The performance of a company lies in its ability to develop, formalize and transfer the knowledge and knowledge of its employees. Knowledgeable people are more and more numerous but are also more and more volatile: how to formalize and share knowledge before they leave?
In recent years, the world of work has greatly evolved and the relationship between an employee and his employer has radically changed. The name”collaborator“is in fact a perfect illustration of this evolution: An employee is no longer a simple employee who carries out his tasks and meets his objectives, but he now becomes a project collaborator, he takes part and is involved in the life of the company. Employees have a growing desire to have a strong impact in their position, they are at the origin of initiatives and are developing new practices and reflexes, of which they alone hold the secret, in order to be more efficient. Everyone then develops valuable knowledge and skills, and all of them are likely to become real”Knowing“for their business.
Another trend has also emerged: the increasing volatility of employees, especially young talents. Employees are less and less dependent on their employers and are increasing their professional experiences in order to strengthen their knowledge and skills. Employees are more and more valuable, but also less and less eternal., there is a growing risk that they will carry all their Knowledge. Businesses therefore have every interest in identifying valuable knowledge, formalizing it and sharing it internally in order to limit its loss in the event of departure.
The challenge is then to know what and how to formalize the knowledge.. According to McGrath and Argote, the knowledge present in business is found in three elements: the employees (the human), the tools (the technology) and the tasks (the objectives and intentions of the company). Another study conducted by Berry and Broadbent shows that an experienced employee, much more productive than a novice, always has difficulty clearly expressing the reasons for his performance. But due to the appearance of new technologies, the knowledge and experience of an employee are now much more easily formalized, in particular thanks to “hot” formats such as video or podcasts, which allow better sharing and better understanding of tacit knowledge. Finally, Not all knowledge is good to transfer : some depend on a particular context and it turns out that sharing them with an employee who works in a different context will not allow him to gain in productivity. It is then necessary to ensure that you fully understand the context in which the knowledge of employees is valuable.
A study of Moreland and Myaskovsky Show how communication affects the development of knowledge in business. Knowing “who knows what” and “who does what” in the company makes it easier for employees to share their knowledge and therefore to take initiatives and propose new ideas. Likewise, employees are more and more versatile, with increasingly multidisciplinary missions and a growing desire to understand the various elements that influence their respective activities. It also appears that the Knowledge transfer is much easier in a company where employees communicate with each other. only in silo operation. We are talking about silo operation when a company operates around different departments (marketing, sales, purchasing,...) that evolve without worrying about others. Conversely, employees who can benefit from the knowledge and experience of their colleagues in other departments will then greatly increase their productivity and their involvement in the company.
Silo communication then carries a risk of waste of knowledge, but at Komin, we opted for a circular knowledge economy (as opposed to a linear economy, where knowledge is re-created at each transition): employee knowledge is transferred during job transfers and is developed over time, over transitions. No information is blocked in a specific department, or in the head of a particular employee, the company then becomes much less dependent on the knowledge held by its valuable acquaintances and can therefore stop considering its turnover as a risk, but much more as an opportunity!
As we already mentioned in a previous article, professional transitions have a hidden cost.. While we could first think of the costs related to recruitment and the logistics necessary to properly prepare for the arrival of a new employee, the main cost of turnover (83% of this cost!) is in fact found in the loss of job productivity concerned. This cost is said to be “hidden” because it concerns the loss of knowledge and experience of the former collaborator, knowledge that allowed him to obtain a certain level of productivity, a level that the new recruit will not be able to reach for at least several weeks (which is particularly problematic when the duration of the contract is short).
A particularly effective way to minimize this cost associated with the loss of productivity is thus the formalization and sharing of knowledge between employees. By setting up a transfer of knowledge, by making this knowledge circulate, new employees become operational 25 to 50% faster than in normal times. The knowledge, best practices and values of the company are transmitted from employees to employees and allow the company to develop over time. This handover also allows the departing employee to value his career by looking back on his position, he and his manager will then be able to see the progress he has been able to make and the experience he has been able to acquire. It is therefore also an opportunity for the employee to leave on good terms by continuing to contribute to the future of their position, and therefore to the entire company.
Les use cases There are many ways to do this transfer since it can be carried out during:
Are you committed to promoting the career of your employees and transmitting their knowledge in order to boost the productivity of your new hires? That's what we're here for, so contact us !
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“With Komin, we documented our operating procedures 10x faster than with paper”
- J. Cerruti (Methods & Industrialization Manager)
