Knowledge retention for retirement and job changes

Make expertise tangible before someone leaves.

EPINOIA captures experience in conversation before a key person leaves the company, so their successors can draw on it whenever they need it.

Case study

You know who is leaving. But rarely what they take with them.

Retirement, a new role or parental leave: key departures are usually known well in advance. Yet between the announcement and the final day, day-to-day operations leave little time to transfer years of hard-won experience. On top of that, departing employees rarely realise just how much tacit knowledge they carry.

13.3 M

people in Germany’s labour force will reach statutory retirement age by 2040. That is around 30 % of today’s labour force.

Source: Federal Statistical Office of Germany, press release N039, 23 June 2026

20 years of experience, passed on in conversation.

01 Starting point

Twenty years of experience don’t fit into a few handover meetings.

Schäffer-Poeschel is a Stuttgart-based publisher specialising in business and management. As product manager, Rudolph S. is responsible for one of its standard reference works and coordinates everything with its many authors and editors, each of whom works in their own way. After around 20 years, he is retiring and Vanessa Wettengl is taking over his responsibilities.

My predecessor and I just can’t go into enough detail in our conversations to capture everything.

Vanessa Wettengl, successor as product manager

EPINOIA was good at spotting where more detail could be useful, and asked follow-up questions right there.

Rudolph S., product manager

02 Solution

Rudolph S. talks, EPINOIA captures.

Rudolph S. shared everything he knew regarding the publication with EPINOIA, on his own schedule.

At first you always think: there isn’t that much to it, the handover will be quick. But as the conversation goes on, you inevitably dig deeper and deeper into the subject and realise there are special cases where you have to watch out for particular points. It brings back experience you’d come to take for granted over the years.

Rudolph S., product manager

03 Result

Vanessa Wettengl asks whenever she needs to.

She is already drawing on his knowledge during the handover. Whenever she tackles a new area, she asks EPINOIA a few questions and keeps moving without missing a beat.

It’s great: I can access EPINOIA whenever I need to and use the information in my daily work. I can get started right away.

Vanessa Wettengl, successor as product manager

Answers to your questions

Questions your compliance, legal and leadership teams might ask.

Who has access to the knowledge?

EPINOIA is a closed system. The knowledge stays within your company and is not used to train external AI models.

Retirement or a job change on the horizon?

Let’s talk

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