Retaining Valuable Knowledge: Proactive Strategies to Deal with a Shifting Work Force

KEY FINDINGS

• The best way to retain valuable knowledge in the face of attrition or downsizing is to build and sustain systemic knowledge management approaches.
• To identify what knowledge was critical to capture,
89 percent of the partners had discussions with senior management and interviews with employees or subject matter experts.
• The most effective way to capture, retain, and transfer valuable knowledge is to embed that process into the work flow.
• The study partners rely on communities of practice to embed and transfer organizational knowledge. Partners remarked that tacit knowledge-the most valuable and difficult knowledge to distil in any organization-is best retained through communities of practice and networks.
• Cultural changes require understanding the impact of formal evaluation and performance, creating rewards and awards for teamwork, understanding the need for knowledge expositions and fairs (the creation of an innovation marketplace), and sharing stories that emphasize the desired knowledge-sharing behavior.
• Most organizations use common basic tools, such as collaborative applications, data repositories, e-mail, and videoconferencing for knowledge retention.
• Best-practice organizations typically have three critical elements in their knowledge management and retention support structures: senior management support, a central knowledge management support group, and the involvement of different business units or functions in the initiative.
• The reported costs for knowledge retention initiatives are less than knowledge management initiatives in APQC's prior studies, apparently due to the fact that best-practice organizations build on knowledge management tools and skills already in place and often build retention activities into the existing work flow.
• The knowledge management groups at study partners often work closely with human resources teams to design and implement knowledge retention strategies, including hiring employees who will work effectively in a knowledge-sharing environment..
• Partners and sponsors reported that the most effective methods to measure the success of knowledge transfer are conducting user surveys, tracking the number of knowledge objects accessed and used, tracking knowledge transfer activities, and capturing KM success meaningful stories.
• Best-practice organizations demonstrate a link between knowledge management and organizational learning.

• Best Buy
• Corning Incorporated
• Northrop Grumman
• Siemens AG
• The World Bank
• Xerox Connect