Organizations are Flatter: What that Means for your KM Practice

Knowledge loss or attrition is one of the major issues a business cannot afford to ignore. Organizations usually look at knowledge management from a very narrow perspective or, on the other hand, through a major demographic viewpoint.

This phenomenon is also referred to as “Brain Drain.“

Brain Drain can be defined as losing business-specific knowledge or on-the-job expertise due to employee attrition. As experienced, long-term employees of an organization retire or leave their positions, they take their knowledge with them. That means all the experience and knowledge that new team members need to do their jobs could be lost or inaccessible if the right programs and processes are not in place. This loss is even more hurtful when the employee is going to a competitor – it can be critical to the survival of many businesses, not to mention costly to keep re-training every new hire from scratch!   

Managing Critical Knowledge in the Absence of Seniors

A vast base of knowledge is locked in the undocumented business activities and processes of most companies. While some elements are documented, much of the relevant understanding – the experience known only to those who developed it – is still locked inside the minds of those employees. The knowledge remains with them as they handle different and varied situations without documenting the growth in understand and their increasing expertise. There are several aspects, such as assumptions and misattributions, which are passed down to new team members over the years.

When an experienced team member leaves an organization or even takes a break, the most difficult issue of knowledge loss is observed in:

• Performing their duties and filling their gap
• Finding and understanding the knowledge of the right things to do and things not to do
• Matching the set deadlines and quality parameters the organization is used to
• Ensuring proper relationship management and networks within and outside the company
• Dealing with internal and external customers and vendors who are left unattended

Moreover, there are some major repercussions when a brain drain occurs due to a senior member leaving the organization. The direct implications are measured in the form of costs. The major costs are being incurred due to knowledge loss, including recruitment and training costs for new employees. As the new employees are not highly experienced, they incur costs in overtime pay without yielding a maximum level of productivity. When employees or senior-level management are closely connected with customers, such kind of a knowledge loss can lead to a decline in the revenue via these customers, too.

Knowledge Management Softwares like Perdix In Place For Easy Management

As there are several knowledge-based risks, organizations having extensive employee turnover have to find a solution for retaining knowledge and decreasing constant training costs. Adding a software-based knowledge management system can help in reducing total brain drain effects.

Along with that knowledge management system, a company can hope to see:

• A reduction in the impact of employee turnover and new recruitments as the required knowledge is onboard and accessible
• A facilitation of regular work in employees in an unpredictable environment while minimizing the efforts made on knowledge transfer for newcomers
• A benefit to teamwork and attainment of better productivity
• The retainment of critical organizational as well as expert knowledge
• A reduction in mistakes made by newcomers, further bridging the gaps of knowledge loss

Conclusion

As the modern organization becomes flatter and middle management declines, using such digital asset management information tools can be helpful to keep the business on track in times of crisis as well as on an every-day basis. With these many advantages, KMS is capable of dealing with the timeless issue of corporate amnesia.