talent management
In May 2016, the Skills Table released
Management Attrition & Critical
Knowledge Transfer: A Practitioner’s
Guide, a step-by-step framework to support
HR professionals and companies
to identify and address their knowledge
transfer issues and challenges. In addition
to the steps outlined in the guide,
the Skills Table’s work with employers
helped distill insights to help companies
think differently and more creatively
about knowledge transfer.
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
SUCCESS FACTORS
1. Recognize that knowledge transfer
is its own challenge, and address it
independently of other organizational
development activities. Succession
planning and employee development
are related to knowledge transfer, but
the transfer of critical knowledge is
more likely to be successful when the
organization labels it and differentiates
it from related initiatives.
2. Address knowledge succession
separately from role succession,
and identify targets for knowledge
succession among colleagues, peers or
younger employees, not just the person
expected to take over a role from a
retiring worker.
Trusted,
knowledgeable
and listening.
3. Start early and create the time and
space for knowledge transfer to take
place in all its complexity. Don’t wait
until someone announces they’re
retiring. The more complex knowledge
is, the harder it is to transfer, so
as important employees approach
retirement age, begin mapping out
potential paths to transfer their
knowledge.
4. Consider the interpersonal dynamics
of knowledge transfer and be sure
that both the expert and the learner
are motivated and have the necessary
rapport to work closely together (at
specific times) as an expert nears
retirement.
5. Customize knowledge transfer plans
to fit people and circumstances, and
execute the plan rigorously. Strategies
don’t have to be complicated, but they
do need to be targeted and suited to
the people and the company – when
they are, see them through to a
successful end.
6. Leverage existing programs like
talent management, organizational
development or succession planning.
Knowledge transfer works best when it
isn’t assumed that other programs will
solve the issue (see point #1), but they
are nonetheless related – for instance,
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programs like mentorship can build in
effective knowledge transfer tracks.
7. Establish a plan, with formal targets
and clear accountability.
8. Maximize internal experts as teachers,
coaches and mentors, instead of relying
exclusively on external training for
manager development. There is benefit
to being exposed to outside ideas,
practices and people, but the benefits
from learning from internal experts
about context-specific, business-critical
expertise are often overlooked.
9. Use on-the-job learning to help
organically transfer knowledge
when experts and learners have the
opportunity to interact in meaningful
ways while engaged in real work.
10. Consider alternatives to knowledge
transfer, which isn’t the only strategy
worth considering when an expert is
retiring. This is the time to consider
changing or eliminating a process,
redesigning or outsourcing a job or
hiring expertise directly from the
job market.
SETTING THE STAGE WITH
COMPANY CULTURE
The study also found that companies with
knowledge-transfer rich cultures are highly
interactive, with staff across levels and
functions regularly interacting formally and
informally. These firms have structures in
place to help employees interact and collaborate
in the course of their work, training
and development and an accessible and
open executive supports this culture.
Like any other business process, taking
a rigorous and committed approach
is critical to addressing knowledge transfer,
and steps for doing this are outlined
in the guide. Ignoring the problem has
left some companies struggling to recover
from the loss of key personnel, with costs
to the bottom line that far outweighed
the costs of steps to address the issue. By
giving the problem its own language and
targets, companies have been able to better
identify risks, mitigate them and build
a company culture where knowledge flows
more readily, which has big financial benefits
for companies. ■
Krista Bax is the executive director of the
Asia Pacific Gateway Skills Table.
38 ❚ SEPTEMBER 2016 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL