How to Make Your Knowledge Management Mission Successful?

Businesses need to think beyond how to store the wealth of knowledge passed around within their workplace. They must also focus on how to use this knowledge to improve their operations and boost business growth. To do that, they must invest in the right tools and knowledge management strategies to get the most out of it.

Thankfully, the rise of digital transformation means businesses can easily store their documents and processes for their knowledge management. In fact, a study by Deloitte shows that 82% of businesses have no problems in collecting, storing, and maintaining the information within their systems. However, most of them fail to develop and share this knowledge with the rest of their employees and tie it to specific actions.

With that, here are some tips on making your implementation of knowledge management effective and successful.

Provide a single source of truth

Knowledge within the workplace can change over time. If left unmanaged, you may end up having several versions of best practices, standard procedures, and policies within your organization. Worse, your employees might end up dealing with different sources of knowledge. This can result in miscommunications and incoordination.

This is an especially pressing issue when shifting to remote work. A recent study shows that 25%-30% of the workforce will be working from home in the coming years. Companies should be able to provide all the information and processes your remote workers need to remain productive and efficient.

Hence, you must ensure that you provide a single source of truth for your employees. Your knowledge management must be confined within a single accessible platform for everyone within your organization. This way, all your employees can access identical versions of information for work.

Make information searchable

Company knowledge grows alongside your business. As time passes, your business knowledge, documents, and processes can pile up, making it harder for employees to find specific pieces of information. This happens when you dump all information into the database without organizing it.

One of the benefits of knowledge management is making information trackable and searchable. When creating your own strategies, you should also focus on creating a uniform and convenient system for retrieving information from your knowledge management database.

One way to do that is to leverage a search function within your knowledge management platform. This way, your employees can just type the right keywords to find the information they are looking for. You can also create a Frequently-Asked-Questions (FAQ) page to help your employees save time from searching.

Encourage collaboration and sharing

Hoarding knowledge is one thing, but not sharing them is another. Otherwise, what’s the point of keeping all this information if your employees cannot use them for work? Hence, you should encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing within the workplace so everyone can benefit from your knowledge management.

Consider turning your knowledge management into an organization-wide effort rather than limiting contribution. Anyone within the organization can share their best practices and expertise with the rest of their colleagues. Even better if you can encourage your employees to exchange ideas and give suggestions on improving such information.

You can do this by managing user authorization within the organization. You can dictate what your employees can and cannot do within a database, such as editing, uploading, and sharing documents. Another way to foster collaboration is to allow communication among peers to expand your knowledge base.

Take advantage of automation

Manually managing your knowledge database can get tedious and repetitive in the long run. Worse, your employees might not even have the time to update information within the database on top of their other responsibilities and tasks. As a result, your knowledge management becomes more of a burden rather than a tool for your employees.

Hence, you need to choose the best knowledge management software solution. What you would want is software with automated functions. For example, select a software that can automatically update the file within the database after each edit you make. This way, you won’t have to upload a new version of the file every time you change its content. Another automated function would be sorting and filtering information within your knowledge management platform so that you or your employees won’t have to arrange them yourself.

Integrate with everyday tools

Don’t let your knowledge rot untouched within your database. Make full use of it by integrating your knowledge management software with your other business applications and programs. For example, you can connect your knowledge management software to your helpdesk to better assist your employees with their troubles.

Besides your employees, you can also use your knowledge management to provide better customer service. One way to do this is to integrate your knowledge management software into your customer onboarding programs, marketing software, and customer service centers. 

By integrating your knowledge management to the rest of your digital system, you ensure that your employees and customers can easily access the information they are looking for. This can increase your employees’ productivity in the process.

Leverage data and analytics

Your knowledge management system can be a landmine for various business data. Through it, you can gain insights into your employees, their performance, behaviors, and skills. You can use it to identify the various gaps in the skills and knowledge within your workforce.

You can also use it to evaluate the impacts and importance of knowledge management strategy within your company. It can show you which part of your strategy yields the best results and which ones need improvements. By leveraging data and analytics, you can improve your knowledge management to make it even more effective.

Personalize experiences

There is no one way of learning. Everyone has their own needs and demands when it comes to effectively honing their skills and knowledge. What might work for one might not work with another. So if you want your knowledge management to be effective, you must ensure that it can accommodate the different needs of your employees.

Consider personalizing experiences with your knowledge management. You can do this by providing several options on how they can access information within the database. For example, you can provide an interactive platform where employees can personally share insights and ideas with their colleagues. On the other hand, you can also create a self-service portal for your employees who would rather work alone.

By personalizing experiences, you make sure that nobody in your organization gets left behind.

Knowledge is power

Knowledge management isn’t just beneficial for businesses. Schools and their students can also take advantage of its benefits. By optimizing knowledge management, they can facilitate better learning beyond the four walls of the classroom. Businesses, too, should consider investing in better knowledge management tools and strategies. Doing so will allow you to make the most out of all the information and processes that your employees are able to create and improve along the way. So go ahead and knowledge management has to offer to your business. Check out PHPKB to find out more about the benefits of a great knowledge management software.