Learning leaders often worry about the “silver tsunami” – the soon to occur retirement flood of more than 80 million boomers from the workplace. Their grave concern is the reality of losing all the institutional knowledge and the problems that will be caused because of it.

Fort Wayne Metals, a leading medical wire manufacturer and named one of the best places to work in Indiana in the large-sized company category by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, set a strategic goal to capture and catalogue the expert “tribal” knowledge in the company. “The proprietary knowledge pretty much resides in me; so it’s important to capture it like this for future employees.” said a Fort Wayne Metals team member.

CVC Communications facilitated a 60 day blitz-capture process with an 11-person team designed to secure and document information in the heads of experienced employees. The Knowledge Capture project team was hand-picked by senior management. CVC prepared the team sponsor and team leader for the assignment by outlining the process and supplying all the training and communications tools.

We put nearly 60 proprietary “tricks of the trade” in motion to be documented. Using CVC’s structured eight week process, the team validated, photographed and centralized advanced manufacturing processes, which will be housed in customized wiki software. This will allow for informal and formal learning. The project team leader Denise Klausner said, “I’m very proud of the team and pleased with the knowledge that was captured.”

“This is great, powerful knowledge that tells us WHY... I know it was a huge undertaking that required real leadership... This will make us a stronger company.” said Scott Glaze, Fort Wayne Metals chief executive officer.

In the ever more global job market, many companies are looking for ways to tell their story to attract talented staff. This can be especially difficult if their businesses are based outside the in-demand major metropolitan areas.

In order to recruit the best people for your team, your company must stand out as an innovative company located in a great town to your prospective applicants. Video can be an effective part of the solution that not only tells your story in an engaging and interesting way, but also portrays your location as somewhere your prospects want to be.

CVC Communications recently completed a video like this for Navistar. They were recruiting talented, experienced engineers from Detroit to move to Fort Wayne, and enlisted our help to make that a success.

As recruitment competition heats up at job fairs, on the web, and in other approaches to hiring, companies are seeing the need to stay visible and attractive to potential hires to ensure their workforce is the best it can be. To learn more about how CVC can help, call Paul Chapman at 877-577-8333 extension 11.

The ‘City by the Bay’, with a longstanding reputation for being one of the most preferred US vacation venues, continues to be a meeting venue Par Excellence. We recently completed a site tour trip for a client, having not been there in a while, and were pleasantly surprised to see the Renaissance continuing, especially in the SOMA district, (South of Market Street), where construction sites abound.

From the traditional (and renovated) elegance of The Fairmont, The Palace Hotel, and The Westin St. Francis – to the understated excellence of the Ritz Carlton – and the contemporarily fashionable Four Seasons, there is a venue for every taste.

Of particular note is the year-and-a-half new St. Regis – an ultra contemporary, hugely personal venue within the SOMA district. This high-rise urban property features state of the art technology, exceptional meeting facilities (with semi-private access for security) and the personal service which is a benchmark of the chain.

And even better, the growth in town has made the hotel market more competitive than ever. Though not an inexpensive destination, we found San Francisco to be a better value than ever!