Maintaining knowledge and expertise is critical to running a successful organization. However, certain factors, such as employee turnover or retirement, can lead to the loss of institutional knowledge.
The loss of knowledge poses significant challenges for organizations, as it leads to decreased efficiency, disrupted workflows, and a decline in competitive advantage.
Understanding and addressing the factors behind the erosion of institutional knowledge is crucial for maintaining organizational continuity and fostering a culture of continuous learning. In this article, we will learn about the different types of institutional knowledge and how to document and use it in the workplace.
What Is Institutional Knowledge?
Institutional knowledge refers to the collective understanding, skills, experiences, and insights that are accumulated over time within an organization. This knowledge encompasses the unwritten rules, cultural nuances, historical information, best practices, and unique expertise that employees develop through their work.
Institutional knowledge is critical for maintaining continuity, ensuring efficiency, and making informed decisions. However, it is vulnerable to loss when key employees leave the organization or retire or when inadequate documentation and knowledge-sharing mechanisms are in place.
Types of Institutional Knowledge
Here are the three different types of institutional knowledge.
1. Explicit knowledge
Explicit knowledge refers to knowledge that is easily articulated, documented and shared. It is formal and structured, often found in the form of documents, procedures, databases, and training materials. Explicit knowledge is the most easily transferable type of institutional knowledge because it can be captured and communicated through written or digital formats.
Example: A company’s employee handbook that outlines policies, procedures, and expectations is an example of explicit knowledge. It provides clear, documented guidelines that employees can refer to at any time.
2. Implicit knowledge
Implicit knowledge is knowledge that is not formally documented but can be inferred or deduced from explicit knowledge. It involves applying explicit knowledge in specific contexts and is often acquired through experience or observation. Implicit knowledge bridges the gap between what is written down and how things are actually done in practice.
Example: An IT team may have a documented coding standard (explicit knowledge), but how developers apply these standards in different scenarios, such as optimizing code for performance or readability, reflects implicit knowledge gained through experience.
3. Tacit knowledge
Tacit knowledge is deeply rooted in individual experiences, insights, and intuitions. It is often subconscious, difficult to articulate, and cannot be easily transferred through written or verbal communication. Tacit knowledge is learned through personal experience, direct interaction, and hands-on practice. It includes the “know-how” that people develop over time.
Example: A senior manager’s ability to lead a team through a crisis by relying on years of experience and instinct represents tacit knowledge. This knowledge is difficult to document but is crucial for making quick, effective decisions in complex situations.
The Importance of an Institutional Knowledge Strategy
Institutional knowledge fosters business growth. Sounds vague, doesn’t it?
Let’s guide you through the direct effects of having an institutional knowledge strategy and show how they impact your business.
1. Documents and transfers critical knowledge
An institutional knowledge strategy requires capturing and transferring the knowledge that is critical for streamlining your business processes.
Learning by trial and error is an incredibly costly path for a growing business. You can avoid it by documenting workflows, policies, best practices, and all the other aspects that your employees deal with daily with process documentation.
More precisely, institutional knowledge documented facilitates the following processes:
- Employee onboarding
- Customer training
- Employee upskilling
- Company culture promotion
- Offboarding
Preserving knowledge plays an important role in every activity that your employees or customers are involved in. An institutional knowledge strategy allows to structure information and transfer it in the most effective way (knowledge base, webinars, workshops, help center, etc.), without the need to repeat it over and over again.
2. Develop employees
Have you ever calculated the cost of onboarding a new employee? The average cost of hiring a midrange employee is about 20% of their annual salary.
With that in mind, developing your employees is way more cost-effective than hiring experienced talents. Luckily, with an institutional knowledge strategy in place, it’s easy to train and upskill employees on the fly.
Workshops, on-demand resources, and in-person training are inevitable components of a knowledge-sharing culture and fit into an employee development plan strategy. Long-serving employees continually pass on their experience so that your junior and mid-level employees don’t get stuck in their positions and constantly develop.
And what happens when you don’t manage internal knowledge effectively? First of all, you become overly dependent on your long-tenured employees. They accumulate knowledge, isolate it, and take it with them when leaving the company.
The result? You don’t have a proper replacement when they leave (either temporarily or permanently) and need to go through an expensive hiring and onboarding process.
3. Improves employee retention
Would you prefer to work for a company with unlimited growth opportunities or become stuck in a less-than-desirable position? Along with fostering employee development, knowledge sharing reduces turnover and drives employee retention.
First of all, when reskilling or upskilling is easily accessible, there’s a place for internal mobility. How is that related to employee retention? Employees that have an opportunity to move across different wolves within an organization are 3.5x more likely to be engaged at work.
Most importantly, 92% of respondents agree that community-based learning at organizations creates a sense of belonging. In its turn, high belonging is linked to a 50% drop in turnover risk.
4. Reduces costly mistakes
“Ignorance of the law is no excuse” – everybody knows this important legal principle. In a way, you can apply it to your organization.
Knowledge hoarding also results in unknowingly breaking company policies, code of conducts, or even local compliance laws.
A clear knowledge management strategy allows you to keep all the members of the organization updated on the policies that affect them themselves, you as a business, or your customers.
Institutional Knowledge Use Cases in the Workplace
Here are some of the most important use cases of institutional knowledge in the workplace.
1. Creating a knowledge base or internal wiki
Most forms of institutional knowledge can be documented in a knowledge base or an internal wiki. This is the easiest way to transfer knowledge used by companies of all sizes.
An internal knowledge base is a hub where your employees document, share, and find information about an organization, product, operational procedures, workflows, etc. It’s difficult to keep it up-to-date, but it’s the least you can do to support institutional knowledge sharing in your organization.
A good internal wiki is distinguished by the following features:
- Clear sectioning and content hierarchy
- Table of contents
- Tagging
- Internal linking
2. Documentation and tutorials for better onboarding
Institutional knowledge management significantly affects the success of your employee onboarding process. Resources that new employees use while familiarizing themselves with a new role are part of your company’s institutional knowledge. The better you preserve it, the more effective the onboarding process will be.
Institutional knowledge may come in the form of boot camps, handover documentation, welcome videos, training videos, coaching programs, step-by-step instructional guides, etc.
For example, Grubhub, a food delivery service, has filmed a training video to help new drivers navigate their first days at work.
Download a customizable copy of our Handover Documentation template
✓ Thank you, the checklist will be sent to your email
3. Cross-training programs
Cross-training helps in preserving institutional knowledge by ensuring that critical skills and information are not confined to a single employee or department. When employees are trained across different functions, they absorb and retain knowledge that can be vital during times of employee turnover, absences, or retirements.
A cross-training program is a practice of teaching employees to perform tasks outside their direct roles and responsibilities. This knowledge-sharing culture is helpful in many ways:
- It fights monotony at work
- It provides employees with a better understanding of their colleagues’ responsibilities
- It allows you to temporarily fill the roles of employees who are leaving
- It results in more effective collaboration
- It builds flexible and agile organizations
4. Succession plan during offboarding
Preserving institutional knowledge facilitates the hand-off process during employee offboarding. To avoid knowledge loss when key employees leave, organizations rely on succession planning—a process of developing talents to replace managers, C-suite executives, or other critical employees.
Succession planning ensures that the valuable knowledge and expertise of departing employees are captured and transferred to successors. This includes both explicit knowledge (e.g., documented procedures and technical skills) and tacit knowledge (e.g., experience-based insights and interpersonal relationships).
Effective succession planning reduces the risk of operational disruptions caused by the sudden departure of key personnel.
Strategies for Capturing and Preserving Institutional Knowledge
If you are struggling to preserve institutional knowledge at your organization, here are a few strategies to follow.
1. Implementing knowledge management systems
A knowledge management system (KMS) provides a centralized platform where all organizational knowledge can be stored, organized, and easily accessed by employees. These systems are designed to facilitate the collection, categorization, and retrieval of information, ensuring that critical knowledge is not lost and can be efficiently shared across the organization.
By implementing a KMS, organizations can standardize how knowledge is documented, maintain a consistent and up-to-date knowledge repository, and make it readily available to employees whenever they need it.
2. Creating comprehensive documentation and knowledge bases
Creating comprehensive documentation and knowledge bases involves systematically recording processes, procedures, best practices, and other critical information in a structured manner.
Knowledge bases serve as a repository of documented knowledge that employees can refer to when they need information or guidance. Comprehensive documentation must be regularly updated to reflect changes in processes or new learnings, and it should be made easily searchable to ensure that employees can easily find the information needed.
3. Encouraging mentorship and knowledge-sharing programs
Mentorship programs pair experienced employees with less experienced ones, facilitating the transfer of deep, experiential knowledge that is often difficult to document. These programs promote a culture of continuous learning and collaboration, ensuring that valuable insights and expertise are passed down through generations of employees.
Knowledge-sharing initiatives, such as regular team meetings, workshops, or internal forums, also play a critical role in making tacit knowledge more explicit and accessible.
4. Utilizing technology for capturing and storing knowledge (e.g., intranets, collaboration tools)
Technology, such as intranets and collaboration tools, offer platforms where knowledge can be easily documented, stored, and accessed by employees across the organization. Intranet software serves as centralized hubs for sharing information, while collaboration tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Confluence enable real-time communication and knowledge exchange.
These technologies make it easier for employees to contribute to and access knowledge, ensuring that information is not siloed.
Examples of Institutional Knowledge
Here are some examples of institutional knowledge in a workplace.
1. Historical project data
Historical project data refers to the accumulated records of past projects, including details such as timelines, budgets, methodologies, outcomes, and lessons learned. This data is a critical form of institutional knowledge as it provides valuable insights into what strategies have been successful or unsuccessful, enabling better decision-making for future projects. Organizations use this information to estimate costs, predict potential challenges, and streamline project management processes.
2. Customer relationship management (CRM) data
CRM data encompasses the detailed information collected about a company’s interactions with its customers, including contact details, communication history, purchase behavior, and customer preferences. This data is a vital component of institutional knowledge as it enables organizations to build stronger customer relationships, personalize marketing efforts, and enhance customer service.
3. Standard operating procedures (SOPs)
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are detailed, written instructions that describe how to perform specific tasks or processes within an organization. SOPs are a key form of explicit institutional knowledge, ensuring that tasks are performed consistently and correctly across the organization. They help maintain quality standards, ensure compliance with regulations, and provide clear guidance for employees, especially during onboarding or when new processes are introduced.
Tools to Document Your Institutional Knowledge
1. Whatfix
Whatfix digital adoption platform helps organizations capture and document institutional knowledge by providing in-app guidance and real-time support. It allows organizations to create interactive walkthroughs, tooltips, and self-help guides directly within their software applications. These features enable employees to access knowledge exactly when and where they need it, enhancing learning and retention.
Whatfix’s analytics also track user engagement, providing insights into how well the knowledge is being utilized and where additional training might be needed. This real-time documentation and delivery method ensures that institutional knowledge is not only captured but also effectively disseminated across the organization.
2. Tettra
Tettra is a knowledge management tool designed to help teams document and share internal knowledge. It integrates with popular communication platforms such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, making it easy for employees to create and access documentation within their existing workflows.
Tettra allows users to create structured knowledge bases where information is categorized and easily searchable, ensuring that critical institutional knowledge is organized and accessible.
3. Nuclino
Nuclino is a collaborative documentation and knowledge management tool that enables teams to create, organize, and share information in real-time. It provides a simple, intuitive interface where teams can build interconnected documents, linking related topics and creating a network of knowledge that is easy to navigate.
Nuclino’s real-time collaboration features allow multiple users to work on documents simultaneously, making it an ideal tool for capturing and documenting institutional knowledge as it is created. The tool’s visual organization, with boards and graphs, helps teams see the relationships between different pieces of knowledge, ensuring that information is well-structured and easily retrievable
4. SharePoint
SharePoint is widely used for capturing and storing institutional knowledge. It allows organizations to create dedicated sites for different teams or projects, where documents, resources, and information can be stored, organized, and shared.
SharePoint’s powerful search capabilities make it easy to find and retrieve specific knowledge, while its integration with other Microsoft tools like Word, Excel, and Teams ensures seamless collaboration. Additionally, SharePoint supports version control and access permissions, ensuring that knowledge is both secure and up-to-date.
5. Confluence
Confluence helps teams create, share, and organize institutional knowledge in a centralized wiki. It offers features such as page creation, content hierarchy, and spaces that allow teams to structure knowledge in a way that is easy to navigate and access.
Confluence also supports real-time editing and collaboration, enabling teams to document processes, project plans, and other critical information as it develops.
Institutional knowledge FAQs
What are the challenges faced while managing institutional knowledge?
Managing institutional knowledge can be challenging due to factors such as employee turnover, which can lead to the loss of valuable expertise; knowledge silos, where information is confined to specific departments or individuals; and the difficulty of capturing tacit knowledge, which is often undocumented and based on personal experience. Additionally, keeping knowledge up-to-date and ensuring it is accessible to the right people at the right time requires consistent effort and effective knowledge management systems.
How does collaborative learning help with institutional knowledge?
When employees work together on projects, participate in group discussions, or mentor one another, they naturally exchange insights and expertise, making tacit knowledge more explicit. This process helps in documenting knowledge and ensures that it is disseminated across the organization, reducing the risk of knowledge loss and promoting a culture of continuous learning.
How to transfer institutional knowledge when a manager quits?
When a manager quits, institutional knowledge can be transferred by implementing a thorough offboarding process that includes knowledge capture sessions, where the departing manager documents key processes, strategies, and insights. Additionally, pairing the outgoing manager with their successor for a handover period allows for real-time knowledge transfer.
Effectively capturing and disseminating institutional knowledge is essential for sustaining organizational growth, innovation, and continuity. Without a robust strategy, critical insights and expertise can be lost, leading to inefficiencies and setbacks.
Whatfix offers a powerful solution to this challenge through its knowledge base capabilities. With Whatfix, organizations can seamlessly document, organize, and distribute knowledge across teams, ensuring that valuable information is accessible when and where it is needed. Whatfix DAP allows organizations to create interactive walkthroughs, tooltips, and self-help guides directly within their software applications. These features enable employees to access knowledge exactly when and where they need it, enhancing learning and retention.
Furthermore, Whatfix also captures behavioral data, allowing organizations to identify the most commonly searched support queries, analyze what new knowledge base articles must be built, and understand what features are (and aren’t) being used.
To learn more about Whatfix, schedule a free demo with us today!
