Does your company need a knowmad?

Talent is not cheap and, furthermore, it is worth its price in gold.

 The term knowmad or knowledge nomad was created in 2011 by John Moravec to describe a new type of worker that had emerged at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

In 2015, Raquel Roca would talk about the knowmads in his book «Knowmads. "The workers of the future." Us, for a change, we get ahead and we have had several on staff for years.

But what is a knowmad?

A knowmad or knowledge nomad It is that profile capable of daring to know about many topics, that has the motivation to always learn and improve and that adapts to any new circumstance with the joy of someone who knows they are going to live a new adventure.

Are you wondering if the saying "he who covers a lot, takes little" applies here? We already told you that it is not applicable, no.

Polymaths have existed all our lives, such as Pythagoras (596 BC), Averroes (1126), Da Vinci (1452) or Lamarr (1914) and, currently, we have perfected that profile to be more efficient. Polymaths knew a lot about almost everything and dedicated their entire lives to study. They could not, therefore, participate in companies, businesses or projects. They didn't have time. We need a "light" version with the following features:

1. It has a great creativity.
2. They have a tendency to share their ideas and they like to grow with other people and professionals.
3. They are passionate about many things and they like to learn, discover and delve deeper into everything they do.
4. They tend to become obsessed with certain topics, but these may not seem to be related a priori.. Mathematics, engineering, art, literature... The knowmad does find the relationship between these subjects and is willing to explain it to you.
5. There is no knowmad that does not control new technologies.
6. It is always up to date. Of course, it has the most in-demand skills in the new normal.

The use of knowmads In certain sectors it is becoming widespread and has many points of similarity with the intrapreneur profile.Since both are highly specialized, it is difficult to recruit and retain them and both profiles are essential for a company to survive in the highly competitive climate in which we find ourselves. However, there are certain differences between both profiles, such as:

1. An intrapreneur can and should develop a professional career within an organization, while the knowmad You can develop it independently, jumping from project to project or company to company.
2. She knowmad progresses by generating inter-company, sectoral and personal collaboration networks while the intrapreneur does not have to have a strong networking network beyond that of his or her organization and the contexts that provide information but not business.
3. She knowmad lacks fear of failure, while the intrapreneur prefers to have a certain security and stability, although he/she also wants to move up the professional ladder.

Due to the above, many companies have a knowmad at specific times, since:

1. Incorporates specialized knowledge: The development of lines of innovation in many cases requires the company to acquire new knowledge. This is expensive, slow and has the possibility of failure if the knowledge is complex. Therefore, capturing a talent “that already comes with the lesson learned from home” is an advantage. With the temporary incorporation of an expert we can accelerate the learning processes of the organization and carry out a transfer of knowledge if this profile also has pedagogical and teaching capabilities.
2. Reduce production times: Without taking the lead in the project, he does play the role of “midfielder” who moves the “ball” so that the game does not stop, since his knowledge is not only theoretical and practical, it is also integrated into already consolidated forces playing a role of facilitator of transformative projects that prevents them from losing rhythm.
3. High adaptation and group work capabilities: The normal learning and adaptation curve to internal procedures is almost zero in these profiles. It will be measured in days and hours instead of weeks or months. This ability to Resilience is vital so that the investment and cost involved in these “mercenaries of knowledge” can be amortized.

Selecting a profile of this type is a very common practice in software development companies and platforms for third parties, where the client requests a specific development with a new or foreign programming language with short production times. In this case, networking and continuous monitoring of this type of profiles on professional and sectoral social networks becomes a fundamental tool.

Nowadays, it is common for knowmads to be self-employed, away from the hustle and bustle of the cities or practicing hybrid work (already before the pandemic).

However, it is possible to reach out to them, attract them and retain them if you know how to offer them a changing (and exciting) environment, a collaborative environment and give them freedom of schedule and workspace.

If you find them, try to get them to stay in your company. And, to do this, you have to provide them with what they like most: Knowledge.

And, as always, at Grupo Mainjobs we can help you. Give your knowmads what they like. Find your solution in our online training catalog: