“Knowledge management is a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise’s information assets” – Gartner
Knowledge management (KM) is becoming an essential component of organizational improvement. In this complex business environment, process improvements and employee skill sets are very important to succeed.
Practicing Knowledge Management in a well-structured manner will foster an environment of thought-leadership and knowledge sharing in the organization as well with the external parties.
It helps in the easy management, retrieval and implementation of the knowledge the organization and its employees have acquired over the years. It helps in saving a lot of hidden costs for the organization by not duplicating their efforts.
Let’s look at a few of the best practices to be followed by organizations to ensure their knowledge base is kept active always and promote innovation and growth.
Digital Workplace Setup
Transform your workplace into an environment that is conducive for collaboration and knowledge sharing. A workplace that caters to the mobile and dynamic environment is the need of the hour.
Today, employees collaborate with their teams from multiple locations. Hence, a team management system that connects with all the employees and acts as a knowledge center is a pre-requisite for business sustainability.
Employee Retention
The generation shift and employee requirements are changing drastically. Organizations must adapt the latest technologies and infrastructure to retain their best talents. Ensuring a central hub for easy information access, sharing resources, building social communications between employees across departments is a must-have.
It fosters an environment of knowledge sharing and innovation. It also enhances employee retention and increases productivity.
Build a Knowledge ecosystem
Build a knowledge repository by identifying and discovering existing and hidden sources of information. The information sources are to be categorized into various segments such as business documents, marketing collaterals, employee records, financial information, tools/practices, research observations, publications, media & press, etc.
The knowledge ecosystem enables easy sharing of information among the teams. It also helps in reducing operational wastage and duplication of work.
Organizational Culture
The organizational culture plays a vital role in implementing knowledge management. The company has to be flexible enough to accommodate employee contributions. The individual contributions of the employees must be appreciated and promoted by the organization.
To successfully implement knowledge management and practice knowledge sharing, the organization must transform itself into an employee friendly company.
Knowledge Management Process
Knowledge management should have clear goals and has to be started in pilot phases (test phases) with continuous improvements. The knowledge management process must be optimized for easy retrieval of information for the user upon request.
The system architecture must be such a way that it provides accurate information in an appropriate manner. For that, the process must be charted out with the complete involvement of the employees and specific teams. Knowledge management implementation must begin in a small team with realistic standards.
For example, developing a searchable central repository for the marketing team of an organization is very helpful in running multiple campaigns successfully. Using proper nomenclatures, the team could identify marketing assets required to run respective campaigns. It enhances overall productivity and reduces cost.
Knowledge Management Technology
Knowledge Management implementation is not one time. The database or knowledge center must be constantly updated. A though check on data protection, erroneous information, removal of obsolete content, etc. on the front end is required.
Also, then comes the backend infrastructure that is the servers, software program development is equally important for successful knowledge management.
More than using the latest technology, for knowledge management it is the employee contribution that will help in the successful implementation. The timely updating of the knowledge center with relevant information completely rests with the employees of the organization. Be it any technology is in use; the efficiency of knowledge management system lies with the employees of the organization.
Knowledge Management if implemented effectively helps organizations save a lot of time and effort. It helps employees in faster decision making, collaboration
It helps to transform your organization into a digitally first company with enhanced employee confidence and business productivity.
To know more on transforming your organization into a knowledge first brand and enhance your business productivity, feel free to reach out to our KM experts today itself!
Contact: Aurioninternational
