The value of institutional knowledge is that it's already in someone's head. Reading documentation, searching a wiki, email archives, may be better than reinven

The value of institutional knowledge is that it's already in someone's head. Reading documentation, searching a wiki, email archives, may be better than reinventing the wheel but the real way preserve it is retention. I would invest in that if your are in a complicated or specialized domain where it takes months or years for someone to really get their mind around it. One thing I have noticed is that private work environments tend to be present at the low turnover environments I've seen. At least a cubicle. Another option is extending low hour contracts to departing employees as sort of an off-ramp to their role. They are on a few hours a week or as-needed to handle the dwindling number of cases where they are most needed.