Many of us know the story of the tree of knowledge where Adam and Eve took a bite from that oh so dreaded apple… Imagine before the bite, if Adam and Eve could have known what knowledge they would have gained. To take this even further, could their new knowledge have been measured in some way and if yes, by whom?
In today’s business world, being tempted by knowledge is something that is encouraged. Management wants their employees to know as much as possible, in the shortest time possible – without compromising on quality. Beyond that, trainers and managers always want to know the knowledge levels of their employees – having full insight into which employees know what, by how much and if there are skills and business knowledge gaps within their company. 90% of business leaders believe that learning and design programs are the keys to closing such business knowledge gaps.
Identifying and assessing skills gaps has seen a 32% increase year on year, becoming the number 1 focus area for talent development in 2019.
So, what exactly is a business knowledge gap?
Basically, a business knowledge gap is the difference between what the employee knows and what the employee needs to know. It isn’t something that just springs out of nowhere. It is the result of bigger and deeper issues within a business – ineffective training, employee ambivalence and unorganized knowledge delivery.
Training is not a one-sided process, meaning that both the employee and the trainer have knowledge responsibilities. No matter how good and effective the training is delivered and received, employees need to be disciplined in their learning while follow-through is necessary by trainers and L&D professionals.
Here are some examples
What couldn’t go wrong when sales teams are not aligned with the latest product updates and releases? let’s assume that a sales rep delivered a demo to a potential customer but because the rep did not read or receive the latest product update, the potential customer has just received a demo with information that is incorrect and outdated. Maybe it could have been avoided if a manager had picked up on the business knowledge gap before contact was made with the customer.
How about partnering companies that sell your product on your behalf? Do they truly understand what you are offering? Did they receive your latest email with updated policy information? By having full visibility on employee knowledge levels in real-time, such questions can be closed.
Peace of mind is possible when knowing that internal and external teams understand and sell the product in the same way that you would do it yourself.
Don’t get trapped in the business knowledge gap
Rapidly increasing technology is placing greater demands on training and skills development, as employees are expected to stay in the know at much faster rates. On the other hand, it is also enabling better training methods and faster knowledge delivery. With advanced AI, gamification, NLP and microlearning methods, it is now much easier to ensure that employees have access to the right training and are properly equipped with the right skills to take advantage of their training.
TIME To KNOW’s digital training platform enables a trainer to receive results, metrics and feedback from employees – all in real-time. With the platform, not only can trainers and managers access performance results, but they can also see who opened their training, who read it and if they understood. By having full visibility on the knowledge levels of employees, trainers can identify and close business knowledge gaps quickly, easily and successfully.
3 simple ways for organizations to properly address business knowledge gaps
1) Prioritize the focusing on business knowledge gaps
It’s all good and well that employees get trained with the latest information that they require to perform at their best, but that’s not the end. Even if a business knowledge gap is identified and closed, it does not stay that way forever.
It’s also super important to ensure that business knowledge gaps are given necessary attention are not ignored. They will occur at some stage in every business’s journey and that is why it is better to pay attention and be a step ahead – ensuring that employees don’t fall behind with what they need to know.
A growing business can be compared to an elastic band that stretches and expands. As the business grows, the metaphorical gap inside the elastic band also gets larger. Employee training, new product releases and updates to policy and regulation are all knowledge factors that need to fill this gap. It is vital to fill this gap with relevant training and knowledge that will hold the enlarged businesses’ shape. If the business becomes too stretched and the gap isn’t filled with knowledge to support it, the band will hold too much tension and stress.
2) Keep up with training technologies
To put things into perspective, at least 54% of all employees will require re-skilling by 2022. Rapid advancements in AI, robotics and other emerging technologies will only increase the pressure on organizations to make sure that they are keeping up with the latest business knowledge and skills. Organizations must dedicate reasonable effort to ensure that they are staying current with the latest training technologies and features.
3)Shorten and speed-up the training process
With new learning methodologies such as microlearning, trainers can easily create, quickly update and share vital knowledge with their employees – keeping them in the know, when they need to know.
Other training capabilities such as TIME To KNOW’s ‘Stream’, drastically reduces the training creation time by removing the sole dependency on trainers and L&D departments for knowledge delivery. With ‘Stream’, knowledge can instantly be delivered in bite-sized chunks to meet knowledge needs right away.
Connecting training to business results
Closing knowledge gaps can significantly impact a business’s bottom line. Take customer support as an example. When they are better trained, they can close more tickets and solve more problems at a faster rate – leading to customers that are more satisfied. Proving the correlation between successful training and performance is a way to show the value and relevance of training and knowledge delivery to high-level company executives.
Knowing is growing
Employees must ensure that they are up to date with the knowledge that is expected of them, not for the sake of pleasing their managers, but for the sake of performing at their best. Training is a continuous process that has a start, but an end that is not as easy to define. That’s why, at any given time, it is important to take a sample look into the knowledge that employees have.
The bottom line is that identifying and closing business knowledge gaps can save a business from unwanted hassles. By having full visibility of knowledge levels in a business, managers can pinpoint where skills and business knowledge gaps could affect them, closing them before they close the business.
Want to know more about how TIME To KNOW can help you boost your business’s bottom line by closing your knowledge gaps? Request a demo!
The Business Transformation Network have shared this article in partnership with Enabley.
