Knowledge Management

Search. Share. Grow

Most managers embarking on knowledge management initiatives are looking to create a knowledge-rich environment where the best minds of the business share their wisdom; where critical business intelligence no longer hides in the dark; and brilliant work is never lost on a local drive.

Here we explore the benefits and importance of knolwede management, and how you can build a knowledge-sharing culture where information flows freely throughout your organization. 

What Is Knowledge Management?

Gartner Group’s definition of knowledge management is:

“Knowledge management is a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise’s information assets. These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, and previously un-captured expertise and experience in individual workers.”

The three main areas of knowledge management consist of:

1) accumulating knowledge

2) storing knowledge

3) sharing knowledge

Organizations with effective knowledge management in place are typically better at making good decisions; achieving business goals; onboarding staff quicker; and innovating. 

What Are The Main Benefits Of A Knowledge Management System?

Successful knowledge management can improve your organization in many ways. 

• It ensures specialized knowledge held by employees does not walk out the door if they leave. 
• It ensures learning, idea-sharing, and collaboration amongst staff occur habitually.
• It ensures internal efficiencies and business outcomes are maximized thanks to staff know-how.

As for the bottom-line, any business focused on improving the management of knowledge can expect better product adoption, lower customer churn rates, and improved loyalty from both customers and staff. 

Why Is Knowledge Management Important?

The average large US business loses $47 million in productivity each year as a direct result of inefficient knowledge management.

According to the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report, U.S. knowledge workers waste nearly six hours each week either waiting for vital information from their co-workers, or recreating existing institutional knowledge. That wasted time translates into delayed projects, missed opportunities, frustration among employees, and a significant impact on the bottom line.

In this unprecedented study of more than 1,000 U.S. workers, the Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report revealed that 42 percent of institutional knowledge is unique to the individual. If that individual leaves or becomes unavailable, that’s 42 percent of that job unable to be fulfilled by others.

Therefore the main goal of knowledge management is to improve an organization’s efficiency and save knowledge within the company. It’s made up of a cycle of creating, sharing, structuring and auditing knowledge, in order to maximize the effectiveness of an organization’s collective knowledge. 

Today, many businesses complain their staff lose valuable time due to poor information management.  Trying to locate the right version of a document; wading through poorly-named files and folders; and lost expertise are just some of the recurring challenges, exacerbated as the digital revolution accelerates and the volume of information presented is non-stop.

The goal is to enable organizational learning and create a learning culture, where the sharing of knowledge is encouraged and those who seek to learn to better themselves find it easy to do so.

Knowledge Types 

Generally speaking, there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. What does this mean in a business sense?

Tacit Knowledge

Tacit knowledge is much harder to capture as it typically comes from personal experience. Therefore it can be difficult to transfer from one person to another – for example, leadership skills or how to innovate. But tacit knowledge offers a competitive advantage because it’s almost impossible for a competitor to mimic.

Most organizations today recognize both knowledge types are essential to hold on to, and that a knowledge management strategy – supported with the right technology – is needed to maintain core capabilities over time. 

In other words, effective content management that can facilitate collaboration, uncover innovations, and present content to employees – or third parties – when they need it most provides a competitive edge.  

Knowledge Management – Risks And Benefits 

What’s To Gain? 

Strategic-thinking, open-minded organizations that have embraced a better way to manage knowledge benefit from:

• Efficient decision-making across all teams and all levels, with successful outcomes 
• Idea-sharing and collaboration amongst staff occurs habitually
• Improved organizational agility; knowing when to pivot or preserve
• Generous sharing of specialist expertise takes place across all functions
• Greater understanding – and therefore adoption – amongst staff of business processes 
• Innovation and ideation encouraged across the entire business
• Communities of practice and experimenting fuel growth 
• Prevalence for professional development and staff mentoring, as knowledge cascades throughout the company

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More than a third of an employee’s day is spent looking for information

Which Knowledge Management Tools and Features Are Important? 

There are now multiple information systems and tools designed for knowledge sharing.

At a basic level, document management software such as Google Drive or Box can suffice. These cloud-based tools allow for tagging files and adding metadata that make information easier to find.

But these days, most organizations prefer tools that perform a range of tasks and can manage diverse content, including rich media, social and web content. 

These tools must perform the following:

How To Build A Knowledge Management System

Once you have selected your information technology system to support your KM strategy, the main steps in developing a knowledge management system comprise the following: 

Knowledge Management – Next Steps 

A Knowledge Management System should form an essential part of your human resource strategy to drive business growth. Partnering with the right IT solution pay dividends in the future, since your team will collaborate more effectively and customers will be more loyal.

Scalability, simplicity and affordability are important considerations: your KMS will become a living system with a long shelf-life. Done right, it can help you to create, share, and manage knowledge that leads to competitive business edge.

MyHub’s intranet software is designed to help businesses of all shapes and sizes to communicate better, and scale knowledge management practices. Discover MyHub’s Knowledge Management Solution.

MyHub Knowledge Management Case Studies 

Useful Knowledge Management Resources