The Inclusion Bites Podcast

Rediscovering lost knowledge

Peter speaks to organisations who let their most valuable resource slip through their fingers, and what they can do about it through knowledge recognition and risk assessment.

We all accumulate a vast amount of knowledge during out lifetime but how do we download this, and what happens to it all, especially specialist knowledge that has the power to make a real difference?

  Published: 12.08.2021 Recorded: 20.05.2021 Duration: 1:00:03 Downloads: 55   Shownotes:

Peter believes we don’t seem to value knowledge enough to try and save it and this can be especially true in the workplace where without correct succession planning organisations are losing knowledge and experience and are not able to replace it. Whereas they should be identifying value of knowledge and then capturing it or safeguarding against its loss. In a report by Archford Economics where they surveyed across 5 sectors from retail to legal the estimated average cost of replacing a member of staff being pad £25k, was between £20-40k. So for organisations who have a high staff turnover there is a huge cost implication, but also potential workplace performance interruption with dips in productivity when staff leave, finding a replacement and training them.

Peter wrote an article for LinkedIn, ‘Lazy leaders don’t listen’, where he outlined the obligations, leaders have to proactively listen and have an in-depth knowledge of their staff. Reward and recognition do not do enough to mark the value that an individual might bring to an organisation. If you are able to celebrate and recognise someone’s input you breed cohesion in teams and higher self esteem for the individual, all of which are more likely to make them want to stay.

Companies go through a cycle of losing knowledge and rediscovering it, something that could be avoided if they were able to properly recognise it and do something to retain it. This staff churn can be demoralising for the remaining staff. It t  akes someone to break the cycle, looking at existing talent and conducting a risk assessment as to whether they are likely to leave and what you can do to change this, saying in some cases that they are a talent that you do not want to lose. Or if they are determined to leave having the correct succession planning in place so that they can perhaps be a mentor for a colleague or potential new starter. Without this if this person is the ‘go to person’ in the organisation or has all of the contacts then the loss of them would be a big risk to their organisation.

Many successful organisations are allowing their staff to work asynchronously, trusting them with unlimited holidays and the ability to manage their own time.  If you don’t trust your employees or give them the freedom to make their own choices, then Peter believes you will never see their true value. He believes it makes them unwilling to share their knowledge or expertise as they see this as their power and something that keeps them safe.

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Brought to you by your host Joanne Lockwood
SEE Change Happen
A huge thank you to our wonderful guest Peter Edge
Peter Edge Speaking

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