7 Min
It is important to understand why employees hoard knowledge and what can be done to overcome this challenge. It can be due to job insecurity, lack of trust, or absence of systems.
Knowledge hoarding is a real modern-world problem that can cost companies millions of dollars if not handled properly.
In an ideal world, employees are expected to openly share knowledge gained during their professional relationship with the company to help the organization grow its revenue and bottom line.
Let us look at the challenges of organization knowledge hoarding and what can be done to overcome these challenges.
Table of content
Why can knowledge hoarding be detrimental to your organization?
There are various reasons why employees may exercise information hoarding in an organization. It can be unintentional but potentially dent the organization’s profitability. Here is why knowledge hoarding can be detrimental to your organization:
1. Lack of growth opportunities for employees
There is a limited talent pool in any organization. Any company that does not put in place systems to avoid knowledge hoarding would get the answers from the same people in the organization.
You need to have subject-matter experts, but you should also follow a system that encourages employees to learn more about the organization’s business.
One of the biggest challenges of knowledge hoarding is that you would not be able to help your employees grow into their roles and provide limited growth opportunities for employees.
2. Taking longer to complete tasks
With an increased knowledge hoarding in the organization, your employees would spend more time on tasks that would have otherwise taken them less time with adequate knowledge being shared.
For instance, the time taken to create regular presentations across departments in the organization for various purposes can be reduced drastically if resources are cataloged properly in a central location.
3. Loss of knowledge with employees leaving the organization
Attrition is a big problem for companies. If there is no system to share knowledge with other employees, the organization would regularly face loss of knowledge with employees leaving the organization.
As more employees would leave the organization, a vacuum emerges in the day-to-day operations that can impact the company’s long-term growth.
4. Informal channels of knowledge sharing leading to loss of information
If there are no systems that encourage employees to share knowledge with a central channel, informal channels of knowledge sharing would emerge in an organization.
It can be over WhatsApp, Slack, email, or any other communication platform that employees use. While employees get access to the solution at that moment, the knowledge shared over these channels tends to get lost in the other communication taking place on the platform.
It is better to have formal platforms like Knowmax to help keep the resources in a central place.
5. No transparency in the work environment
With knowledge hoarding, the biggest challenge is the lack of transparency in the organization’s work. Employees are expected to share their victories and the shortcomings and challenges they face in their projects.
This would help other employees to learn from their mistakes and work more efficiently. With knowledge hoarding, a culture of non-transparency emerges in the organization.
How can you overcome the challenge of knowledge hoarding?
You can take various steps to overcome the challenge of knowledge hoarding. Here are a few steps that can help you prevent knowledge hoarding in the organization:
1. Create a centralized knowledge base
One of the best steps that you can take to prevent knowledge hoarding is to make a centralized knowledge base organizing all information and making it accessible to all your employees.
This central resource can be a KM platform like Knowmax that will help you build resources for your employees that will help them in various stages of a project. It improves the searchability and findability of information while making it actionable and easy to consume.
2. Create FAQs
One of the best ways to avoid a case of knowledge hoarding in the organization is to create detailed FAQs. This will help all the employees to get to know the various answers to common questions in a structured manner.
This will also give more time to your top performers to focus on new initiatives instead of helping answer basic queries for others.
3. Support multiple formats
It is important to understand that employees create and interact with various file types. It can be an image, audio, video, etc. You must ensure that the central knowledge resource supports multiple formats so that employees can share knowledge in various ways and have more choices.
4. Reward employees for sharing knowledge
You should create a culture of knowledge sharing in the organization. You create a culture of transparency and trust when you reward your employees for sharing knowledge with their colleagues and helping them perform better.
Implementing a platform that assists with employee recognition can add a lot of value, ensuring that employees get the acknowledgment they deserve
5. Opt for a formal channel
You should opt for a formal channel to prevent knowledge hoarding. Rather than depending on informal channels, you should create a formal channel like a knowledge management portal to help your employees reach out for these resources when needed.
By creating a formal channel, you would establish a structure under which employees are expected to share knowledge.
Concluding
These are possible challenges you may face with knowledge hoarding and the steps you can take to prevent knowledge hoarding in the organization. It is best to have a knowledge management system powering your actions as it will reduce the chances of knowledge hoarding.
A knowledge management platform like Knowmax can be used to develop the organization’s knowledge base, visual guides, and learning management system. You can create different sets of resources for employees to help them grow into their roles and help drive company revenue.
