Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Engaging Golden Expertise
A program or series of actions for engaging employees who have retired or external experts
who are no longer fully engaged in the workplace.
Supports: knowledge retention, Utility performance, organizational learning, employee
development
LEVEL OF EFFORT
SIZE OF UTILITY
SCOPE OF WORK
MED
SCALABLE
WIDE
Engaging Golden Expertise is an approach to ensuring your Utility has access to needed
expertise no longer available within the Utility. The concept is built on an understanding that the
boundaries of an organization can no longer be clearly defined, but are permeable and porous.
People no longer stay in one job their entire lives, but move around in and out of organizations
and in and out of the government, industry and non-profit sectors. Industry copes with this issue
through joint ventures and partnering agreements. The military has a trained reserve force
available for call up.
A body of knowledge that has been previously much overlooked resides in Third Agers.
Third-agers are individuals who possess a great deal of experience and knowledge, who are
retired but still active physically and mentally, and have a desire to contribute to the Utility.
These can be retirees from a specific Utility, or others who have identified expertise in areas of
interest and need. Since the past several years have seen an increase of third-agers moving
from metropolitan areas into the suburbs and beyond, this may provide an opportunity for small
Utilities serving rural areas to have availability of specialized expertise that can be identified
through community social organizations.
Third Agers can be formally employed for specific term tasks or on advisory boards or task
teams. They can also serve as volunteers for special events.
Retiring Utility employees provide a known source of Third Agers. Hopefully, the Utility has
engaged them in knowledge sharing activities such as mentoring, coaching and communities of
practice prior to leaving. See knowledge retention and the MQI graphic Knowledge Sharing as a
Systems Approach. However, there is still the opportunity to engage individuals postretirement.
Some examples are as members of communities of practice, speakers at
knowledge sharing forums, and as members of a reserve force or perhaps on governance
boards. A phased retirement approach is another option, eliminating hours gradually as others
move into their positions. Still another approach is to retain selected employees on the payroll
with reduced hours (say 10 hours a month) as expert resources and trouble-shooters.
In Project Study #12, the Utility established a retiree program allowing for the hiring of
retired employees in a training capacity. In Project Study #17, the Utility’s ―Rallying a Team of
Exceptional Employees‖ program includes adding new staff alongside retirees to facilitate the
transfer of critical institutional knowledge. In Project Study #21, the Utility has engaged retired
employees in a training capacity. Their approach also allows for the contractual hiring of former
employees as independent vendors of special projects.
Regardless of the approach engaged, Third Agers offer another source to tap for ensuring
the Utility has the knowledge it needs when it needs it.
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©2011 Water Research Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.