Tap into knowledge of expert personnel

A new report from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) provides guidance for capturing the valuable knowledge of expert personnel and transferring it to others in order to help mitigate potentially negative consequences when workers leave a job or are otherwise unavailable.

The rapidly changing industry environment, combined with the aging of the "baby boom" generation, poses a growing challenge to the energy industry. Many experienced, highly knowledgeable managers and workers are departing, or soon will be, due to retirement, job transfers, downsizing, and other reasons. Furthermore, those experts who remain are not always around when they're needed, resulting in potentially negative economic, environmental, and safety consequences.

Expert personnel are extremely valuable assets to an organization because they harbor unique and specialized knowledge that enables them to perform tasks more efficiently and effectively than other employees.

The EPRI report, "Guidelines for Capturing Valuable Undocumented Knowledge from Energy Industry Personnel" (1004663), outlines a practical process for capturing tacit knowledge.

Developed from extensive background research and from field-testing activities conducted during 2001, the report characterizes techniques for eliciting valuable knowledge from experts, storing it in useful and accessible ways, and presenting it to less experienced workers in a manner that will help them perform routine tasks or tackle difficult ones.

The report culminates a three-year study by EPRI's Strategic Human Performance Program to address growing concerns about workforce turnover and demographics within the energy industry. Its practical guidelines for the capture, storage, retrieval, and presentation of undocumented knowledge should also prove useful in many other industries.