People love to talk about what they know. Just ask them. Experts sit in every cube, office, desk, remote work space, on every customer service call, and within virtually every business.
Generally, employees remain in their respective roles doing their respective jobs, only using their respective silo of knowledge to please their respective supervisor. They are hired and someday leave without achieving the maximum potential and delivering the maximum value. Calculating the employer's loss isn't possible if the knowledge and wisdom of that employee's experience remained undiscovered and untapped. The cost benefit seems higher than the risk, if indeed there's any real risk at all.
Luckily we live in social times with virtual whiteboards like blogs allow us to harness all that untapped knowledge. Some of the best blogs in my opinion deliver amazing insights from nearly every department and from all levels of seniority (not just from the CEO's or CMO's office). Great blogs allow organizations to literally tap and test this vast human knowledge base.
Allowing employee experts to speak instills confidence and loyalty. Many people leave their jobs because they feel their contributions go unnoticed and aren't appreciated. Theoretically then, allowing employee experts to speak and be heard would only show positive outcomes. You may also see measurable results such as higher employee retention, more productivity, faster innovation velocity, and a diversity of content and data to add to your knowledge base.
Forrester's IDEA (Identify target audience, Develop thought leadership, Engage audiences, Assess the impact) framework for thought leadership strategy and provides a good guideline for executives to agree on how to create a foundation for good content and also channel your employee's personal knowledge base in the right direction. Establish corporate guidelines so employees understand the constraints and the process by which they can publish. Common sense rules and best practices exist everywhere. It's a matter of establishing your own and encouraging employees to get involved.
Results may vary and you won't always mine a diamond in the rough. And I'm certainly not suggesting taking time away from critical tasks or projects. Some forward-thinking companies mandate people spend time on projects outside of their day to day activities resulting in outcomes like retention and innovation using the same theoretical practice I am suggesting here. Anyway, more than likely most of your folks engage in activities like writing personal blogs, or tweeting on a daily basis, or posting to LinkedIn and Facebook, or creating interest boards on Pinterest. Why not harness some of that for the benefit of your company as well as to the benefit of your customers and employees. What's the risk?
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