Case Studies
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These short articles are intended to give executives actionable ideas, insights, and frameworks that they can immediately apply when addressing the challenges created by a changing workforce.
Boulder Labs Mentoring Pilot: Accelerating Knowledge Transfer
This case shows what your organization can do immediately to accelerate knowledge transfer on the job. It reports on a government R&D lab that has improved knowledge transfer between older and younger employees by investing in the development of specific mentoring skills for its senior scientists and engineers. Faced with the loss of unique technical knowledge critical to the future mission of the agency, Boulder R&D Center undertakes a pilot program to train both mentors and apprentices in more effective knowledge transfer practices.
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A series of case studies originally funded by Accenture's Institute for Strategic Change define future workforce issues and "better practice" solutions being pursued to retain critical knowledge.
Shall We Dance? Integrating Real Estate, IT, and HR to Leverage Knowledge Worker Performance. One of the most difficult challenges for organizations trying to address aging workforce issues is how to integrate different groups to address the problem strategically. This brief case study shows how Cisco Systems has improved the coordination between functions like HR and IT to better support its high-end knowledge workers. The insights are highly relevant to future workforce development.
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Cisco Systems: An Integrated Approach to Supporting Knowledge Workers. This case study provides more lessons on how to create integrated strategic initiatives needed to improve employee retention and performance.
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Intel's Workplace Environment: Confronting the Conflict Between Cost and Effectiveness. Retaining top talent is an increasingly important business issue, but leaders are continually challenged by the need to minimize costs at the same time. This case shows how Intel has tried to balance the need to invest in retaining employees, while also controlling costs.
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The three case studies above were written by David DeLong for Accenture's Institute for Strategic Change, where he was formerly a research fellow. They are made available with Accenture's permission. For more information on Accenture's recent research, please visit their website at www.accenture.com.