Senior Capital &

Social Organization

Serena Zottino, May 2013

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 projectownership 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.

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.

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.

Case One: manufacturing firmThe 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.

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.

Social technology adoptionSupporting 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

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.

The benefit and the conflictSenior 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.