Some interesting discussions around last week's topic. You provided me with some interesting points that hadn't been identified in previous discussions.
For this week's assignment you will need to complete the following:
- Identify two benefits and two disadvantages of implementing a KMS within your workplace. Discuss your findings
- Review comments from your fellow Cert III students in relation to question 1. Make appropriate comments about other student's postings in order to demonstrate your contribution to this assignment.
Any questions please let me know.
I look forward to seeing what your thoughts are relating to having a KMS within your workplace.
Share the knowledge!
Melisa
I worry I may not have a full understanding of the KMS, but here goes.
ReplyDeleteBenefits:
• Staff Forums – we hold staff forums quarterly, this is a great opportunity for a very large organisation to come to together and share information and network with staff we don’t generally see on a day to day basis. We feel connected.
• Breaking down the Silo – the introduction of a Project Management System ensures that anyone involved in a new project must engage with all key stakeholders. This new change process has worked very well in communicating changes, new system, projects with staff that might previously been excluded – but those staff would have had some value to the overall project. This has also ensured that internal projects are not impacting upon areas that might already be undertaking a massive project and are unable to provide resources to anything new.
Disadvantages:
• Top down – although we are currently in the early stages of a change to our corporate culture, there is still an element of ‘Do as I say, not as I Do’
This behaviour is difficult to work with if those on the ground floor are all working towards the corporate goal, but there are blockers inhibiting the benefits for the staff and the organisation as a whole.
• Fear – I have to admit, after amalgamation I wouldn’t share any knowledge I had of my previous council for fear of losing my place in the team and organisation. I wanted to be the person that everyone came to when searching for historical information so that I felt needed and worthwhile.
I have since come to realise that sharing the knowledge benefits myself in having a greater understanding of the bigger corporate picture, assists my team in feeling valued with knowledge and of course will benefit the organisation with succession planning. I won’t be around forever.
Deni B
Hey Deni,
DeleteDon't stress, not alot of people understand KM, however you've done a very good job! It's not always easy to share our knowledge with others at first. Hopefully the advantages outweigh the negatives :)
Ciao,
Melisa Z-G
Hi Deni
DeleteCultural change within a large organisation is always challenging, hang in there you have the knowledge and skills to lead your team into the new corporate culture.
Ally F
Hi Deni,
DeleteI have to agree with you on the sharing of knowledge! I was the same at first when I had to teach 3 new people my role.
Nicole K
Hi Deni,
DeleteI too understand where you are coming from being in a large organisation it is sometimes hard to promote positive and open communication when there is constant change around you. But i think if you have staff forums and networking morning teas or PD sessions it enhances peoples skills and people are more willing to share in an open and unthreatening environment.I think all you can do is to promote open and honest communication and hope that people will follow your lead :) Maija R
Hi Deni
DeleteI don't think it's just larger organisations that have a problem. I'm from a smaller, remote Health Unit, and it can be just as hard to promote positive and open communication.
Our organisation has 3 separate Departments, and unfortunately it can quite often be an 'us against them' attitude. Trying to bring in any form of change is hard, but trying to bring in any sort of change that has to do with KM, Disposal or any Recordkeeping, sometimes seems impossible.
But we keep persevering, and trying to incorporate Recordkeeping wherever we can.
Hayley R
Deni
DeleteI really enjoyed your response to this question. It is so honest and there is so much in your response that reflects the same problems that I encounter within our agency.
Glenys Pylypenko
Hi,
DeleteWorking for a government department can sometimes be frustrating as the IT systems/processes used are often different to those used in the private sector. However the same problem exists that knowledge is limited to a few key staff and when they leave you are left with a lack of knowledge.
Our department manages this well by all SOPs being recorded on a registered document and these are then audited on a yearly basis, which is great, but how many times have you contacted an agency for a specific request only to be told that the person you need to speak to is away and no one else knows how to do that, you will have to wait for them to return to work.
By having all appropriate “knowledge’ on an intranet or stored G drive, where the staff who need to find it know where it is, can most times resolve this issue.
Some staff keep knowledge to themselves for empire building and just playing power games.
At our agency we regularly insist that all files are kept on the G drive and that no one is allowed to store any work related documents on their personal drives, thus trying to eliminate some of the difficulties that have been mentioned.
Brian H
Benefits – shared knowledge and creative thinking which is enhanced by the combining of ideas and learning between all staff, which encourages a better positive working environment.
ReplyDeleteDisadvantages – Not sharing knowledge can have a negative effect on work effectiveness and poor morale for staff. Some people feel like if they share all their knowledge they won’t be valued or indespincible in their positions or roles at work. But if they shared their skills and knowledge they might find they pick up new ideas from staff as well as sharing their own experiences and might even find better ways of doing things. You are never too old to learn new things.
I did a google search on knowledge management and found this document from WA public sector it has similar information to what Melissa has given us and it just reaffirms to me what knowledge management is and how it can be shared in the public sector.
http://www.publicsector.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/guide_to_managing_knowledge_0.pdf
Maija R
Thanks for sharing the knowledge Maija :)
DeleteWhat a great link! I encourage all students to have a look at it.
Ciao,
Melisa Z-G
Hi Maija
DeleteThe article you supplied was interesting reading, I found myself actually reading on and found the ‘A guide to knowledge management’ really worthwhile.
I’m now planning to speak with my manager about the Knowledge Management and plant the seed of the benefits. Who knows it may take off.
Deni B
Hi Maija
DeleteGreat link, made some good points to think about.
Ally F
Thanks so much for sharing that webpage with us. I thought it was fantastic, easy to read and understand.
DeleteI agree with you that shared knowledge and creative thinking encourages a better positive working environment. We have that in our area in Communicable Diseases. And you are absolutely right when you say “You are never too old to learn new things” I am always learning new things and I love it. I also think that life would be boring if you didn’t learn new things.
Noone is indispensable whether eyou share your knowledge or not ( I hope I got that dispensable bit right LOL). We have just giveen positive feedback to our RM team as they are so quick to respond to our requests. I've heard that other areas complain about RM and that they are not forthcoming for assistance even though they share knowledge on how to do things correctly. Perhaps if teams made requests in the correct way as per the Knowledge shared on their web page then tasks would flow more easily. Knowledge sharing has it's benefits all round. Our own Sharepoint page as alot of information and links on how to perform make requests following the correct processes.
DeleteHi all
ReplyDeleteA benefit of sharing information/knowledge assists with movement of staff and sharing the workload. For example I have worked at many TAFE SA campuses over the past 15 years and have found that different campuses and workgroups process information differently. With the implementation of the Student Management System to process student registrations, results etc. Quick Reference Guides where developed and put on the intranet. This sharing of knowledge ensures that staff entering the data do so correctly and also consistency across campuses.
Another benefit of sharing knowledge via the intranet and workgroup share drives is that staff can access knowledge from all sites. Currently I am working across two campuses (Urrbrae and Mt Barker), having the intranet to access policies and procedures and workgroup knowledge ensures that I can manage staff and complete tasks from either site.
A disadvantage of having a knowledge management system via the intranet is not all staff use this tool. We have educational staff that were originally farmers and lecture in agriculture. These lecturers are not overly computer savvy and find searching on the intranet time consuming. The intranet is not set up via a thesaurus so staff have difficulty finding documents when they need them.
TAFE SA also use TRIM as its EDRMS however this was not implemented well and most staff do not know how to use it. It’s great to have systems, policies and procedures in place but without sufficient training and implementation staff will not follow or use these. Therefore we have a lot of documents stored on a shares drives that are not set up in any order so this makes it difficult to find documents. When people leave the organisation all of their emails etc. are lost? Due to a back log in paper based records we may have overlooked the importance of how we manage our electronic records.
Ally F
Hi Ally,
DeleteIntranet, although a powerful tool in sharing knowledge and providing access to the most recent version of a document, it’s only as good as those who use it.
My organisation is large and there a number of staff who don’t have access to the intranet and are also missing out on the latest organisational news.
I find myself wondering why as a organisation we aren’t offering tutorials courses for our staff on accessing and using the intranet.
Many years ago the organisation recognised a large pocket of staff who were struggling with literacy. A great initiative was to introduce courses for those staff wanting to participate and it was a great success.
I think we need to do the same thing with the new phase of literacy technology.
Deni B
Hi Ally
DeleteWe too have an Intranet, and although it is handy, not everyone has access to it, nor do they have the skills to navigate it.
I haven't used ours much, as it only came to the fore after I went on Maternity Leave, and since I have returned I actually find it quite a hindrance. To me it seems too fussy and not as easy as some of the others everyone else has spoken about.
Possibly there should be some kind of tutorial or included in staff induction on how to use the Intranet to its full potential.
Hayley R
Hi Ally,
DeleteThe DECD intranet is a bit the same, in some ways its fantastic as it has alot of information on there but in some respects its very hard to search on things. The keywords and metadata if not enetered correctly produces little to no results. And it doesnt sort by newest to oldest date. I guess thats what happens when you have lots of different editors and authors entering information all different ways. In the future I think it would be best to have one or two editors or authors for each unit and have training so that it is all done int he same sort of way. Maija R
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteIn my team I have a few things that benefit us from having a knowledge management system, although they seem to flow through to a disadvantage too! I could write a few points on this as a big organisation but I am going to focus on one in particular that relates to shared knowledge and information in my section.
In our team we have 7 members and one of the most important things is sharing our knowledge. At least 2-3 people will know someone else’s role in the team so that when we are down staff we can still perform normal everyday duties, this also goes for if someone was to leave so we wouldn’t be bombarded with all the extra knowledge at once. We do work well as a team and everyone is on board for the sharing of knowledge and information and is happy to teach new things if you would like to learn, which is great. I find it is good to learn new things and it also gives you a chance to get away from what you normally focus on.
A disadvantage is that although we seem to have it together we are actually under pressure quite a lot after loosing 2 valuable staff members who have been replaced with a part-timer who does not yet have all the knowledge we previously had so a downside to the above is that because we work so great as a team under all circumstances management don’t take into consideration the amount of pressure we can be under and will not consider employing another staff member at present. This is because management don’t have the knowledge or understanding of the tasks we perform daily and to the extent of our workload. This makes it difficult to further share the knowledge with other staff outside our team and also our team as sometimes you just don’t have enough time, which affects our learning opportunities. For now we will just keep on, keeping on!
A little quote:
“In today’s environment, hoarding knowledge ultimately erodes your power. If you know something very important, the way to get power is by actually sharing it” – Joseph Badaracco
Nicole K
Hi Nicole,
DeleteSounds like your work place encounters the same lack of managements KM with respect to a functioning team.
Many years ago I was a fresh faced records officer and my sole responsibility was to file all the documents.
Out of the team of 4 we all had our role, but they were independent of each other and when someone was away, that work didn’t get done. So if I was away for a week, I returned to a mountain of documents for filing.
Over the course of time I have been fortunate enough to now be the leader of the team and my first aim was multitasking.
As a team we worked out a roster of duties that each person fulfils for a month before rotating onto another list of duties.
This has worked fantastically with us being able to function in getting the core tasks done even if I have only 2 staff in on a day.
With a change to our corporate structure and culture the next hurdle is communicating the teams functions and that we don’t just spend all day registering mail. My point being that any KPI’s cannot be souly based on how much a person captures per day.
Deni B
Love the quote Nicole! It looks like he (Joseph Badaracco) knows what he's talking about. According to wikipedia, he is a professor at Harvard Business School in "business ethics"
DeleteGood work Nicole :)
So knowledge is power but only if it is shared knowledge, if you are greedy and keep all the knowledge and information you know to yourself then you wont grow or expand your mind or abilities. Maija R
DeleteHi Nicole K,
DeleteThere are only 2 Records staff at Council, we communicate daily and keep each other up to speed with what is going on, which is very helpful when she is on leave, as I then need to do the Inbox and Aust Post mail. My job unfortunately doesn’t get done when I’m on leave but I give her Projects to do which ultimately assists me with the end result.
I really like reading eveyones’ comments regarding their work situations as it makes me feel part of the Records Management family. We are not alone and it seems that we are all confronting the same issues on a daily basis, irrespective of how many staff we have in Records. The comment about upper management not understanding the actual requirements to complete a project/staff levels is sooo true. All we can do is try to educate them every chance we get. Get them to spend a day in the Records department – maybe not, it might take a while to fix up their work!!
Cheers, Debbie
What a truly great quote. Thank you for finding it for us.
DeleteGlenys Pylypenko
Disadvantages
ReplyDelete- Knowledge is experience and skills that are learnt through education from others over time and it is impossible to document everything.
- Sometimes it is not easy to find what you want quickly on the intranet and at times it may not even be there.
Advantages
- You can always trust that you will get the latest and correct forms to use.
- Staff can be educated on the correct policies and procedures within the agency.
Hi Rose,
DeleteYou are right! It can be very hard to document everything, when the process is still being understood and established.
But I have experienced on various occasions, that the information supplied on the Intranet is not always the current and valid version anymore. When I make the responsible staff aware of the need to update the information, they still fail to supply the correct information for all staff to use.
Hi Rose. I have to agree with Kelly B. Intranets are notorious for not being up to date and my experience is much like Kelly's, the incorrect forms are on the intranet or the information is out of date. And is it just me but all intranets I have ever worked with are so hard to search!!! Someone needs to monitor intranets constantly to make sure they are up to date but as always staff are too busy with 'higher priorities'. I'm in charge of monitoring the Social Club page on our intranet and believe me it is so up to date as I know what work is high priority! ;) Cheers Maryann C.
DeleteI was going to mention the same things re intranets not getting updated but will go off on another tangent.
DeleteWe also find that certain staff create new forms and they are made available to the public and our Information Management Team have no idea until we receive one in the mail. We then have to chase down who they are meant to be assigned to and if new file numbers are needed etc. There have been occasions where forms have very little information on them which can be time consuming to figure out where they came from. Often these new forms have not been uploaded to the knowledge base also. Trying to educate staff sometimes seems impossible that records need to be kept in the loop about such things.
Trouble is with intranets that are not updated you usually don't realise until its too late that it contains incorrect information or forms.
Kathy L
Hi all
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I’ll apologise in advance if this post seems disjointed. I started typing this at work as my laptop blew up and have now pinched my hubby’s computer to try and finish it off in between dealing with an unwell child (again!).
I think the biggest benefit is that the more knowledge is shared, the easier it is for the Organisation to run as smoothly as possible. And the best example I can think of relates directly to my previous position. When I went on Maternity Leave, I compiled a Procedure Manual for my role, with everything that I did on a daily basis. As I was the only one who knew my job, I figured it should be a helpful tool. It took quite a while to put together all the information, contacts, etc but it has been well worth it. It was well used, and has also been kept up to date so that now when the person doing my old job goes on leave, I can slot in quite easily and with minimal fuss.
I also find the use of the Intranet as a double edged sword. It has both benefits and disadvantages. If used correctly is a marvellous tool to be able to be current and up to date on policies, procedures, forms, etc. However, not everyone is technically minded enough to be able to use it to its full potential. It also is not used by everyone, so there are always people who look at you blankly when you start talking about searching the Intranet.
The other biggest disadvantage in my particular Organisation, is that we have a staff base that have worked here for a long time and can be quite resistant or refuse to change. Even trying to introduce a simple spreadsheet for outgoing correspondence has been resisted. I am still attempting to get something in place, but quite frankly I think most people here think that working with records is unnecessary and so brush any attempts away.
However, they are all quite happy to dump all their stuff on me to deal with, and the two days a week I have means the going is quite slow!
Hayley R
Oh dear Hayley! Don't you hate it when you have computer troubles just when you dont need it to happen. Hope your child is better now.I always do the same thing when I go to a new job/position. I always make a folder of all the procedures that need doing (if one isnt already there).
DeleteI agree with you that unfortunately people do not realise the importance of Records Management.
Rose S
Hello Hayley.
DeleteI too work part-time. I find that in my capacity I miss out on receiving alot of information. I know where the minutes of meetings live so I can always try to update myself on some issues documented in the minutes .The nature of being part-time I'm afraid. None-the-less, I always try to make sure that my procedures are up to date and that staff know where they live on our Sharepoint site. I'm sure many many staff are completely unaware of this but I am the only admin person here
Thsi may be a little of track but has anyone heard of SAGE (South Australian Government Exchange). It so happens I received an email today asking me to register. It's open to everyone in the SA Government. SAGE is a wiki. Not sure what a wiki is - check it out at http://www.sage.sa.gov.au/display/TRAINING/What+is+a+Wiki
ReplyDeleteThe you tube video explains it well. I have never come across this before (perhaps I'm not that IT savvy after all) but what a great way to share knowledge. Groups/users can keep updated on the progress/planning of an idea or task.
Hi, it's me Monica here how are you all?
ReplyDeleteAdvantages "Good" -
Absent - Can help someone and the organizations on their job eg. if someone goes on vacation, get sick, or leaving the company knowledge isn't lost. They know and have shared that knowledge between staff member.
hearing impaired - easy to find the information and read without asking where it is
Help - help staff feel comforable about sharing knowledge. Make easy as possible for your team to share information.
Disadvantages "Cons"
Culture can very hard to sharing and change the workplace evirnoments because for the people new to the workplace can get frustrated. They wouldn't understand their workplace language.
more advantages then it's disadvantage.
Hi Everyone,
ReplyDeleteDisadvantages:
1. SLSA staff feel worried and a little threatened with the looming budget cuts, and that over time many staff may lose their jobs. This is causing staff to become a little withdrawn and not wanting to share their knowledge as they do not want to become dispensable.
2. The SLSA Intranet is meant to be used as an open space, where select staff from each workgroup are able to update information to help assist and inform staff of new processes. But unfortunately some staff have been quite critical of other workgroup contributions on a few occasions, which has caused staff to not feel very open about contributing any more information.
Advantages:
1. My workgroup has been creating more informative policies and procedures to help staff gain a greater understanding of their responsibilities and obligations. This will be accessible on the Intranet for all staff with the working templates, to help improve all processes immensely.
2. All staff in my workgroup have been sharing and informing each other on how to complete individual tasks, which has provided all team members with a great appreciation of how everyone contributes in different ways. While also educating all team members on how to assist and complete different work in the absence of a team member.
The benefits of having a KNM would be that a ‘total package’ of information would be available for decisions to be made with access to all relevant information. It would also help ‘break down the walls between different departments and slowly diminish the ‘us and them’ attitudes, we are after all working for the same organisation – I wonder if that could ever happen though, years of attitudes would take time to disappear, if at all. We are dealing with humans!!
ReplyDeleteWe don’t have an Intranet, only Synergy and the ‘G’ Drive. Even though some staff think that they are saving information, they are actually saving into the ‘G’ Drive and other departments may not have access to any other department’s information in this drive.
We are still trying to get them to use an EDRMS, I wonder how they would adapt to using an Intranet. It would have to be VERY easy to navigate.
Having an Intranet only enables those with computer access to utilise it. Many ‘outside’ workers have years of knowledge that is passed on only through conversations with other staff. How you would practically record that is still undecided.
Having worked elsewhere, where there was an Intranet, if you wanted something placed on it you needed to jump through hoops to get something placed on it. Many staff were discouraged by this.
I know we say and use this expression a lot – ‘We just don’t have the resources’. After a while it feels like an excuse but in reality we do seem to be expected to do more within our work day. All we can do is to just keep going the best we can.
Cheers, DebbieN
Here are some of the benefits of implementing a Knowelege Management System:
ReplyDeleteStaff who are trained in Records Management (even just a little bit of training) will not just be able to understand what they are doing, but will also seek advice from the records management staff when they are uncertain how to manage a records management problem.
Also, the task of sentencing files at the end of their life would be so much easier.
The disadvantages far outweigh the advantages, so where to begin?
A good introduction to records management is important and essential for all staff. This should occur during the 'induction' process, but needs to be delivered by a records management professional, to ensure that the correct information is being passed on.
Titling a file correctly (or KAAA training) is very important, so without the coaching or training it is not just difficult, but also embarrassing for staff to do this correctly, especially when they feel that there is an expectation that they 'get it right'. Staff should never be abandoned and left to their own devices.
These is so much that could be done to improve Knowledge Management within my agency. Ideally, I would like all staff to attend some training sessions held by State Records and I keep on stating this to staff when I am talking about Records Management, usually on a one to one basis or via email. Very specific training in records management is also helpful. I am not in a situation where I can take the lead in Knowledge Management within my agency. I can say, however, that by doing this course, I have learnt such a lot and feel so much more competent with managing agency records and getting things right.
I have taken some opportunities to sit with individual staff to coach them in the correct process for titling a file as I Unow know how important this is. I have also sent out notes that I prepared (approved by our Records Manager). They advise how to identify a record, when to record an email, explain what must be kept and what is NAP. I also prepared a few notes on what NOT TO DO... such as put everything into a plastic sleeve and then file! Happy to provide to anyone who is interested.
Glenys Pylypenko
Two benefits of implementing a KMS within your workplace could be that staff have easy access to important information and also that this important information has been captured somewhere other than in a staff member’s head. As a lot of other people have mentioned on this blog intranets can be a good example of the advantages of a KMS.
ReplyDeleteHowever intranets are also a good example of the disadvantages of implementing a KMS. Intranets are not always up to date with the latest information or forms, etc. and the fact that some intranets are not that user friendly discourages staff from using them to share knowledge.
At Mitcham Council we are currently trying to come up with a better KMS within Records to deal with the emails we receive every day from staff telling us how they would like certain documents/records handled. For example when we receive feedback forms about XYZ they need to be saved in File No. 123 and sent to Joe Bloe for action. Then we’ll get told that all medical invoices must go into this file and sent to this person etc etc. At the moment we save all these emails into our EDRMS and have to either search through these emails on a daily basis or try and remember all these instructions, so we handle all records as staff have requested us to. As you can imagine it’s impossible to remember all these instructions and we find searching through emails impractical, as there is often more than one email relating to instructions for certain records (instructions get changed etc). So we are trialing a new KMS using our intranet, however I feel at the moment it’s no better than the previous system as there are just too many different instructions to remember!!!
Another benefit though of this new KMS on our intranet is that our weekly team meetings are now recorded in real time. So as items are discussed in the meeting they are updated on the intranet. I’ve been away sick for two weeks and rather than have to wait for someone to type up the minutes of these team meetings I can go straight onto the intranet and catch myself up asap. I can also add information or comments and an alert is sent to everyone in the Records team advising them of this. So for every downside there is an upside :) Cheers Maryann C.
Hi Maryann
DeleteI understand how confusing it can get when staff request certain items go to a certain person or file or handled in a particular way. We use to hang on to these emails as well but they are often diffucult to find when weeks later you need to check up on something. Our team now has a PDF procedure manual which is set out under the 20 functions. So for example under Financial Management we might have Change of Ownership file 7.69.025 correspondent Joe Blo, short title contents - Change of ownership at (Address), New owner (Name). As there are 3 of us plus our team leader this helps us keep things consistent rather than us all writing our own thing. We keep this on our sharepoint team page for easy access and it is updated when a change has been made. It has gotten quite long now but using bookmarks in the PDF and classifying items under the 20 functions make things easy to find.
When it comes to staff leave we have a section on our team site where we list how long they are away and instructions for their items.
Kathy L
Advantages
ReplyDeleteSharing of information with all staff will enhance the knowledge within the organisation overall. Having a shared knowledge system helps everyone stay "in the loop" and not feeling left out. By being connected with each other in the long run can benefit staff staff in making more informed decisions and their everyday duties.
We have a staff meeting once a month where all staff are encouraged to attend. This meeting usually includes an overview of changes in each division and upcoming events etc.
Having a KMS gives a central location to go to look for information rather than having to chase certain people up who have that knowledge.
Newer employees will feel more included and satisfied being in a learning environment where they can pick up on the knowledge of others which leads to increase in work performance.
Disadvantages
As our KMS is largely electronic based some staff eg our outdoor guys don't all have access to a computer to keep up to date so some info can slip through the cracks. These staff rely on others to pass messages on to them. Also knowing what is correct and what is rumour can become confused.
Sometimes it is difficult to know if everything is up to date especially when there are times when there are many changes all at once.
Some staff just don't bother to look at the intranet and now sharepoint and they keep doing their work the way they have always done. This can cause issues if there has been a change in procedure etc. We encounter the issue of people not taking notice of information that is put out there. For example we have a weekly newsletter that use to be emailed to all staff (and is now put on the sharepoint home page each week) which is an update of staff movements, events and anything else people may wish to have included. We have an "Information Tip of the Week" section where we will put things such as "return original documents to IM" or "use paper clips not staples when returning documents" just little tips to help everyone out. But we find people either ignore or don't even look at these types of things. There are of course staff that have given good feedback and appreciate this but I guess whatever system is in place not everyone will be happy with it or use it.
Kathy L
Implementing a KMS
ReplyDeleteBenefits
Knowledge sharing - any form of knowledge sharing is advantageous to the team and organisation. It promotes an organisation's reputation as having educated and able staff and increases staff morale as they feel empowered by knowledge.
Greater efficiency - by capturing records we are stopping the organisation from 'reinventing the wheel.' Staff can learn from previous experiences and make educated choices. Also, actively using an EDRMS will enable staff to locate staff and assist the public when required to do so.
Disadvantages
Fear of change - some staff have been at Council for 5 days and some for 35 years. Some were raised and educated on old technologies and have not needed to upskill due to the nature of their work. Therefore, there can exist a crippling fear preventing people from embracing change and partaking in new systems or processes.
Resistance to change - 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' However, often there is a valid reason for change. Some are open to change and some are very comfortable with how things are and they don't want things to change. This goes beyond a fear of not understanding the processes/systems, it is a strong resistance and negative approach to change where any change would be hard to accept and embrace.
From the previous posts, I can see that the challenge of change management is a common thread. As is the difficulty in reaching the remote workforce who are not in front of a computer during their workday. Tools such as wikis, blogs, Intranet etc would have little impact on these workers unless they have the ability to access it.