The Great Knowledge Drain: How Companies Can Stop Losing Expertise Across Generations

Companies today are facing a silent crisis – one far more damaging than turnover, recruitment shortages or disengagement: the rapid erosion of institutional knowledge.

As workforces become more distributed, technology evolves at breakneck speed, and generations accumulate vastly different experiences, organisations are losing critical expertise faster than they can replace it. This “great knowledge drain” is already impacting productivity, decision-making and the ability to innovate.

In a recent discussion, Amy Clark – Chief Operating Officer and learning strategist at Panopto – unpacked why this challenge is escalating, and why leaders need to act urgently to build resilient knowledge-sharing systems. The message is clear: knowledge flow will define competitive advantage in the future of work.

Click on the link to play this episode of the podcast!

1. A Perfect Storm: Why Generational Knowledge Is Disappearing Faster Than Ever

Every organisation has always seen natural knowledge transfer as older generations exit and younger ones enter. What’s different today is the scale and the speed.

Clark identifies four forces colliding at once:

1.1 Mass retirement of baby boomers

Millions of highly experienced workers are reaching retirement age each year – taking decades of tacit knowledge, judgement and lived experience with them. This is knowledge that was never written down and often cannot be reconstructed.

1.2 Gen X is next – and they’re overloaded

Gen X leaders run the operations of most organisations. They bridge analogue and digital work and hold an enormous amount of undocumented expertise. But they are also the most time-starved generation, making them the least likely to capture and pass on their knowledge.

1.3 Hybrid work has dissolved organic learning moments

In-office learning once happened through:

Listening to senior colleagues negotiate
Watching how a leader handled a crisis
Observing tough conversations
Picking up subtle cues during collaboration

Hybrid work removes these experiences entirely.

1.4 Younger generations learn differently

Gen Z has grown up with YouTube, AI, short-form content and immediate answers. They want access to information fast – not through long documents, manual hunting or waiting for someone to respond.

The gap between how generations store knowledge and how they seek knowledge has never been wider.

2. The Real Problem: The Pace of Work Has Outrun Traditional Training

Clark argues that the core issue isn’t generational tension – it’s operational velocity.

Businesses now evolve faster than people can traditionally be trained:

Tools change every few months
Projects pivot weekly
New roles appear faster than job descriptions
Entire teams reconfigure multiple times per year

In this environment:

Manuals become outdated immediately
Classrooms aren’t scalable
Shadowing rarely happens
Leaders don’t have time to mentor
Teams rely on fragmented communication channels

The result is a workforce constantly “catching up” rather than confidently performing.

3. Why Video-Based Knowledge Sharing + AI Is Becoming Essential

According to Clark, companies cannot solve this problem with static documentation or occasional training days. They need learning systems that match the speed of change.

The most effective solution?
Video, supported by AI search and indexing.

3.1 People learn best through seeing and hearing

More than 80% of today’s workforce is visual or auditory. Video preserves nuance:

How processes actually unfold
Why decisions are made
The tone used in critical conversations
Context that written documents cannot capture

3.2 AI makes knowledge searchable instantly

Modern platforms can:

Index every spoken word
Auto-chapter content
Generate summaries
Surface answers on demand

This aligns with how Gen Z – and increasingly everyone – expects to learn.

3.3 It scales across teams, generations and geographies

A single recorded walkthrough from an expert can train hundreds of employees now and thousands later.

3.4 It captures “disappearing expertise”

Clark shares the example of a nuclear energy organisation that captured 60 years of engineer knowledge before retirement. The content was tagged, searchable and accessible via QR codes directly on machinery.

This is what future-proofing looks like.

4. Mentorship Isn’t Dead – It’s Just Evolving

Contrary to popular narratives, Gen Z wants mentorship deeply. The issue is access, not attitude.

Hybrid work has made it difficult for younger employees to observe, learn and connect with senior colleagues. Clark stresses that organisations must intentionally design opportunities for:

Cross-generational dialogue
Shadowing (virtual and in-person)
Storytelling
Leadership visibility

When mentorship is structured, expectations are clear and knowledge transfer is intentional, both productivity and engagement rise dramatically.

5. Reverse Mentorship Works – If It’s Done Properly

Reverse mentoring is gaining traction, but Clark cautions against superficial implementation.

Successful models include:

Mapping actual knowledge gaps first
Pairing based on complementary strengths
Setting shared goals
Valuing both perspectives equally

Younger employees bring digital fluency, AI skills, fresh insights and evolving cultural understanding. Older generations bring judgement, context, strategy and institutional history.

This exchange strengthens the entire organisation.