A company's performance depends on its ability to develop, formalize and transfer its employees' knowledge. Knowledge workers are becoming more and more numerous, but also more and more volatile: how can we formalize and share knowledge before they leave?
Over the past few years, the world of work has evolved considerably, and the relationship between employee and employer has changed radically. The termemployeeThe term "collaborator" is a perfect illustration of this evolution: an employee is no longer simply an employee who carries out his or her tasks and fulfills his or her objectives, but now becomes a collaborator in a project, taking part in and getting involved in the life of the company. Employees have a growing desire to make a strong impact in their jobs, they are at the origin of initiatives and develop new practices and reflexes, of which they alone hold the secret, to be more efficient. As a result, everyone develops valuable knowledge and skills, and is likely to become a true " know-it-all".knowledgeable"for their company.
Another trend has also become apparent: the growing volatility of employees, particularly young talent. Employees are less and less dependent on their employers, and are multiplying their professional experiences in order to reinforce their knowledge and skills. Employees are increasingly valuable, but also less and less eternal, and there is a growing risk that they will take all their knowledge with them. Companies therefore have every interest in identifying valuable knowledge, formalizing it and sharing it internally, so as to limit its loss in the event of departure.
The challenge is to know what and how to formalize knowledge. According to McGrath and Argote, the knowledge present in a company is to be found in three elements: the collaborators (the human element), the tools (the technology) and the tasks (the company's objectives and intentions). Another study by Berry and Broadbent shows that an experienced employee, far more productive than a novice, still finds it difficult to clearly express the reasons for his or her performance. But with the advent of new technologies, an employee's knowledge and experience is now much easier to formalize, thanks in particular to "hot" formats such as video or podcast, which enable tacit knowledge to be better shared and understood. Finally, not all knowledge is transferable: some depends on a particular context, and sharing it with an employee who is evolving in a different context will not make him or her more productive. So we need to make sure we understand the context in which our employees' knowledge can be put to good use.
A study by Moreland and Myaskovsky shows the extent to which communication affects the development of corporate knowledge. Knowing "who knows what" and "who does what" in the company makes it easier for employees to share their knowledge, and thus to take initiative and propose new ideas. At the same time, employees are becoming increasingly multi-skilled, with increasingly multi-disciplinary missions and a growing desire to understand the different elements influencing their respective activities. It also appears that knowledge transfer is much easier in a company where employees exchange information with each other than in a silo. We speak of silos when a company operates around different departments (marketing, sales, purchasing, etc.) which evolve without concern for each other. Conversely, employees who can benefit from the knowledge and experience of their counterparts in other departments will greatly increase their productivity and involvement in the company.
Siloed communication carries the risk of wasting knowledge, but at Komin we have opted for a circular knowledge economy (as opposed to a linear economy, where knowledge is re-created at every transition): employees' knowledge is transferred as they move from one position to another, and develops over time as they move from one position to another. No information is locked away in a specific department, or in the head of a particular employee, so the company becomes far less dependent on the knowledge held by its invaluable know-alls, and can therefore stop viewing turnover as a risk, but rather as an opportunity!
As we mentioned in a previous article, career transitions have a hidden cost. While one might first think of the costs associated with recruitment and the logistics involved in preparing for the arrival of a new employee, the main cost of turnover (83% of this cost!) is actually the loss of productivity in the position concerned. This cost is referred to as "hidden", since it concerns the loss of the former employee's knowledge and experience, the skills that enabled him or her to achieve a certain level of productivity, a level that the new recruit will not be able to reach for several weeks at least (which is particularly problematic when the contract is short).
A particularly effective way of minimizing the cost of lost productivity is to formalize and share knowledge between employees. By setting up a knowledge transfer system and circulating this knowledge, new employees become operational 25 to 50% faster than under normal circumstances. Knowledge, best practices and corporate values are passed on from employee to employee, helping to develop the company over time. This handover also enables the departing employee to make the most of his or her career by looking back on his or her position, so that both he or she and his or her manager can see the progress he or she has made and the experience he or she has acquired. It's also an opportunity for the employee to leave on good terms, while continuing to contribute to the future of his or her position, and therefore to the company as a whole.
There are a number of ways in which this handover can be carried out:
Do you want to promote your employees' career paths and pass on their knowledge to boost the productivity of your new recruits? That's what we're here for, so contact us!
Sources :
Illustration credits :
"With Komin, we have documented our operating procedures 10x faster than with paper"
- J. Cerruti (Methods & Industrialization Manager)
