Why all employees need to undergo Knowledge Management training?

Employees are exposed to all kinds of training, be that related to soft skills or those related to technical skills. However one of the training that they should undergo and which most companies ignore is knowledge management training.

Let us check why employees should undergo knowledge management training.

The essence of KM is to help employees leverage each other’s knowledge, generate new knowledge, safeguard unique knowledge, work by reusing pre-built knowledge artefacts (case studies, estimates, proposals, architecture, designs) etc.

Sharing and collaboration comes naturally to some…rest needs to be trained:

Sharing and collaboration may come naturally for some individuals, it is not common and in many ways get limited to within a team. An employee who is comfortable sharing what he/she knows, has the ability to collaborate comfortably and can work by leveraging knowledge residing with others is an asset for an organisation.There are many aspects that influence sharing and collaboration within an organisation, however one of the most critical is an individuals initiative to share and collaborate.

There is a ‘starting trouble’ in individuals, an inhibition to reach out to others to help resolve work related challenges. There have been reports on sharing and collaboration becoming more difficult as organisations started adopting a mix of virtual and physical setups to do their work.

Through KM trainings focused on exposing employees to importance of sharing, collaborating and work with other’s knowledge, the employees will be able to not only appreciate the importance of it, but inculcate the techniques for the same.?

Essentially it helps in

• Easily resolve any technical and work related challenges by leveraging experience of others
• Fast track learning, specifically in the case of new employees or new technologies and concepts
• Make the knowledge that would have remained stuck with an employee or team to be institutionalised
• Faster induction of new employees
• Institutionalisation of individual and team level knowledge

At an employee level this has a direct impact on productivity and also helps in building a sense of belonging for employees.

Training on reusing ‘knowledge products’?

We not only leverage knowledge that others have, but also what they produce as an output. We can call them as knowledge products. These are developed for an earlier delivery and has scope for being used again in future delivery. For example a proposal document, case study, designs, architectures etc.?

Typically, success in reusing existing knowledge products depend on its availability and findability. However, it is equally important that employees are aware of knowledge products that they can reuse and proactively include the same in their delivery.?

Reuse of knowledge products has multiple impacts including bringing down the over all cost, delivering on time and keeping quality low.?

To ensure reuse of knowledge products happen, training on what knowledge products are, how they should be leveraged and where they could be found. This training has to be done both at an employee level and at manager level.?

As mentioned, reuse of knowledge products results in:

• Bringing down the overall cost of delivery
• Timely delivery of solutions
• Higher quality as a result of using proven solutions

Safeguarding own knowledge and growing organisational knowledge

Training on how to safeguard organisational knowledge is very critical. Employees should be made aware of the unique knowledge that they carry and how those knowledge should be shared across, through documentation and knowledge sharing sessions. Typically most of the unique knowledge of the organisation stays with employees and is lost when they move out.

Knowledge Management trainings will have a direct impact on employees ability to safe guard what they know. They become more aware of what are those unique knowledge they have, what are those unique areas in which they are working. This is not only at their level, but also at team level. Employees will have the sense of ensuring that they safeguard this knowledge.

They will start treating knowledge as a valuable resource and start appreciating the impact on the organisation when it is lost.

Awareness on safeguarding knowledge will help in:

• Quality sharing and collaboration between employees
• Faster institutionalisation of knowledge through cross learning between employees and teams
• Growth in organisational knowledge.

There are other aspects of KM training that benefits an organisation, including:

• Improved ability to reflect and learn from mistakes
• Ability to use the digital tools much better
• Fast acquisition of knowledge from outside the organisation

It is time, organisations consider KM Training as something all their employees should undergo.

#knowledgemanagement #KMTraining