In organizations around the world today, employees leave and new employees arrive, tools change, and procedures change, all of which can lead to the degradation of crucial internal knowledge. Without an organised method of keeping knowledge on board, teams spend time relearning the same thing, making the same errors, or taking too long to onboard new employees effectively. This is the reason why developing a scalable process for retaining knowledge is essential.
Steps to Building a Knowledge Retention Process
1. Identify Critical Knowledge Areas
The first step in building a reliable knowledge retention process is determining what knowledge is worth preserving. Not all information is equally valuable, so you must identify the areas that are essential to your organization’s success.
This could include internal workflows, customer success strategies, onboarding processes, product roadmaps, or historical decision-making logic. A good way to uncover these is by talking to team leads and long-tenured employees and asking, “If this person left tomorrow, what knowledge would we lose that we couldn’t afford to?” The goal is to prioritise the knowledge that is most at risk and most important to capture.
2. Audit Existing Knowledge Sources
Before commencing development of new documentation, it is wise to know what already exists. Most teams have fragments of information spread across email chains, Google Docs, Slack, and old wikis. Conduct a formal audit of these sources to determine what has already been done, what needs to be updated, and what is missing entirely. This process not only makes it clear where gaps in content lie but also avoids effort duplication. You may be surprised to discover that valuable information is already available.
3. Choose the Right Tools for Centralisation
Having the right tools is the key to scaling your knowledge retention process. The ideal platform for knowledge retention must be easy to use, search, and access for all members of your organisation. Some popular options include Notion, Confluence, and Guru, depending on your team’s requirements and workflow. A single tool keeps everything centralised so that information does not get retained in a personal folder or a note-taking app.
When selecting a knowledge management tool, ensure it supports all content types your team uses. It integrates seamlessly with your existing workflows and offers flexible user permissions for viewing and editing.
4. Create a Standardised Documentation Process
Once you’ve selected your platform, the next step is to establish clear guidelines for documenting knowledge. A standardised process is easier to contribute to and understand by others. Establish templates for frequently used document types, such as onboarding instructions, process flows, FAQs, and project retrospectives. Add mandatory fields such as a clear title, summary, last updated on, and document owner.
5. Integrate Knowledge Sharing into Workflows
A scalable process isn’t something that sits on the sidelines; it’s seamlessly integrated into your team’s daily work. Instead of treating documentation as a separate task, embed it directly into your workflows. For example, make it standard practice to create a handover document after completing a project or to update process documentation following each sprint review. Encourage new team members to contribute their observations to onboarding guides during their training. This approach ensures that documentation remains relevant, collaborative, and continually evolving.
6. Enable Subject Matter Experts or SME to Contribute Easily
A lot of your most valuable knowledge resides in the minds of subject experts. But getting them to share may prove difficult. That’s why it’s so crucial to make the process as easy and streamlined as possible. It is best to provide them with straightforward templates that they can easily complete, or assign a knowledge manager to conduct interviews and convert the dialogue into a comprehensive document. AI software can assist by taking minutes, voice recordings, or screen captures and automating them into draft documents for review and approval by experts.
7. Set Up Regular Review & Update Cycles
Knowledge becomes less valuable if it’s outdated or inaccurate. To keep your documentation relevant, set up a system for regular reviews. The owners of each document are responsible for updating it at regular intervals, typically every three to six months. You can also use automation to send reminders or mark content as “stale” if it hasn’t been updated within a specific timeframe. Building in these update cycles ensures that your knowledge base stays accurate and trustworthy, especially as your team, tools, and processes evolve.
8. Measure Effectiveness and Scale with Feedback
Lastly, to make your knowledge retention system scalable in reality, you must monitor its effectiveness and scale accordingly based on feedback. Utilise platform analytics to determine which documents are required most frequently, when they need to be updated, and where users may be having difficulty locating information. Regularly survey your team to inquire if they believe they have access to the information they require. Use this data to identify bottlenecks and refine your documentation strategy over time.
Conclusion
Creating a scalable knowledge retention process is more than an exercise in documentation; instead, it’s an investment in your organization’s long-term durability. By recognizing key knowledge, centralizing it, and integrating sharing into day-to-day work, you build a living system that expands with your team. The secret is to start small, be consistent, and continually improve along the way. With it done correctly, a good knowledge retention process enables your people, shortens onboarding time, and converts every departure or team change into a seamless transition, instead of a crisis.
FAQs
1. Why is knowledge retention crucial for expanding teams?
As people move into new roles and teams expand, knowledge can easily be lost. An effective retention system makes key information available, preventing time loss and costly errors.
2. Which tools are best suited for knowledge retention?
Tools such as Notion, Confluence, and MindKeepr are popular. The ideal one is up to your workflow, but search for tools that are easy to use, searchable, and well-integrated into your other systems.
3. How frequently should documentation be updated?
Ideally, 3 to 6 months. You should also update documents following any significant process or product change to maintain an up-to-date and trustworthy knowledge base.
