HANDLING KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS OBSOLESCENCE AT WORK

Introduction

The obsolescence of knowledge and skills has long been recognised as a problem affecting individual careers and organisational effectiveness (Encyclopedia of Career Development, 2006). This major challenge require pro-active actions on the part of HR Practitioners so as to ensure that all employees including those in HR are up-to-date in terms of skills and knowledge needed to carry out their functions now and in the future.

Organisations should be open to happenings in their external environment. They should be aware of the various changes in the marketplace in terms of new technology, production process, production techniques, consumer behavior and perception, government changing rules and regulations, and put in place necessary efforts needed to upgrade their internal operations and expand their employees’ capacity to respond to these new challenges.

Obsolescence Defined

Obsolescence can be defined as the degree to which knowledge workers lack the up-to-date knowledge or skills necessary to maintain effective performance in either their current or future work roles.

Causes of Obsolescence

Obsolescence of knowledge and skills at work could be as a result of any of the following factors.

1. Environmental Changes: The world is presently experiencing information and technological revolution where the knowledge and skills acquired yesterday could hardly proffer solution to tomorrow’s problems.
2. Individual Characteristics: Obsolescence of knowledge and skills could be due to individual factors and characteristics such as age, motivation and cognitive ability.
3. Changes in Job Assignment: The era of one cap fits all is gone. Frequent changes in job assignment could lead to a situation where incumbent may lack the requisite skills and knowledge needed to perform optimally on their previous job or assignment from which they were seconded to a new job or assignment due to changing technology and techniques.
4. Technology and innovation:  The level of technological innovation across the world today is extremely high and called for constant acquisition of new knowledge and skills to be able to cope with new technology, equipment and machine at work.  Failure to keep abreast of technological innovations means our previous knowledge and skills are obsolete.
5. Knowledge and Skills Under-Utilization:   skills and knowledge on the job increases and improves based on constant and consistent utilization.  Failure to utilize acquired knowledge and skills optimally leads to obsolescence.
6. Failure to Train and Retrain: Obsolescence results when constant training and retraining is lacking at work.
7. Globalization and Best Practices: The world is now a global village and the various companies across the world now compete on a global scale. This development place demands on organisations to keep abreast of development across the world and adapt their local operations to suit what operates across the world. All these efforts at meeting the world’s standard make local knowledge and skills to become obsolete almost immediately.

The Way Out

HR Practitioners are responsible for managing people at work and should therefore work in conjunction with line managers and the top management to ensure that all employees have the requisite knowledge and skills needed to perform optimally in their various assignments.

The obsolescence of knowledge and skills at work could be addressed in the following ways.

1. Knowledge and Skills Audit: There should be a constant knowledge and skills audit on the job to know whether the job incumbents or potential replacements have the requisite knowledge and skills needed for on the job success. The audit should identify knowledge and skills gaps and fill them appropriately.
2. Advocate Employees Personal Development: Organisations should encourage deliberate efforts on the part of the employees to improve their job related knowledge and skills so as to keep abreast of new development in their field or job.
3. Mentoring: The experienced workers should be encouraged to mentor their subordinates towards acquiring necessary knowledge and skills to keep performing on the job.
4. There should be a Zero tolerance for under-utilization of acquired knowledge and skills at work. The skills and knowledge gained at work should be put into optimal use.
5. Sound Organisational Climate: A conducive environment must be created at work. The work climate should be conducive enough to stimulate utilisation of inherent knowledge and skills rather than stifle it. People should be developed, motivated and rewarded to be the best they could be at work.
6. Specialization: Specialization in job assignment should be encouraged as this enhances proficiency and continuous honing of knowledge and skills.        
7. Learning Organisation: One of the best ways to prevent knowledge and skills obsolescence at work today is by becoming a learning organisation.  Learning organisations are very much concerned with developing and sharing knowledge that is critical to their strategic success (Armstrong, 2003). A learning organisation is skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and modifying its behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insights (Garvin, 1993).

Conclusion

The ability of any organisation to be competitive in the marketplace today is a function of the quality of its human resources. To deliver superior performance at work, employees must possess up-to-date knowledge and skills. Therefore, organisations that want to achieve competitive advantage through people must make constant knowledge and skills audit their priority so as to guide against obsolescence of skills and knowledge, the number one enemy of achieving peak performance at work.

References

Armstrong, M (2003). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 9^th edn, Kogan Page, London.

Garvin, D A (1993). Building a learning organisation, Harvard Business Review, July-Aug, pp 78-91.

About the Author

Ajiboro Ayodeji  is a Chartered HR practitioner based in Lagos, Nigeria. His areas of interest are Human Resource, Training, and Entrepreneurship. Tel: 2348027807452. Email: hutrenconsulting@gmail.com.

---

The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the www.hutrenhrarticles.blogspot.com. This material may not be sold, or published in any form. Disclaimer: Reliance on information, material, advice, other links and recommended resources, received from Ajiboro Ayodeji, ACIPM, shall be at your sole risk, and Hutren Consulting assumes no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or damages arising. Users are encouraged to confirm information received with other sources. Please retain this notice on all copies.

© Hutren Consulting 2011