Subject: Retiring Employees----Lost Knowledge
When old workers leave the workforce over the next couple of decades, will the remaining employees be equipped to maintain the level of knowledge necessary to run American business?This is actually a simple, but far reaching problem:A huge number of current employees who possess a great wealth of institutional knowledge will be eligible to retire over the next 10 to 15 years.In general, businesses have done very little to facilitate the transfer of this knowledge from more experienced (old) workers to less experienced (young) workers.The base of the problem is that experienced workers have virtually no incentive to pass their knowledge forward and younger workers do not see the need to be receptive to the additional “training.”
What would you suggest a company do to both encourage older workers to pass on their knowledge and for younger workers to receive the knowledge?
Identify and fully explain the problem to be addressed AND the source of the problem
Answer the questions below in 1-2 Pages
Who is making the bad decision?
identify and define the problem. Figure out what is causing the problem, and then think about how to avoid the problem. Don’t define the problem as the lack of your solution
Does the decision maker have enough information to make a good decision?
Does the decision maker have the incentive to make a good decision?
Avoid mistaking the symptoms for the problem!