The incredible synergy between knowledge management and eLearning

When employees leave your company or move into different roles, there’s a risk of their hard-earned expertise getting lost. And as the workforce ages and an increasing number of employees move towards retirement, that cumulative loss can really impact your business. Fortunately, there’s a way to prevent this issue: corporate knowledge management (KM).  

KM can help your company collect and organize your employees’ knowledge, making it accessible to the rest of the team. This kind of knowledge sharing makes it easier for everyone to get the knowledge they need when they need it. And that helps your company stay competitive in the long term. In this article, we’ll explain why knowledge management and eLearning have so much synergy and show you how you can start implementing knowledge management in your company.

Knowledge management (KM) is a management approach that sees knowledge itself as a resource and aims to take full advantage of the business potential that it represents. 
It involves cataloging and sharing your company’s intellectual assets — the collective knowledge your employees have gained over the years — so that they can be passed on and reused among individual colleagues, departments, and organizational units within your company. 
This strategic process helps your business make better decisions, work more efficiently, and stay ahead of the competition.

In knowledge management, intellectual assets are first located and documented, then made accessible to all authorized individuals. That might look like storing documents in an intranet or internal databases. You might also create a company “Yellow Pages” to help people locate the information they are looking for or find the right person to answer their questions.

In most companies, the knowledge management process is distinct from corporate training. So knowledge is gathered and made available, but it isn’t always used to train employees. However, some innovative companies are recognizing the benefits this has to offer. As a result, they are using eLearning to actively pass on the knowledge gathered during the knowledge management process. 

eLearning is a way of sharing information that uses digital resources and technology to deliver educational content. It offers unparalleled flexibility, which is why many companies use it for employee training and onboarding. It also reduces training costs compared to in-person training.  With eLearning, learners can study when and where they want to, and many courses include multimedia elements such as videos and quizzes. 

One of the most exciting features of eLearning is the ability to create individual learning paths for different employees. That lets each person learn what they need to know without wasting time on topics they have already mastered. eLearning also makes it easy to offer non-traditional forms of learning like  “knowledge snacks” like flashcards, quizzes, podcasts, news articles, and more.

Knowledge management and eLearning have some similarities, but they aren’t exactly the same thing. eLearning can be used to share information on any number of topics that are relevant to a company — for example, employees could complete mandatory safety training, learn about new legislation that affects their work, or get training in conducting performance reviews. 

Knowledge management, on the other hand, is more focused on collecting and sharing company-specific information such as best practices, lessons learned, and insights gained in specific roles or departments. In some cases, part of that information might be shared using eLearning, but not always. Many companies with knowledge management processes simply store the collected knowledge in content management systems and intranets where employees can access them. However, as we mentioned above, this is starting to change.

For knowledge management to be truly effective, the information that was gathered needs to be used in daily business operations. To that end, it can either be shared passively — so employees can search for the information on an as-needed basis — or it can shared actively by providing training. That’s where eLearning comes in.

eLearning can help your company take the knowledge gathered in your KM processes and pass it on to your employees. It could become part of your onboarding process, support employees who are stepping up into leadership roles, or be used to train teams on the other side of the world. Because eLearning is so flexible, it is the ideal way to design a training program that suits your company’s specific needs.

Some of the more innovative eLearning options — user-generated content and situation-based learning — offer some particularly exciting possibilities for passing on knowledge from one set of employees to the next.

Most eLearning programs are based on professionally created content your company has produced or purchased from content producers. User-generated content, on the other hand, is content that your employees create themselves. That could be anything from a Word Doc to an infographic to a video or audio recording. User-generated content is an ideal way to gather and share the job-related wisdom your employees have gained. See our article about getting started with user-generated content for more info. 

If you’ve ever wished you could have your employees practice on-the-job situations before they happen, you’re in luck. Situation-based learning such as Knowledgeworker Coach lets your employees navigate tricky situations in a safe environment. If you recruit more experienced employees to help design the simulations, you can create a digital coach that can pass down their on-the-job knowledge. This makes it possible for them to “mentor” new employees even after they leave the company.

If your knowledge-management process ends with storing the information on an intranet or other database, you’re missing out on potential benefits. Making information available is a good start, but you’ll be able to put that knowledge to better use in your company if you proactively incorporate it into your training materials or your corporate academy.

Using an authoring tool like Knowledgeworker Create, you can quickly create appealing, effective online courses to share with your employees. With a good authoring tool, you’ll be able to take static information stored on your intranet and make it engaging and accessible. Add things like quizzes, interactive elements, and gamification to help employees learn more effectively. And with a learning management platform, you can create individualized learning paths for your employees and assign relevant modules, lessons, or courses to help them on their way

And the synergy goes in both directions. The intellectual assets gained during the knowledge management process can help make your eLearning programs even more effective. Here are some ideas for incorporating your company’s intellectual assets into your corporate training materials:

• Add fresh content to your employee onboarding program
• Create a new module in an existing eLearning course
• Create an entire course based on content from the knowledge management process
• Purchase a pre-made course and customize it for your company using your shared internal knowledge
   

To successfully combine knowledge management and eLearning, there are a few things you’ll want to pay special attention to. Firstly, the process usually requires cross-departmental collaboration between corporate training and knowledge management, so you’ll want to ensure that you have effective leadership to support the initiative.

It's also crucial to use user-friendly technology platforms, such as authoring tools, content management systems, and learning management systems. These will make it simple for employees to share and access information. A good authoring tool will make it easier for employees to create user-generated content, and for corporate trainers to create new modules or courses. 

When you’re preparing to incorporate the data from your knowledge-management program into your eLearning coursework, you should keep the guidelines for content recycling in mind. For example, think modularly about your content — create smaller chunks that you can reuse in other courses or modules. Tag your data so you can find it easily. And update your content regularly to keep it engaging. By keeping these points in mind, you’ll be able to combine knowledge management and eLearning effectively and efficiently.