What is a Knowledge Base?
A knowledge base (KB) is an organized electronic resource that contains structured information whose purpose is to preserve knowledge within an organization, department, or team, as well as to manage and disseminate that knowledge.
What does a Knowledge Base include?
A knowledge base can contain a variety of elements, including:
instructions,
policies,
descriptions of standard operating procedures (SOPs),
registers of reports and services,
organizational structure, dictionaries, naming conventions, dashboards, and other important information for employees and customers.
Depending on the target audience, knowledge bases are divided into internal ones, available only to company employees, and external ones, open to all users, including customers. In this article, we will focus on the first type - knowledge base for employees.
Benefits of an internal knowledge base:
Let's look at the benefits of an internal knowledge base on different levels from the perspective of different users.
For business owners
Force majeure protection A centralized knowledge base helps to reduce the risks associated with the absence of key employees or changes in staff. All important information is stored in one place, which guarantees the continuity of business processes.
Improvement of the company's attractiveness for investment A well-structured knowledge base is a sign of a company's maturity. This has a positive impact on investment attractiveness, demonstrating to investors that the company is organized and stable.
Scaling The repeatable processes described above will also allow you to open new areas or enter new markets faster while avoiding unnecessary mistakes through standardization.
Improvement of the quality of products and services A knowledge base allows a company to systematically collect feedback from customers and employees, which can be used to improve products and services. Analyzing data from the knowledge base helps to identify weaknesses and introduce innovations that increase the company's competitiveness.
For managers
Increased time for strategic tasks An internal knowledge base helps managers free up time that they used to spend on responding to employee requests and monitoring the implementation of standard procedures. This allows them to devote more time to strategic planning and business development.
Reduced dependence on specific employees Systematic data in the knowledge base helps to avoid situations when the absence of certain employees can become critical for the business. This increases the flexibility of the organization and ensures stability by avoiding dependencies.
Reduced onboarding costs An effective knowledge base can significantly reduce the cost of training new employees and upskilling existing ones. With centralized access to information, a company can reduce the cost of training and seminars at the onboarding stage, as well as reduce the number of errors that arise from lack of knowledge or simple negligence.
Support the process approach The knowledge base can serve as the basis for the process approach, as it contains all the descriptions necessary for its implementation: processes, roles, positions; instructions themselves, etc. It is an indispensable element of the company's transition to a new level of organization and, in the future, the transition to the level of a process company.
For employees
Improve work efficiency The knowledge base provides quick and easy access to important information and resources, allowing employees to find answers to questions and solve problems without having to contact colleagues or management. This can significantly optimize the time spent searching for information and increase productivity.
Retention and transfer of knowledge Changes in staff can lead to the loss of important information. A knowledge base helps to store and organize the knowledge accumulated by employees, making it easy to transfer to new employees.
Increase transparency and coherence of communications A centralized knowledge base contributes to coherent and transparent communications within the company. All employees have access to the same information, which helps to avoid misunderstandings and ensure unity of approach in solving work tasks.
How to build a knowledge base in a company or department?
To get all the benefits of a Knowledge Base, it must be created in the right way, and this requires a structured and systematic approach. This step-by-step action plan can help you with this task:
Define the needs and objectives Understand the main purpose of why and for whom you are building the knowledge base. First of all, you need to understand whether you are creating an internal knowledge base for your employees or an external one for your customers. After that, define the potential users in more detail - their roles, needs, goals, etc., and plan the appropriate scope of the Knowledge Base implementation project.
Plan the structure of the knowledge base This stage can be considered the most important because any system is based on a structure that must be logical, understandable, and scalable. To do this, make a list of:
types of information that will be presented in the Knowledge Base (you can refer to the list at the beginning of the article),
types of users (whether they are divided into teams, departments, or areas of work) and, taking this into account, develop the structure.
Select and configure a service for building the knowledge base In general, this can be Google Docs, but to expand the possibilities, you should pay attention to specialized services such as Notion or Coda. They will make your work easier, make the knowledge base more user-friendly, and allow you to include additional types of information (e.g. charts or forms).
Gather and analyze the information Gather all available documentation, manuals, FAQs, and other materials. Talk to people who have unique knowledge and record their experiences and insights. Overlay this information on your planned structure and refine it if necessary.
Gather content for the knowledge base Prepare the necessary articles, instructions, and other materials. It is important to keep the material clear and understandable, so you should develop a single format for arranging information. This way, users do not have to spend extra time getting used to a different style. Use appropriate formatting, add images, graphs, and videos to make the information easier to understand. It's time for the final stage - transfer all the prepared materials to the chosen platform. Don't forget to create a convenient navigation and search system (if you want to go one level higher, you can even consider an AI solution).
Plan for regular updates To keep the knowledge base alive, it is critical to develop a system to keep the information up-to-date. For each document, you need to identify a responsible "expert" and set up cyclical checkpoints where the information will be checked and updated. A service like Notion even has a separate functionality for this. The "expert" is a role, and it is not the only one when working with a knowledge base. Given the size of the company and the knowledge base itself, there should be at least one more role - the role of "Administrator", which will deal with the technical and administrative parts. Accordingly, you need to plan for an employee for this role as well.
Conduct user training To ensure that your knowledge base is actively used, it is important that you train your employees to work with it at the outset. Hold training sessions and workshops to explain how to find and use the information. Save this training, preferably in the form of short guides or video tutorials to remind and train new employees. A small tip: try to structure the training in such a way that even if the structure of the database or some of its functions change, you do not have to re-record the entire training.
And don't forget about monitoring, improvement, and development. Once you have successfully implemented the KB, it is important to remember that the work is still ongoing. Gather feedback from users regularly, for example through cyclical surveys. If possible (not all services have this functionality), track which materials are in high demand and which are not. This will help you optimize the structure and content over time. To keep the Knowledge Base up-to-date, regularly update information, add new materials remove outdated data, and introduce new features that can improve the experience of using your Knowledge Base.
These recommendations will allow you to quickly build a Knowledge Base that will remain relevant and useful for employees and the company.
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