Use Knowledge Base Software To Achieve Optimum Productivity

What is Knowledge Base Software (KBS)? It’s essentially an online self-service library. Other names for the systems manage a repository of information on a service, product, subject, or group within your business. For example, you may be using Knowledge Management System (KMS).

Knowledge base software can foster worker productivity and teamwork, and there is evidence it’s can improve sales and reduce employee turnover and costs.

Optimal Working Environment

Throughout the past few years, experts have pegged “knowledge” as one of the definitive elements of an optimal working environment.

Various surveys and studies have shown that proper knowledge acquisition and management can help:

• Improve productivity by 40% or more
• Increase sales by 50% or more
• Reduce employee turnover by up to 67%

One really powerful way of achieving these results is for companies to have a knowledge base software and facilitate org wide knowledge sharing.

Features of an optimal working environment

In order to understand how knowledge base software can help create an optimal work environment, it’s necessary for companies to understand what an ideal/optimal workplace looks like. A few features of an optimal working environment include:

• High productivity
• Fewer mistakes during work
• Reduced number of bottlenecks in operations
• Seamless communication and sharing of information between employees
• Reliable leadership that inspires confidence
• Employee diversity and inclusivity
• Work-life balance
• Clarity in goal setting and employee expectations
• Strong and mutually-beneficial employer-employee relations

Now we know what conditions create the optimal work environment, let’s move on to how KBS assists with achieving the right work conditions.

Knowledge Base Software

Knowledge base tools can have a very positive impact on workplace development.. For example Knowledge base tools can have a very positive impact on workplace development.

Access

Important information that employees require during their work lifecycle is available via a KBS. From onboarding manuals to training material to performance improvement plans, employees need tons of material during their time at a company. Knowledge base software can become a one-stop repository for all data and documentation that companies require in managing an employee’s work lifecycle.

With access, it’s easier for employees to search for the information they need, share materials with their teams and stay on top of their workplace responsibilities. This automatically reduces time spent searching for information and gives employees more time to spend on core tasks.

Communication

Did you know knowledge management systems help champion organizational culture and reduce attrition? Staff need to know they’re connected to the business and its people. One of the main uses of knowledge base software is to share information about the company’s policies, mission, vision and culture.

Frequently, employee attrition occurs when employees find it challenging to fit into the existing company culture. But when this culture and employee expectations are outlined in the knowledge base software, it becomes easy for new joiners to know their role, responsibilities, and obligations towards the company.

Additionally, org-wide knowledge sharing can ensure essential information isn’t lost or misrepresented as it flows from one ear to another. Employees can look up the data they need and expect complete accuracy and reliability. This opens up lines of communication, reduces chances of poor collaboration and ensures everyone in the team is on the same page.

Speed

When a business uses a KBS correctly, it can reduce costs associated with low productivity.

According to findings in the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report, companies lose about $47 million in lost productivity due to insufficient knowledge sharing. That’s a lot of money.

Org wide knowledge sharing using knowledge base software can prevent communication gaps, which lead to companies making mistakes that they could have avoided. The timely availability of information can help companies recognize profitable opportunities that can help them tap new markets or find ways to retarget existing customers.

Support quicker and more consistent sales closures

Knowledge base software also contains information about the company’s products and services. This library can be tapped into by sales teams with ease, allowing them to learn more about the product/service they’re selling.

Apart from this, knowledge base software allows teams to create a repository of customer doubts and complaints about the offerings, which sales teams can pursue to learn how to handle tricky questions during sales pitches.

Transparency

There is another reason for creating a knowledge library of such employee-client interactions. A study by Harvard Business Review showed that employees tend to hide knowledge – and not share it – when they find too many people depending on them for information. The constant clamor by coworkers helps pressure employees to spend time on others’ tasks while foregoing their own – an undesirable outcome for many. A knowledge base software where employees submit their experiences and knowledge can reduce such a burden and promote active knowledge sharing between teams.

Complaint resolution

Speaking of customer service representatives, org-wide knowledge sharing using knowledge base software can also help a company improve post-sale service. For one, any new updates or releases can be easily input into the knowledge base software – information accessible by everyone across the company. Customer service reps can use this information to improve client experience with the brand and seamlessly support post-purchase requirements. Customer service reps can expedite the client’s request and ensure faster complaint resolution with greater visibility into what’s happening in other departments.

Improve Leadership

Knowledge base software is crucial for leaders to keep an eye on the company’s pulse. It also provides managers and C-level executives insight into what’s happening on the ground. This allows leaders to make better-informed decisions that will enable them to work towards more realistic and achievable outcomes.

Such knowledge-backed reliable management by leadership prevents resource wastage, increases employee loyalty and eliminates inefficient processes. Companies can quickly work towards growth since they are no longer caught rectifying any mistakes that the absence of information often results in.

Finally, leaders can use the information stored in the knowledge base software to rework redundant or hurtful policies that make the workplace inefficient and challenging. Decisions can improve work-life balance, increase productivity, optimize resource utilization across teams and create a more engaging and welcoming workplace.

Foster Inclusion and Diversity

They allow companies to make the workplace more comfortable and accept marginalized employees.

Employees hailing from the LGBTQIA+ community, PWD community and other groups which face marginalization and challenges can benefit from having a welcoming and inclusive workplace. But sometimes, companies fail to make available important information such as policies or operational guidelines that can help support the employee’s experience in the company.

Providing a knowledge base software that contains a ready repository of information can reduce the chances of stressful encounters that may hamper the employee’s experiences in the workplace. This library of information can also help sensitize other employees towards their colleagues, supporting their coworkers.

Wrapping Up

Knowledge base software can help streamline company operations and make work environments more employee-friendly. Detailed knowledge base software comparisons can help companies identify what features they need in their own knowledge tools. Studying various software will give employers a plethora of knowledge-based systems examples to choose from – tools that help them achieve their unique organizational objectives with all the usual identity and access security features.