Are You a Critical Knowledge Holder?

Almost every workplace has one — an employee with so much critical knowledge that it would be a real hardship to find a replacement. If you manage a knowledge holder, it's important to have a backup plan in case that person retires or takes a different job. Follow these tips to ensure critical knowledge stays with your company at all times.

1. Create a Procedure Manual

Every time a knowledge holder develops a new course of action for completing a business task, document the process in your company procedure manual. Write a step-by-step guide so all employees are able to complete the process with minimal supervision. Instead of keeping the manual in your office, keep it in a location accessible to everyone in your department.

2. Tag Documents Accordingly

Tagging makes it easy to find important documents long after a knowledge holder leaves your company. Employees should use appropriate tags every time they create new files. If you create a file related to your department's budget, for example, "budget 2016" and "department budget" are good tags to use.

3. Survey Employees

In some cases, you don't even know you have a knowledge holder on staff until you take the time to talk to employees. If you are worried about a key employee leaving the department, create a short survey and distribute it via email. Ask employees to rate their proficiency or level of knowledge in several areas. Use the completed surveys to create a directory of knowledge holders organized by topic.

4. Encourage Collaboration

If you encourage employees to collaborate, you're less likely to end up with just one knowledge holder in your department. You need several knowledgeable people on hand to answer questions and teach new employees how to complete certain tasks. Collaboration also sparks conversation and helps team members build strong bonds, which is an added bonus.

5. Start an Internal Blog

Every employee in your department should document the work they do in some way. A good way to keep all of that documentation in one place is to start an internal blog. Have employees document project outcomes, keep track of vendor and customer contact information, and write down some of the problems they faced on each project.

6. Use an Email List

If you don't have the resources necessary to start an internal blog, create a group email list. Daily or weekly emails are ideal for keeping people in the loop on different projects. You can also archive these emails and refer to them again and again, making it easier to share organizational knowledge with others.

A knowledge holder is a valuable asset for any company, but it is difficult to replace such an employee without a plan in place. Protect your company from the loss of organizational knowledge by implementing these tips as soon as possible.

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