Workforce development and knowledge management in water utilities

With experienced long-term employees retiring at ever-increasing rates, water utilities face a significant loss of institutional knowledge at a time when stringent regulations and increasing demand require even more technological know-how. To stem the knowledge drain and improve workforce performance, the author suggests a two-pronged strategy integrating organizational development, human resources, training, and leadership with emerging information and knowledge management systems. Positive incentives and work environments can help spur employees to create value and use technology. Human resources staff play a major role in building workforce capacity and facilitating knowledge capture, but utility leadership must take the lead in these efforts by demonstrating genuine interest and involvement in workforce and knowledge management programs. Through information systems, water providers can identify, capture, and manage both explicit and tacit knowledge. However, best practices indicate that the roadmap to "knowledge-enabled" performance should focus primarily on organizational improvement rather than technologies.