In order to perform their jobs to the best of their ability, your staff need to access mission-critical data in a moment’s notice. One of the best ways you can help your employees work their best is to ensure that any information they need to do their jobs is immediately available. Do you make this a priority, or deal with this issue as the problems arise?
Knowledge management is the efficient handling of information within an organization, and the best companies out there are capable of ensuring their organization’s employees are able to access vital information. Granted, technology has made doing this much easier, but before the days of networking and shared information, businesses would have to rely on file cabinets filled to the brim with all sorts of documents. These kinds of knowledge management systems would eventually get fairly sophisticated and complex, usually involving ladders and brightly colored file folders.
When computers came around, all of these files were digitized and converted to easily accessible files, changing knowledge management as we knew it forever. Of course, even digital files have their flaws, but some organizations haven’t utilized computers as the knowledge management systems they’re destined to be. Some businesses only use the minimal base folder structure that comes with their networking software, and this could be holding them back. The point of doing business is striving to build the best operational institution that makes as much profit as possible, so it’s clear that all goals should be toward this outcome.
Here are two tips on how your business can improve its current knowledge management system.
Put Together a Single File for All Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Your FAQs, or Frequently Asked Questions, is a list of all of the common problems or questions that your team has concerning their ability to perform their jobs to the best possible standards. If you don’t have one of these documents available, creating one will surprise you on how much it can benefit operations. If people actually use your FAQs, they’ll be able to more efficiently find their answers without bothering other staff members. Granted, in order for your FAQs to be effective, your team needs to be able to access them.
This means that the document should be located in a centralized part of the network that can easily be accessed by anyone in your organization. A document of this importance can also only be accessed if your business’s network is operational, so downtime is another major concern. Nothing has the power to derail the knowledge management process quite like a downed network, and we’ve got what it takes to keep your network up with our managed IT service.
Integrate a Knowledge Base
It’s a fact that if your team can’t easily find the knowledge they’re looking for, they’ll spend a lot of time looking for it that could easily have been spent on other, more productive tasks. By implementing a knowledge base, you can take advantage of a single point of contact for all information you’re looking for. For example, a knowledge base that allows you to search your network by keywords or topics will be exceptionally helpful when looking for the ever-elusive documentation.
Prime Knowledge Base Features to Look For:
- It’s intuitive to use and easy to search.
- Employees can access it from all locations, and off site if needed.
- It needs to be scalable to your needs.
- The knowledge base needs to be secure and properly locked down.
To arm your organization with the most effective knowledge management system, reach out to Total Tech Care at 866-348-2602.
