This document discusses two case studies of companies implementing social organization systems to facilitate knowledge transfer from senior staff to junior staff. For a manufacturing firm, a 16-month process is mapping skills, choosing experts, creating training plans, testing junior staff, and developing a social interface. An insurance firm mapped competencies and identified experts to transfer skills via an internal social network to enable quick staff rotation. Both aim to motivate senior staff and reward their training efforts using social technology for continuous, flexible learning.

1. Senior Capital &
Social Organization
Serena Zottino, May 2013

2. Who we are
Alycante is a
consultancy working
at director’s level
based in Venice.
It was founded a few years ago to
respond to a growing demand for
innovation on the part of Italian
companies to better respond to the more
complex demands of an international
market place.
The current offering is based
on the companies investing on
human resources and on their
ability to motivate the work
force fostering greater
creativity, innovation as well
as cooperation and efficiency.
To achieve those results investing on personnel
is the only viable option for companies.
Motivation of workforce is a subject that has
long been tackled from various points of view.
However, more recent studies
show that people value
autonomy and project
ownership in their daily
work, more than simply
compensation.
Bringing a Social approach to
organizations seems to be the best
way to achieve those objectives
such as motivation for the workforce
and performance for the company
that allow to stay competitive in an
international market place.

3. How we work
Alycante works together with the company board of directors to define
a strategy aimed at increasing the human resource value.
In cooperation with HR and internal communications we project
manage and implement the company’s journey towards Social
Organization.
Such journey is centered on personnel development through tailored
plans supported by custom-built technological solutions.
Social Organization systems spur companies to be more innovative and
creative, this increases market value and competitiveness.
To achieve this, companies need to increase
cooperation, integration, sharing, willingness to lean and risk among
its work force.
In short to implement a Social interface companies need to adopt an
organizational approach based on both personnel development and
technology.

4. Reform of the pension system
After the latest work regulation update senior members of staff in Italy
need to stay in the work place longer hence companies need to find
new ways to build on the positive and limit the negative aspects of this
scenario.
Senior members of staff have a level of know-how that needs to be
passed on in good time before they exit the company and before they
feel as if they are no longer part of the organization.
There are also often those that own the relationships with clients or
that are capable of seeing big picture due to their seniority and
experience.
However these senior members of staff are not always up to date with
technology that they encounter as users in sectors such as public
administration and health services.
To acquire new skills when transferring those cultivated throughout
their career becomes a sort of exchange and a good incentive for
them.

5. Case One: manufacturing firm
The first company that I will use as an
example that is in the process of
adopting this solution produces
automated components for the house;
it has been trading for over 40 years
and has offices in various countries.
Personnel know-how is of
paramount importance as this
companies’ core business is
production through
technological innovation.
Technical knowledge as well as client servicing
and protocol are all important factors for the
smooth running of this organization.
This company has always believed that
investing on human resources development
was an essential element to ensure
commercial success.
More over it has kept a human relation with
people that the company treasured despite its
steep growth.

6. Knowledge transfer
Since the company always enjoyed a low personnel turnover, leading to a high
portion of employees in the same age group, the need to pass on knowledge
was always there.
The recent change in pensionable age has made this need even more crucial.
The HR directors have a clear view on the importance of enacting the
knowledge transfer process long before senior members of staff are close to
leaving the company.
This is crucial for a number of reasons:
1. First of all on motivational grounds: people who are about to
leave have low interest in passing on their know-how.
2. Also it is hard to give appropriate recognition to those that
take the time and effort to do the work of training new
people in their areas of expertise if they are about to leave.
3. Lastly it is important to allow for enough time to train junior
members of staff allowing room for questions and case
studies.

7. Social technology adoption
Supporting this process through social technology is
motivated by various factors:
• Physical distances and the need to turn to
technology when it is not possible to meet in
person
• The need to create an archive to support future
personnel expansion
• The choice to avoid being in the position to
have such important know-how available only
by relying on key people and preferring to
foster sharing of knowledge within the
company.
• The possibility to go through all possible doubts
that never get addressed in the heat of the
moment
• The need to work in a non synchronized way
• The need to avoid stopping the flow of work in
every instance that involves know-how transfer

8. The process is running…
This process is still being carried out hence I do not have actionable results to
share.
The project will last approximately 16 months and has various phases:
 analysis of the senior staff group, mapping of the professional skills that
need transferring;
 choice of the most qualified individuals to be involved in the process;
 creation, in cooperation with such individuals, of a content plan
including details of subjects to be covered, timing and methods;
 selection of case studies to test the various competences and the level
of autonomy reached by the junior members of staff;
 design of the social interface and inputting of shared content; training of
senior members to use the program especially the Social environment
side of it;
 monitoring, feedback and re targeting as necessary including sub
actions; final evaluation.

9. The benefit and the conflict
Senior members of staff appreciate the
positive aspects of this process that are
connected to the value attributed to their
experience.
Furthermore they would have acquired
more competences in relation to the
social network environment and to web
technology that they can use in their life
outside the workplace.
They also are aware of their importance
within the organization and value the
strategic task they are completing before
leaving the company for retirement.
The interaction with the new generation however is not always easy
because in a short period of time the strong work ethos of the old
generations has shifted.
To contain this conflict we have created
workshops led by people with specific
generational interaction skills to facilitate
the acknowledgment and acceptance of
differences.

10. Case Two: insurance firm
The second example is from a company
operating in the insurance field.
Organizations are often reviewing their
structure to respond to the market crisis and
to become more flexible especially if they are
SMI.
It is necessary to reduce the time necessary to
move resources from a position to another.
This is not only true for promotions but also
when people move to a different department.
Job rotation requires shorter on boarding
timings.

11. Mapping of competences
This allows for this material to be used in future
training and for it to be shaped around case studies
based on real problems.
The HR department of this organization has carried
out a major mapping of competences and of
necessary know-how, to enable people to quickly
fulfill all the primary positions within the company.
The follow up action was to identify the people that
would absorb this set of skills and know-how (senior
members of staff) and be able to transfer them
using also an internal social network system.
This choice is linked to the high repetitiveness of this activity.
A portion of this training needs to be carried out in
person, however more such actions can be carried out on the
same professional figure and more comments on the pre-
arrange training pack can be shared in the online social
environment.

12. The risks and the reward
It is necessary in this case to monitor all training
actions for each professional figure.
This process is in progress and it is estimated to
take a year to complete.
However the mapping and content
generation had already started a year ago.
The benefits are similar to the ones I described
in my previous example.
The risks are linked to the fragmented reality
of a complex and bureaucratic organization.
To minimize those risks it was necessary to
introduce a reward system for senior members of
staff linked to the achievement of set training
targets agreed with them in advance.

13. The key of success
At the moment social network technologies have been particularly
successful in facilitating continuous training scenarios.
Teams members can access information and training tools when they
really need them, either directly through their more expert colleagues
or having been pointed in the right direction by other people in
charge.
The new starters are immediately “on the ball”: a social network
platform facilitates the integration of the newcomers, who can
familiarize themselves more quickly with people and the workplace
and would also find useful tools to overcome the puzzlement of the
first few weeks.
It is not only a question of sharing with the newcomers an online tool
to collect and archive information, but also a way to give them and
other team members the possibility to discuss subjects, for example
through online forums, and to build new relationships.
Senior members of staff have proved to be crucial in this scenario.