Small and Medium Enterprises face a major hurdle in terms of creating and managing knowledge internally. For SMEs Knowledge Management is one area which is not really considered very strongly and is not given much importance. Since its not a focus area which generates direct revenues for the organization it lacks focused effort.
What is Knowledge Management and Why should SMEs focus on it?
WIkipedia defines KM (Knowledge Management) in this article. Though KM has always been considered as a prime function which is given focus when companies achieve a certain scale both in terms of revenues and employees, but today the business environment is knowledge driven.
How do you retain the knowledge even if people leave?
Human Resources/ Human talent is one of the critical most parts for any SME. People are the crucial most resource. The core team/ Middle and Senior management are the essential organs for the right functioning of your company. For technology companies, project managers and the actual delivery teams are defining aspects.
If we take a situation where your people leave to explore other opportunities in life? Its not just that your people leave and you can hire more. But what leaves with them is the knowledge they had contributed to the company, colleagues, clients. Capturing this knowledge for any business is extremely important.
But many organizations have tried it before and not many have been successful
Its true that many organizations, large and small have tried their hand at KM. This led them to implement at a global level, tools such as MS Sharepoint and many other open source tools available. Still driving KM was not an easy option for them. Getting your employees to be a part of the initiative is not an easy task and this infact is one of the biggest challenges faced by any company establishing KM.
What are the challenges faced while implementing KM?
The biggest challenge while implementing KM is driving the initiative through people. While organizations invest heavily into tools which are bound to weave magic of knowledge and content across the organization, but training the employees to actually engage on such platforms is difficult. Employee feedback from many organizations which have implemented such systems has shown that asking them to use software systems for sharing their knowledge is not an activity they are comfortable in the routine scheme of things.
How should the SMEs go about implementing and driving KM?
Knowledge Management essentially is about managing 'information' which is generated throughout the organization by stakeholders, which involve employees, management etc. If we simply perceive it as creation, recording and management of information across the organizational hierarchy, all we need to ensure is to create a scalable structure which lets the employees share openly which adds onto the knowledge pool.
If your employees are on facebook, writing blogs, let them do the same internally!
If your employees are on facebook and writing blogs online, well, that's how they have evolved and that's how they like to communicate today. Why try changing it?
There are many tools available in the market which help replicate the same environment as facebook, Linkedin internally within the company. One example in this case is a tool called: Groupsite. The NASSCOM EMERGE community is based on the same.
What advantages does such a KM tool provides?
What is Knowledge Management and Why should SMEs focus on it?
WIkipedia defines KM (Knowledge Management) in this article. Though KM has always been considered as a prime function which is given focus when companies achieve a certain scale both in terms of revenues and employees, but today the business environment is knowledge driven.
How do you retain the knowledge even if people leave?
Human Resources/ Human talent is one of the critical most parts for any SME. People are the crucial most resource. The core team/ Middle and Senior management are the essential organs for the right functioning of your company. For technology companies, project managers and the actual delivery teams are defining aspects.
If we take a situation where your people leave to explore other opportunities in life? Its not just that your people leave and you can hire more. But what leaves with them is the knowledge they had contributed to the company, colleagues, clients. Capturing this knowledge for any business is extremely important.
But many organizations have tried it before and not many have been successful
Its true that many organizations, large and small have tried their hand at KM. This led them to implement at a global level, tools such as MS Sharepoint and many other open source tools available. Still driving KM was not an easy option for them. Getting your employees to be a part of the initiative is not an easy task and this infact is one of the biggest challenges faced by any company establishing KM.
What are the challenges faced while implementing KM?
The biggest challenge while implementing KM is driving the initiative through people. While organizations invest heavily into tools which are bound to weave magic of knowledge and content across the organization, but training the employees to actually engage on such platforms is difficult. Employee feedback from many organizations which have implemented such systems has shown that asking them to use software systems for sharing their knowledge is not an activity they are comfortable in the routine scheme of things.
How should the SMEs go about implementing and driving KM?
Knowledge Management essentially is about managing 'information' which is generated throughout the organization by stakeholders, which involve employees, management etc. If we simply perceive it as creation, recording and management of information across the organizational hierarchy, all we need to ensure is to create a scalable structure which lets the employees share openly which adds onto the knowledge pool.
If your employees are on facebook, writing blogs, let them do the same internally!
If your employees are on facebook and writing blogs online, well, that's how they have evolved and that's how they like to communicate today. Why try changing it?
There are many tools available in the market which help replicate the same environment as facebook, Linkedin internally within the company. One example in this case is a tool called: Groupsite. The NASSCOM EMERGE community is based on the same.
What advantages does such a KM tool provides?
- Capturing knowledge
- Self learning and intuitive engagement and sharing tools as: internal blogging platform, discussion boards, file sharing, photo sharing etc.
- Ease of use
- Creation of networked, function specific focus groups: HR, Finance, Marketing
- Creation of raw content: employees communicating on such platforms while sharing best practices and other pieces of knowledge are indirectly creating raw content, which can be used by marketing
- Flattened organizational structure: such tools help in creating a holistic environment across the organization, while allowing employees to always be in touch with the management
- Reducing cost of recruitment: internal campaigns can be very successfully managed across such platforms
- Managing internal communication and internal marketing campaigns
- Addressing and increasing employee retention
- Scalable structure for the management to communicate with employees globally in one go
Employee engagement: how to drive it?
Creating a core group consisting of management, KM team and a representative each from every organizational function as HR, Marketing, Finance etc. should be the first step towards setting the KM structure for the SME.
Training should be the second step. Employees should be trained on core principles of using the KM tool. This process must be incentivized for them making it a part of their KRA's; which will drive them initially towards using the tool.
For SMEs KM especially is a critical part of the game as it ensures creation and management of information and keeping the IP and organizational knowledge within. To know more on KM and how you should go about leveraging the power of KM and the various tools available, drop in a comment to this post and our team of experts will be happy to help!
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