This post is one in a series that answers questions from viewers of the January 28 KnowledgeVision Google Hangout where we talked about the challenges of working with SMEs.

Question from Denise:

Other than the great feeling of “I’ve helped my company out…” are there standard incentives you suggest to offer a SME who you are taking away from their job – where they may be losing money?

We received several questions about incentivizing SMEs, so I thought the topic deserved more attention.

It’s hard to pull people away from jobs where they are paid for performance to do something that doesn’t overtly result in monetary rewards. Recently, one client pulled district sales managers away from their sales duties to help with training, and they got a lot of resistance to participate for that reason.

We kicked around offering a bonus for being part of the program and giving them some kind of recognition, certificate or award. Another option is to require training as part of the job responsibilities that will be reflected in their reviews and job performance. In the case of the above-mentioned situation, there was resistance and part of the program had to be severely cut back due to a lack of participation.

In the book Working with SMEs I talk a little about resistance  from people who, for any number of reasons, don’t want to take time out of their regular responsibilities to be a subject matter expert for your training program. One of the recommendations is to fall back on “you are helping the company out” and remind them that their coworkers and colleagues who are trained on these materials are going to be working with them.

It is a tough issue because you need to incent people somehow. If you require an employee to participate in developing or delivering training, you have to make it worth their while. If you require it and they perceive that they are losing money, or losing time on a pet project by being involved as a SME in your training program, you may encounter some attitude and pushback. It isn’t fun for you, and quite honestly, you are probably not getting everything you need from your SME, either.

I am interested in hearing more ideas from people who have successfully negotiated this problem.