According to a BVA survey conducted for Salesforce, 54% of employees feel that organisations do not pay sufficient attention to knowledge transmission. In the manufacturing and retail sectors, this challenge is even more structurally significant: informal professional know-how, built through field experience, determines the sustainability of operations, team performance and the successful integration of new recruits.
Understanding Knowledge Transmission and Its Strategic Importance
Knowledge transmission does not reduce to the documentation of processes. It covers a broader and often invisible part of field intelligence, one that appears in no manual.
Informal Field Knowledge: A Critical Intangible Asset
Beyond the skills validated through training or certifications, a large proportion of knowledge is built in the field, through contact with real situations. Observation, peer exchanges and repeated gestures: these informal learnings are at the heart of operational agility. Often tacit, they enable adaptation, innovation and transmission. Recognising their value means acknowledging a key intangible asset for collective performance.
Managers can mobilise this reservoir of knowledge to resolve specific problems related to the production chain, adapt practices to field realities and improve the collective effectiveness of the organisation.
The Risks Linked to the Loss of Field Knowledge
Manufacturing environments are characterised by strict regulations, complex processes and a wide diversity of equipment. The sector is also facing an ageing workforce. The number of experts retiring is growing, as confirmed by the DREETS study for Bourgogne Franche-Comté: 301,000 specialists are affected every year.
Without an adapted knowledge management strategy, this flow of departures leads to the loss of precious know-how and a drop in productivity that is difficult to offset. The loss of field knowledge also weighs on the quality and speed of integration of new recruits, who find it difficult to absorb the knowledge necessary for their role.
Levers for Capitalising on Knowledge in Manufacturing and Retail
Effective transmission of competencies is the key to capitalising on this informal knowledge. It requires a structured approach: identification, documentation, digitalisation and the involvement of experienced employees.
Identifying, Documenting and Digitalising Key Know-How
The first step towards lasting transmission involves identifying and centralising key professional gestures and processes. Knowledge transmission in manufacturing and retail now requires digitalisation: the most experienced profiles play a central role in documenting best practices and transforming tacit knowledge into a structured, collectively accessible heritage.
Knowledge-sharing systems, user guides and skills-tracking tools make it possible to facilitate this approach. HR, training and management teams can thus adapt the transfer of competencies in line with regulatory, technological or organisational developments.
Involving Experienced Employees and Recognising Their Expertise
Transmitting knowledge also means recognising and valuing the expertise of employees. Without this recognition, reluctance can emerge, particularly from senior profiles who may perceive knowledge sharing as a challenge to their added value.
Mentoring is in this respect a particularly effective approach: it strengthens the mentor's competencies whilst recognising their role and experience. A recognition system that values the employees most engaged in sharing their knowledge encourages involvement and helps to establish a lasting culture of transmission within teams.
Transforming Transmission Into a Lasting Competitive Advantage
An organisation focused on skills development creates the conditions for knowledge sharing, expertise acquisition and continuous improvement.
Integrating Transmission Into the HR Strategy and Supporting Teams
Integrating transmission into the HR strategy requires a structured knowledge transfer process, with clear stages and defined responsibilities at multiple levels. Deploying a network of experienced mentors, training managers in the principles that facilitate transmission, and establishing a culture of experience-sharing and feedback are the pillars of this integration.
According to Edgar Dale and his learning pyramid, human beings retain what they experience actively far better than what they simply observe or hear. Knowledge transmission rests on practical situations: action simulations, immersion in concrete operations and adaptation to each learner's style and needs. A competency framework facilitates this adjustment.
Measuring Impact and Steering Transmission Over Time
Evaluation systems make it possible to ensure the sustainability of the knowledge transmission process. Key performance indicators (KPIs), surveys and data visualisation tools make it possible to measure the effectiveness of mentoring programmes, training plans and learning initiatives, and then to make the necessary adjustments based on employee feedback.
Making transmission a central pillar of company culture means creating the conditions for a lasting competitive advantage: better-integrated teams, productivity preserved in the face of departures, and an organisation capable of capitalising on its field intelligence to progress collectively.
