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Committee Report: Knowledge management for addressing workforce issues
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.2011.tb11513.x
Subject(s) - workforce , workforce management , key (lock) , business , dissemination , workforce planning , investment (military) , knowledge management , return on investment , computer science , political science , economics , economic growth , telecommunications , computer security , law , production (economics) , politics , macroeconomics
This report by the AWWA Knowledge Management Subcommittee represents one of the first attempts to identify best practices for using knowledge management (KM) in addressing workforce issues. KM is a major issue for water utilities as the workforce ages and significant numbers of key employees near retirement age. KM focuses on identifying key organizational knowledge; capturing it in a way that can be stored, maintained, and retrieved when needed; and, effectively disseminating it to the people who need it to perform their jobs. KM is a combination of people, processes, and technologies. Because utilities' funding and staff time for KM programs are limited, however, it is critical to define strategies that will optimize return on investment. Significant improvements in KM can occur when these strategies focus on low‐cost options that target people and processes first before making large investments in supporting technologies.