There are countless ways to leverage new technology to improve your business, but internal wikis are one of the smartest.
You’ve probably heard of internal wikis, but figuring out how these knowledge bases improve and protect your company can be a challenge.
Let’s take a look at how internal wikis can protect your company.
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What is an Internal Wiki?
Before we dive too deep into how internal wikis can protect your business, we should cover the basics for what these actually are.
An internal wiki is a peer-edited knowledge base for your entire company. Employees can freely edit entries into the wiki, add new entries, and keep the knowledge base updated based on new or evolving information.
This is like having all of your training, policy, and operations documents organized into a living Wikipedia for your own organization. Best of all, this is a purely internal resource that will not be accessible by the general public.
There are countless advantages for how this knowledge base can improve your operations, as well as protect your business.
How Internal Wikis Protect Your Business
We’re still in the height of the information age and that means nothing is more important than the data that your business generates and gathers.
However, traditional methods of storing this information are clunky and not always compatible with the fast pace of modern business. If your team has to spend valuable time digging through files to find the right procedure or operations manual, that’s time and profit that could be redirected to something more productive.
These are five quick ways that internal wikis protect your business from the pitfalls and risks that modern companies face.
Lower Turnover
Employee turnover is an inevitable part of business, but the types of threats that turnover causes have changed.
We now need to get new employees on-boarded quicker than ever before. We often expect new employees to hit the ground running with their roles and responsibilities, but if they have to recreate the knowledge they need for their role from the ground up, they’re going to face a lot of inertia when starting a new position.
An internal Wiki allows them to have quick access to all of the information that they need to get started from the word go. Your business will have less inertia when it comes to turnover and be able to more rapidly respond to changes in the market and your industry when you have an internal Wiki backing up all of your new-hire information.
Increase Productivity
Internal Wikis can also help protect your overall productivity. This is true regardless of the size of your business.
Newer companies are going to be busy creating their standard operating and procedure documentation, customer service policy, and countless other internal documents. This effort goes by quicker when you have a document that all employers can help build.
More established businesses run the risk of lowering productivity by having multiple employees and departments working on the same task without being in communication.
Internal wikis allow these tasks to be accomplished quicker and to get everyone on the same page. If everyone has access to a shared resource that can be constantly updated and refined, you’re going to see a massive increase in productivity that protects your bottom line.
Retain Knowledge Over Time
When employees leave the job, they can take valuable knowledge with them. Whether this is key operations that they helped to develop or knowledge specific to their role and function, replacing this information can set your company back by months if not years.
An internal wiki gives you a place to store all of this information. This means that data generated at your business stays there even when key employees change roles.
You won’t have to reinvent the wheel when someone leaves your company if you have an internal wiki keeping all of your operations in order.
Improve Cyber Security
One of the most notable benefits of having an internal wiki is a boost to your cyber security. Internal wikis are not stored on local hard drives which makes them much more secure than traditional ways of storing important documents.
An internal wiki is also a centralized resource. This means that you’ve got fewer documents flying around the digital world and your company minimizes your risk of accidentally exposing vital Information.
Smarter Use of Your Business Resources
Every organization needs to create internal documentation in order to thrive. Even the most simple and streamlined business have stacks of internal documents that they rely on.
An internal wiki is the most efficient way to organize this information. Your employees will be able to search for keywords that can take them right to the documents they need. Rather than spending hours leafing through employee training handbooks, they can just search for the information they need and get it in seconds.
Internal wikis are easy to search, highly organized, and extremely adaptable. They represent a better use of the resources that your company has so that you can mobilize your other assets to protect your company and your revenue.
Key Takeaways for Internal Wikis and Your Business
Internal wikis are an excellent way for your company to streamline your in-house documentation. These are searchable, employee editable databases can be constantly updated as your company grows and changes over the years.
Keep these five key takeaways in mind and you’ll make great use of an internal wiki.
- Streamlining new-hire training
- Allowing employees to work together more effectively
- Prevent “brain drain” when key employees leave the company
- Boosting your cybersecurity
- Better use of your company’s resources
The next time someone asks you for a key internal policy, just have them search your internal wiki!
