13 Aug
Information is an organisation’s most valuable resource. However, chances are this valuable knowledge is spread across various email chains, presentations, webinars and agenda notes, and locked in the minds of your employees.
It’s vital for this knowledge to be captured, centralized, and shared in an ever-changing digital world. This allows employees and customers to have quick and easy access to this information.
With the work landscape shifting significantly over the last year and remote work coming to the forefront, organizations need to instill knowledge-sharing principles to ensure continuity and collaboration within the workplace.
7 ways to improve organizational knowledge sharing
1. Change the mindset
Encourage and foster organizational knowledge sharing by modeling behavior from the top. Make knowledge sharing a part of your organization’s core values and get buy-in from senior management.
Removing information silos between teams is another great way to make knowledge sharing easier. By centralizing platforms teams work on, you’ll close a significant gap in sharing knowledge between teams.
Finally, celebrate team members who embody the knowledge-sharing mindset and empower employees to improve productivity and reduce workplace mistakes.
2. Make sharing easy
Many office environments actually make it more difficult to share knowledge among teams and employees. In addition, remote work, which has increased significantly over the last year, presents its own set of challenges.
For those required to do in-office work, create a working environment conducive to knowledge and information sharing. Take steps to open up office spaces to make inter-employee communication easier. Create quiet collaboration spaces for teams to work together without distraction.
Plan regular virtual sharing sessions and events to encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing among all team members, no matter where they are.
Ensure office and remote employees have access to knowledge-sharing platforms, Elium for instance can offer teams a central place for sharing knowledge around numerous topics, regardless of their office location or job role.
3. Encourage multiple forms of sharing
Encouraging knowledge sharing can lead to an increase in employee productivity and workplace satisfaction.
Provide team members with multiple channels and tools, enabling them to share knowledge where they feel comfortable.
Ensure there is a platform for employees to give feedback on any knowledge-sharing initiatives, such as regular check-ins and feedback sessions, to discover potential improvements to the processes.
4. Lead by example
Organizations can further foster knowledge-sharing habits by having senior leadership actively participate in any knowledge-sharing initiatives that are taking place.
By setting an example, senior members of the team can build trust within the organization and on their own team and ensure better sharing and collaboration among employees.
Leaders who communicate transparently and honestly about where they’ve succeeded and where they’ve failed can encourage employees to do the same.
5. Identify subject-matter experts to share their knowledge
A lot of the valuable information used by your organization resides primarily in the minds of your employees. Therefore, implement processes and tools that capture employee learnings and knowledge.
You can use this information to identify subject-matter experts within your organization. Try to find employees with expert knowledge who may not previously have had a platform to share their expertise.
Once identified, ensure these employees understand the significance of their contribution to the organization and provide them with the platform to share their knowledge with their teams and colleagues.
Involving subject-matter experts in the transfer of knowledge inside the company tends to increase their overall engagement with the company. They are given a platform and an audience to make their voice heard.And do not forget about the audience – ensure these subject matter experts share knowledge in a way that is relevant to everyone in the company, not just to small groups.
6. Establish a clear knowledge-sharing process
To ensure the effectiveness of your organization’s knowledge-sharing initiatives, you need to put the right processes in place to make every employee aware of the channels available to them for consuming and sharing knowledge.
A formalized process of knowledge sharing like the Elium Knowledge Cycle also ensures that knowledge and expertise that add real value to the business are not lost and can benefit others within the organization.
7. Use the right tools
The messaging and video conferencing platforms organizations use on a daily basis are great for internal and external communication, but fall somewhat short as knowledge-sharing tools.
Thus, it’s important to implement the right tools to integrate with your current corporate ecosystem to ensure seamless communication, effortless collaboration, and knowledge sharing.
Elium is a tool that’s helping organizations make business-critical information easily accessible and shareable. Elium enables users to effortlessly share relevant business information such as project insights, company procedures, and business updates.
With Elium, users are empowered to locate the information they require at the exact time they need it. As a result, projects will no longer end up being delayed by the needless search for the necessary information.
Finally, the right tools make it easy to organize and catalog shared knowledge to ensure it can benefit employees time and again. Thanks to Elium’s various integrations,you can create links between content and collaborate with team members to enrich content.
Want to experience the difference Elium can make to your organizational knowledge sharing? Sign up for a free 14-day trial today!
