The Great Resignation: How to Combat the Knowledge Drain Effect

 Not too different from other kinds of knowledge loss, though accelerated.  Tried many efforts to address this, rarely effective ..... '

The Great Resignation: How to Combat the Knowledge Drain Effect

One of the greatest threats is not only the risk of losing good talent and productivity, but also the valuable knowledge that departing employees take with them.

Kelly Griswold, Chief Operating Officer, Onna  In InformationWeek

The Great Resignation. The Great Reshuffle. The Big Quit. By now you’ve definitely heard of this monumental phenomenon that we are living through, if not experienced it first-hand. The pandemic encouraged a period of reflection that has driven many employees across all industries to explore new possibilities when it comes to their work, and as a result, people are leaving their companies in droves. According to the Labor Department, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in November 2021 alone -- a record-breaking month to follow previous record months.

For businesses, perhaps the greatest threat of these mass resignations is not only the risk of losing good talent and productivity, but also the valuable corporate knowledge that those departing employees take with them -- knowledge that may have been developed over years and is central to running to day-to-day operations, informing critical business decisions, or guiding future innovation.

While the Great Resignation may stabilize over time, it’s becoming clear that we’re not returning to the days of long-term employee tenure. It’s time for organizations to accept this new workforce dynamic and come to terms with its inevitable effects, including on corporate knowledge. Those who embrace this change -- acting proactively when it comes to retaining and transferring knowledge -- are the ones who will come out on top.

When developing effective strategies for the preservation, protection and sharing of knowledge, we see two key approaches:

1. Create a culture that embraces, encourages, and rewards knowledge sharing

Though some may argue that highly competitive work environments fuel creativity and productivity, they also implicitly encourage information hoarding. Collaborative environments, on the other hand, not only motivate teams to collectively deliver better results, but also reward individuals for surfacing and exchanging valuable knowledge that may have otherwise remained hidden.

Establishing any kind of company culture certainly takes time, but businesses can use this unique moment in history -- what some are calling the “Great Reset” -- to accelerate the culture change process. Most companies are already embracing new ways of creating community in the virtual office, figuring out how to recognize and support people when they aren’t all together, and tapping into collaboration tools to facilitate remote working. These are all great steppingstones toward a collaborative, knowledge-sharing culture, even when colleagues are apart.... '