Millions of knowledge workers were working remotely before the COVID-19 pandemic sent countless others home. To continue productivity in an ever-changing environment, companies quickly realized that employees need to be able to engage with information in four key ways – no matter where they are located. Remote digital work may be new to some people, but it is now firmly part of most workplaces. The ability to share knowledge across distributed organizations is now critical for most companies.
Knowledge workers must have access to information that has these four qualities:
- It is current: It’s from a trusted source, is up-to-date, and accurate.
- It is popular: “Go-to” information must be obvious. Have others leveraged it? Where, how and when?
- It is ready-to-use: Knowledge pieces must be found in context so they can be parsed and reused.
- It is accessible: It must be easy to find across all “4 Silos of Search.”
For example: Imagine you are searching for a small detail from last year’s corporate results. If you were to query your knowledge system, how quickly could you:
- Be sure that you’ve found the most recent information, and that it’s been verified by a trusted source.
- Determine how often it turns up in internal searches, how has it been used elsewhere and where it’s been cited externally.
- Capture all of the information you’re looking for in a format you need it in, potentially for a new use. You don’t have time to sort through an entire presentation deck – you just need that single fact pulled out and displayed in context to your query. And, you need to know how it was compiled and where else it has appeared.
- Find the information you need within your usual workflow. How many “places” do you need to look before you can find it?
In this abrupt transition to remote digital work, the ability to share and find knowledge has become urgent. Companies that deliver the ability to access, apply, and amplify knowledge across their organization will keep remote employees connected, engaged and productive.