Retirement Boom Leading to Knowledge Loss? Transition to an Off-the-Shelf Solution.

According to the latest U.S. Census research, 10,000 Baby Boomers reach retirement age every day. And, a Pew Research report shows that the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying economic crisis have increased the rate at which Baby Boomers are retiring. 

You might be wondering what the retirement boom has to do with enterprise data integration… 

According to Deloitte, the Utilities industry faces a “rapidly aging workforce” and a difficulty to “attract and retain the talent of skilled technologists and technicians.” What we are hearing from our customers confirms the fact that these national retirement trends are having a dramatic impact on the way Utilities organizations operate.  With more and more veteran employees, who hold the key to “the way things work around here,” moving on every day, and the push to improve processes by leveraging out-of-the-box solutions, Utilities organizations are facing the possibility of mass knowledge loss when it comes to their legacy processes, like integrations between GIS and EAM systems.   

If this sounds like your organization, read on to learn 3 ways to get ahead of the retirement cycle and emerge stronger as an organization. 

1. Solidify Off-Boarding Procedures. 

Having documented, well planned off-boarding procedures will mitigate knowledge loss as these highly knowledgeable Utilities workers move onto retirement. Instead of just casually showing their replacement the ropes, organizations should encourage employees to keep detailed written notes about each process.  

Having written, instructional operational guidance not only gives new employees peace of mind, but it also speeds up their on-boarding process and increases their value as a resource. Plus, the next time a new employee is on-boarded they can reference the same written resource. 

2. Simplify Processes. 

As the Utilities industry deals with rising retirement rates and a burgeoning incoming workforce, organizations should conduct a process audit to determine what procedures can be simplified, and how. For example, if your organization is operating a redundant process that requires separate teams to update GIS and asset management systems respectively, can your organization adopt an automated solution, like Geonexus, to upgrade both systems and eliminate the redundancy?  

Replacing complex, redundant processes frees up time for your existing staff to focus on more pressing issues, and eases new staff into the workflow. 

3. Don’t Rely Solely on the Individual. 

With complex, legacy processes, organizations often rely heavily on individuals to understand the system and the in-depth details needed for successful execution. For example, if an organization uses custom integrations between EAM and GIS systems, bugs and errors must be fixed by someone with back-end code knowledge. If organizations don’t retain a resource who understands and can make changes to the back-end code, the whole integration could devolve, causing data inaccuracy and inconsistency, especially if turnover and attrition is happening often. Furthermore, if historical institutional knowledge is needed to make adjustments to data to ensure data accuracy, problems are sure to follow the exit of the individual that holds that knowledge.  

Adopting a third-party, fully supported solution for these intricate processes can keep organizations running smoothly in an ever-changing employee landscape. Productized software that constantly validates and syncs your data, while providing consistent reports to users, keeps your ground-level crews up to date and ensures business leaders are making the best decisions. Plus, with a plug-and-play solution, the time it takes for a new team member to get up to speed is minimized, and the transition period is easy with 24/7 customer support staff. 

With over a decade of experience integrating enterprise data, the Geonexus Integration Platform addresses data integration, application integration, and data quality, and includes a library of prepackaged connectors to leading enterprise systems for true “Plug-and-Play” integration.  

Learn more about how the Geonexus Integration Platform can ensure the integrity of your data by contacting our experts today.