Demographic change and automation go hand in hand with the loss of specialist knowledge. Older employees often leave the company or jobs are replaced by electronic systems.

In most cases, it is not day-to-day operational knowledge that is missing, but rather, for example, specialist knowledge that is required when systems fail, a special, rare product is delivered or just dealing with a few external contacts with whom you rarely have contact. Other examples include special certification methods or research techniques.

To avoid getting into such a situation, companies should prepare early on.

Digitalization makes preserving know-how easier today than in the past, and systems such as company wikis can also be installed, which can be continuously maintained and thus improve communication within the company in the long term.

The decisive factor, however, is the setup phase and the need to enter basic knowledge. Often the people involved themselves do not know what their own specific knowledge is and what is already known in the team.

This is where we provide support by analyzing the processes and querying the level of knowledge with the help of structured interviews.

During the individual or group interviews, the structure of the processes is worked through and the exact level of knowledge is queried individually. All information is transferred to a document and constantly added to. Any questions that arise are recorded separately and evaluated to see who might have the relevant information.

The digitization of knowledge takes place partly in real time and is constantly followed up and checked.

Querying process flows and structures is the nucleus of every interview with candidates. This specialist knowledge could be incorporated into the knowledge management surveys and is honed in terms of its accuracy.