STOP KNOWLEDGE WALKING OUT THE DOOR

For those who have yet to retire, people’s expectations of when they will stop working have shifted considerably. According to the Centre for Ageing Better charity, nearly a third of today’s 50- and 60-year-olds believed there was a more than 75% chance they would be working when they are 60 or 65 (based on their age now) compared to 23% in 2002.

Recent research (Close Brothers Asset Management 2021), found ‘that around one in 10 workers was thinking of taking early retirement and it is still unclear whether this upward trend will continue’.

There has been a lot of focus over the last decade or so on how to engage the Millennials and Generation Y workers, keeping them motivated and retaining them in our companies. Have we been missing a trick here and taken our eye of the ball when it comes to retaining the Baby Boomers and more so the Generation X workers?

We know that our workforces are ageing as our life expectancy steadily rises, and this means employers and employees have to be more flexible. In addition to this cultural shift, we are all too aware of the recruitment issues facing many SME’s and it’s time to consider how this might impact on the future of your business.

Imagine this…you have an established team of say 20 staff and possibly 2 of these are thinking of retirement. Employees can take up to 70% of company knowledge with them when they retire, having a significant impact on your company’s operation and culture. There has been much talk about this ‘brain drain’ over the last few decades and with thousands of Baby Boomers retiring from the workforce each day and a tight job market, it’s never been more important to develop a knowledge retention system.

How can you make this work for you and your business? The first step is to have a plan to encourage knowledge transfer and to maintain know how and expertise long before an employee even thinks about leaving.

This plan should include:

Succession and Time Management

This will help identify key roles needed to maintain knowledge within your company. An integral part of a robust performance management process, using a succession plan, can have many benefits. At Pro-Development, we work closely with our clients to support them with their performance management processes and the benefits are clear. Employees have a clear view of their development, to both do their current role and what’s needed in the future. As business owners, MD’s and CEO’s, you will have a plan which enables you to keep that knowledge in your business, retain talent and improves job satisfaction.

Back in February 2006, due to corrosion in a pipeline at the Prudhoe Bay oil platform, USA, nearly 900,000 litres of oil escaped into the ocean. The responsible company, BP, didn’t find the leak until five days later. Due to the necessary repairs, massive quantities of oil could not be delivered for days on end, resulting in fuel shortages at American gas stations. Later in 2006, the US Congress demanded to know what led to the incident. Once revealed, the reason was met with disbelief. A qualified employee with specialised knowledge had left the company and, due to other priorities, was not replaced. A gap in knowledge had caused millions of dollars in damages. This oil catastrophe shows that a lack of knowledge management can be very expensive. Shell always has three people ready for critical positions and processes at all times, so even if there is a vacancy, there will be a backup plan. Identify your risks on your succession plan and have at least 1 person ready to assume a critical role.

Employee Engagement

Focusing on this will help to minimise staff turnover whilst retaining knowledge and increasing the teams engagement levels. At Pro-Development, we find our surveys can very quickly and succinctly discover the motivators and de-motivators of your teams. Interestingly, we can deep dive into the data to explore the findings from different age groups, amongst other areas. We work closely with clients to help them build on areas of strength and focus on development areas. A recent client survey revealed that the Baby Boomer and Generation X employees were the least engaged in the company and their biggest issue was around opportunities to develop within their role. It was definitely some food for thought!

A system for knowledge management 

Will encourage employees to exchange knowledge, catalogue that knowledge and make it usable and accessible. Knowing who and how engaged your teams are, together with their skills and knowledge gaps, creates a platform you can work from. Build on this platform by creating the right environment to seamlessly transfer the knowledge. Use interviews, mentoring and storytelling to maintain consistency. At NASA, they film their veteran employees lecturing on what it was like to be part of old missions and use it to help transfer their knowledge to existing and new employees.

Takeaways:

• Make succession and talent management planning an integral part of your performance management process
• Carry out regular engagement surveys to pinpoint levels of engagement with a focus on those age groups close to retiring
• Make sure you have a knowledge management programme in place. Don’t wait until people are about to retire
• Establish mentor/apprentice pairs
• Encourage experienced employees to create how to guides for processes, systems, etc
• Conduct interviews using videos and newsletter articles to collect stories, instructions, and tips.
• Ask people to submit their top ten most used documents
• Hold ‘exit’ workshops to allow departing employees to tell stories and answer questions.
• Prepare for knowledge transfer in the future. The sooner you prepare, the better; start with the people who are most important to your company.

Come and talk to us about your team’s needs, employee engagement surveys or performance management – we will work with you to get a good understanding of what you need.

If you are an SME in York, North Yorkshire or the East Riding, you might also be eligible for 40% funding towards the investment!

Contact us on 01904 628838 or info@1245881.eu11.myftpupload.com to find out more.