When an employee leaves, it’s not just their desk that gets cleared out. Alongside their belongings, they also take with them valuable knowledge – those day-to-day insights, workarounds and relationships that keep your business running smoothly. For larger organisations, this can be a bump in the road. For small and medium-sized businesses, where every team member plays a vital role, the impact can feel much bigger. The good news is that with a little planning, you don’t have to lose that knowledge when people move on.
Why Knowledge Transfer Matters
Think for a moment about what would happen if your longest-serving team member handed in their notice tomorrow. Would anyone else know how to handle their client list, or run the reporting system they’ve been managing for years? This is where knowledge transfer comes in. It’s the process of making sure what one person knows doesn’t disappear when they leave.
Without it, you risk slower onboarding for new hires, disrupted client relationships, and time wasted reinventing processes that were already working perfectly well. But handled well, it can do more than just protect your business from disruption. It can also strengthen your organisation by creating consistency, building resilience, and helping new employees get up to speed faster.
Plan Ahead Rather Than Panic Later
One of the most common mistakes employers make is waiting until the very last week of an employee’s notice period before trying to capture what they know. By then, it’s a race against time. A much better approach is to treat knowledge sharing as something that happens all the time, not just when someone resigns.
That might mean encouraging employees to update process notes regularly, keeping shared folders tidy, or checking that more than one person knows how to complete critical tasks. Then, when someone does announce they’re leaving, you’re already ahead of the game. You can simply put a more formal plan in place – agreeing what needs to be captured, who needs to know it, and how it will be shared – rather than scrambling to piece it together at the last minute.
Practical Ways to Share Knowledge
There are many ways to make knowledge transfer happen, and often the best approach is a mix. Sometimes the simplest methods are the most effective. Sitting down with a colleague to explain how a process works, or letting a successor shadow tasks for a week, can provide far richer context than any manual. Equally, documenting the steps of a job – whether in a written guide, a flowchart, or even a quick screen recording – means the information can be revisited later when needed.
Workshops or debrief sessions can also be helpful, particularly if the departing employee’s role touches multiple areas of the business. These allow them to share insights with the wider team, ensuring knowledge doesn’t stay locked away in one-to-one conversations.
What matters most is that knowledge transfer feels practical and usable. Overly complicated handover documents often get filed away and forgotten, while simple, accessible resources and conversations are far more likely to make a difference.
Making the Most of Technology
Technology can make knowledge transfer far easier, especially for busy SMEs. Shared drives and cloud platforms allow important documents to be stored securely in one place, while collaboration tools like Teams or Slack can be used to capture ongoing updates. Simple video recording tools can also be invaluable – providing a way to demonstrate tasks visually so that the next person can learn at their own pace.
That said, technology is only as good as the habits that support it. A neatly set-up knowledge base won’t help if no one updates it. Embedding these practices into everyday routines is the key to making them work.
Building Knowledge Sharing Into Your Culture
Ultimately, the most effective knowledge transfer isn’t something you rush through when an employee resigns. It’s something that becomes part of your culture. Encouraging collaboration, making documentation part of the way you work, and supporting cross-training within your team can all help ensure knowledge is never held by just one person.
This doesn’t just protect you when someone leaves – it also creates a healthier, more resilient workplace. Employees feel more supported when information is shared openly, and new starters benefit from having access to the collective knowledge of the business rather than relying on one or two people.
How The HR Dept Can Support You
We know how disruptive it can feel when a valued employee leaves. But with the right systems in place, it doesn’t have to derail your business. At The HR Dept, we help SMEs put practical strategies in place to capture and protect critical knowledge, from creating exit processes that include structured handovers to embedding knowledge sharing into everyday working life.
Our support means you can focus on running your business, knowing that vital information won’t simply walk out the door. Whether you’re preparing for an upcoming departure or simply want to strengthen your processes, we’re here to make sure your organisation keeps moving forward with confidence.
Get in touch with The HR Dept today to find out how we can help you build effective knowledge transfer into your business.
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