When clerks leave, they take with them the valuable knowledge they have acquired during their years on the job. All too often, their departure also drains the organization of critical information and skills. An organization’s most valuable asset is its people. No surprise there, right? Yet the value of that asset is most often expressed as the monetary cost of replacing an employee. Typically, that calculation completely overlooks the value of organizational knowledge that is lost when an experienced employee leaves.

Make no mistake, replacing valued employees isn’t cheap. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the total cost of replacement, including training and lost productivity, can range from 90 percent to 200 percent of an employee’s annual salary.1 On the other hand, the loss of organizational knowledge can be devastating.