The 6 benefits of knowledge sharing
Sharing knowledge has advantages for employees’ professional development because it allows them to perform better and can give them a sense of satisfaction and belonging. But there are also benefits of sharing knowledge in the workplace for your organization. For one, it won’t be necessary to invest in training from external parties or off the shelf courses as much anymore. Read this article if you want to know about the other benefits.
1. You can let employees apply each other’s best practices
It’s not necessary to re-invent the wheel. In fact, knowledge sharing is the opposite of re-inventing the wheel. If it seems like a particular way of working or solving problems is the best way, employees should stick to it.
By sharing the knowledge they have gained with that experience, other employees can apply the best practice as well. Integrating best practices and allowing employees to use shared knowledge saves a lot of time and budget.
2. Employees can make better decisions, faster
When employees in an organization don’t share knowledge actively or effectively, they can spend a long time looking for answers to their questions. They may ask around, try Google, go through emails and Slack, and so on.
When they do actively and effectively share knowledge, they can look it up quickly, absorb it, and apply it to their work. This allows them to perform more efficiently and make decisions better and faster.
3. Keep knowledge and expertise in the organization
There are more benefits of sharing knowledge within an organization. Employees’ knowledge is your organization’s greatest asset: you don’t want it to disappear when employees make a career switch and decide to work somewhere else.
And if they share their knowledge, it won’t. Others will keep on having access to that colleague’s knowledge in videos, white papers, intranet articles, and more. Knowledge sharing ensures that employees’ knowledge stays within the organization, even when they don’t.
4. It can save you a lot of money
By leveraging employees’ knowledge and having them capture what they know and share it with colleagues, chances are you don’t need to invest as much in third party or off the shelf training anymore. That helps you to save money.
In fact, some companies save hundreds and thousands of dollars because they implemented knowledge sharing. Especially those who have implemented Employee-generated Learning, because they let employees create actual courses and training their colleagues can follow.
5. Employee-generated Learning: let employees share their knowledge
There are many benefits of knowledge sharing sessions like workshops, meetings, and brainstorms. But when it comes to presentations, for example – well, these are experienced as rather dull. When employees create their own training, using a simple authoring tool, they can provide interactive and effective resources.
For example, because they can add best practices, product modules, microlearning modules, quiz questions, and more. These different types of content make training much more engaging and help employees internalize and apply what they learn much better.
6. Employees can get a sense of satisfaction and belonging
Some of your employees may be experts in their field without even knowing it. Asking them to share their knowledge with their colleagues could be a great compliment to them. It could make them aware of everything they have to offer in terms of knowledge, and it could give them a sense of satisfaction and belonging.
Especially if you reward those that participate in knowledge sharing. In return, having employees that are seen as experts by their colleagues and by themselves encourages them to learn and makes staff and organization stronger.
Want to get started with knowledge sharing?
Are you convinced that your organization should implement knowledge sharing too, and do you want to get an idea of how you could do that? Read our article about how to share knowledge at work, and get started!
