Is organisational knowledge walking out your door?

By Sandra Ward, Senior Associate

Barclays, having lost out to Royal Bank of Scotland in the bidding war for ABN Amro has poached a team of five bankers from ABN (Barclays poaches ABN team from rival RBS, Daily Telegraph dated 14th May 2008). Specialists in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East will join its investment arm.  Barclays Capital said that the appointments will ‘significantly enhance’ its ability to advise clients on corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, financing, and risk management.  A knowledge loss, we assume that RBS could do without! And the loss of an entire team is not uncommon in the finance and legal sectors.  It’s worth considering whether your organisation faces similar risks of know-how and experience walking out of the door.  While people will carry on moving, the loss of teams is more destructive. What mechanisms have you put in place to retain and embed people’s knowledge in the organisation – even if key staff move?