For many organizations, the challenge of managing intellectual capital is exacerbated by retiring professionals and shifting workforce demographics. In light of these dynamics, organizations must capture and distribute employees’ intrinsic knowledge and experiences. To prevent further loss of valuable time and resources, it is important that organizations evolve to become a next-generation knowledge enterprise.
A process-driven approach to effectively manage and continually optimize knowledge retention and project management processes is key to building a next generation knowledge enterprise. By design, a process-driven approach and the solutions that enable it align organizational goals and objectives with daily work. As a result, organizational productivity increases through more effective work processes and a more agile knowledge-based workforce.
The Intellectual Capital Crisis Isn’t Going Away
Much has been written about the intellectual capital crisis. Shifting workforce demographics have become a fundamental issue. The Baby Boom generation is the largest generation in history to hit the workforce. As this generation begins to enter the 55-and-older age group, the impact on the private and public sectors has already proven to be considerable. Over the next 7 years, this segment of the workforce is projected to grow annually by a rate of 4.1 percent - four times the projected growth rate of the overall labor force, which has been in a steep decline since the 1970s.1
As Baby Boomers retire, they take years of experiential knowledge - best practices, lessons learned, short cuts and social networks - with them. Replacing this experiential knowledge void is difficult enough, but further exacerbated by a shrinking workforce; not all open positions will be filled with qualified personnel, due to sheer numbers alone. In part, this can be attributed to the smaller population of the succeeding Generation X and the need for advanced skill sets such as critical thinking, problem solving and leadership, which are usually accrued through time and experience.
A Strategic, Transformational Approach is Needed
The intellectual capital problem is not just an aging, retiring workforce but a more dynamic work environment. Individuals within organizations must learn at an ever-increasing rate just to keep pace. Thus, the solution is building and growing an institutional knowledge base that is not impacted by the departure of any one individual.
In a New York Times interview about the risks of the aging workforce, Accenture CEO William D. Green advised companies on preparing for the gap in skills and knowledge. He commented that “seventy-five percent of the solution is the ability to translate what's in people's minds into new processes which are enabled by things like decision-support technologies, information management and automated business analytics.”2
Clearly, the approach needs to be knowledge-based in its foundation. This next-generation enterprise must have the built-in capacity for knowing what it knows, and the ability to continually develop its knowledge base through fast learning and nonstop innovation. That means creating a knowledge-rich environment that will attract, retain and grow tomorrow’s knowledge workers.
The Transformation to a Knowledge-Sharing Enterprise
To transform into a knowledge-sharing enterprise, organizations need to initiate a culture and mindset of continuous learning. The knowledge lifecycle must become an integral part of every work process. To do this, organizations are turning to business process management (BPM) to better understand their work processes and capture the in-house knowledge associated with them. A BPM-based approach focuses on the most critical knowledge needed to produce the desired levels of sustained performance, identifies the specific work processes in which that knowledge is applied, and grows the knowledge, through a continuous, embedded learning process.
By leveraging a BPM approach, organizations ensure that expertise is shared by all employees and is embedded within the work processes and culture of the organization, rather than closely held by a few individuals.
