Effectiveness of Knowledge Sharing and Management in Increasing Employee Productivity

The rapid advancement of technology has caused structural changes in organizations, which in turn has intensified the competition among organizations and highlighted the importance of employee performance in the success of companies. Although employee performance is dependent on various variables within the organization, in this age of information it is also affected by the effective and efficient use of knowledge. As seen in various sectors, while carrying out processes the required knowledge should be carefully picked from “an enormous pile of knowledge”, thus improving the effectiveness of the processes. 

Knowledge is the most important strategic tool for improving and maintaining organizational performance. Knowledge has become an essential part of every successful organization. This makes the organizations put more effort into managing knowledge in a new systematic and effective way to accomplish their goals.

Knowledge Sharing

Knowledge sharing has been recognized as the most important factor in the success of "Knowledge Management". Knowledge sharing means the exchange of employees’ knowledge, skills, and experiences. It ensures that the knowledge within an organization is available for employees whenever they need it, and its benefits include retaining intellectual assets and improving productivity. 

Knowledge Sharing and Employee Productivity

Knowledge sharing, which provides the effective use of knowledge in business processes, positively increases employee engagement and affects the employees’ performance at basic and advanced levels. In today’s highly competitive workplace, where people switch jobs every few years, employee turnover can be a big concern. You can stem the tide, though, by putting a focus on knowledge management, employee engagement, and training. Doing so builds a solid foundation for growth.

Employee Engagement

Running a successful business is every employer’s dream; Organizations emphasize employee engagement and do many things to increase their productivity. With an engaged staff of employees, organizations achieve higher revenue, boost customer satisfaction, and increase the company’s overall chance of success. The efforts organizations put in to manage human resources are crucial and a necessity. Low employee engagement has diverse effects on both the employees’ performance and the organization’s health. If the employees are engaged in group communication and collaboration, knowledge sharing among peers, and free expression of their views, they feel motivated and engaged.

Employee engagement is the emotional commitment employees feel towards their organization and the actions they take to ensure the organization’s success; engaged employees show care, dedication, enthusiasm, accountability, and results in focus. When employees care - when they are ‘engaged’ - they use discretionary effort. They find solutions to problems and create ideas to improve.

Employee engagement is not a one-time job, rather it requires continuous effort to be put in to keep your employees engaged and motivated. At the end of the day, motivated and engaged employees who work collaboratively will ensure improved organizational performance. Hence, the need of the hour for organizations, employers, and employees who want to grow, learn and work more proficiently is to adopt modern age platforms for knowledge management and sharing. Knowledge Management and Knowledge Sharing Platform such as PHPKB helps organizations in enhancing employee engagement and contribute to increased employee productivity.

Knowledge Sharing Platform: Key to Employee Engagement

Here’s how investing in a knowledge sharing tool can help boost your employee engagement:

Satisfaction

By sharing knowledge, employees feel satisfied that they are helping others in every possible way and are making a difference to the organization on the whole. This satisfaction leads to defining shared goals and experiencing a sense of engagement.

Visibility

When employees share the knowledge with their peers in the knowledge-sharing platform, they are often considered experts in their field. This boosts their confidence and brings them a sense of accomplishment and pride.

Time-Saving

With the existence of a knowledge-sharing tool, employees do not need to repeat things and explain them repeatedly. A large amount of information is already present on the platform and the employees do not feel bored of repeating the same things again and again. This naturally has an impact on the engagement of employees. They feel that everything is different and unique.

Centralized Information Access

An organization has a goldmine of collective knowledge at its disposal. In addition to open communication, a centralized repository where that knowledge can live is important, so employees can access it when they need to. Take advantage of a platform that facilitates and documents employee interactions. This enables staff to quickly locate conversations and/or colleagues who can provide the insights they need for projects or decisions.

Employee Training

There is a burning need to provide knowledge about new tools and techniques to employees, be it new or existing. Thus, many HR Managers or L&D experts go for in-house libraries, in-house journals, activities, and workshops, but very few achieve the desired goals. The main reason is the hustle and the huge level of effort gone into the management of such activities. Therefore, there is a need for a centralized knowledge-sharing system to train the onboarded employees with company processes to help them increase their own productivity.

Know-How Information Transfer 

Know-how is a very important asset for the organization and its management directly impacts the business performance. The knowledge-sharing practices can capture the best of the knowledge and make it accessible to employees. It makes scarce resources readily available across the organization. Earlier, the presentations, training sessions, white papers, and case studies fulfilled these needs, but now, centered knowledge sharing platforms are the necessity to make information accessible.

Stimulate Innovation

Sharing the best knowledge management practices encourages your employees to share their innovative ideas and help deliver better results. The stimulation of knowledge and increased idea sharing helps the employees to be more productive.

Team Cementing

When teams come together and share ideas, they begin to feel like they are pursuing a common goal. And at the end, each member feels like they contributed to the solution. Feeling like you are part of a functional team can do wonders for the enthusiasm and empowerment of a team.

Tacit Knowledge Transfer

A few years ago, it was long-tenured employees who spent a big part of their career with the same company who were responsible for passing along knowledge. However, in today’s workplace, where more generations work side-by-side, knowledge is not properly filtered all the time throughout the organization. An effective and sustainable knowledge sharing culture can ensure successful knowledge transfer efforts, by actively involving both the source of the knowledge and the receiver. You can call this a “two-way street”, as the receiver gains from the transfer in an obvious way, while the source of knowledge may need to be persuaded of the value of the entire process.

Support Time Reduction

The main way a community can raise its bottom line, but also reduce support costs, is through case definition. The easiest way to measure the return of investment is to determine how much time your team needs to close a case after it comes across. A knowledge-sharing culture integrated within a company through a knowledge management platform can significantly improve this timing.