retaining knowledge and combatting it turnover

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Declaring War in IT turnover

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Declaring War on IT Turnover

IT turnover is like other turnoverNo more company lifersAccording to BLS people stay at their jobs

for average of 4 yrs• That’s a lot of tribal knowledge walking out the

door every year2 ways to combat this issue

• Make your company a destination site• Build a tribal knowledge culture that bridges the

gap when an employee leaves

***** Confidential *****

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Make your company a destination

Not just about snacks and fussball People want to be part of a successful team

People quit their boss, not their company• Their boss is the embodiment of the company culture, so they quit their culture

Starts with leadership Authentic, present, humble, servant leadership

Clear and engaging vision• Everyone can understand and believe• You have to believe it , down to your bones • Your organization does something important• Causes everyone to move in the same direction• Trust and cooperation is foundational

Build a respect based organization Respect for your customers Respect for your employees Respect for your investors capital Grow and make money Work to be the leading company in your space


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Make your company a destination

Transparency of Communication Full disclosure of facts – even when ugly

• Contributes a culture of sharing Can’t just be at the top leader level

• Will end up with functional silos• Non-transparent behavior yields secretive, destructive political environment.

Well defined roles and responsibilities Everyone needs to know how they fit into the organization When people feel secure and competent, much more likely to share

their knowledge and experience with others. Take care of your people

Lead from the front and have their back. Share the credit and praise. Take the responsibility for setbacks Servant leadership

Arm them with the right tools Spend money on paying your people and the tools they need to be

successful. Fancy office space is a waste.


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IT Team as your partner

Shouldn’t be just the guys/girls that fix computers, keep the wireless network up and the ERP system going.

Make them you business partner and essential part of the team. Consumerization of IT is having a profound effect on the

way people in your company want to to find information and connect to people.

Pace of change is incredible and your IT team should be your trusted resource for balancing using cutting edge technology to get an edge for your business with a cohesive, reliable system.


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IT Responsibilities

IT team has responsibilities to the business as well Cannot just be the gatekeeper

• Shaw example

Cloud applications are becoming the line of business people’s revenge. In nearly every software category, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is

gaining share. New software purchases are dominated by SaaS vendors, both for new software categories such as talent management and for ripping out existing software. SaaS has reached mainstream adoption, moving well beyond the chasm and beyond early majorities in many cases. “Cloud first” policies increasingly common – Enterprises are adopting

“Cloud First” policies that give preference to cloud over on-premise applications, a preference that was not common just a year ago. Customers are pushing back against the 3-5 year deployments and order-of-magnitude higher services engagements associated with on- premise license deployments.

IT needs to get ahead of this trend or risk continuing to lose influence and JOBS in the enterprise


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How IT can better contribute to the company and make their jobs more rewarding

Nexus of cloud, mobile, social and information has radically transformed consumer behavior The way we find information and connect with people Knowledge workers spend a huge amount of time (studies say up to 30%)

trying to find the info they need to do their job Easier to find information and connect to experts on the internet outside

the workplace than within Vast majority of what people need to know to do their jobs is self

discovery etc. Gap between tools

Key role of IT is to find new technologies that can help the business move forward and gain a competitive advantage and introduce and implement The use of social technologies within a company is creating enormous

value creation opportunities


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Social Technologies Present an Enormous Value Creation Opportunity

1.5 billion social networking users globally

70% of companies use social technologies

90% report business benefit from them

28 hrs/wk of knowledge worker time spent searching for information, collaborating, and e-mail

$600 – $800 billion of value creation opportunity around social collaboration

20%–25% potential improvement possible in knowledge worker productivity

Source: McKinsey Global Institute --- The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies July 2012

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It’s Becoming a Mission Critical Applicaton

There is increasing interest for using social technologies within organizations to connect people more effectively, to capture and reuse valuable informal knowledge, and to deliver relevant information more intelligently where it is needed…

Enterprise social networks will become the primary communication channels for noticing, deciding or acting on information relevant to carrying out work.

By 2016, 50% of large organizations will have internal social networks — 30% of these will be considered as essential as email/telephones are today

End users seldom need … advanced functionality of enterprise content management (ECM) systems, and will gladly trade those features for simple tools…

Gartner Predicts 2013: Social and Collaboration Go Deeper and WiderPublished: 28 November 2012

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Bloomfire Enables the Primary Use Cases of Content Rich Social Technology

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New systems for sharing knowledge

IT needs to help theircompany figure this out and can be heroes for doing so

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Why would anyone share knowledge?After all knowledge is power… Respect We all want respect from our peers, our boss, our dog, and the people that report to

us. That respect, in most modern organizations, comes not from purely from positional authority but from the value we bring to the group, team, or business based on our experience, leadership, work ethic, accomplishments, expertise, and character. True respect is earned, not dictated. This is a big change from our parents and grandparents generation where positional authority was everything. Contributing valuable information to the community can help build respect for one another.

Reputation Promotions, pay raises, or other advancements in an organization many times

starts with your reputation which often "precedes you", meaning many of your colleagues, particularly in a large organization, have an opinion of you based on what others have said rather than an actual personal relationship with you. A history of sharing what you know with others is a great way to build an authentic reputation based on meaningful contributions to the community even if your role is one where constant interaction with others is not required. As a recognized expert or “go to” person in a particular topic, positive reputations can be established.


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Recognition Everybody loves recognition. Well, almost everybody. In fact, non-compensation related recognition is often a better

motivational tool than money. This is the basis for the emerging gamification trend that is now starting to spill over into even business oriented software applications. People earn points, badges or an expert label for their contributions to the community. This happens algorithmically within the software or by nomination from other members of the team. Being recognized as a subject matter expert in a particular area is a great way to burnish your credentials within your company.

Relationship Social technologies can give employees a great platform to build relationships in a way that trading e-mails never can.

So many businesses today are geographically dispersed or time shifted with a global work force. Cultural differences can add to a lack of understanding and respect. With tight budgets limiting travel, building trusting personal relationships essential for smooth functioning teams becomes even more difficult. Sharing some valuable knowledge that you have will not put your job security at risk, it can actually build an important bridge to a teammate in the form of a selfless, putting others first act. A "pay it forward" attitude is a true gift to your team.

Reciprocity Share something you know to receive knowledge in return. Isn’t that the essence of the golden rule? And someone

has to get the ball rolling. Studies conducted more than 30 years ago suggest that individuals involved in virtual teams would share their knowledge when they perceive a commensurate behavior from the other partner. thescipub.com/pdf/10.3844/ajebasp.2011.66.72 Sharing and reciprocity are as important in business as they were on your first day of kindergarten.


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Make your life in IT easier as well

Why not build a social intranet/learning platform/knowledge base to help your internal customers help themselves?The old “teach them to fish rather than give

them a fish” Save yourself a lot of trouble tickets and

emailsHappier users as well who can solve their own

problem and get back to productive work


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Wrapping it up

Keep your team together Make your company a destination

• Leadership, culture, transparency, • IT team has your business partner

o Not the gatekeeper

Building a Knowledge sharing culture is a great way to start Peter Drucker – died a few years ago – but was one of the pre-

eminent business management thinkers of all time• 2001• “The next society will be a knowledge society. Knowledge will be its key

resource, and knowledge workers will be the dominant group in its workforce. Information technology is allowing knowledge to spread near-instantly, and making it accessible to everyone”

That’s the opportunity for our IT teams and our businesses as a whole to continue to progress
