Located in regional Australia, a manufacturing plant was forced to shut down because of a breakdown.
The only employee who knew how to fix the problem was a mature employee who was on Long Service Leave; he was required to return to work to fix the problem and allow the plant to re-start.
Until a critical business malfunction occurred, the manufacturer had not understood or recognised this single person dependency. Changing Gears determined that there was no Knowledge Management Strategy in place and no pathway to manage the transition of knowledge from the ageing employee to other talented staff as his retirement approached.
Changing Gears worked with the manufacturer to develop a Mentoring and Knowledge Transition Strategy that ensured knowledge sharing between business critical employees and protégés, linked to the Talent Cycle, Retention and Succession Planning processes.
We also assisted with the development of a Recruitment Strategy to attract employees with the aptitude and skill required to mitigate the single person dependency.
The employee forgave his recall from Long Service Leave and stayed with the manufacturer, mentoring and training his colleagues and ensuring the transition of business critical knowledge.
