With up to a third of workers in many enterprises approaching retirement, capturing their extensive job knowledge is more important than ever. Much of what they know may not be codified in any way. Some of them may have started working under apprenticeship programs before the use of modern process documentation. Moreover, their subconscious expertise – the subtle “tips and tricks” layer of hidden job skills – is so intuitive, subjective and contextual that it does not lend itself to a tech writer’s narrative. Yet this tacit knowledge can be critically important to the next generation of workers’ own safety and productivity as well as the success of the enterprise.

Introduction

Workers who are approaching retirement age today are the silent group that often gets the work done without saying much. Many of them may have apprenticed with their predecessors, and their skills and procedures may not be written down or otherwise codified. With that in mind, enterprises face tough challenges in the future if they fail to capture the knowledge these workers hold in their heads and their hands. This toolkit identifies a way to use video to do this.

Video capture used to be expensive and time-consuming. It isn’t anymore. Capturing a person on video, just talking about their job or showing people what they do, provides inestimable value to future workers for very little cost or effort.