Aging Workforce

America is aging. Beginning in 2006 for every 100 people retiring there are only be fifty people to replace them. By 2010 there be a shortfall of ten million workers.

What will it be like when there are four, five or six jobs for every available worker? Have you looked at what this means to your business?

How will you attract and retain employees in a sellers market? Do you have a succession plan? A retention plan?

What of the ‘knowledge assets’ that will be leaving with your retirees? Can you collect and retain the intellectual property that they have accumulated over the years. Will it be lost?

Much research has been done in this field and there are many practical approaches as well as new technologies that have and are being deployed. We can help you to implement a forward thinking change management approach to this unique challenge.

Your Greatest Resource is Your Human Resource

The greatest asset of any organization is its people. New approaches and specific technologies are enabling companies to harvest the ‘knowledge’ that resides within the minds and in the experiences of their people. This is revolutionary but it is not as simple as buying technology. Knowledge capture has to become part of the organization’s culture. Life-long learning is key.

Knowledge Management is the practice of researching, collecting and organizing an enterprise’s employees’ knowledge. Asset Mining is the process of generating value from these intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Asset Mining generates value from these assets through sharing them among employees, departments, customers and even with other companies.

An example of ‘knowledege sharing’ that benefited a National food chain was when the company put up a ‘shared ideas’ section on their intranet. One of the topics was specialty food display. A manager in the mid-west posted a successful display method that increased his sales of seafood and it was copied and improved upon across the country and resulted in increased sales throughout the chain.

At first look the idea ran counter to the competitive model that was in place where regional managers were rewarded by their performance within the region and throughout the chain. Surprisingly, this new ‘idea sharing’ concept did not replace the old model it enhanced it and fostered a new competitive spirit based on a ‘peer model’ where employees were vying for recognition for the best ideas.

Asset Mining can be very valuable but it is essential that it is implemented correctly and patiently. This is a paradigm shift and a model that is being taught as early as secondary school and is the ‘work experience’ of the present generation who will be stepping into leadership positions in the not too distant future

The need for Asset Mining is particularly true as we enter the ‘greying years’ in the labour market with the massive retirement cycle where it is predicted that there will be a ten million worker shortfall by 2010. The message here is start implementing knowledge management solutions today.