In today’s fast-paced, digital working world, knowledge is the currency that can make the difference between success and failure. But how can you preserve this valuable knowledge when employees leave the company or change positions? We shed light on how structured knowledge management becomes a crucial resource in the employee journey to ensure your company’s competitiveness.
Onboarding is the first step in imparting the necessary knowledge to new employees. Effective onboarding goes far beyond an introduction to the corporate culture and includes position-related knowledge relevant to the respective role.
Position-based onboarding ensures new employees are quickly and efficiently trained in their tasks. This significantly reduces the training time for new employees and increases productivity. Therefore, a structured onboarding process is essential to make it easier for new employees to get started and prepare them for their tasks in the best possible way.
When an employee changes positions in the company, two processes are essential: thorough offboarding from the old position and targeted onboarding into the new role. During offboarding, the employee should leave behind contextualized knowledge that will help their successor continue working seamlessly. This includes detailed documentation, relevant contacts, and specific information necessary for the successful continuation of tasks.
At the same time, they need position-specific onboarding to familiarize themselves with their new tasks and responsibilities quickly. Structured onboarding for the new role helps the employee acquire the knowledge and skills required to succeed in the new position. This reduces the training period and increases the employee’s satisfaction and motivation.
Important: The employee experience regarding cross-boarding is often negative, as a lot is expected of employees from their first day at work. However, equal attention is not paid to transferring knowledge along the employee journey, which can lead to excessive demands.
If you look closely at an employee’s time at a company, you can visualize the “employee journey” using an employee journey map. This clarifies that the next cut in the employee journey will likely be parental leave or a sabbatical. Of course, leaving the company is also an option, but we will look at this at the end.
If an employee goes on parental leave or sabbatical, careful offboarding is necessary so their replacement or colleagues can continue their tasks and projects. Structured offboarding ensures that all relevant information and processes are documented and handed over so that the continuity of work is guaranteed. This minimizes the risk of errors and delays during the employee’s absence.
After returning, reboarding should be carried out to keep the employees current and provide them with the relevant information for a smooth re-entry. Effective reboarding includes updates on current projects, changes in processes, and new developments within the company. This enables the employee to return to their role and become productive quickly.
Final offboarding is crucial when an employee leaves the company, whether for an external transfer or retirement. The employee’s implicit and explicit knowledge should be comprehensively documented and handed to the company. This ensures that valuable knowledge is preserved and can continue to be used. Structured offboarding includes detailed handover protocols, documentation, and safeguarding of essential contacts.
A well-executed offboarding process helps the company and the successor quickly familiarize themselves with their new role. It reduces the induction period and ensures that the transition runs smoothly. This is particularly important to ensure continuity and efficiency in day-to-day work.
A seamless transition during offboarding is just the beginning. Throughout the entire employee lifecycle, companies must ensure that relevant knowledge is secured, processed, and made accessible. This includes both the tacit knowledge in employees’ minds and the explicit knowledge that is documented. A well-thought-out knowledge management strategy ensures that knowledge does not leave the company with the employees but can continue to be used in a targeted manner.
In addition, continuous knowledge transfers can also reduce head monopolies. This ensures that knowledge, employee experience, and expertise are collected not only when someone leaves the company but also during the employee journey. This continuous flow of knowledge promotes a culture of sharing and continuous development.
A well-structured employee journey mapping is an indispensable tool to ensure this continuous flow of knowledge. Identifying and analyzing the touchpoints helps companies better understand which phases and incisions are really relevant and which factors play a role at each touchpoint. This not only offers the opportunity to effectively secure and pass on knowledge but also helps to identify knowledge gaps and then rectify them.
By taking a holistic view of the employee lifecycle, companies are better prepared for all phases of the employee journey, such as parental leave, sabbaticals, internal transfers, and retirement.
A well-structured employee journey makes companies more attractive employers and leads to more motivated employees. If employees feel that their knowledge is valued and their career development is actively supported, they are more likely to remain loyal to the company. This is particularly important in times of demographic change, as retaining talent is crucial to a company’s long-term success.
The company can ensure that knowledge is systematically recorded, processed, and passed on by continuously accompanying employees throughout their journey. This reduces dependency on individual employees and ensures that knowledge remains within the company, even if employees leave the company.
Comprehensive employee journey mapping is therefore not only a tool for improving knowledge management, but also a decisive factor for employee satisfaction and retention. It helps companies to better prepare for the various phases of the employee journey and ensures that valuable knowledge is retained and can be used on an ongoing basis.
Digital, position-related knowledge transfers are a key component of well-thought-out employee journey mapping. If these transfers are well structured and personalized, they offer an efficient way of capturing and documenting knowledge, ensuring that it can be made accessible to other employees.
Using AI technologies, knowledge gaps can be identified, and targeted measures can be taken to secure knowledge. In this way, knowledge remains within the company and can be used continuously.
Digital tools enable the systematic recording of implicit and explicit knowledge. This ensures that valuable information is not lost but remains accessible for future employees.
Digital knowledge transfers allow users to write comments on documents, add other stakeholders in case of questions, and link different files.
Digitally recorded knowledge can be retrieved much more easily than files sitting in the corner of an office. This is particularly valuable in remote working and hybrid working models.
In many companies, valuable knowledge is lost when employees leave. Digital knowledge transfer helps minimize this risk by ensuring that knowledge is systematically recorded and processed.
If new employees have access to a well-structured digital knowledge pool, they can be trained faster and more efficiently. This shortens the induction period and increases productivity.
Digital platforms facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experience between employees. This can improve collaboration and help to develop innovative solutions.
Digital tools enable a standardized and consistent transfer of knowledge. This ensures that all employees have access to the same information and are trained to the same standards.
Using digital tools and platforms, companies can quickly adapt their knowledge management processes to changing requirements, enabling an agile response to new challenges and opportunities.
This is where great2know comes in: We make knowledge transfer more targeted and efficient. On our digital platform, you can create well-structured knowledge transfers and optimize the process with the help of advanced AI technologies.
We ensure that no relevant knowledge is lost through position-related knowledge transfers and tailored questionnaires. This leads to faster and more precise induction and ensures the long-term availability and use of knowledge.
great2know offers a comprehensive digital solution that effectively masters knowledge management challenges. Our platform makes knowledge transfer more efficient, precise, and user-friendly. This enables companies to use their knowledge resources optimally and operate more successfully in the long term.
A well-thought-out employee lifecycle and structured knowledge management are, therefore, crucial to ensuring efficiency and continuity in companies. By ensuring that knowledge is continuously secured and made accessible, companies can increase productivity and prevent the loss of valuable knowledge. Structured and digital support for these processes is essential to meeting the challenges of the modern working world.
Structured knowledge management processes enable new employees to be trained more quickly, improve the efficiency of internal position changes, and ensure that valuable knowledge is preserved even during parental leave or sabbaticals. Digital, position-related knowledge transfers play a central role here by enabling the precise recording and transfer of knowledge.
Well-thought-out employee journey mapping helps companies identify the different phases of the employee journey and address them in a targeted manner. This contributes to employee satisfaction and retention, increases efficiency and productivity, and makes the company a more attractive employer.
A structured and digitally supported knowledge management process is essential in times of demographic change and increasing competition for qualified specialists. It ensures that employees feel valued and that their knowledge is optimally utilized, providing the company’s long-term success. Companies that proactively implement modern digital solutions are thus equipped to master the challenges of today’s working world.
