Knowledge Management, part 1

As we develop product strategies that are easier to use for our customers, we must follow the same ease of use strategies for our employees. This will require us to develop an organized and relevant knowledge management program. [1]

One thing I’ve noticed talking to people around the country is a lack of training for employees. The traditional method of hiring is 1) Abstractly discuss job with the candidate; 2) Hire without a proper interview, references check, or personality profile; 3) Offer quasi/no training 4) Pass the new hire over to a "mentor" whom we trust to train? 5) Wonder why our staff is untrained and uneducated.

We've gotten by in the past because the knowledge necessary for a new hires was limited. What "mentorship" they received was by experienced co-workers who were entrenched within the core competencies of their companies. Even with a poor "mentorship" a new hire could assimilate by being surrounded by experienced knowledge.

[1] Knowledge Management (KM) referring to practices used by organizations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse and learning across the organization. The initial foundation for the Knowledge Economy was first introduced in a book by Peter Drucker. In 1966 The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker, described the difference between the Manual worker and the knowledge worker.