiring employees to their successors or team.

KCM is an effective means of countering the acute and chronic threats of knowledge loss. It speeds the ramp-up of new employees, increases productivity, reduces the stress of job changes for new hires and incumbent employees, protects the organization’s knowledge base, improves customer satisfaction, and creates other competitive advantages.

Our Client

We are currently working with a client to develop and implement a knowledge continuity pilot program focused on critical talent that will be retiring within the next few years.

The pilot program is based on our five-step model:

• Step One: Assessment – conduct a risk assessment of critical operational knowledge
  
  
• Step Two: Objectives and Scope – set the pilot project objectives and scope, build the business case, determine project sponsorship and structure the pilot project team
  
  
• Step Three: Design - identify incumbent/role(s) and the critical operational knowledge, identify successor(s), design knowledge profile, develop knowledge profile analysis questions, and create best process to capture and transfer knowledge
  
  
• Step Four: Transfer Knowledge – implement the knowledge transfer process, monitor and support it, that is “manage the change process”
  
  
• Step Five: Evaluate: determine what is working and areas for improvement, and then expand pilot project to resigning employees, new and transferring employees and high turnover areas.

If you would like to know more about knowledge continuity, please contact Bonnie Pascall at 403-210-2330.