We have not posted in a while, but when we came across this Inside the Cubicle blog post that discusses the real cost of turnover and the proposed solutions, we had to give our thoughts on the subject.
It is absolutely true that the majority of the costs associated with turnover are associated with getting a replacement to a level of experience and knowledge that is equivalent to the departing employee. Trainings, failures, successes, and culture (to a degree) all must be relearned or retooled to fit the company. But this doesn't have to be the case.
As an example, let's say a senior staff member has left a company for a better opportunity. Small and medium sized businesess are more likely to fill a senior position with someone who can grow into the vacancy- whether this is a promotion from within, or an outside hire. This is mainly to control costs, as a salary increase is likely a major factor in why your senior staff member left to begin with, so you are more likely to pay less for the new person- not more.
Since these open positions are being filled with lesser experienced personnel, the new employee will have to learn many of the same lessons that the previous employee learned in their position. How long will it be, and how much will it cost, to have all the same mistakes made by this new employee??
Imagine if all of this information was captured in a system that provided the context of the knowledge acquired on the job. Essentially having the stored intelligence of not just the last person to hold the vacated position, but ALL people who had served in that role and contributed to this knowledge repository. Short of having those people available to consult on decisions, is there a better guide to how the job should be done and how decisions should be made?
The benefits of having a knowledge management system are even more far reaching than this. Perhaps a company does decide to upgrade a position with a more experienced employee. That new employee would have everything they needed to be effective in a very short period of time, so ramp-up time is reduced significantly. Each company and each department has a culture all of its own, and this comes through in the content that is added to the system- giving the new employee a better chance at fitting in and being a better contributor overall. Also, there would be greatly reduced pressure on the new employee. If there is a system that can be queried for questions that would have to be answered by the new employee, it takes a great deal of pressure off, and allows for a more solid start to the employment.
The issue of retaining the knowledge of lost employees is one of the main problems that BrainKeeper is engineered to solve. Also at the core of our solution is the ability to easily capture and distribute this information- since there is not much point in having a Knowledge Management System if it is too cumbersome to submit content, or too time consuming to get content out. It is our goal to minimize the effects of turnover, as well as improving the efficiency of an organization through sharing vital, relevant information in context.
The bottom line is that everyone benefits from a knowledge management system. Old employees can move on, knowing that they aren't leaving their colleagues in a bad situation. New employees can be more effective, faster. Other employees keep the benefit of the departing employee's knowledge, training, and experience. And the company is more efficient and productive- and will remain that way for as long as there are contributions to the knowledge management system.
