Improving KM Usage @ Workplace

KM is a journey that starts the very first time we visit the firm’s intranet portal. Many colleagues have participated in contests, published white papers, or taken expert advice and tell us about checking out the KM portal.?But the question is how many of us today know we have our very own customized KM page that shows us our last ten enquires we posted, the latest documents we searched and related other information that can add value to our daily routing work.

There is a growing need to harness the true potential of KM and explore the different sections within a KM system.

Some collaborative spaces are more individual in nature, others like War rooms, PDB?are specific to group or projects. There is a growing need however for better awareness not just?from the KM team to employees but more importantly managers who with proper governance can?help resolve some of the challenges highlighted below.

KM systems as such is only a tool and must be understood effectively by an employee in applying it to?improve his/her productivity. All the challenges have been shared by employees in accessing KM?and I have used my experience and speaking to fellow employees to suggest an approach.

10 Top Challenges for Knowledge Managers to tackle

1. Information is available from multiple sources on the web yet today and employees who?adopt KM as a last resort spend time finding the right documents but often face challenges with?validation.?

This is more to do with a behavioral pattern for adoption. Today most of the information on?the web is copyright and the employee would be willing to use a proven framework document?uploaded on their KM portal, with the relevant guidelines on how to customize the framework available but what?is lacking is who will validate the final document.

There is a need for creation of project?champions in teams who can guide employees to use chat forums and publish their questions?online to seek the right expert help to validate information.

2. Project wins need to be supported by the right resources delivering the work. Today delivery managers?are faced with the challenge of depending on resourcing teams to find a fitment as?employee resumes are not updated.

During the tenure of an employee, he/she would have updated their resume at least once on a Resume Corner. The challenge is a resourcing team has their owned defined portal which is stand-alone and not unified well with the KM system .

A Managers corner on KM where constant reminders are sent should?be present and a monthly dashboard sent to the BU Head to ensure employees frequently update?their resumes highlighting any significant achievements.?

3. Many teams are doing similar projects as a part of the same domain and some of?this work is being recognized but the success factors are not clearly captured?completely while building a framework.

Key Wins are highlighted at a BU level and recognition is happening for talented performers who?are motivated to build solution frameworks. Today organizations are looking at patenting these?frameworks but there is a burning need for identifying trainers who can coach employees working?on similar domain projects to identify the tenants of building a framework, more importantly?executing it as per the project scope. Webinars are effective but not everyone prefers disclosing?his identity in an open forum.

Communities of Practice should be explored more where Discussion Thread?links are shared and content can be downloaded for analysis , questions posted, other sections of?KM portal accessed such as an Expert Corner and RFP Corner.?

4. Onsite employees are facing a challenge with identifying themselves?with the culture of the organization.

Most of the time these employees tacit knowledge is not captured as they sparingly use an intranet for completing their certifications, administrative work?like bills submissions & timesheets and other limited tasks.

There is a need for more KM processes to be designed for effective?capturing of time sheet data and aligning this time to enabling them to contribute to knowledge sharing sessions?like organizing sessions to new recruits , domain-based case study creations and more such that?their tacit knowledge is of broader use and reference to the organization.

5. Not all employees know how to be 'smart-workers' using KM, and when surveyed by leadership they cite accessibility, access rights permission denied and search as causes.

It is the responsibility of the manager to educate the employee on updating KM regularly. Most?employees today have VPN access and are good workers, but the challenge is there is no proper?governance established. If immediate managers see the benefits in the long rung motivating?employees to share documents and review the same before uploading on KM can be a winner.?Today most of the employee's upload documents for compliance; they do not see the added benefit?and recognition that comes if their document is referenced by another team member.

Contests must be expanded and recognize talent where they are rewarded for the business value from an artifact like use in a winning proposal by?another fellow employee gets rewarded, rather than the number of employees who have accessed it.?

6. Project Managers do not want their artifacts to be put on KM as most of the time this?involves seeking customer permission.?

This is a challenge as the information must be reviewed and selectively edited by someone from?the team. Most of the time project managers do not disclose the set of documents in the WSR?document.

It should be made a practice where the WSR is reviewed and the number of documents?uploaded tallied with the WSR, if any gaps are found valid reasons should be sort from the?delivery teams.

7. An employee mostly reaches out to the KM team at the last moment and finds an?answer. Today most organizations have tools like Slack / Microsoft Teams other collaboration tools handy however these are stand-alone from the KM portal which has the ready templates, proposals of past projects, case studies and other?information available. However, there are instances where there is a need for an international case?reference, backdated reference documents and other such scenarios. It is important to do an online?search, put a query or write to an expert all options worth exploring with KM portal. However, the?problem is running against time will we get a response quickly?

The answer lies with the KM Team, as sometimes archived documents are not visible but that?does not mean they are not present. It is important to ask your KM Champion and seek his?recommendation on the best approach.?

8. Employee before leaving the project uploads all his documents on KM portal but in a hurried and?haphazard manner such that it has gaps and is worthless to those consuming it. ?

There must be a manager scorecard showcased at the QIC that merits the use of more frequent?KM usage at a BU level. This does not have to be an extensive exercise and involve a lot of data?collection and analysis.

Managers can make a choice and decide the type of documents that must be uploaded on a regular basis and drive compliance and quality rather than quantity.

9. When an Employee is on bench, he is spending hours giving interviews for new?projects to be billable.?Every employee is interested in his QPLC. Their efforts are always invested to tell their?immediate managers of their billability and find suitable projects to be aligned to. There have been occurrences where an employee is not updated his manager or vice versa and this has led to?billability not being achieved.

To resolve there has to be a BU level skill dashboard visible to all?employees for open positions by band, competency and other parameters if an employee’s tenure?in the project is nearing the project end term.

10. Customers are seeing better connect from senior management visits than survey?feedback as the ownership is better managed.

Today review calls, escalation matrix is some of the ways customers are being given authority to?get the right service from a partner. They are seeing value in ownership as many times senior?management visits also are planned to resolve a problem in a timely manner. However, many?times the customer is failing to acknowledge these initiatives and only remembers the issue at?hand which impacts the CSAT.

It is important for clients to recognize that any problem is a time?for due diligence and recognizing that a change is managed two ways. There has to be a proper?signoff and the customer aware that his feedback has been captured in the KM portal and?would be used for future reviews to improve the service delivery.

To summarize I have aligned most of the suggestions around the three parameters below.

Employee Productivity

1. It is important employees do not always use KM systems for a last-minute information search but understand how to navigate the sections depending on the kind of requirement.

2. Employees refer the BU dashboard regularly and plan well in advance for their next project.?Update their resume with significant achievement that helps delivery managers identify their?talent.

3. Managers drive employee to regularly access KM and the same gets highlighted during QIC’s?to ensure the organization is committed.

?Employee Satisfaction

1. It is important employees see value from KM in their work getting referenced rather than just?the number of times it is accessed.

2. Many employees who do not prefer face-to-face interactions may be more comfortable using?CoP forums with discussion boards, WarRooms to share restricted documents or even webinars where they type a question to the presenter but the whole experience should be unified through connected systems.?

3. Onsite employees see value in taking knowledge sessions for new project team members,?working on case study references, framework design and more for reusable artifacts.

Customer Satisfaction

1. Customers have to be made more aware of the knowledge captured in KM portal. It is not just?project artifacts but even review meeting minutes , senior management connect sessions and?others are important. It is important senior management signoff happens and the feedback is?captured on KM portal to ensure quality service delivery.

An effective Knowledge Manager

1. Should be visible to all employees in the BU through his actions rather than reactions. He must reach out informally as well and talk to fellow employees to relate information to them.

2. Learn two ways, spending more time with Project Champions helping employee know the?merits of using the virtual KM world.

3. Know the customer’s pulse and drives information to delivery teams supporting them with?data to make a winning impression or resolve conflicts. This cannot happen visiting the client?place it has to be done informally using the relationship with the delivery or sales teams.

4. Represent the BU as their spokesperson, success stories are not always captured in case?studies. An effective KM Manager should sell Knowledge to fellow employees.

5. Acknowledge helping employees in different time zones working on the same domain as many times timings may differ. Helping your BU employee service his customer better?should be the motto of all Knowledge Managers, as their success is yours.

Disclaimer : These are purely my own views and experiences as a seasoned KM partitioner in driving employee engagement and operationalizing the KM strategy through helping employees Connect & Collaborate.