I still remember that sinking feeling when the administrator of our IVR and telephone system retired after 25 years keeping our call center’s phones working. He was a wizard who knew all the tricks to fix our finicky call distribution software as well as our legacy systems. When he left, everyone asked each other, “What will we do if something goes down?”, it felt like he took the keys to the kingdom with him!
Losing your experts to retirement or turnover is no fun. I've seen it happen too many times over the years. One day you've got an expert who remembers every quirk in your systems, the next day - poof! They're gone and so is their hard-won expertise.
The brain drain is real, folks. So what can we do about it? How can we make certain that critical knowledge doesn't vanish when experts move on? Capture it before it walks out the door!
Here are 3 tips I've used to pass along tacit knowledge:
1. Set up mentorships so your pros can coach junior folks. Give them time to pass along all their tricks of the trade. 2. Conduct "offboarding" interviews to document processes and advice from departing gurus. Capture their key learnings and specialized skills. 3. Use collaboration tools that retain conversations. Expertise gets shared peer-to-peer and stays accessible digitally.
Times are changing and we need to be proactive. Our Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) are moving jobs and many are eyeing early retirement. Let's tap into their awesome brains before they ride off into their next chapter leaving us high and dry.
Comentários