Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Project Study # 8
Adopting the SOP and Training Sessions
Project Description: The adoption of the SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) for paper—
based knowledge management including more training sessions.
Size of Utility: 185 employees
Critical Success Factors: For training sessions, success has not been measured. For paper—
based knowledge management, success is the adoption of the SOP.
Cost: One department is implementing standing operation procedures for operating each of its
small community water and wastewater facilities. So far it has a cost about $150,000 to develop
SOPs (7-10 pages each) for about 20 facilities. Regarding training sessions run about $5,000
to $10,000 per session, not including employee time. Regarding staff, early costs are approx. 2-
4 months salary and benefits.
Alignment: Doing this helps assure that we can meet our mission and conforms to one of our
values (employees are our most important resource).
Benefits: We are seeing a more knowledgeable staff (from training sessions), are better able to
perform work (capturing more knowledge from retiring employees or employees who change job
functions), and demonstrates to our staff that we adhere to our values and builds trust.
Compiled October 2007
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POC:
Todd Danielson
Loudon County Sanitation Authority
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