Aligning HR And KM - Start By Getting Some Of The Basics Right

Aligning HR And KM – Start By Getting Some Of The Basics Right

When asked about HR’s role in developing a knowledge-centric culture one of the HR managers that I interviewed spoke about HR needing to start by getting some of the basics right. Getting the basics right in his opinion meant:

• Start with good old-fashioned recruitment. Focus on getting the right people and be sure that you know what knowledge they are bringing.

• When people join make sure that they are exposed to as many people in the organisation as possible. The view being that ‘People don’t join an organisation just to form a relationship with their immediate team. They want to work with the whole company. So make sure that there is maximum interaction with others.’

• Focus on building the skills that people need to perform well.

• If your organisation thrives on the free-market principle then ensure that you develop information systems that enable the free-market system to work.

• Make sure people have access to the basic information that they need to do their jobs.

• Create opportunities for people to be physically located and/or work closely with people from different parts of the organisation, so that they can interact and learn more about the work of the organisation as a whole.

• Communicate what HR is doing to help the organisation develop its knowledge base.

• Make sure HR is in the know. ‘Our HR team writes the monthly briefing to staff. This way we get to find out what is going on in different parts of the business as we have to go and seek out the information.’

• Work in partnership with your business colleagues, e.g. IT, Marketing, Finance.

In these pearls of wisdom, we can see the importance of ensuring that the various HR practices are integrated from a knowledge management perspective, if an organisation is to capitalise on its knowledge assets. So having attracted individuals with the right skills and knowledge it is important to ensure that they are then managed, developed, valued and rewarded such that they will want to continue building their knowledge, preferably with your organisation, and in doing so continue to add value to the organisation.

In adopting a strategic approach to managing knowledge HR practitioners will need to ensure that each of the practices shown in Figure 9.1 are aligned with the organisation’s knowledge goals, in this way maximising the opportunities for acquiring, building, sharing, reusing, developing and retaining the organisation’s knowledge.

Figure 9.1: Linking KM and HR practices (source: Evans, 2000)

Where To Start?

The initial area of focus in any single organisation is likely to be different given the organisation’s start point and desired endpoint. If, for example, knowledge retention is a key concern for your organisation then the initial focus of attention will no doubt be on enhancing practices that relate to staff retention. A first step might involve gaining as much detailed information as possible about current staff turnover figures: What types of people are leaving? Are they the ones you want to lose? What are the stated reasons for leaving? What are these people going on to do? Is turnover higher in some business areas than others? What is the impact on customer service? What is the impact on the business’s ability to deliver? Does it mean that new ideas are not coming forward? Does it mean that new products are not being developed, or taking longer to develop? Is more time being spent re-inventing the wheel? How are managers addressing the issue of retention, short, medium and longer term? The initial answers to these questions will determine which of the HR practices in Figure 9.1 than need more immediate attention.

The rest of his chapter discusses some of the ways in which each of the core HR practices shown in Figure 9.1 could be developed to ensure that these are consistent with building a knowledge-centric culture.