Future-Proofing Your Workforce with Institutional Memory

Skilled labour shortage, aging workforces and growth in demand for infrastructure can create a concerning need for fresh talent to execute quickly and efficiently on complex projects. To compete and comply with rapidly changing standards, it’s crucial to facilitate intergenerational knowledge transfer, and train new talent at speed, while minimising risks and raising the bar on accurate project delivery.

We’re familiar with the challenges. Talent retention is a constant struggle and new generations enter the workforce short of skills. When employees leave, they leach institutional knowledge and trade secrets to competitors. Teams vary from project to project and there is a wealth of tangible knowledge (legal and technical documents) and intangible knowledge (techniques and skills) that aren’t formally retained or made accessible. This is your institutional memory.

So, how do you capture this valuable IP?

The key is to transform that goldmine of organisational data into a live reference bank that current and future generations can upload and download for enhanced project delivery – centralised solutions that capture documents, drawings, models and estimating and planning solutions with structures for project data that can be used for comparison and benchmarking.

Often, we see veterans in the industry grappling with innovation, yet they are fundamental to driving innovation. With institutional memory systems in place, their knowledge can be captured and processed. Integrated with new project data, AI and advanced digital tools, this will drive up the pace of innovation and demonstrate an attractive vision and culture of successful project delivery.