How closely “information can be shared” is important for smooth business operations. Insufficient information sharing can lead to problems due to misunderstandings, so it is necessary to create an environment that facilitates information sharing.
However, there are many people who feel that there are issues with the way information is shared but do not know how to improve it.
In this issue, we will explain the meaning and merits of information sharing, as well as the causes and solutions for information sharing that does not work well for below people.
- “Internal information sharing is not going well and we want to improve the sharing method”.
- “We want to spread the importance of information sharing within the company to vitalize communication.”
- “I want to implement effective measures before problems caused by insufficient information sharing.”
This article will help you understand the importance of information sharing and promote efficient information sharing within your company.
Contents
- 1 Why is information sharing important in the workplace
- 2 Merits of information sharing
- 3 What problems are caused by a lack of information sharing?
- 4 Causes of failure among internal information sharing
- 5 3 solutions to encourage internal information sharing
- 6 Best tool for easy information sharing
- 7 Summary of the importance of information sharing and reasons why it does not work
Why is information sharing important in the workplace
This section introduces why information sharing is important matter, so you should grasp below contents for penetration of recognition in your company.
To make decision for your company without mistake
There is importance that information sharing has an opportunity for decision-making and new ideas, which are directly related to the development of a company.
Efficient information sharing improves the speed of decision-making in the course of work and prevents problems caused by omissions.
For example, if the contents of inquiries from new customers are linked, sales staff can decide on proposals based on the background of use, and if customer concerns are shared within the company, they can lead to service improvements.
In this way, it is important for the development of a company to have a system that allows the organization to utilize the information possessed by individual employees. Companies need to create an environment that facilitates the sharing of information by fostering an awareness of information sharing among employees.
Enhance customer relationship
Information sharing is important matter for you to enhance of customer relationship.
According to statistics of GoRemotely regarding impact of information sharing and collaboration in workplace, it is clear that the 75% employee feel the collaboration with other team members in workplace is important.
If you share customer information for your team, as the team member can deal with the customer if person is not in charge. Therefore, you can prevent the situation that nobody can deal with the customer in case regarding absence of the person in charge.
On the other hand, since environment is necessary for your team to share information effectively, so there are many companies to install information sharing tool like Stock to do same.
Can sharing information regardless of time and location
The member in the workplace who is penetrated the objective and importance of information sharing can communicate each other regardless of time and location.
Especially, unless the workplace environment cannot deal with sharing information for the member working remotely, there is possible to happen the problems such as misunderstand and omission.
Since using e-mail is not effective for the scene that is speedy sharing information, various companies use tools for casual communication.
Merits of information sharing
This section describes merits that can be gained by information sharing. Teams that share information properly are constantly working to achieve the following 3 merits.
(1) Increased work efficiency and productivity
The number one merit of information sharing is improved operational efficiency and productivity.
For example, if an employee wants to use information on existing customers in order to make a new sales call, but there is no internal information sharing system in place, the employee will have to spend time checking with the sales representative. However, the necessary information is recorded in a place where it can be checked, it can be looked up directly, saving time for both the employee and the sales representative.
As we mentioned above, information sharing is important to reduce work time and promote operational efficiency.
(2) Uniformity of knowledge
Effective information sharing ensures uniformity of knowledge and awareness within the company.
As an example, if knowledge and know-how on acquiring new customers is shared internally, the entire sales department can implement successful patterns to increase new customers. In addition, if a work manual is created, it will reduce training time, prevent employees from making mistakes in their work, and improve overall work speed efficiency.
One of the merits of information sharing is that it reduces the amount of knowledge that depends on individuals and allows everyone to work with the same quality.
(3) Trust relationship of team becomes strong
The more opportunities for information sharing, the more active internal collaboration becomes and the stronger the trust relationship becomes.
With an information sharing mechanism in place, there will be fewer miscommunications due to lack of communication, and recognition errors will be solved among employees.
Even if a mistake is made, if the employees are working together properly on a daily basis, they are less likely to blame each other for the mistake, and it is less likely that the trust relationship between employees will deteriorate.
It is important point that the atmosphere in the workplace becomes more positive by information sharing.
(4) Keeping knowledge in workplace
Even if the member’s retirement will occur suddenly, daily correct information sharing helps you to prevent the knowledge lost.
As it is difficult to forecast when the retirement of best and most-engaged members is not clear, be careful that lost of the information that impact operation.
Therefore, you should keep the knowledge of veteran employee especially and share them to related member.
(5) Build relationship between stakeholder
If the knowledge are stored correctly, as the communication to stakeholders in the project with will be carried and build relationship.
Since working is not completion only oneself, it is important for you to communicate other members and proceed the project so as not to pend. Also, The knowledge is often the starting point for a smooth conversation.
As mentioned above knowledge, which is the information needed by member, it also helps foster relationships.
(6) Prevent mistake
Simply storing knowledge correctly can prevent errors.
The past mistakes are stored as knowledge to prevent the same mistake, the member who is just succeeded can be carried out while anticipating possible mistakes in advance.
As a result, they will cooperate increasing the business productivity.
(7) Countermeasure for personalization
The knowledge is useful for personalization of working.
Personalized working causes the difference of output quality. So if you customize the knowledge of veteran employee to enhance more efficiency, it will help homogenization of working.
The knowledge which is used this scene, method has also merit like cutting the learning time new employee for example.
What problems are caused by a lack of information sharing?
Below we describe some of the problems caused by insufficient information sharing. Note that inadequate information sharing can, in the worst case scenario, lead to the cessation of corporate activities.
Business mistakes occur and trust is damaged.
If information is not shared, business errors can occur and damage credibility.
For example, if you receive a call to increase the number of products to be delivered by 100, and there is a delay in coordination, the details of the change will not be communicated to the field, and the products will not be ready by the delivery date.
If there is a delay in response, there is a risk of losing the trust of customers as well as liability for damages to the customer.
Companies that are having trouble sharing information should first investigate the causes of internal information sharing delays and review their sharing flow.
Know-how becomes personalized and the quality of work goes down
When information sharing is stagnant, knowledge becomes biased among employees.
The reason for biased knowledge is that the know-how is monopolized by a few members of the team. If know-how is not shared, quality of work will vary and it throughout the company will not improve. There is also the risk that the workload will be concentrated on certain employees, leading to employee dissatisfaction.
To prevent such situations, it is important to create an environment that encourages employees to actively share information. For example, if there is a designated space for writing knowledge, employees will not have to worry about where to share information when they want to collaborate.
Internal relationships deteriorate and frustration builds up
Lack of information sharing also has a significant impact on team trust.
For example, if “I was the only one not notified of a meeting due to a miscommunication of information,” the team will distrust the person who failed to communicate the information, even if there is no malice toward them. If trust is lost due to a lack of cooperation, the internal environment will deteriorate, and employee satisfaction will decline, leading to employee turnover.
It is necessary to create an environment in which employees can easily communicate with each other in order to increase team unity and improve organizational strength.
Causes of failure among internal information sharing
This section describes the causes of inadequate information sharing within a company. If your company is not good of information sharing, check to see if any of the following apply to your company and try to improve.
Not understanding the importance of information sharing
The first reason is that employees do not understand the importance of information sharing.
If there are employees who “I don’t want to share information,” or “I want to keep information to themselves for their own merit,” miscommunication can lead to a deterioration of trust and a significant decline in team performance, which directly leads to lost opportunities. Therefore, companies need to foster employee awareness of the importance of information sharing.
When communicating the importance of information sharing to employees, explain the benefits of information sharing and the threats that a lack of sharing poses to the company.
Lack of an environment for information sharing
The most common reason why information sharing does not work is that the environment for information sharing is not well-developed.
Without a specific medium for sharing internal information, information will be dispersed, with each individual writing down information on different tools, such as paper or document files. As a result, necessary information may not be shared, creating information gaps within the company, or there may be disputes over whether or not records have been properly kept.
In order to consolidate internal information, it is essential to use only one tool for recording information. In recent years, “using cloud tools” has become common due to the accessibility and convenience of information. For example, a cloud tool such as Stock can be used to easily build a system for information sharing.
Assume that you are doing a good job of sharing information.
If employees assume that they have enough information to share, information will not be managed correctly even if an information sharing environment is in place.
Information is a necessary element for increasing productivity and efficiency of business operations, and it needs to be organized on a daily basis so that it is easy to check. If information is stored in an unorganized manner, or if there is information that has not been stored, it will be difficult to find information when it is needed, and management will be complicated.
Therefore, it is necessary to describe information to be shared without excesses or deficiencies so that anyone can see it, and to organize information by content when managing it.
3 solutions to encourage internal information sharing
Below are 3 solutions to encourage information sharing within a company. Companies that have improved the way they share information have successfully solved the burden caused by a lack of information.
(1) Make the company aware of the importance of information sharing
First, establish within the company that information sharing is important.
Even if an information sharing system is established, if it does not take root within the company, the hassle of information sharing will not be resolved. In order to facilitate smooth business operations, companies need to make sure that their employees understand the merits that information sharing brings to their operations.
Therefore, to help employees recognize that information sharing is beneficial, you should communicate employees regarding the importance of information concretely. For example, it is effective to start sharing with content that can be immediately applied to work, such as “know-how on a task that many employees have a common problem with”.
(2) Create clear rules for information sharing
In order to ensure the smooth sharing of necessary information, it is necessary to establish rules for managing folders and files.
Specifically, establish “name for files to be shared,” “classification rules,” and “access privileges”. For example, the following rules will make management easier.
- Name files so that their contents can be easily recognized at a glance (e.g., “12/1/23″ Minutes on the progress of new business”).
- When categorizing files, do so “by type of business or time period”.
- To prevent problems with overwriting or deleting data, “Only the person who edits the file should have ‘read-only’ privileges”.
By establishing such rules, access to necessary information when needed will be smoother, and burden during information seatch will be reduced.
Implement information sharing tools
Information sharing tools can help employees communicate smoothly with each other while avoiding the risks associated with paper or verbal information sharing.
With information sharing tools, there is no need to attach files created each time via e-mail, and information can be shared more easily than with tools such as Excel or Word. In addition, because it is used online, information can be shared in real time regardless of location or device.
For companies that use analog methods to share information, the introduction of information sharing tools can reduce the man-hours required for internal sharing. However, it is important to note that the tool must be usable by everyone.
Best tool for easy information sharing
Below are best tool that make it easy to share information without excesses or deficiencies.
If the information sharing method is complicated, the hurdle for employees to share information will increase, and information will not be accumulated. In order to effectively utilize information for business operations, it is important to establish a system to easily share records and know-how within the company, and to organize information so that it can be checked at any time.
Therefore, introducing information sharing tools will facilitate the exchange of information regardless of location or device, and will facilitate the sharing of information within the company. However, for companies that are not comfortable with IT tools or have different internal literacy levels, introducing complex ones will not be use within the company and will be difficult to operate.
To improve productivity through information sharing, choose a tool that anyone can easily utilize. In conclusion, Stock, an information sharing tool that can be used from the day it is introduced by employees in non-IT companies, is a must.
Stock allows you to easily share your work and know-how with your team members by immediately reflecting the information you write in “Note” of Stock. In addition, by organizing information by project or business content in “Folder”, you can quickly access the necessary information even if the volume of information you have accumulated is large.
The simplest tool to stock information "Stock"
https://www.stock-app.info/en/
Stock is the simplest tool to stock information. Stock solves the problem, "there is no easy way to stock information within the company".
With Stock, anyone can easily store all kinds of information, including text information such as requirements, images, and files, using the Note feature.
In addition, by using the "Task" and "Message" functions, you can communicate with each topic described in the Note, so that information is not dispersed here and there and work can always be carried out in an organized manner.
＜Why do we recommend Stock?＞
- A tool for companies that are not familiar with ITYou don't need to have any IT expertise to get started.
- Simple and usable by anyoneStock is so simple that anyone can use it without any unnecessary features.
- Amazingly easy information storing and task managementIt is amazingly easy to store information such as shared information within a company, and intuitive task management is also possible.
＜Stock's pricing＞
- Free plan ：Free
- Business plan ：$5 / User / Month
- Enterprise plan ：$10 / User / Month
*Minimum number of users: 5 users
Summary of the importance of information sharing and reasons why it does not work
We have introduced the importance of information sharing, causes of failure, and remedial measures so far.
Information sharing is important to keep the company’s activities, and lack of information sharing leads to business errors and lower quality work, which in turn leads to a deterioration of internal relationships. In order to share information without excess or deficiency, it is necessary to establish rules after making employees aware of the importance of information sharing.
In particular, since information management using paper-based analog methods is confusing when the workload increases, introducing information sharing tools to solve the workload of sharing will make it easier to proceed with work. However, if you suddenly switch from an analog method to a complex tool, some employees will not be able to use it, and it will not spread throughout the company.
The premise of introducing a tool is that it should be easy to use, but not too much or too little about functionality. The intuitive information sharing tool Stock introduced above, equipped with functions that are not too much or not enough for information sharing, lowers the hurdle for information sharing and establishes a system for sharing information closely.
It only takes 1 minute to register for free, using Stock and solve the burden of information sharing within your company to promote your business.
