Kennisdeling tussen IT'ers, hoe doe je dat?

Knowledge sharing between IT professionals, how to do that?

Working in the IT world as an HR manager - that involves a lot of challenges. As an HR manager, the following aspects are essential: reflection, listening, connecting and asking questions. How do you approach this in the world of IT? I'd like to give you a few handy tips!

Stimulating real craftsmanship

It's great when people's interests come together at work. If you can connect that, you get enthusiasm. An example: a colleague at TRIMM likes to solder and experiment with electronics in his spare time. He is now using this knowledge to develop a LoRaWAN application for a customer, with great success! Absolutely great, truly digital craftsmanship. 

Facilitate coaching, without forcing it

One of the most important things is to facilitate situations in which young people are linked to seniors in order to improve in their profession. You often see HR professionals or management forcing all kinds of HR matters. This is something nobody wants. At TRIMM we are getting better and better at having professionals shape their own craftsmanship, which creates a lot of energy.

Create a talent pool

Knowledge sharing begins at school first. When you start working, you have to watch the art of experienced professionals. We also create this situation at TRIMM: our talent pool PiT. As my colleague Joeri so nicely explains: "PIT is our way of contributing to talent development in the Twente region". The art for experienced colleagues is to do this in a constructive way.

Organize knowledge lunches, meet-ups and conversations

Help people to organize a meet-up, knowledge lunch or to prepare an interview. More than a year ago, a colleague had some questions about how we are organized internally. I encouraged him to organize a meeting with colleagues about this. It resulted in a high turnout, but also in uncertainty for my colleague. He did not expect such a large turnout and wondered how he could shape this in more detail. In collaboration with him, I looked at what we thought would be the best interpretation, which ultimately resulted in a lot of enthusiasm and a good conversation with colleagues.

Quite cliché, but give a good example

With saying yes and doing no, you won't score any points. I share knowledge because I like it and of course I like to get responses to it. It suits me and that doesn't mean that other people should do the same. Above all, you should not oblige people to write or present. That causes frustration. Do it in a different way and give an informal example. For example, a blogging workshop has been offered at TRIMM. Great initiative of a colleague. This allows colleagues to gain knowledge about how to write a blog. This may help with reflection or knowledge sharing in the field in question.

Gain inspiration to learn!

I personally am interested in work from the past, work of today and work of the future. I try to gain different experiences to learn. That is also the reason why I travel a lot. These experiences take me to different places and can help me with interventions I later do. A while ago there was an employee who benefited tremendously from a meditation training. I think this is a good example of what works for her. I am confident that when I offer such a training to everyone, many people are not interested or skip it.  In this case, someone takes the initiative and it works for her. Then we, as an employer, will also benefit from this.

Start a good collaboration with marketing

As long as I am in the business I always work closely with colleagues in marketing and communication. Themes such as labour market communication, employer branding and recruitment and selection that have a lot of overlap. We have a right to be a part of the company, from that point of view you have to work together continuously. At TRIMM we do this, for example, by sharing employee experiences on werkenbijtrimm.nl.

And when things don't work out so well...

There may be situations where people don't see how to tackle a certain challenge. The trick is to activate, to press the so-called green button and then let someone learn and develop in a flow. I do not believe in a generalist approach, you look at individuals or teams. The most important question is: what do you influence and how can you influence the situation?  Change cannot be managed.