The Cost of Lost Knowledge

What is Lost Knowledge? This section defines lost knowledge as the skills, experience, and expertise that become unavailable to an organization when a key employee leaves. It includes human capital (individual skills, expertise, know-how), social capital (relationships, networks, collaboration), and organizational capital (institutional knowledge, processes, systems, culture). The impacts of lost knowledge are highlighted, such as decreased efficiency, loss of organizational memory, and increased time and resources spent on relearning and training. We’re Not in a Labor Shortage, We’re in a Knowledge Shortage: This part addresses the accelerating retirements of Baby Boomers, with 75 million expected to retire between 2022 and 2030, as per Pew Research Institute. It also mentions the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the Great Resignation, and the challenges of lost institutional knowledge due to retirements. What Can Be Done: Solutions proposed include knowledge capture and sharing, implementing knowledge sharing tools, encouraging a collaborative culture, mentoring and succession planning, and phased retirement and flexible work arrangements. Pitfalls of Existing Solutions: This section discusses the challenges with current approaches, such as misclassification issues with retirees returning as contractors, co-employment concerns, lack of phased retirement plans, and the ambiguous definition of "bona fide separation". Plan of Action: It outlines a step-by-step approach, starting with identifying critical job loss risks, making a business case for support, and transitioning to a phased retirement plan, citing examples from The Aerospace Corporation and MITRE.

SPEAKER: Bradley Gentry, CEO, Gentry Professional Services A native of Benton, Arkansas, Bradley Gentry holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Arkansas. He earned an MBA from the University of Maryland and six graduate certificates from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Bradley is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Certified Contingent Workforce Professional (CCWP). He worked as a systems engineer and program manager at Northrop Grumman in Baltimore, Maryland, and has over 20 years’ experience designing and testing Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems. In 2013 he founded Odyssey Consulting, an engineering consulting firm serving the aerospace and defense industry. In 2021 he expanded the scope of that company to also serve the energy, healthcare, and IT sectors, rebranding the company as Gentry Professional Services. Its mission is to help clients across all sectors to preserve the institutional knowledge that is often lost in our evolving workforce.