What You Might Be Overlooking On the Importance of Knowledge Sharing

Knowledge sharing is usually not seen as a top priority by management because it takes some time to put in place and the ROI can be hard to define. It can cost a lot of time, tools, infrastructure, and energy to implement, and the benefits aren’t always immediate. 

For that reason, many organizations overlook the importance of knowledge sharing. There’s a perception that people don’t have the bandwidth to work on it or that it will take over their lives.

However, the beauty of peer to peer knowledge sharing is that everyone contributes so nobody has to take full ownership of it. Certainly not management, since studies show time and time again that top-down communication creates silos and frustrates employees.

Evaluating Cost and ROI

It’s not easy to evaluate the cost of knowledge sharing, especially when setting it up for the first time. There are many platforms and apps you can purchase that will help you.  You could even use tools you already have access to, like email, your intranets, an LMS or chat tools. There’s also the cost of time, but like anytime you learn something new, there’s a downpayment upfront of your time and effort that pays off over time.

The good thing though, video-driven knowledge sharing doesn’t have to be a high-end production. We outline this topic in-depth in the “The Budget “Problem” section of our blog post, Powerful Enterprise Learning Strategies You Might Be Missing.

As far as ROI goes, when knowledge sharing becomes so ingrained in your business it will eventually feel like it’s synonymous with how you operate. What’s the ROI of PowerPoint or Excel for your organization? What’s the ROI of email? It’s impossible to calculate exactly, but you know you couldn’t do business without them.

Here are a couple of statistics that will blow your mind:

• On average 6 out of 10 employees find it difficult to get the information they need to do their job well.
• A new employee spends about 28 hours per month working inefficiently because they are new at the job and they don't know where to find information.

How to Incentivize Your Team

The fact of the matter is that you’re going to face resistance, just like anytime you try to implement new processes. The key is to identify some early adopters and incentivize them to engage and encourage their peers to embrace the new approach of peer to peer knowledge sharing.

Gamification is one of the most effective ways to get your team to buy in and actually want to take part. Create a competition for who can create the most knowledge sharing videos and offer a reward for top-performing employees. You can have a leaderboard, weekly or monthly challenges, and prizes. Maybe it’s a cash reward or an extra day off – either way, set up a competitive environment, and watch your team thrive!

Ultimately, it all comes back to basics: setting up the right processes in place so that the right things happen consistently. Whether you’ve got a rookie salesperson or a 30 year veteran of billing operations, everyone brings knowledge and experience to the table. When you give them the tools to share that, everyone benefits, and wonderful things happen. 

Have you been overlooking the importance of knowledge sharing? Grab our guide, 100+ Prompts to Drive Knowledge Sharing through Video, to get 100+ ideas, questions, and prompts to help your team deliver important, authentic, and amazing content that drives your business forward!