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Discover why your business is making a big mistake if it’s not taking knowledge sharing seriously.
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“Knowledge sharing” and “competitive advantage” don’t often share the same sentence.
Countless studies have shown that an up-to-date company intranet can improve an organization in all the key metrics, from productivity to staff turnover all the way through to boosting its bottom line.
Read on for the keys to knowledge sharing success for sustaining organizational competitive advantage in your industry.
Wondering how much difference an internal wiki is going to make to your business?
You might be surprised by what studies have shown…
Improve knowledge sharing across your business and you could be amazed by how much untapped productivity you unlock.
In fact, the average employee spends an incredible 20% of their working week searching for the information they need to complete their daily tasks. That’s an entire working day every week spent trying to find information that would be just a few clicks of their mouse away if you set up a simple knowledge base.
It will come as no surprise that all that lost productivity makes a big dent in your bottom line.
It’s even estimated that inefficient knowledge sharing costs organizations with 1,000 employees a massive $2.7 million every year (rising to a whopping $13M for businesses with 5,000 employees).
The bigger your company, the bigger the impact idea management tools will have, with Fortune 500 companies losing at least $31.5 billion a year by failing to share knowledge.
No matter which way you cut it, a high staff turnover is bad for business. Leveraging knowledge sharing tools can increase employee retention, with 94% of workers saying they’ll stay at a company longer if there is a learning opportunity.
Knowledge sharing activities don’t just benefit your business – they also open up opportunities for your employees to learn more about how your organization works and helps ensure their role grows alongside their professional aspirations.
36% of employees find it hard to exchange information across different teams, causing silos.
Since 86% of workers say a lack of effective collaboration and communication is the main cause of workplace failures, it’s not hard to imagine the impact knowledge sharing for employees can have on your business.
Now you understand the benefits knowledge sharing can bring to your business, let’s look at how to implement it across your organization.
Stick to these knowledge sharing best practices to make sure your employees regularly add, amend, and access insights in your knowledge sharing platform.
Studies have shown you need to instill a culture of knowledge sharing across your company if you're going to have any luck implementing a successful knowledge sharing strategy.
It all starts with your leaders. If they’re generous with their knowledge, your employees are likely to follow suit. If they’re guarded with the details of the company’s strategy and direction, on the other hand, then you can’t expect your people to open up about their insider knowledge.
Beyond that, if your people think your company’s directors are leading them over the edge of a cliff, they don’t have much incentive to try and get there faster by sharing knowledge with others. And since only 22% of people strongly agree with the statement “I trust the leadership of this organization”, chances are that could prove to be a huge barrier to knowledge sharing in the workplace in your business.
To see if this could be a barrier to knowledge sharing in your business, be sure to run an anonymous staff survey asking people to rate how much faith they have in their leaders. Acting on the feedback you get from that is one of the most effective ways out there of fostering a culture of knowledge sharing out there.
Your employees aren’t going to use a knowledge sharing platform that’s difficult to access, clumsy to navigate, and impossible to search. Which means the knowledge sharing tool you choose needs to be easy to use – and integrate seamlessly with the software your team is already using.
So, be sure to think carefully about what the right knowledge sharing tools and techniques are for your workplace to help ensure your team engage with them.
While it’s important to keep your knowledge sharing platform organized, it’s also important to remember that people don’t like to be told what to do. In fact, a massive 60% of people say micromanagement is a demotivating factor at work.
Which is why it’s no surprise that studies have found that “transfer of knowledge is hindered by excessive formalization”.
Set rigid rules for how your people need to use your knowledge sharing tools and it’s not likely to get much uptake. Instead, focus on setting a positive example with your leaders and fostering a company culture that encourages collaboration so your people are motivated by the carrot and not the stick.
So, if enforcing strict rules for how your employees should use your knowledge sharing software is off the table, how can you make sure they’re updating it regularly and keeping it organized?
By recognizing them for their efforts.
Sounds too simple, right? Well, did you know 40% of American workers say they'd put more effort in at work if they were recognized more often? And 70% of people say motivation and morale would improve “massively” in their workplace if managers simply said “thank you” more often?
Rewarding teammates for adding their knowledge to your company knowledge base doesn't have to mean rolling out the red carpet for an award ceremony every five minutes – a simple, thoughtful, and imaginative reward can go a long way with your employees.
Last but not least, don't fall into the trap of thinking that a knowledge base is a replacement for proper employee training.
For example, teams learn a new process faster if someone is already familiar with the knowledge and walks them through it in-person rather than documenting their knowledge and sharing it that way.
One study discovered that “sharing codified knowledge in the form of electronic documents saved time during the task, but did not improve work quality or signal competence to clients. In contrast, sharing personal advice improved work quality and signaled competence, but did not save time.”
Be sure to combine your company wiki with knowledge sharing sessions where experienced employees share their personal insights into a process with their colleagues to get the best of both worlds when it comes to knowledge sharing.
Ask most leaders what the biggest untapped competitive advantage at their fingertips is and not many will say “knowledge sharing”.
A well-executed knowledge sharing strategy will boost productivity, collaboration, and retention across your business – not to mention the bottom line.
Stick to the simple tips we’ve outlined here to unlock your knowledge sharing competitive advantage.
Get the foundational knowledge on creating an employee recognition program that boosts employee engagement and helps them feel valued.
Explore Guide
Yes, at Assembly, security is a top priority. Each quarter, we have ongoing security work that is everyone’s responsibility. While we maintain a strong security posture, it was important for us to prove to our customers that we do everything we claim to do. This led us to pursue a SOC 2 Type II report that would provide evidence of our compliance with industry gold-standard security practice.
There is study after study showing that employee recognition leads to increased engagement. This in return creates an environment where employees are happier and more motivated which increase productivity and reduces voluntary turnover significantly. In order to filled critical roles, companies tend to spend nearly twice the value of an annual salary. Assembly is an investment in your employees that supports your bottom line.
Yes, we will offer contracts for companies with longer-term agreements to help larger customers have more certainty around future costs.
The minimum agreement term is a 12-month subscription.
We do and for FREE! Any new customer needing further support to get started with Assembly to ensure you're set up for success can request custom onboarding support. Improving your employee experience is about much more than just using our amazing software; it’s about transforming your business to create a workplace that people love. That’s much easier to do with the personal support and advice from our passionate people experts.
Yes. We offer a completely free plan for up to 50 team members. This plan is intended for teams or organizations that are looking to get started with an employee engagement tool. Keep in mind, this plan is limited in features.
All customers can open an Assembly account for free and get started without a credit card. Then you can change plans as necessary.
At the time of redemption (when your employees exchange their points for a paid reward) you'll pay face value. If a reward is a $10 Amazon gift card, your cost will be $10. All paid rewards are billed for on a monthly basis.
The good news is that you don't have to pay for rewards upfront because we only charge you when points are redeemed, not when they're earned.
We offer discounts or educational or charitable organizations. In order to secure a discount, you'll first need to book a demo with a customer support specialist.
For all other organizations, we are willing to consider longer-term agreements in exchange for discounts. To set up annual plans or longer, you will need to book a demo with a customer support specialist.
If you're on a month to month plan, you can go here and cancel anytime. If you're having concerns or need help setting up your account for success, you can always book a demo with a customer support specialist.
If you're on a longer-term custom plan, you'll need to reach out to your customer support specialist to cancel your account or email us at support@joinassembly.com.
Great question! You can customize your core values to match your organization's to boost and track alignment. You can change your currency from the 🏆 emoji (our default) to any emoji of your choice. You can swap our logo for your own. You can also set up company culture rewards such as, "Lunch with the CEO," "Buy a book on us," and so much more!
While we recommend a peer to peer set up where anyone in your organization can give or receive recognition, you can set up Assembly however you want. If you need to limit the people who can give or receive recognition, that's perfectly fine and can be done from your Admin, here.
Assembly connects to the tools your employees use every day to offer an easy, seamless experience with minimal change management.
Assembly has integrations with HCM/HRIS systems like ADP, Google, Office 365, and Slack. We also integrate with communication tools like Slack and Teams so you and your employees can access Assembly wherever they work now.
That depends on the company's permissions set up. That said, over 90% of the employees on Assembly's platform are recognized on a monthly basis. That means nearly every employee across all of our customers are receiving regular recognition from their peers, managers, or leadership. We're extremely proud of this.
They are not required. You can use Assembly without having rewards set up. However, we don't recommend it if you intend to have a high adoption and usage rate. You can always keep the costs down by offering internal culture rewards that are fulfilled by you internally.
No, you can remove allowances from anyone or everyone. It's up to you but we do recommend using points whether they're worth a real dollar value or not. Companies that use points have a much higher engagement rate even if those points don't exchange for real dollars.
Please schedule time with an expert and we will help you to get all your questions answered
