Social business software (SBS) can be leveraged to retain organisational knowledge and combat brain drain.
This is according to Gys Kappers, CEO of social business platform WyseTalk.
"As we bleed skills and knowledge, organisations' output and competitiveness continues to suffer, and the cost of re-seeding lost competence and specialisation is both prohibitive and completely unnecessary."
According to Kappers, one of the biggest misconceptions about knowledge and knowledge creation is that it is primarily the job of the research and development team. He believes knowledge creation should be a collaborative endeavour and cites SBS as the ideal tool to assist in the capturing, creation and sharing of knowledge.
"Knowledge can be created and amplified, over and over again, by merely practising well-institutionalised innovation processes."
This intuitive form of communication promotes participation and allows organisations of all sizes to conduct various conversations in a secure place, says Kappers. He adds that this kind of software gives stakeholders a secure group-based platform within which they can contribute to corporate conversations.
The collaborative functionality of SBS also allows for the amplification of knowledge, says Kappers, adding that the successful sharing of knowledge aids knowledge creation and promotes innovative thinking.
"Although ideas are formed in the minds of individuals, interactions between individuals often play a critical role in developing these ideas. Social business communities can span geographical, departmental, or indeed, organisational boundaries," notes Kappers. These collaborative tools also act as a searchable knowledge repository for documents and best practices.
"In the face of rampant skills losses and erosion of knowledge, SBS can help organisations retain the value created by individuals and groups and capture their tacit knowledge, so that their influence may guide and inspire others long after they're gone, and even get new recruits up to speed before they join," concludes Kappers. "In short, SBS encapsulates the very spirit of innovative, knowledge-driven organisations."
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