Your knowledge platform is as good as the quality of your content

Use Elium’s NEW Approval Feature, and ensure key information is approved before it is visible to everyone.

Elium is packed with features that help you and your team make sure that shared knowledge is always relevant, up to date and trustworthy. This month, we are bringing to Elium the Approval functionality, supporting content creators, space coordinators and platform administrators alike, to ensure that before a piece of content is published and made visible to everyone, it has been verified.

Let’s discover how it works.

What is this new functionality?

The Content Approval feature is here to help you pre-validate any piece of information before it is published on the platform.

In a nutshell:

• It allows contributors to request approval for their content before it is published.
• And it enables approvers to request corrections and communicate with contributors before the content is approved.

As a result of this, your teams can be reassured that every piece of content made public is accurate, up to date, trustworthy and ready to be used.

Who is it for?

This Content Approval is designed for teams using Elium that have multiple contributors and ensure a simple and effective quality control of content published. This feature is equally useful for administrators, space coordinators, content creators and content readers. Let’s see how it works for each of these groups:

• Space Administrators and Space Coordinators have higher levels of permissions and therefore can publish content without asking for approval. However, this new feature is concerning them greatly as it enables them to keep a certain control over the quality of content being published on the platform. Before a new piece of information is made public, they are notified and asked to verify it. They can approve it or ask for changes. Like this, no piece of content goes unchecked.
• Content Creators are of great help to your knowledge platform. They help you populate it with key knowledge and that enriches the value that readers get. But keeping content accurate and trustworthy can be tricky. And this is extremely challenging, in particular for high-importance content. This new feature adds a simple, yet effective layer of control. Content creators can cross-check with if what they share is accurate, or if it requires changes.
• Subject-matter experts are also concerned by this new feature. Imagine you have in your organisation a Recruitment Leader, but there are several content creators publishing updates about Recruitment in your organisation. This subject-matter expert might want to ensure that every piece of content published related to recruitment is checked before going live. In this case, they can act as the approvers of this content.
• Readers reap the benefits of this new feature. They are not requested to take any action, but are directly impacted. All content that has been published through a Content Approval flow is to be trusted, therefore readily usable. Readers can rest assured – the knowledge that they are digesting has been validated and is ready to be used at all times.

Please note: Checking content can be done with a Space Administrator or Space Coordinator if this content is to be published in a space for which content approval is mandatory. Equally, checking content can be requested to a specific individual inside your organisation, for example the Recruitment Leader for Recruitment related topics.

What are some knowledge management challenges this new feature solves?

The Content Approval feature is essential to maintain the quality and consistency of your platform’s knowledge. It helps prevent errors, inconsistencies, and inappropriate content from being published.
It solves several challenges for you and your team:

• Firstly, it ensures that your teams only publish knowledge that is trustworthy and validated. This eliminates the risk of sharing outdated or irrelevant information and increases your team’s trust and engagement with the platform.
• Secondly, it guarantees that knowledge stays relevant over time, as Content Approval can also be used for updating content, not only for publishing it.
• Thirdly, it removes the need for people in your team to perform these tasks entirely manually. In some companies, the Knowledge Manager has to set time aside and manually check knowledge accuracy. This is tedious, time-consuming and outdated. With the new Content Approval, this process is automated and made simple, regardless of how big or small your team and knowledge content are.
  
  

When can you use Content Approval?

As mentioned above, you can use Content Approval in two different instances:

• Firstly, if a certain content is saved in a Space where Content Approval has been marked as mandatory. Platform Administrators can define the settings of each Space and decide if Content Approval is mandatory. In such a situation, everyone trying to publish content in that space has to start a Content Approval Flow. For example, if you have a Space dedicated to policies and procedures, such a rule can be applied.
• Secondly, at the request of a contributor wishing to have his piece of content checked before publication. For example, if someone in your team is trying to publish a new market news, it can first be checked by your Market Watch team. This ensures that each content is curated and ready to be used.
  
  

Equally, it is important to highlight that Content Approval can be used when knowledge is in two different stages:

1. New Knowledge that is being published for the first time.
2. And Existent Knowledge that simply needs to be updated and brought up to date.
   
   

Before we wrap-up this article, allow us to quickly emphasize the benefits of Content Approval.

1. Ensures accuracy and trustworthiness: With the Content Approval feature, content creators can request approval for their content before it is published, and approvers can request corrections and communicate with contributors before the content is approved. This process helps ensure that every piece of content made public is accurate, up-to-date, and trustworthy.
2. Adds a layer of control: Space administrators and coordinators can publish content without approval, but this feature enables them to keep control over the quality of content being published on the platform. Before new information is made public, they are notified and asked to verify it, so no piece of content goes unchecked.
3. Simplifies quality control: Content creators help populate the platform with key knowledge, but keeping content accurate and trustworthy can be challenging. This feature adds a simple, yet effective layer of control, enabling content creators to cross-check with approvers to ensure the accuracy of their content.
4. Empowers subject-matter experts: Subject-matter experts can act as approvers to ensure that every piece of content published related to their area of expertise is checked before going live. For example, a Recruitment Leader can ensure that all recruitment-related content is validated before publication.
5. Benefits readers: Readers can rest assured that the knowledge they are digesting has been validated and is ready to be used at all times, as all content that has been published through a Content Approval flow is considered trustworthy and usable.
   
   

And finally – here is how you can start using Content Approval as soon as possible.

Start by discovering how it works, step by step. Our Product Team has put together a compelling guide explaining all the ins-and-outs about this new feature.

You can discover it here: https://help.elium.com/en/articles/6980303-approval

If you are a current Elium customer, talk to our Customer Success if you have any questions or require guidance and training.

If you are new to Elium, book a demo and learn more about getting started with us in just a few days.