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Sharing knowledge with colleagues can lead to more collaborations, more motivated staff and overall better performance. But how do you go about this, and what knowledge-sharing tools do you use?
As an HR professional, you naturally want your employees to perform as optimally as possible. Sharing knowledge within organisations is a way that contributes enormously to this. But, what exactly is knowledge sharing, and what is actually the benefit of this?
Sharing knowledge with colleagues whether knowledge sharing within organisations is transferring your own expertise with colleagues or other professionals in the field, for example through oral communication or online training. As soon as your employees make knowledge sharing a habit, you will see that they work more together as a team, are more motivated and do a better job.
It is also good to mention that knowledge sharing in organisations is part of knowledge management. Let's dive deeper into that too.
Knowledge Management is often described as creating, managing, sharing and using the knowledge and information that exists within an organisation. In other words: making optimal use of resources that you already have at your disposal! It's a shame if you don't do it, right?!
So it's no wonder that the online knowledge platforms like mushrooms have sprouted from the ground recently. Of course, it is very useful to be able to learn independently of time and place, especially when live lessons are out of the question due to a (unnamed) virus.
Now, of course, you can fill your intranet with ready-made solutions. After all, there are various providers that sell standard teaching modules. Nevertheless, we think that is a missed opportunity. After all, every company has its own experts around, who are very good at their job and have important knowledge. This knowledge is completely tailored to the organisation, and is based on personal experience. No standard course can compete with that. With the tips below, you can entice these professionals to share their information with other colleagues.
Want to learn more about how to build a diverse team with different areas of expertise, skills, and personalities? Then also read our blog about recruitment and selection!
It should be clear to employees that you want them to have their valuable sharing knowledge with colleagues, and that they are allowed to add something to the internal knowledge platform. So explicitly invite everyone to share their practical tips and tricks with others. Make it attractive to spout ideas by adding a small competition and don't make it too complicated.
Roll out the red carpet!
Don't get us wrong. We're not talking about higher math that needs to be shared. Just not. Preferably, the shared information is very practical and is in line with the daily business in the organisation. This increases the chance that colleagues will actively gain knowledge on the knowledge portal and actually do something with it. No one has any use for long theoretical treatises on a subject that is unlikely to occur. No matter how well-intentioned, this type of content can lie dust at the bottom of the archive for years.
Also delve into intrinsic motivation in relation to e-learning. That's how you really motivate your employee.
You can come up with the best IT solutions, but if it doesn't meet the needs of the users, it'll be ignored and your investment will be for nothing. Give your knowledge platform extra bottum-up power by sitting down with a good delegation from the organisation to gauge interest.
Preferably choose colleagues from different departments, known as early adaptors and open to change.
With these internal knowledge ambassadors, list what is needed. The platform must have sufficient appeal for employees to visit again and again. What knowledge do they think is being missed? Are there certain topics that are 'hot' and could be further developed? Is there a lot of reading in the organisation, or is the target group more interested in photos or video material?
It is also interesting to name a few key people per topic who can be contacted first for a contribution. For example, the financial controller who talks about budgeting, an HR manager who explains how to prevent absenteeism, or the warehouse employee who tells you how to make sure you can place your order as conveniently as possible.
In any case, collegial behavior and mutual trust are important for job satisfaction in any company. But these are also two basic requirements for your success. internal knowledge sharing. Is there a competitive work environment where people are afraid that the other person will run away with their ideas? Then they will prefer to keep their knowledge and experience to themselves. Burning someone else down because their information is not interesting to you makes you shy and ensures that a new contribution will not be written anytime soon.
Therefore, when starting your internal knowledge platform, it is good to pay attention to the 'why' of this portal: sharing your knowledge and experience with your colleagues. You do not write content to brag or outbest the other person. But just to help other employees and make working together easier and more fun.
Knowledge sharing within organisations often does not come naturally. So don't expect a major tsunami of contributions to immediately flood into the internal knowledge platform. It often takes people time to find their way to a new medium. This applies to readers, but especially to authors who have a great deal of professional knowledge but who publish little or never publicly. Sometimes some trepidation has to be overcome there.
It is therefore smart to actively approach potential knowledge providers in the first instance with the request to contribute to the platform. If it's about a topic that's also easy to visualise, vlogging is of course also a great option. Above all, don't let people 'swim'. Offer to have a communications officer read along and edit where necessary. Help us think about attractive photo and video material. And make sure you have a clear point of contact where the person posting messages can come to if things don't work out completely.
Opt for a knowledge sharing platform that can be approached as flexibly as possible. Then we are not only talking about a program that can run on the computer or laptop, but preferably also on a tablet or phone. Keep the layout organised; a filter by target group and topics helps enormously with this. People are then not flooded with unnecessary knowledge, but get more targeted information. And of course, Google monsters like us have become: make sure you have an optimal search function so that knowledge can easily be searched by topic.
Apart from all the 'hard' IT requirements, it is also smart to zoom in on the design of the online learning environment. It's important to look good, so a nice readable font and a calm image make it extra attractive to log in again. Finally, the platform can also contain funny, light-hearted facts. It all doesn't have to be too hard. You can also use humor transfer knowledge!
Are you looking for a platform for sharing knowledge? Then be sure to try out Pluvo! Start your platform for free via this link.
