[Blog] Benefits of Knowledge Management
Organizations that implement and maintain effective knowledge management see a substantial outcome as it helps:
- Reducing redundant works thus increases productivity and efficiency.
- Leveraging past experiences help to solve issues quicker.
- Providing better services to users.
- Users finding relevant information and resources themselves.
- Avoiding repeated mistakes.
- Accessing unique expertise widely.
Knowledge management systems are proven effective in helping build more efficient work teams and producing an overall more streamlined and effective organization.
An effective knowledge management system reduces these costs of inefficiency by making organization's knowledge more available, accessible, and accurate. It’s particularly important for businesses today because teams are much more distributed. When you have multiple branches or hire remote employees, the need for knowledge management increases exponentially.
Unfortunately, many organizations fail to have a knowledge system, when employees quit/retire, taking their expertise with them what may amount to decades of the company's knowledge which is priceless.
In short: no/poor knowledge sharing results in organizations running much less efficiently and productively.
Having said that, managing knowledge management certainly requires a lot of effort. All efforts invested in Knowledge Management without a standardized process will go down the drain.
Here is the simple process to begin knowledge management,
- Identify knowledge across all areas of your business and create articles (this happens every day)
- Share and provide access. Encourage your colleagues to share their knowledge and utilize the information you’ve shared.
- Add appropriate keywords.
- Have a panel consists of experts to evaluate and approve articles.
- As things change and evolve, ensure articles are reviewed and updated as a regular course of procedure.
The object of rolling out the KM program shouldn’t just be to be driving positive business outcomes. It should also be driving positive outcomes for your users, too. When your users reap the benefits, the probability of successfully implementing a knowledge management program is much higher.