The Advantages Of Corporate Knowledge Sharing
One of the greatest advantages of learning technology is that it can remove communication barriers and increase the ease and efficiency of information transfer. Sharing knowledge is an essential ingredient for business prosperity; however, a recent survey by Brandon Hall Group found that only one-third of organizations have a defined corporate knowledge sharing strategy. The study also discovered that only 20% of companies believe their knowledge sharing efforts are effective.
Although some knowledge sharing will always happen organically between employees, it’s not enough to simply ask your employees to help each other out. Establishing a corporate knowledge sharing strategy, promoting a culture of knowledge sharing, and leveraging learning technology to execute these efforts can drive organizational growth and help reach positive business outcomes.
Here are some of the key advantages associated with promoting a culture of corporate knowledge sharing.
1. Support Learning As It Actually Happens
Learning does not happen exclusively through a push-down approach consisting of only formal activities such as lectures and classroom-based training. In fact, the 70:20:10 learning framework indicates that learning happens through a combination of formal, social, and experiential learning activities – specifically, 70% experiential, 20% social, and 10% formal.
According to Towards Maturity, organizations who implement the 70:20:10 approach to learning are five times more likely to be able to attract talent, four times more likely to respond quickly to business change, and three times more likely to report improvements in staff motivation.
Knowledge sharing is one way to implement social learning (e.g., by enabling learners to ask questions to peer mentors, allowing them to rate answers and responses, and provide user-generated content). Supporting learning as it actually happens will ultimately improve employee knowledge retention, as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of your learning programs.
2. Fill Knowledge Gaps
In 2015, Millennials officially surpassed Gen Xers as the largest generation in the US workforce. PwC reports that they’ll make up half of the workforce by 2020.
While it’s undeniable that Millennials are reshaping the workforce, this surge of new workers points to a more pressing issue for businesses. As more Millennials join organizations and more Baby Boomers retire, a gap in organizational knowledge is formed. This decay in knowledge can stunt organizational growth and productivity.
Promoting a culture that encourages knowledge sharing can help fill the generational knowledge gap. Specifically, using learning technology to create knowledge capital (e.g., forums and Q&A threads) is an effective way to better leverage knowledge from experienced employees.
3. Increase Efficiency
Did you know that it takes most workers up to eight searches to find a specific document and/or information? While searching for that information, it takes one-third of employees up to 25 minutes to find exactly what they’re looking for – that adds up to a lot of time spent unproductively seeking knowledge.
Centralizing learning material and encouraging knowledge sharing using one platform (such as a Learning Management System) will help to increase efficiency so your employees aren’t running into dead ends on SharePoint or clicking through their cluttered email inboxes.
4. Promote Innovation
The business benefits of innovation cannot be understated. After all, it is through innovation that organizations are able to progress and differentiate.
Adobe’s 2016 State of Create study revealed that there’s a disconnect between creative and productive expectations for employees. 77% of respondents agreed that there was an increasing pressure to be productive rather than creative at work; however, 56% of respondents said that they experienced an increasing expectation to think creatively at work.
Although creativity is often disruptive, productivity and creativity aren’t conflicting goals – in fact, creativity increases productivity. Instead of isolating creative time and limiting those involved in the creative process, knowledge sharing allows innovation to flourish freely. One idea that’s given the opportunity to be developed through knowledge sharing could become your organization’s next big innovative project. Open up channels for knowledge and idea sharing to provide a dedicated outlet for employees to share ideas and collaborate.
5. Encourage Leadership
A 2016 leadership development study by Brandon Hall Group revealed that 77% of organizations are experiencing a leadership gap. Encouraging knowledge sharing can not only help learners gather information – when paired with gamification, your knowledge sharing strategy can be extremely powerful in fostering leadership.
By incentivizing individual employees to share their knowledge (e.g., by allowing them to gather points and rewards when they contribute to a forum or answer a question in your Learning Management System), they’ll become more empowered to take the initiative to do so. As a result, knowledge sharing can help close the leadership gap more efficiently.
Have a question about leveraging learning technology for knowledge sharing? Here’s your opportunity to ask – join Docebo for a free demo + Q&A on empowering learners. Register now!