Technology & Innovation

ManpowerGroup: managing knowledge

ManpowerGroup: managing knowledge
Anonymous Writer

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Even after valuable data have been collected, analysed and distilled into insights, they need to be effectively disseminated throughout an organisation. To encourage employees to connect with these data on a personal level requires more than a company-wide e-mail.

That was the challenge facing Denis Edwards, CIO of ManpowerGroup, a US$22bn global workforce solutions provider. Two years ago—leading up to the company’s annual strategy meeting in which important data from across the organisation are shared among the company’s top 170 executives—Mr Edwards needed a way to engage different groups across disciplines with the data. Each data set in the company had its champion, but it was difficult to cross-pollinate the information in a way that would result in an integrated, comprehensive decision-making framework. “It was a classic knowledge management challenge,” says Mr Edwards.

ManpowerGroup conducted the meeting virtually. The company created 170 different schedules for each of the attendees of the three-day meeting, and meticulously set up sessions that brought together different champions of different data. The structure of the meeting, the context of each session and the thoughtfulness that went into selecting the constituents of each grouping led to a company-wide sharing of knowledge and a new level of strategic alignment.

“In these meetings, we are looking at everything: regional market trends, client mix, socioeconomic indicators, employment law trends, graduation rates and even emerging technologies,” says Mr Edwards. “Putting these folks together helped them create a visceral connection to the data. And it has had measurable effects on our alignment and performance.”

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