Making sense of tacit vs explicit knowledge in workforce planning

Why tacit vs explicit knowledge matters in workforce planning

Why knowledge is more than what is written down

In workforce planning, we talk a lot about headcount, skills, and roles. But underneath all of that sits something harder to see and even harder to manage : knowledge. Some of this knowledge is written in procedures, playbooks, or a knowledge base. That is the explicit knowledge, the type that is easily documented, stored, and searched.

Yet a large part of what keeps your organisation running lives in people’s heads and habits. This is tacit knowledge, sometimes called implicit knowledge. It is the know how that employees build through years of experience, practice, and learning in context. It is not just what they know, but how they apply it in real situations, with real constraints and trade offs.

Workforce planning that only counts roles and skills, without understanding these different types of knowledge, will miss key risks and opportunities. You might think two people with the same job title are interchangeable, while in reality one carries a tacit dimension of expertise that would take years to rebuild if they left.

Defining tacit and explicit knowledge in practical terms

There are many ways to see knowledge types, but for workforce planning you can keep a simple and practical distinction :

• Explicit knowledge : knowledge defined, codified, and written down. Procedures, manuals, checklists, process maps, training materials, system documentation. This is knowledge easily stored, searched, and shared across teams.
• Tacit knowledge : knowledge that is personal, context dependent, and hard to formalise. Judgement, intuition, pattern recognition, the ability to read a situation, to adapt a process when things do not go as planned. This is knowledge tacit in the sense that it is embedded in people’s experience and practice.

Some practitioners also use the term implicit knowledge for things that could be made explicit but have not yet been written down. In reality, explicit tacit and implicit knowledge form a continuum. For workforce planning, the key is not to debate labels, but to understand which type knowledge is critical in each role, and how it is currently managed.

Research in knowledge management has long highlighted that organisations rely on both codified knowledge explicit and the tacit dimension of expertise. Frameworks such as those developed in the 1990s on knowledge creation and conversion showed how teams move between tacit and explicit forms through activities like mentoring, documentation, and collaborative problem solving. This is exactly the space where workforce planning and knowledge management should meet.

Why tacit vs explicit knowledge matters for workforce planning decisions

When you plan your future workforce, you are not just planning numbers. You are planning the flow of knowledge across time, roles, and teams. Understanding the balance of tacit explicit knowledge in your organisation changes how you :

• Assess critical roles : A role that depends heavily on tacit knowledge and subject matter expertise is harder to replace than one based mainly on documented procedures. This affects how you prioritise succession, mobility, and training.
• Estimate ramp up time : If a role is rich in tacit knowledge, new employees will need more time and more structured learning to reach full performance, even if they have the right formal qualifications.
• Plan for automation and technology : Tasks based on explicit knowledge are more easily automated or supported by systems. Tasks grounded in tacit knowledge and context sensitive judgement are less so, and may require different technology strategies.
• Design knowledge sharing practices : Explicit knowledge can be shared through documents and systems. Tacit knowledge requires interaction, observation, and practice, often in teams or communities of experts.

Ignoring these differences leads to blind spots. For example, you might assume that a detailed procedure fully captures how a key process works. In reality, experts on the team may be constantly adapting that procedure to local constraints, customer expectations, or safety concerns. If those experts leave, the written process alone may not be enough to maintain performance.

From skills inventories to knowledge maps

Many organisations now maintain skills inventories or competency models. These are useful, but they often focus on what can be listed and measured, which tends to favour explicit knowledge. To support better workforce planning, you need to complement these tools with a more nuanced understanding of knowledge types.

That means asking questions such as :

• For this role, what part of performance comes from following documented steps, and what part comes from experience based judgement ?
• Which employees are recognised as experts, even if their job title is the same as others ? What tacit knowledge do they hold ?
• Where does the organisation rely on a small number of people for critical tacit knowledge that is not captured anywhere else ?
• How does knowledge sharing actually happen in this team : through documents, through informal conversations, through on the job learning ?

When you start to map knowledge in this way, you see that workforce planning is not only about filling positions. It is about ensuring continuity of both explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge across time. Later parts of your plan can then focus on mapping critical roles, assessing knowledge risk, and designing knowledge transfer mechanisms that fit each type of knowledge.

Linking knowledge to talent, learning, and performance

Another reason tacit vs explicit knowledge matters is the link with talent and performance. High performers often stand out not because they know more facts, but because they use knowledge differently. They read the context better, anticipate issues, and adapt their approach. This is tacit knowledge in action.

When you run talent reviews or talent assessments to identify potential, you are indirectly assessing how people use both explicit and tacit knowledge. Workforce planning that integrates these insights can better anticipate where future experts will come from, and how to support their development through targeted training and on the job learning.

For learning and development teams, the distinction also shapes the design of training. Explicit knowledge can be taught through courses, e learning, and documentation. Tacit knowledge requires practice, feedback, and exposure to real situations. Mentoring, shadowing, and stretch assignments become essential tools to grow the next generation of experts.

Why this matters now for planners and leaders

Several trends make the tacit explicit distinction more important than ever for workforce planning :

• Demographic shifts : As experienced employees retire, organisations risk losing decades of tacit knowledge that was never fully documented.
• Increased complexity : Many roles now operate in complex environments where rules alone are not enough. Context sensitive judgement becomes a key capability.
• Remote and hybrid work : Informal knowledge sharing and on the job learning are harder when teams are not co located. You need more deliberate management knowledge practices.
• Faster change : When processes and tools change quickly, explicit knowledge can become obsolete. Tacit knowledge, such as learning agility and problem solving, becomes a stabilising factor.

For planners and leaders, this means that understanding knowledge types is not an academic exercise. It is a practical lens to make better decisions about where to invest in training, how to design roles, how to structure teams, and how to protect your organisation from knowledge loss.

As you move into mapping critical roles, assessing knowledge risk, and designing hiring, onboarding, and succession, keep this simple idea in mind : every workforce plan is also a plan for how tacit and explicit knowledge will flow through your organisation in the coming years. The more clearly you see those flows, the more resilient and future ready your workforce will be.

Mapping critical roles through a tacit vs explicit knowledge lens

Looking at roles through a knowledge lens

When you map critical roles in workforce planning, you usually start with headcount, skills and responsibilities. That is useful, but incomplete. You also need to understand what types of knowledge sit inside each role, and how much of it is tacit, explicit or implicit.

In practice, that means asking for every key role :

• What knowledge is written down, structured and easily shared as explicit knowledge ?
• What knowledge is tacit knowledge, rooted in experience, intuition and context ?
• What implicit knowledge exists, taken for granted by experts and rarely articulated ?
• How dependent is the team on a few subject matter experts for this knowledge base ?

This is where workforce planning meets knowledge management. You are not only counting employees. You are mapping how knowledge flows, where it is stuck, and where the tacit dimension is so strong that losing one person would create a serious risk.

Start from work, not from job titles

To map critical roles properly, you need to start from the work itself. A structured job and task analysis helps you break a role into activities, decisions and interactions. Once you see the work, you can classify the knowledge types behind it.

For each significant task, ask :

• Is this mainly explicit knowledge ? For example, following a documented procedure, using a checklist, or applying a clear rule.
• Is this mainly tacit knowledge ? For example, reading a client’s reaction, troubleshooting a complex system, or prioritising in a crisis.
• Is there implicit knowledge ? For example, unwritten norms in the team, shortcuts in a process, or “the way we really do things here”.

Management teams often discover that roles they thought were routine actually rely on a lot of tacit explicit combinations. The work looks simple on paper, but in reality it depends on years of learning, pattern recognition and context sensitive judgement.

Using knowledge frameworks without overcomplicating

Academic work on knowledge defined different knowledge types and the tacit explicit distinction. For instance, research on the tacit dimension of knowledge and later work on knowledge creation models (sometimes called SECI models) show how knowledge moves between tacit and explicit forms in organisations.

You do not need to reproduce these models in full. What matters for workforce planning is a practical understanding :

• Tacit knowledge lives in people’s heads and bodies. It is built through experience, practice and socialisation. It is hard to write down and hard to transfer quickly.
• Explicit knowledge is codified. It can be stored in documents, systems, training materials and knowledge bases. It is knowledge easily shared at scale.
• Implicit knowledge sits in between. It could be made explicit, but nobody has done the work yet.

In knowledge management, you often see the phrase explicit tacit or tacit explicit to describe how knowledge moves from one type to another. For workforce planning, the key is to identify which parts of a role can realistically be turned into explicit knowledge, and which parts will always require on the job learning and close contact with experts.

Classifying your critical roles by knowledge type

Once you have this basic understanding, you can classify roles according to their dominant type knowledge. A simple way is to look at the proportion of tacit versus explicit knowledge required for effective performance.

This classification does not need to be perfect. Even a rough map helps management focus on the roles where knowledge tacit is a real constraint for your workforce plan.

Spotting knowledge dependent bottlenecks

Critical roles are not always the most senior ones. They are often the roles where a small number of employees hold a large share of the organisation’s tacit knowledge. These people are the subject matter experts everyone calls when things go wrong.

To identify these bottlenecks, look for roles where :

• New hires need a long time to reach full productivity, even with formal training
• Teams rely heavily on a few experts for decisions or problem solving
• Work quality drops sharply when specific individuals are absent
• Knowledge sharing is informal and person to person, with little documentation

These are signals that the role is rich in tacit dimension and implicit knowledge. In your workforce plan, such roles deserve special attention in later steps on risk assessment, succession and mobility.

Making knowledge visible in role descriptions

Traditional job descriptions focus on tasks, responsibilities and sometimes competencies. To support better workforce planning, you can enrich them with a short knowledge profile. For each critical role, describe :

• The main knowledge types involved (tacit, explicit, implicit)
• Where the knowledge lives today (individual experts, teams, systems, documents)
• How knowledge is currently shared (formal training, mentoring, communities of practice, ad hoc conversations)
• Which parts of the role depend on context and experience rather than rules

This does not need to be long. Even a “2 min read” style summary per role can help leaders and HR see where knowledge management and workforce planning must work together.

From mapping to action in your planning cycle

Once you have mapped critical roles through this tacit explicit lens, you are better prepared for the next steps in your planning cycle. You can :

• Estimate the risk of losing key knowledge when experts retire or leave
• Decide where to invest in documentation and knowledge bases
• Design training and learning paths that reflect the real knowledge types in play
• Plan succession and internal mobility with explicit attention to knowledge transfer

In other words, mapping roles through knowledge is not an academic exercise. It is a practical way to connect workforce planning with knowledge sharing, learning and long term organisational resilience.

Assessing knowledge risk in your workforce plan

From abstract concept to measurable risk

In workforce planning, knowledge risk is the probability that critical tacit or explicit knowledge walks out of the door faster than your organisation can replace or transfer it. It sounds abstract, but you can turn it into something measurable and actionable.

A practical way to start is to treat knowledge as an asset, just like headcount or budget. For each critical role you have already mapped, ask three simple questions :

• What types of knowledge does this role rely on (tacit, explicit, implicit) ?
• How concentrated is that knowledge in a few employees or teams ?
• How replaceable is that knowledge through hiring, training, or documentation ?

This is where the classic distinction between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge becomes operational. Tacit knowledge, with its strong tacit dimension and dependence on context and experience, usually carries higher risk than knowledge easily written down in a knowledge base or procedure.

Building a simple knowledge risk matrix

You do not need a complex knowledge management system to assess risk. A simple matrix that combines knowledge type and vulnerability can already guide decisions.

Use this as a starting point, then refine it with your own context. For instance, explicit knowledge can become high risk if it is critical for regulatory compliance and only one person knows where it is stored or how to interpret it.

Key indicators that your tacit knowledge is at risk

To move from theory to practice, you need observable signals. Below are indicators that tacit explicit knowledge in your organisation may be fragile.

• Single point of failure experts : one subject matter expert is the only person who can solve specific problems, approve key decisions, or interpret complex data.
• Long learning curves : new employees or internal movers need many months of shadowing before they can perform independently, even when explicit knowledge is available.
• High variance in performance : some teams consistently outperform others because of “how we do things here” that is not defined, documented, or shared.
• Upcoming exits : retirement waves, known resignations, or roles with chronic turnover where experience is constantly lost.
• Dependence on informal networks : people say “you need to ask that person” rather than “you can find it here” when looking for answers.

These indicators are not just HR signals. They are early warnings that your knowledge management practices are not keeping up with the way work is actually done.

Scoring knowledge risk across roles and teams

Once you have identified where tacit and explicit knowledge sit, you can build a simple scoring model. The goal is not scientific precision, but a consistent way to compare roles and teams.

A practical approach is to rate each critical role on three dimensions, for example on a 1 to 5 scale :

• Criticality : impact on revenue, safety, compliance, or strategic projects.
• Knowledge concentration : how many employees hold the key knowledge types, and how interchangeable they are.
• Knowledge transfer readiness : existence of explicit knowledge, training, and knowledge sharing routines.

You can then calculate a simple risk score, such as :

Knowledge risk score = Criticality × Concentration ÷ Transfer readiness

This is intentionally simple. It forces a conversation between HR, line managers, and experts about where knowledge is fragile and what can be done. It also connects directly to workforce planning decisions about hiring, internal mobility, and succession.

Linking knowledge risk to workforce scenarios

Knowledge risk only becomes meaningful when you connect it to future scenarios. Workforce planning already looks at demand and supply of roles. You can add a knowledge lens by asking :

• Which future scenarios increase the demand for specific knowledge types (for example, new technology, new markets, regulatory changes) ?
• Where will we need more explicit knowledge, such as standardised processes, and where will we rely more on tacit knowledge and experience based judgement ?
• Which roles combine high knowledge risk with high future demand ? These are your priority interventions.

For instance, when planning for growth in advanced analytics or artificial intelligence related roles, you may find that the market for external experts is tight and that internal tacit knowledge is limited. In that case, your workforce plan should not only focus on headcount, but also on building a pipeline of people who can learn quickly and on creating strong knowledge sharing mechanisms. In some organisations, this has led to dedicated roles that focus on attracting and integrating scarce expertise, similar to how specialised talent recruiters for AI intensive environments operate.

Using evidence, not assumptions, about knowledge flows

Many organisations assume that because they have documentation, they have low knowledge risk. In reality, explicit tacit dynamics are more complex. Research in knowledge management shows that :

• Knowledge defined only as documents underestimates the tacit dimension embedded in practice and social interaction.
• Knowledge sharing depends heavily on trust, psychological safety, and time, not just on tools.
• Teams often rely on implicit knowledge and unspoken norms that are invisible in formal process maps.

To ground your assessment in evidence, combine quantitative and qualitative data :

• Quantitative : turnover rates in key roles, time to proficiency, internal mobility patterns, training completion, usage of knowledge bases.
• Qualitative : interviews with experts, focus groups with teams, after action reviews, observations of how work is actually done.

This mixed approach helps you understand not only what types knowledge exist, but also how they flow between people, teams, and locations. It also reveals where knowledge explicit assets, such as manuals or process maps, are disconnected from the lived experience of employees.

Prioritising interventions based on knowledge risk

Once you have a view of knowledge risk, you can prioritise interventions in a structured way. Typical options include :

• Reduce concentration : cross training, job shadowing, and pairing experts with less experienced employees.
• Strengthen explicit knowledge : update documentation, clarify ownership, and integrate it into daily workflows rather than separate repositories.
• Accelerate learning : targeted training, communities of practice, and structured on the job learning for high risk roles.
• Adjust workforce plans : earlier hiring for roles with long tacit learning curves, or redesign of roles to separate high risk knowledge components.

The important point is that knowledge tacit and explicit knowledge are treated as core inputs to workforce planning, not as an afterthought. When you do this, your plan becomes more resilient, because it anticipates not only how many people you need, but also which type knowledge they must carry, how that knowledge will be developed, and how it will be shared across the organisation.

Min read : this section is designed to be a practical, evidence based guide you can revisit when assessing knowledge risk in your own workforce plan.

Designing hiring and onboarding for tacit and explicit knowledge

Design roles and job descriptions around knowledge, not just tasks

When you design hiring and onboarding for tacit and explicit knowledge, the first step is to rethink how you define roles. Most job descriptions still focus on tasks and tools. For workforce planning, you need to make the types of knowledge just as visible as the activities.

For each key role in your plan, ask three simple questions :

• What explicit knowledge is essential ? For example, documented procedures, standards, regulations, templates, or a structured knowledge base that the employee must use or maintain.
• What tacit knowledge is critical ? This includes pattern recognition, judgment in ambiguous situations, and the ability to read the context in a specific team, client, or market.
• Where does implicit knowledge sit ? Implicit knowledge is what people can express if prompted, but is not yet written down. It often lives in subject matter experts and experienced employees.

Translate these answers into the job description. Instead of only listing “3 years of experience with tool X”, add elements such as :

• “Ability to navigate undocumented exceptions in process Y through collaboration with experts and peers.”
• “Comfort working with incomplete information and making decisions based on experience and team input.”
• “Contribution to knowledge sharing by turning recurring questions into reusable explicit knowledge.”

This makes the tacit dimension of the role visible and helps recruiters and hiring managers screen for the right type of learning and experience, not only for keywords on a CV.

Hire for learning agility and knowledge sharing, not just past experience

In roles with a high share of tacit knowledge, you rarely find candidates who already know everything. What matters is their capacity to learn in context and to contribute to knowledge sharing inside the team.

During selection, move beyond generic questions about “experience” and focus on how candidates have dealt with knowledge in previous roles. For instance, you can explore :

• How they learned complex tasks that were not fully documented. Did they shadow experts, ask questions, experiment, or build their own notes ?
• How they made their own knowledge explicit. Have they written guides, improved documentation, or helped onboard new colleagues ?
• How they behaved in teams where knowledge was unevenly distributed. Did they hoard information or support others through informal coaching and management of shared resources ?

You can also use simple, practical exercises. For example, ask a candidate to explain a complex topic from their current job to a non expert audience. You are not testing the content itself, but their ability to :

• Identify what is tacit and what is explicit in their own knowledge.
• Make implicit knowledge easier to understand.
• Adapt to the listener and the context.

These signals are strong predictors of how they will behave in your organisation’s knowledge management environment, especially in roles where tacit explicit balance is critical.

Structure onboarding around knowledge flows, not just checklists

Onboarding is often treated as a compliance exercise : contracts, tools, mandatory training. For workforce planning, it should be a designed learning journey that reflects the different knowledge types in the role.

A practical way to do this is to split onboarding into three streams :

This structure helps you avoid a common trap : over investing in explicit knowledge (documents, e learning) while assuming tacit knowledge will “just happen”. In reality, tacit knowledge transfer needs deliberate design :

• Assign a knowledge buddy or mentor for each new hire, ideally someone recognised as a subject matter expert in the team.
• Schedule regular context conversations where the expert explains not only what they do, but why they do it that way in this specific environment.
• Include reflection moments where the new employee writes down what they have learned that is not in any manual. This can later feed your knowledge base.

Balance formal training with situated, on the job learning

Formal training is effective for explicit knowledge. It is less effective for tacit knowledge, which is deeply tied to experience and context. Workforce planning should therefore combine both :

• For explicit knowledge : use structured training, micro learning, and searchable repositories. This is where knowledge is easily codified and reused.
• For tacit knowledge : rely on practice, observation, and feedback. Job rotations, stretch assignments, and participation in complex projects are powerful tools.

One useful approach from knowledge management research is to think in terms of socialisation and externalisationSocialisation focuses on tacit to tacit transfer, through shared experience. Externalisation focuses on turning tacit into explicit, for example by capturing lessons learned after a project.

In practical terms, you can :

• Include shadowing periods in the first months for roles with high tacit content.
• Use after action reviews where teams discuss what worked, what failed, and what should be documented.
• Encourage new employees to contribute to the knowledge base by writing short, practical notes on recent tasks, using simple templates.

This combination respects the nature of each knowledge type while building a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing.

Make knowledge expectations explicit from day one

Finally, hiring and onboarding should clearly state that knowledge sharing is part of the job, not an optional extra. If you want employees to contribute to management knowledge and support future workforce plans, they need to understand this early.

Some concrete practices :

• Include a short section in the offer letter or welcome pack that explains how the organisation defines knowledge types (tacit, explicit, implicit) and why they matter.
• During onboarding, show an example of good knowledge explicit behaviour : a well written guide, a simple checklist, or a decision log.
• Set expectations that each person will both consume and produce knowledge, appropriate to their level of experience.
• Align performance conversations with these expectations, so that knowledge tacit and explicit contributions are recognised.

When new hires see that knowledge defined in this way is valued, they are more likely to engage in knowledge sharing, support their teams, and grow into future experts. Over time, this reduces knowledge risk and makes your workforce plan more resilient, because you are not only filling positions, you are actively managing the flow of knowledge across roles and teams.

Building knowledge transfer into succession and mobility plans

Turn succession planning into a knowledge transfer system

Succession planning often focuses on names in boxes. Who replaces whom. In workforce planning, that is not enough. You need a deliberate system that moves tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge and the more subtle implicit knowledge from current experts to future ones.

In practice, that means treating every critical role as a bundle of knowledge types, not just a job title. When you map successors, you also map which type of knowledge they already have and which type they still need to learn in context.

A simple way to start is to ask for each key role :

• What knowledge is already documented and easily shared as explicit knowledge ?
• What tacit knowledge lives mainly in the heads of a few experts ?
• What implicit knowledge shows up as habits, shortcuts or unwritten rules in the team ?

This gives you a basic knowledge base for succession. It also shows where your knowledge management practices are strong and where you rely too much on individual experience.

Make tacit knowledge visible in mobility decisions

Internal mobility is often driven by performance ratings and generic skills. From a knowledge management perspective, that is only half of the picture. You also need to understand the tacit dimension of each move.

When you move an employee out of a role, you are not just moving a person. You are moving a specific mix of tacit explicit knowledge, routines and relationships. If you do not plan for that, you create hidden knowledge risk.

Before approving a move from a critical role, ask three questions :

• Which subject matter knowledge will be lost from this team if this person leaves ?
• Which parts of that knowledge are already explicit and which are still tacit knowledge ?
• What is the concrete plan to transfer the tacit type knowledge before the move happens ?

This is where workforce planning and knowledge sharing meet. You are not blocking mobility. You are sequencing it so that learning and transfer can happen first.

Design structured handovers that go beyond documents

Most handovers focus on explicit tacit checklists, files and procedures. These are necessary, but they only cover one type of knowledge. To capture the tacit dimension, you need structured conversations and shared experience, not just documents.

A practical handover plan for a key role can include :

• Shadowing and reverse shadowing : the successor observes the expert in real situations, then the expert observes the successor and gives feedback.
• Context sessions : short meetings where the expert explains why certain decisions were made, not only what was done. This helps transfer implicit knowledge and understanding of context.
• Failure reviews : discussions of past mistakes and near misses. These are powerful for learning because they reveal the limits of explicit knowledge and show how experience shapes judgment.
• Stakeholder mapping : the expert walks the successor through key relationships, unwritten expectations and informal networks in the team.

These practices turn handover from a one time event into a learning process. They also make it easier to define knowledge types in a more concrete way for your workforce plan.

Use mentoring and communities as ongoing knowledge channels

Succession and mobility are not only about one to one replacements. They are also about building a broader management knowledge system where employees can grow into future roles over time.

Two mechanisms are especially useful :

• Mentoring and buddy systems : pair potential successors with current experts well before a transition. This allows tacit knowledge to flow gradually through regular conversations, joint problem solving and shared projects.
• Communities of practice : bring together people who share a subject matter focus across teams. These communities support knowledge sharing, peer learning and the creation of new explicit knowledge from collective experience.

In both cases, the goal is to turn individual experience into shared understanding. Over time, this reduces dependence on single experts and makes knowledge more easily available to the organisation.

Embed knowledge criteria into talent reviews

Talent reviews usually look at performance and potential. To align them with workforce planning, you can add a third lens : contribution to knowledge management.

For each key role and each potential successor, you can assess :

• How well they document and update explicit knowledge for their area.
• How actively they share tacit knowledge with others through coaching, training or informal support.
• How they help turn implicit knowledge into clearer practices that the team can use.

This does two things. It rewards employees who support knowledge sharing, and it signals that knowledge defined and managed well is part of what it means to be ready for bigger roles.

Measure and monitor knowledge health in critical roles

Finally, treat knowledge as something you can monitor over time, not just at the moment of succession. In your workforce plan, you can define simple indicators for knowledge health in each critical role or team.

Examples of practical indicators include :

• Number of people who can perform a key task to the required standard.
• Existence and quality of up to date documentation for core processes.
• Evidence of recent training, learning activities or on the job coaching related to the role.
• Time it would take for a new person to reach full effectiveness in the role, based on recent experience.

These indicators do not need to be perfect. They just need to be consistent enough to show trends. When you see a role where knowledge is concentrated in one expert, where explicit knowledge is thin and where learning paths are unclear, you know you have a knowledge risk that should feed directly into your workforce planning decisions.

5 min read

Using technology without neglecting human knowledge flows

Choosing tools that respect how people really learn

Technology can make knowledge more visible and easier to access. But in workforce planning, it only works if you respect how tacit and explicit knowledge actually move between people and teams.

Most digital tools are built for explicit knowledge. They store documents, procedures, templates, and data. This is useful, but it is only one type of knowledge. The tacit dimension, rooted in experience, context, and judgement, is harder to capture. If you design your knowledge management approach around tools alone, you risk losing exactly the kind of implicit knowledge your experts rely on every day.

A practical way to think about it in workforce planning is to ask for each critical role you have mapped :

• What knowledge can be made explicit easily and stored in a knowledge base ?
• What tacit knowledge depends on context, relationships, and practice ?
• Which tools support each type of knowledge without pretending they are the same ?

This simple reflection helps you avoid the trap of treating all knowledge types as if they were just documents waiting to be uploaded.

Structuring your knowledge base around knowledge types

Many organisations already have some form of knowledge base. In workforce planning, the question is not only do we have one, but is it structured in a way that reflects tacit and explicit knowledge ?

For explicit knowledge, you can usually rely on standard knowledge management practices :

• Clear categories by role, process, and subject matter
• Version control for procedures and work instructions
• Searchable tags that reflect how employees actually talk about their work
• Short, task focused guides rather than long manuals no one reads

For tacit knowledge, the structure needs to be different. You cannot fully convert tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, but you can make it more accessible. For example :

• “Lessons learned” sections linked to specific projects or assets
• Short case examples that show how experts made decisions in real situations
• Context notes that explain why a procedure exists, not just what it says
• Links from documents to people, so employees know who to contact for deeper understanding

This mix of explicit tacit elements helps your teams see that knowledge is not only what is written, but also who knows what, and in which context it applies.

Designing digital workflows that support knowledge sharing

In workforce planning, you are not only interested in what knowledge exists, but in how it flows through teams over time. Technology can either block or enable these flows.

When you design digital workflows, ask how each step supports knowledge sharing between employees, not just task completion. For example :

• Code reviews, work order reviews, or peer checks built into systems, so experts naturally comment and explain their decisions
• Mandatory “reason fields” when people override a standard rule, capturing the implicit knowledge behind exceptions
• Structured handover templates in project tools that prompt for both explicit information and tacit insights (risks, informal agreements, unwritten constraints)
• Spaces for teams to document “what surprised us” after major incidents or projects

These small design choices help transform everyday work into continuous learning, without asking people to do extra work outside their normal tools.

Connecting experts, not just storing documents

Workforce planning often highlights a small number of experts who hold critical tacit knowledge. Technology should make it easier to find and connect with them, not hide them behind systems.

Useful practices include :

• Expert directories linked to the knowledge base, showing who has deep experience in specific topics
• Communities of practice hosted on collaboration platforms, where teams can ask questions and share examples
• Q and A features where answers are stored and searchable, turning informal conversations into reusable knowledge
• Virtual office hours or clinics where experts meet with less experienced employees, supported by simple scheduling tools

This approach recognises that some types of knowledge are best transferred through conversation, observation, and joint problem solving. The tools simply make these interactions easier to organise and easier to reuse.

Embedding knowledge into learning and training systems

When you design hiring, onboarding, and mobility in your workforce plan, your learning systems become a key part of knowledge management. Technology can help you align training with the tacit explicit balance of each role.

For explicit knowledge, learning platforms work well for :

• Standard operating procedures and compliance content
• Checklists, templates, and step by step guides
• Short modules that employees can revisit when needed

For tacit knowledge, you need more experiential formats, even if they are supported by digital tools :

• Scenario based learning where employees must make decisions in realistic contexts
• Recorded walkthroughs where experts explain not only what they do, but why
• Assignments that require learners to apply knowledge in their own team and reflect on the outcome
• Mentoring and shadowing programmes tracked in your HR systems, so they are visible in your workforce plan

By aligning your learning technology with the different knowledge types, you avoid the illusion that uploading more content will automatically build expertise.

Measuring knowledge health, not just system usage

From a workforce planning perspective, the goal is not to have a busy platform, but a resilient knowledge system. That means you need indicators that go beyond logins and page views.

Useful signals include :

• How many critical roles have at least two employees with access to the same key knowledge
• Time to competence for new hires in roles with high tacit knowledge
• Number of documented examples or lessons learned for high risk processes
• Participation in communities of practice and peer learning activities
• Feedback from teams on whether they can find the knowledge they need in context

These indicators help you see whether your mix of tools, processes, and human interactions is actually reducing knowledge risk, or just creating more digital noise.

Keeping human judgement at the centre

Finally, workforce planning that takes knowledge seriously must keep human judgement at the centre. Technology can support knowledge sharing, but it cannot replace the experience based decisions that define many critical roles.

When you introduce new tools, ask explicitly how they will :

• Support experts in making better decisions, rather than forcing them into rigid templates
• Preserve space for discussion, challenge, and reflection within teams
• Make implicit knowledge more visible without oversimplifying it
• Help you identify where human expertise is still the main safeguard in your operations

This mindset keeps your technology strategy aligned with the reality of tacit and explicit knowledge in your organisation. It also makes your workforce plan more robust, because it recognises that knowledge is not only something you store, but something your people continuously create, adapt, and share.