Weitere ähnliche Inhalte Ähnlich wie Managing the Risk of Knowledge Loss Due to Workforce Attrition (20) Kürzlich hochgeladen (20) Managing the Risk of Knowledge Loss Due to Workforce Attrition1. Managing the Risk of Knowledge Loss
Due to Workforce Att iti
D t W kf Attrition
Retaining and Leveraging the Critical and Relevant
Knowledge of the Government Workforce
SIKM
16 June 2009
Bill Kaplan
Chief Knowledge Officer
Acquisition Solutions
2. Creating a Common Understanding About
Knowledge
Data Information Knowledge
“United flight 0010 “That flight is always
leaves LaGuardia at 1345
l L G di t delayed and often
d l d d ft
“1345UA0010 32A” from gate 32A cancelled”
Relationships and trust are required for knowledge transfer and re-use
3. One View of Knowledge in an Organization
2009© Acquisition Solutions
4. Value Of Transferring “Knowledge” And
Effective Practices
Quickly access and build on experience &
New
ideas to fuel innovation
Missions &
Services
Learn, decide & adapt faster than
L d id d t f t th
Speed & Agility the “speed of change”
Accelerate the transfer and use
Step-Change in Performance of existing know-how
6. Two Basic Principles for KM Success
• Technology and information management alone cannot be relied
upon for success
– Knowledge sharing is more about people and what they know than
technology
– Technology and tools cannot in and of themselves provide effective
“context of use” and add this value
• Knowledge capture and knowledge reuse must work within:
– the context of workflow—“part of the way people do business”
– the context of organizational culture
culture.
2009© Acquisition Solutions
7. Definitions
• Attrition: Change in the numbers, skills, ands
competencies in the workforce due to retirement,
promotion, transfer,
promotion transfer career change of leadership and
workforce
• Critical Knowledge: Knowledge that is fundamental to
the business or operational processes of the
organization that supports mission delivery and mission
success
2009© Acquisition Solutions
8. Why Is Knowledge Loss A Key Workforce
Challenge We Are Facing?
Ch ll W A F i ?
• Loss of knowledge -- and people with the knowledge -- between
agencies and those leaving government is increasing
• L
Leveraging accumulated organizational k
i l t d i ti l knowledge d i
l d drives i tit ti
institutional
l
memory (experience, judgment, and “know-how”)
• Impacts government's ability to deliver value to the people (mission)
– Productivity, reduced cycle time, and errors that could be avoided with effective
capture and retention policies and practices
• Knowledge loss impacts organizational continuity and agility.
– C ti it --operate effectively in the face of employee turnover, other work
Continuity t ff ti l i th f f l t th k
disruptions, and emergencies
– Agility -- organization’s ability to address the future and to adapt effectively to
change.
change
2009© Acquisition Solutions
9. Why Is Knowledge Loss A Key Workforce
Challenge We Are Facing?
• Approaches to retaining critical knowledge
and the timing of these retention activities
across the government have been addressed
g
in many ways, some more-or-less effective
than others.
• No integrated process or framework to capture and reuse the workforce’s
relevant information, experience, and insight on a consistent and
disciplined basis
• Complicating factors:
(1) increasing size and complexity of acquisition workload
(2) decline in number of professionals in acquisition workforce
• Challenge at the leadership level and at the workforce level – it’s multi-
generational and still not priority for most organizations
2009© Acquisition Solutions
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10. People Have Always Retired Or
Left With Their Knowledge
What’s different about this now and why should we care?
• We have a “workforce gap” – knowledge of the workforce is
inversely proportional to the age of the workforce
• There is a real issue when there is not a ready and continuous
stream of knowledgeable replacements with the critical skills to
fill the gaps
• Can't just hire more people and then send them to training
• Example Acquisition Workforce:
– The average age of the acquisition profession according to a recent
NCMA survey is 45 years old
– There is competition for the remaining scarce resources among all
p g g
agencies and the private sector
– We need a deliberate means for learning, capture and transfer of
the “experience” of acquisition – the “know how” and “know why” of
acquisition
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11. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1=Poor to 10=Excellent),
how would you rate your organization’s performance to
reduce the loss of critical knowledge?
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12. What are your organizations doing to address
these workforce challenges?
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13. Some Basics to Set the Stage
for Success In Addressing This Challenge
• Understand there is long term value in capturing and
reusing k
i knowledge and h
l d d how and where it can b applied
d h be li d
– it’s about performance!
• Must be a desire to make this part of the way you operate -- need a
place to start where it will have a significant impact on performance
• Focus must be on the people and the processes necessary to move
knowledge across the workforce -- it’s about changing behavior not the
technology!!
2009© Acquisition Solutions
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14. Some Basics to Set the Stage
for Success In Addressing This Challenge
• Recognize that it is a long term commitment to
maintain and sustain a knowledge enabled organization
• Understand the multi-generational nature of the federal workforce
• Must create awareness by articulating and communicating the
knowledge loss problem as a “burning platform”
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15. Setting Up for Success In
Reducing Knowledge Loss
• Know you can’t capture everything that everyone
can t
knows, nor would you want to do this
• Decide what knowledge is critical to the
organization or is necessary to improve all aspects
of your organization’s performance
organization s
• Start small and engineer for success so p p can see it’s
g people
doable
• T h l
Technology cannot do thi alone because it can’t get what’s i
t d this l b ’t t h t’ in
your head into someone else’s
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16. Setting Up for Success
In Reducing Knowledge Loss
• Understand that beginning is the easy part
– maintaining and sustaining the effort over time
g g
and continuously demonstrating value is the really
hard part
• Support and encourage a culture that values
knowledge sharing through collaboration
• Reflect on the alternative of not doing anything
• Get some professional help when you need it to help tackle this
challenge
g
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17. • What are some of the tools and
techniques your organizations are using
for capturing and reusing knowledge?
• How well are they working?
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18. What You Can Do Right Now To Be Successful In
Reducing Knowledge Loss
• Recognize that it’s never too late to start addressing
this challenge and its associated risks
(risks might be acceptance, not having a sharing culture,
view that it’s extra work)
• Recognize that the concept of knowledge capture
begins at the beginning of one’s entry into the workforce, not when
they are leaving the workforce!!
• Evaluate how you currently capture what you know and how you
reuse it and leverage what good things you already are doing
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19. What You Can Do Right Now To Be Successful In
Reducing Knowledge Loss
• Pick a place to start – at the leadership level or at the
workforce level – and look for the “early adapters” in
y p
your organization to begin to move your efforts forward
• Then pick a pilot project to demonstrate the value of
Then,
these efforts and the investment in time and resources
• Think about how you will (1) measure or value the outcome of
your efforts to demonstrate success and (2) convince anyone
that not doing this is a risky alternative
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20. What You Can Do Right Now To Be Successful In
Reducing Knowledge Loss
• Find ways to maintain a dialogue with those who
“know” who have left the workforce
know
• Create a common approach for knowledge capture
and reuse focused on collaborative behavior—it does
behavior it
at its core require cultural change – it is not easy
• Create intern and mentorship programs for the next generation
workforce and leadership to ensure relevant knowledge gets
transferred
• Recognize that this a long term effort that is not just an initiative
for this Fiscal Year –it is a fundamental change in how you work
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21. Some Proven KM Tools And Techniques You Can Use
Without An Established Knowledge Framework
• Mentoring and internships
• “Communities of Practice” can create an
ability for the workforce to share what they
know across boundaries enabled by
existing technology
• Learning Before, Learning During, Learning After
• Knowledge Repositories (Knowledge Assets) to store the “know how and
know why” of processes or methods
k h ” f th d
• Leadership transition workshops
Long Term Success depends on creating a common approach for knowledge capture and reuse
focused on collaborative behavior —it does at its core require cultural change – and it is not easy
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