When an employee leaves a company, they can take a wealth of knowledge with them. So, what can companies do to help keep this knowledge in-house? Angus Gregory explains.
Collaboration and communication between different departments matters as much for accountants as it does all professions. Sharing knowledge can be powerful, but as a tool in business, it continues to be underutilised.
This has been exacerbated by the ‘Great Resignation’, with more employees taking ‘un-shared’ knowledge with them when they leave their job.
A recent survey of 752 executives in the US revealed that 88 percent have seen higher turnover than usual in their organisations than normal. This only increases the danger that vital knowledge is being lost when employees leave.
Here are three ways organisations can safeguard company knowledge when their employees leave for new roles elsewhere.
Overlap the exit and onboard process
The onboarding process is vital in helping new employees to learn the lay of the land, disseminate business knowledge, and demonstrate to new hires that knowledge is better shared.
By creating an overlapping onboarding process, new and existing employees can work together from the get-go, allowing the new starter to ask questions and the existing employee they are replacing to show them the ropes.
Too often, onboarding packs are put together by people without experience in specific roles. As such, the resigning employees should be encouraged to share what they see as the most critical aspects of their job. This will give the new hire reference points that relate to the reality of their new day-to-day work.
Centralise your knowledge base
Employee knowledge cannot sit in in one person’s brain, which doesn’t hold information that can be accesses, downloaded or backed up like a hard drive.
Investing in an integrated system will help your company share necessary information with colleagues, at the same time ensuring employees don't take all their knowledge with them if they leave.
An exit interview is another ideal opportunity to facilitate knowledge transfer.
Many large companies hold exit interviews to help them understand why an employee is leaving. Resigning employees should also use this space to share vital knowledge about their job with their line managers.
Without an integrated system that collates knowledge, however, there is a chance this vital information will be lost.
An official process for employees who are leaving can help organisations to gain valuable insight into the employee experience and collate knowledge articles that will help the person taking over in that role to do the best job possible.
A cultural shift towards collaboration
Establishing healthy knowledge-transfer practices early on is essential for new hires, but it can require a cultural shift. No one should be 'hoarding' knowledge. Creating collaborative working conditions will mean that employees feel more comfortable asking questions and more confident teaching and sharing with others.
Challenges arise when teams operate in silos, unwilling to interact and share with other departments. It must be made clear to new hires from the outset that collaborative working benefits the business—and, not only that, but everyone will be rewarded for doing so.
To combat this, designate a knowledge manager, responsible for keeping your knowledge database up to date. This will involve monitoring frequently asked questions for knowledge gaps, plugging these gaps with additional resources, and ensuring any leaver processes are working efficiently.
Creating a strategy for preserving business knowledge can help short-term business resilience when employees move on and can lead to more robust staff engagement. Ultimately, the goal is to help employees exit smoothly and leave a strong knowledge legacy.
Invest in knowledge-sharing technology, forge a collaborative culture and overlap staff onboarding with exits. Doing so will result in a win-win for the company and its employees.
Angus Gregory is CEO of Biomni