Why Are The New People Making The Same Mistakes That The Old-Timers Made 25 Years Ago? Managing Organizational Change

When operating or maintenance personnel are promoted, retire, take vacation, are absent, or job duties are reallocated, how does the management system ensure that the critical knowledge and skills are still available on site at all the times they are needed? This paper discusses the issues in managing organization changes and includes examples.

First, the knowledge, skills, and tasks must be documented.

Second, when the organization changes, a formal management of personnel change system can

• identify the knowledge, skills, and tasks,
• develop an action plan to ensure the new person learns the knowledge, demonstrates the skills, and understands his/her tasks and responsibilities, and
• develop a plan to provide the knowledge, skills, and tasks safely while the new person is in training.

Third, the organization must have a system to manage temporary absences

• to recognize when critical knowledge and skills are missing, and
• to halt critical operations when key people are missing, or
• to provide alternate resources to ensure safe operations.