West Nipissing Chamber of Commerce E-Newsletter
Corporate knowledge: 
transfer it or lose it
  
When your long-term employees move on, they take with them years of experience, wisdom, and knowledge. To save this knowledge, consider setting up a voluntary mentoring program. In every business, there comes a time when long-term employees either retire or depart. The reason for their departure might be because they are:
  • Starting their own business
  • Raising a family
  • Considering a career change
  • Going back to school
  • Leaving the country
  • Settling into retirement

Set up a mentoring program

Here are some tips for setting up and maintaining a mentoring program within your business:

  • Find out which of your departing employees are interested in being mentors.
  • Pair up your resigning employees with your newer ones in groups of two or more. It's up to you to decide how to form the groups.
  • Have your mentoring employees look over the projects and tasks of the newer employees and offer assistance or advice.
  • Ask your departing employees to train new ones.
  • Check in with your mentoring groups often to see how things are going.

Other ways of transferring knowledge from your departing employees to your newer ones may be to:

  • Have your human resources department sound out your retiring employees about their concerns and their experiences with your business. This could take the form of a quiz, a questionnaire, a survey, or an interview.
  • Document important information that your employees mention to human resources or to their mentoring partners. Compiling this information in an online directory, a database on the company's intranet, a contact database or your business' guideline is one way of keeping this information within the business.

Do consider employee confidentiality. Departing employees may have concerns about your business that they want to discuss with human resources, but would like to remain anonymous. If human resources can set up an agreement with these employees to ensure anonymity, employees might feel more at ease when discussing your business' strengths and weaknesses.

For more information on how to transfer knowledge and plan business transitions, check out the Canada Business Network's Succession Planning section and the BDC's Succession planning page. 

 

Source: http://www.canadabusiness.ca/eng/blog/entry/4903/

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Annonce de financement FedNor, d�ner r�seautage et atelier - Programmation Affaires et Alliances 


 

FedNor Funding announcement, Networking lunch and Workshop - Business Alliances programming

Click Here for Bilingual Invitation

 

Le R�seau de d�veloppement �conomique et d'employabilit� de l'Ontario (RD�E Ontario), l'Association fran�aise des municipalit�s de l'Ontario (AFMO) et le d�put� de Nipissing-Timiskaming, Jay Aspin ont le plaisir de vous inviter � une annonce de financement FedNor qui aura lieu le 23 janvier 2015 au Centre culturel des Compagnons des francs loisirs, � North Bay, de 11 h � midi. 

 

Pour l'occasion, le d�put� de Nipissing-Timiskaming, Jay Aspin, sera sur place au nom de l'Honorable Greg Rickford, Ministre des Ressources Naturelles et FedNor pour faire l'annonce du financement octroy� par FedNor au projet Affaires et Alliances 2014-2016 du RD�E Ontario. Les parties pr�sentes d�voileront du m�me coup la programmation reli�e au projet Affaires et Alliances 2014-2016 � l'attention des entreprises du Nord de l'Ontario : plusieurs missions et projets d'envergure sont au menu. L'AFMO et le RD�E Ontario profiteront de ce rassemblement pour signer une importante entente de collaboration en d�veloppement �conomique, au b�n�fice des municipalit�s qui desservent les communaut�s francophones de l'Ontario. Cette triple annonce sera suivie d'un d�ner-r�seautage d'affaires et d'une formation � l'attention des municipalit�s et entreprises du Nord de l'Ontario portant sur l'immense potentiel d'affaires de nos entreprises sur les march�s francophones internationaux gr�ce � leur atout bilingue.

 

Horaire de la journ�e :

11h 1- Financement de FedNor envers le RD�E Ontario pour le projet Affaires et 

            Alliances 2014-2016

       2- Lancement de la programmation Affaires et Alliances 2014-2016

       3- Signature officielle du partenariat entre l'AFMO et le RD�E Ontario

 

12h D�ner r�seautage en compagnie de PME, de politiciens et d'acteurs du d�veloppement �conomique

 

13h � 16h : Formation Performer sur les march�s internationaux gr�ce � notre bilinguisme

 

 

This workshop, held in French with simultaneous English translation, will explain the advantage that bilingual business owners have, and how the RD�E Ontario can help leverage that unique advantage into new business opportunities. Entrepreneurs, politicians and economic development players welcome! Join us for this memorable event, which will surely benefit all who attend! 

 

Click Here for Bilingual Invitation

Leakage Analysis and 
Market Feasibility Study


 

The West Nipissing Chamber of Commerce has partnered with Laurentian University to complete a Leakage Analysis and Market Feasibility Study. The objectives of this research are to examine how local business owners and institutions, as well as local consumers, make purchase decisions. Students enrolled in the Honours Bachelor of Commerce program will be conducting interviews with local business owners for the purpose of this study and as part of their coursework at Laurentian University.

 

Key objectives of this study include:

 

1.    Determine areas of retail and business services leakage within the community;

2.    Determine if existing businesses located within West Nipissing are capturing the full retail sales potential of those who shop and live there;

3.    Identify specific industry sub-sectors that are most likely to succeed within the West Nipissing local market;

4.    Identify feasible niche markets for West Nipissing;

 

The West Nipissing Chamber of Commerce encourages you to participate in the Leakage Analysis and Market Feasibility Study, if contacted. As an incentive for completing interviews with the students and providing your input, the Chamber will be giving away 5 gift cards, valued at $100 each. Chosen by random draw, the gift cards are for the following businesses:

 

Canadian Tire

Stereo Plus

Tribune

Le Loup 97.1 FM - La voix du nord

Foodland

 

The importance and benefits of this study will be to identify potentially profitable retail sector activities. It may also reveal some of the current barriers that existing businesses have been facing when looking at possibilities of diversification and expansion. Once the study is complete, the findings will be shared with the community at large, local business owners, as well as local high schools promoting and informing them of entrepreneurial possibility in West Nipissing. 

West Nipissing Chamber of Commerce
200 Main Street, Unit B
Sturgeon Falls, ON
P2B 1P2
Tel: 705-753-5672 Fax: 705-580-5672
Subscribe to the West Nipissing Chamber of Commerce E-Newsletter
 Like us on Facebook