Companies can’t afford to lose the deep expertise that long-time employees spend decades cultivating. But that knowledge often does get lost when workers retire. So before that happens, you need to set systems in place to help share their expertise . For example, in some organizations, employees can’t be promoted until they have mentored a successor. In others, compensation is based on how well the team performs, so experienced employees have to help and transfer their expertise to other team members. These strategies embed knowledge-sharing and interaction in the culture. But a bigger problem occurs when people are unhappy with the company they’re exiting, leaving them little motivation to share what they know. Managers need to acknowledge good work to prevent this dissatisfaction. Small acts, like providing regular positive feedback, celebrating small wins, and removing obstacles to progress, pay huge dividends in productivity and creativity.
Adapted from “
How to Prevent Experts from Hoarding Knowledge” by Dorothy Leonard.
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