A mid-sized organization relied heavily on the corporate memory, skills and experience of a longtime employee. In her final position, she was responsible for office administration including payroll, budget monitoring and the organization's major annual fundraising event. Over the course of her employment she held a variety of positions and had a very good understanding of the organization's operations and history.

Her unexpected death was both an emotional blow and a wake up call to her colleagues. Everything she had known about the organization was "in her head." While discussions had occurred regularly concerning the need to document this information and to pass this knowledge on to others - this had never happened. The organization was able to regroup and survive the transition but the employees experienced high levels of stress as they struggled to determine what needed to happen when. A great deal of time and effort was spent recreating systems and processes and even then, some things fell through the cracks resulting in the need to rebuild relationships with supporters.

You are the HR director of the organization mentioned in the example. What steps should you take to ensure that a problem like this does not occur again in the future?

Would different steps need to be taken if this were an executive-level employee? Explain.