Question for the HR workshop: What should companies consider when it comes to knowledge management and how can they design it?
The answer is: Kerstin Götz, Managing Director of Troi GmbH
As the English philosopher Francis Bacon once said: Knowledge is power. Knowledge is power. This power is so great that entire business models and their economic success depend on knowledge. But retaining knowledge in companies is now more difficult than ever. The main problem is the currently very high staff turnover and the highly competitive labor market. Both trends have made knowledge a scarce, volatile and therefore even more valuable resource. So how can companies be successful if they lack know-how? The solution approach presented here requires transparency. Only the open approach to acquiring and passing on knowledge within a company makes it possible to systematically share knowledge, competencies and skills between knowledge providers and knowledge recipients. To do this, companies should first cultivate openness that consciously and explicitly includes and promotes knowledge.
Knowledge culture as a prerequisite for knowledge management
To achieve this, appropriate behavior must be demonstrated by the entire workforce. Managers in particular must bring transparency to life in the form of concrete actions and communication. This can be done through internal communication tools such as a regularly sent newsletter, intranet or social media groups for company updates, a recurring Jour Fixe or town halls with the workforce. What is crucial is the explicit appreciation of knowledge. This begins with managers not tiring of emphasizing the high importance of further training measures such as educational leave during the onboarding of new team members and throughout the entire employee experience and providing information about individual options. Appreciation signals to employees that the continuous acquisition, collection and sharing of knowledge is worthwhile: for example, on a dedicated hub on the intranet that all employees can access, as well as through the installation of work groups. Only when the collaborative knowledge culture becomes established in the minds of the entire workforce will employees and companies be able to fully benefit from a concrete knowledge management solution.
Knowledge culture as a strategic asset of the employee experience
This cultural foundation can have a positive impact on the employee experience, especially when companies communicate the benefits of this understanding of knowledge to the individual employee. One of the biggest advantages is showing your employees that their knowledge and ideas shape a company as an organization and that they can thereby position themselves as experts. This in turn can provide an immense motivational boost. From the perspective of companies, knowledge culture then transforms into a strategic HR asset in the race for skilled workers, talents and future employees.
When looking for a job, the transparent handling of knowledge on the job market can also be seen as an attractive signal for employee participation and thus as a purpose feature that is often decisive when selecting a future employer. According to surveys, 57 percent of respondents say that personal development opportunities influence their decision whether and for how long they will stay in a company. In the context of a lack of HR talent, this can be crucial for success in attracting qualified knowledge holders for your own company.
Transparency creates a climate of trust
These cultural requirements can be translated into knowledge management, which opens up a whole range of advantages for companies. This includes, in conjunction with the generally higher level of employee satisfaction, higher productivity and operational efficiency. Transparency is a crucial factor here. Because it creates a climate of trust and cooperation by prioritizing collective progress. And: Good knowledge management minimizes errors and promotes innovation. This in turn supports the identification of knowledge gaps and facilitates knowledge transfer.
Overall, this is fertile ground in which a broad pool of knowledge can thrive. However, there is always the risk that the transfer of knowledge will fall victim to subjective distortion. Undesirable thought patterns can become entrenched in the body of knowledge. The more of these fragments of knowledge come to light, the more endangered the required neutrality of knowledge is. It can be business-critical if knowledge about internal processes, KPIs or process standards lies exclusively with superiors, but they cannot share this with their team – for example in the event of illness or vacation. And as already mentioned, the departure of employees can also cause the internal knowledge pool to collapse.
Avoid bias through data
But how can this potential danger be avoided? This is where meaningful data comes into play. Time agreements within the scope of a project volume are just as important as market analyzes or the documentation of customer feedback. Knowledge derived from this brings reliability and precision to company decisions. For example, projects are often subject to relatively imprecise planning because they are based exclusively on past experiences. The consequences are poor planning, which in turn leads to overloading of employees, processes and resources.
Innovation and participation through quality standards
Nowadays, people have been generating large amounts of data in their jobs if they use digital tools. This is where companies are asked: Ideally, they should use this data to derive conclusions from which they can then draw knowledge and insight. Significantly shortened and more precise decision-making processes will be the result. Knowledge management platforms in particular shorten this process through the use of AI. Chatbots and virtual employees can help the workforce find specific information. In addition, appropriately trained AI systems are able to not only document information such as market reports, key figures or customer feedback, but also interpret it – also an enrichment for internal know-how. Strategic knowledge goals can also be achieved much more efficiently using data-based knowledge management. These include the long-term preservation of knowledge, its practical use, its ongoing development, the consistent sharing of knowledge and the promotion of innovation.
Efficient knowledge management also reduces costs and sources of errors and creates competitive advantages because it significantly ensures compliance with regulations and quality standards through documentation and monitoring of processes and procedures. This is expressed in various methods that intact knowledge management uses. This includes planning, presentation and creative methods as well as dialogic procedures. They can be combined with each other according to requirements so that success-oriented knowledge management can ultimately be installed.
Conclusion: The interaction of soft skills and AI can help
Due to the possibility of subjective distortions, the perception of knowledge is at risk. Data and artificial intelligence (AI) reduce this risk of bias. They improve the neutrality, reliability, precision and speed of knowledge processes and lead to more informed and automated decisions. In order to implement successful knowledge management, companies should also cultivate a culture of open knowledge exchange, develop a clear strategy and sensitize employees to this topic – this is the only way to make full knowledge power accessible to everyone.
Author
Kerstin Götz has been working as CEO of TROI GmbH since 2017. There she drove forward the development of AI-based work management software, which is now used in over 650 companies.
2024-03-01 10:56:08
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