How to Build a Knowledge Base
A good knowledge base will streamline the process you use to solve problems within your organization. When one employee finds a solution to a problem, he puts it into the knowledge base and another employee can easily replicate the solution the next time it arises. If you don't have a knowledge management system in place, you're wasting employees' time and resources. Take the time to build a knowledge base and watch productivity soar.
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Instructions
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Choose a knowledge base program. There's no need to rebuild the wheel. You can purchase an out-of-box knowledge base program that you can use for your database. Be sure to compare a few of the programs to be sure that you are selecting the product that's right for your company. Talk to the sales representatives to answer your questions.
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Determine the information that employees should include when writing an article. Each article in the database should have a similar format to avoid confusion. For example, if you're creating a knowledge base for a software product, you may want writers to include information about the problem, the client's software version and operating system and how the employee solved the problem.
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Recruit your best team members to write the most pressing knowledge base articles. You'll need a few samples to show everyone how they should write the articles. Take the top 20 problems that users face with your product and have your tech representatives write the articles for the solution. Review to be sure that it's to your liking.
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Allow all team members the opportunity to add to the knowledge base. The advantage of a knowledge base is that all individuals add their knowledge to the system. It doesn't work if only a few people have access. Set the controls in the software to allow the team to edit the knowledge base.
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Train employees on how to use the system. Before they can start writing articles, employees need to know how to use the software. Schedule a training period to go over the basics.
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Tips & Warnings
Be sure to create a knowledge base that is searchable. This allows employees to easily find the solution to the problem.
