Organizations nowadays face a looming wave of knowledge attrition

Research and Markets have announced the addition of the 'Retaining Valuable Knowledge: Proactive Strategies to Deal with a Shifting Work Force report to their offering.

(PRWEB) February 1, 2004 --Organizations face a looming wave of knowledge attrition. Some industries and sectors are at great risk. If present trends continue, America will experience a labor shortage of 4.8 million workers over the next 10 years and 19.7 million over the next 20 years. College-educated, highly skilled workers also will be in short supply. In 10 years, the labor force will be short 3.6 million workers who possess a bachelors degrees. Unless these trends can be reversed, the United States will be unable to maintain its rate of economic growth. Failure to close the labor supply gap will lower gross domestic product growth from its projected levels by at least 3 percent in 10 years.

Retirement is not the only factor impacting knowledge attrition. Rapid growth, turnover, mergers and acquisitions, and internal redeployment also create potential knowledge loss or knowledge gaps. Currently, half of employees have been with their current employer less than 3.5 years, and 25 percent have tenure of less than one year. Much of the turnover occurs in early career years, but even in the 35 to 44 age bracket, median tenure is only 4.8 years, which is down 12.7 percent from 19872. Best-practice study participant Best Buy, for instance, implemented its knowledge management and retention approaches not because of a retirement issue, but because of the rapid turnover of its young work force and the needs of a rapidly growing organization to tap into its own knowledge. Attracting, developing, and retaining a knowledgeable work force is a major issue for senior management teams, but many are not yet aware of the scope of the problem or potential solutions such as knowledge management.

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