Knowledge-Sharing Best Practices
Knowledge sharing is a culture of exchanging knowledge among colleagues in one and the same company. This process is not always paid enough attention to, but that is a huge mistake. Employees come and leave; they all have some experience that is worth sharing. If it is not documented, it gets lost. Not sharing knowledge and experiences is a pricy thing. So, what are the knowledge-sharing best practices?
Make Knowledge Sharing a Priority
Many employees do not share knowledge as they think it is not a part of their duties. They don’t want to lose time and pay more attention to their daily routine. It means that they have no knowledge-sharing culture. The best thing here is to make knowledge sharing one of their regular tasks. Show them that these tasks have a priority. They will see that this part of their work is important as well. This is the way they can contribute to the development of the company.
Encourage Knowledge Sharing
There are different ways of encouraging you can apply, and money is not always the thing that works best. Public recognition and praise play an important role here. For example, a social media post telling about the new articles in the knowledge base and their authors can become a great incentive.
Improve Communication Among Employees
Knowledge sharing becomes easier if the relations between employees are friendly. To support relations like that, you are to organize a special place in the office where they can discuss working issues and further development in a relaxed atmosphere. In the case of remote teams, you can use video conferencing tools to support communication. Besides, internal forums or chats help employees share ideas and get to know each other better.
Choose a Knowledge Sharing Platform
There is a wide variety of knowledge-sharing platforms; each offers special features to make this process smoother and more convenient. The platform should be intuitive, accessible, and easy to use. Make sure it supports collaboration and offers users clear navigation. It is vital to be able to find what you need in seconds. Make sure the articles can be easily updated as things change very often. Needless to say that your workflow can change several times a year. It would be great if you could create password-protected documentation in case it contains sensitive information. ClickHelp is one of the tools that offers powerful features for knowledge management.
Show How to Share Knowledge
To contribute to the knowledge-sharing process, document it to show employees how it should be done. Very often, they are not eager to share what they know as they don’t know how to do it correctly. You can describe who is responsible for writing articles, how often they should be written, how often they should be updated, etc.
Knowledge sharing is a crucial process that is vital for development. When employees have access to new knowledge, their work becomes more productive. The above-mentioned steps will help you create a knowledge-sharing culture in your company.
