Staff losses shouldn't equal loss of knowledge
Sometimes you can't stop people from leaving your organization. But you can capture their knowledge to ensure your competitiveness is not compromised if they do decide to move on.
A booming economy coupled with a shortage of talent means that those with the requisite skills are jumping from job to job in China, creating a headache for HR staff who lose part of their trained talents.
Many companies are therefore very actively working on retaining their employees, with varying success. Many - foreign and local - are still in the process of understanding how to deal with the highly transient behavior of Chinese staff. Often HR personnel are the most active job hoppers. Companies are rarely able to fully retain their core employees. Therefore they can gain a competitive advantage if they identify those employees who hold key knowledge, work to retain them, and are able to transfer their knowledge if they do decide to leave.
The most valuable knowledge is often business contacts or skills learned on the job. Such knowledge is frequently undocumented in training manuals, documented incorrectly, or otherwise absent in formal knowledge-retention systems.
Who knows what?
To keep knowledge in-house, managers must actively identify key knowledge-holders as well as employees recognized by their colleagues as having the influence, skills and expertise to help them be productive. There are four types of employees whose sudden departure could create unexpected difficulties at any organization:
Key knowledge-holders have specific expertise or information that a significant percentage of the company depends on to get its work done. These employees might have specialized technical or process knowledge, but could also own important supplier or customer relationships. Key knowledge-holders are not necessarily individuals; they might be groups or teams. And not all key knowledge-holders are created equal. Around 10 percent are also critical knowledge-holders whose absence will lead to significant setbacks. Companies need to create processes that can capture at least part of the knowledge of these people.
Problem-solvers help others solve problems, or serve as sounding boards or partners. They are valuable because they help others remove obstacles to getting things done.
Mentors possess a combination of coaching capabilities, political savvy and interpersonal skills. They can be excellent individuals to enlist in change programs because of their influence over others.
Bridges help connect individuals who would otherwise not be in contact with one another. They may simply be excellent networkers, or they may be a productive link between two interdependent departments that don't usually collaborate (such as sales and engineering).
All of these employees exist everywhere in a company, not just in the top ranks, in highly skilled positions, or among those identified as high-performing employees. Leading-edge companies have created mechanisms to get systematic transparency about which employees possess such knowledge or skills.
How is that done? Managers often consider those employees who make a good impression as knowledge-holders, whereas employees often single out very different people whom they rely on in their daily work. It is therefore necessary to combine top-down analysis - which captures management's perspective - with a regular broader survey to elicit the bottom-up view. Such a survey helps flag several key facts and relationships:
Who knows what?
Who has the authority to make decisions?
Who is considered trustworthy?
Who is effective?
The network aspect of this analysis has proven to be very effective and revealing. Companies can ask employees which individuals they go to for different kinds of knowledge and support and how often, and then have them assess the value of those interactions. With the results, companies better understand knowledge flows and the main sources of knowledge. Network analysis tools are used to identify opportunities to build and strengthen the existing and future knowledge network.
Analysis to action
An analysis of key knowledge-holders can become a key element of an effective HR strategy, for example with programs for knowledge transfer. Other steps needed include the following:
Prioritize where to retain or disregard knowledge, or mitigate its loss.
Identify and implement practical options to retain knowledge or mitigate its loss through documentation, training, mentoring, shadowing or re-engineering processes.
Monitor and evaluate knowledge-retention and training plans, making sure information and processes are continually updated.
Develop and monitor the effectiveness of recruiting and retention strategies, career path and job design, and training and development programs in light of key knowledge loss.
As the HR department's role becomes more strategic, it must anticipate both external and internal pressures, and actively prepare for disruptions such as those caused by knowledge loss, especially here in China. Incorporating such analysis into the HR life cycle can help in this effort. By utilizing key knowledge-holders, problem-solvers, mentors and bridges, companies can more successfully plot and steer change initiatives, as well as better manage and develop talent.
While companies in China should continue developing HR policies to reduce staff turnover, the inevitability of staff loss also makes it indispensable to explicitly figure out how to keep employees' company-specific knowledge.
Anders Fahlander is a senior partner and managing director in the San Francisco office of the Boston Consulting Group. Christoph Nettesheim is a senior partner and managing director in the firm's Beijing office
(China Daily 09/05/2007 page15)
