Enabling employees to share their knowledge is a great way to create an environment in which they can be more productive, improve their performance, and work more effectively. And there are more benefits of knowledge sharing at work.
Whether employees share their own knowledge, best practices, or teach each other skills, and whether they share during workshops, lunch, or presentations, there are many reasons why sharing knowledge is important. With the proper tools and management, employees can effectively apply knowledge sharing and leverage each other’s expertise.
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 at work. 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.
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.
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.
There are more advantages 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.
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. Bringing your content creation in-house helps save money.
Outsourcing your e-learning production comes with many hidden costs. Our experts wrote a guide on how you can create e-learning in-house at a fraction of the cost.
In fact, some companies save hundreds and thousands of dollars because they implemented in-house knowledge sharing. Especially those who have implemented Employee-generated Learning, because they let employees create actual courses and training their colleagues can follow.
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.
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.
Are you convinced that your organization should implement knowledge sharing, and do you want to know how you to make it happen? Read our knowledge sharing guide and request our free 14-day trial to start creating e-learning courses and sharing your knowledge at work easily!
