One of the most important parts of people management in your company is keeping them upskilled and up to date with the relevant expertise they need. With trends and information being updated regularly, it is important that your staff is kept up to date at all times with relevant information.
However, not only is it important to keep your staff educated but your potential and existing customers too. So, it is important that all of your employees work together on expanding the knowledge base in the company.
Ensuring that your employees are equipped with the right tools will have an impact in several ways. First, your employees will feel as if you are investing in them and their future in the company. Secondly, they will be able to fulfill their job requirements more effectively, breathing confidence into them. Lastly, you will be able to scale your company with your effective staff base.
So, how do you go about creating an environment for your employees to continually educate and upskill themselves? We took a look at some of the ways that you can make sure that knowledge and education are central to your organization’s growth.
Create A Central Knowledge Database
Whether you are an existing, established business, or a brand new enterprise, creating a knowledge base in your business for both employees and potential customers to access is a must. Creating a central database of information will not only empower your employees on relevant topics and concepts within your organization but it will also create a sense of trust with your customers. But, where should you start?
If you are using WordPress for your website, for example, you can look at how to create a WordPress knowledge base and then begin providing educational and informative content for it. Decide on content that is relevant to your business and industry and start unpacking topics and content that will actually educate the reader. So, if you are a pet food and accessory retailer, for example, include content like “Reasons why dogs put on weight” or “How to keep a cat exercised and fit”.
This kind of content has a dual purpose for your company apart from creating content to keep your readers informed. It also heightens your SEO and extends the reach of your brand. So, with the right keywords and content, when someone searches “Why is my dog putting on weight” this article will pop up. Organic traffic like this places you directly in front of visitors looking for answers.
Not only can you give them answers, but provide solutions too. Strategic placement of products in these articles takes the visitor directly to the solution to their problem, which you will be able to provide, increasing your conversion rates.
Provide Regular Training And Coaching
Keeping your employees upskilled means ensuring that they are regularly being trained and updated with the latest trends and changes in your industry. Whether it is new regulations that they have to be aware of or updates in technology or operations.
There are a number of options for your to choose from to keep your employees up to date. External training and conferences are usually primarily focused on growth within specific roles. They provide a deep dive into new concepts, methods and practical implementation in the scope of the job.
You can also opt to provide an in-house coaching session to your staff when a company-wide change has been made. But, you can also consider one-on-one coaching sessions with an employee who needs to be guided and assisted in their role. This individual attention focussed training may take some practice, and there are a number of best practices for you to perfect when leading a coaching session.
Remember, you want to upskill your employees, so having a firm grasp on your subject matter as well as the best ways to coach them is vital to them taking key knowledge away from the session.
Open Up Communication And Collaboration In The Company
The best way to keep everyone in your company on the same page, and have insight readily available in the company is to keep communications open. Teams should have real-time access to each other to effectively communicate and share information and knowledge.
Although this was a lot easier during non-COVID-19 times, when teams were mostly working in the same physical space, a number of collaboration tools have been created and exist online to streamline communication and project management within companies.
Instant messaging tools like Slack and Chanty allow direct messaging to individuals, groups and teams, as well as company-wide. They allow various discussions to be created and also provide great integration options with various other collaboration tools and project management platforms.
Tools like monday.com and Trello are also great knowledge and project management hubs for your company. Teams, individuals and managers are able to work on projects together, assign responsibility for tasks, track progress and assign due dates and notes to the tasks. It is a great central point for the whole company to have a bird’s-eye view of what is happening in the organization.
Wrapping Up
As a business owner, it is important for you to keep your finger on the pulse of what is happening within your company and what is going out to your customers at all times. Your key message is part of your company branding and you need to make sure that is communicated to your employees and reflected to your customers.
Central knowledge hubs like your collaboration platforms, contact tools, blog spaces and company databases need to be constantly managed and updated at all times. Allow your employees to also communicate their needs with you. If they are needing advice, guidance or upskilling, they should have a safe space to communicate that with you in your company.
short url:
