The first thing that comes to a team leader’s mind when a newcomer joins their team is knowledge transfer (KT). KT is a process through which an organization/team shares instructional knowledge and best practices with its new joiners. This process also helps the company curb knowledge and insight loss when a team member leaves the organization.
Effective knowledge transfer enables the organization to standardize quality and reduce delivery time. It helps industry leaders identify blockages and remove business constraints. It also helps improve an organization’s human capital, which, per most CEOs, is the leading source of economic value.
Now that we have verified that KT is important, the next question is, how do you create a systematic and effective KT plan that encourages employees to learn?
Six steps for creating an effective knowledge-sharing plan
1. Logging Information Points
First, you need to identify what information your team needs on a day-to-day basis. This step also involves gathering details for concepts and processes that your team members use regularly. This step allows you to understand the scope of the knowledge transfer.
Before creating these points, the organization should also take into account the learner’s current skill set and proficiency level. This should also include any prerequisite training or certifications the learner requires before starting this plan.
2. Structure and Classification of Collected Information
Once you have identified the scope of your KT, you can create a system/record of that information. This step involves structuring your information in a sustainable manner so as to define a knowledge plan and connect the documentation.
The information should be mapped based on three factors: complexity, importance, and availability. Furthermore, you can also use tags, labels, and keywords to connect your documents and tutorials.
3. Platform and Mentor
Many organizations create a cloud-based knowledge center to collect and store the necessary documentation for knowledge transfer. This is an accessible document management method that allows you to share job insights and best practices with your new joiners. You can also use images and video tutorials to improve your understanding.
Furthermore, this process requires a mentor who can handle the abstract part of knowledge transfer. Assigning KT ownership increases personal accountability and helps solve issues quickly. It is especially useful for customer-centric jobs because shadowing is the best way to learn customer etiquette.
For mentorship, you need to identify individuals with deep industry experience. They should feel a sense of ownership in creating process documents and facilitating timely information transfer to new employees. This is also useful for the mentor, as they are able to display their managerial and leadership skills to management, which can help them move up the ladder and advance their careers.
4. The Actual KT Process
Knowledge transfer is a time-consuming and tedious operation of transferring personal and practical skills to a new joiner. An instructor can take a couple of different routes to facilitate that.
The first method is through mentoring (i.e., a process in which the mentor sits down with the candidate and trains him on a one-on-one basis). This is a labor-intensive process in which an experienced person focuses all their efforts on a single candidate. This process may also involve shadowing (i.e., the newcomer closely follows and observes experienced professionals performing their job role). There are three different types of shadowing: observation, regular briefings, and hands-on.
Since mentorship is such an individualized process, it allows learners to develop niche skills. In addition, this also helps candidates ask questions and get feedback on a real-time basis.
Classroom/computer-based training is a more generalized form of mentoring in which an instructor simultaneously imparts knowledge to a group. Many companies use classroom training for generalized training and to teach basic skills. Since it allows organizations to train a large number of individuals at the same time, it is one of the most cost-effective methods of knowledge transfer.
Collaborative training is a process in which many employees simultaneously share their insights and expertise with a newcomer. This practice allows newcomers to capitalize on the existing skills of multiple team members instead of learning from a single mentor. Furthermore, they get access to individualized concept understanding and doubt-solving sessions.
This is achieved by building a learning culture and community of practice where collaborative learning groups share their knowledge over a period of time. Some companies also use social media groups to facilitate this feedback loop.
The last method of knowledge transfer is guided experiences. This relatively newer method uses virtual and augmented reality to train new joiners on extremely tricky processes. Companies are now using this method for second-hand learning (i.e., you learn using the direct experience of others).
5. Review
Reviewing your knowledge transfer with the candidate and assessing their knowledge level post the learning process is important. This can be done through individualized assessment, on-the-job monitoring, and post-training SME interviews. This allows the instructor/trainer to measure the newcomers’ knowledge, track KPIs, and estimate the effectiveness of their knowledge transfer.
Reviews also help management understand job-specific challenges newcomers face and what can be done at an organizational level to solve them. Tracking momentum and process also enables SMEs to revise instructional content and remove irrelevant or outdated entries from the KT catalog.
6. Sign Off
Once the instructor is satisfied with the candidate’s knowledge and skills, both of them must sign off on the knowledge transfer. The document states that both the candidate and the instructor are satisfied with the KT. It also ensures that the KT was up to an appropriate standard and the candidate is now cleared to start working in the field.
However, signing the review doesn’t mean that the candidate cannot ask questions or has to work alone. The candidate can continue to seek advice and support from the instructor. They can also ask for additional training and clarification of complex processes if required.
Conclusion
As mentioned above, effective KT is a very labor-intensive process that requires a lot of time and effort for successful completion. Therefore, companies must invest considerable resources and human labor to facilitate seamless knowledge transfer. Tracking KT is also important since you need to measure performance and monitor skill level. This can be done via KT trackers.
However, performing efficient knowledge transfer drives productivity and reduces customer dissatisfaction issues. It also boosts collaboration and improves innovation from an organization’s perspective.
