Knowledge management is capturing how work actually gets done, and putting it where people can find it, so the business does not lose it when someone leaves or is off sick.
| Type | Example | Best format |
|---|---|---|
| Step-by-step procedures | Opening the store, cleaning the fryer | Checklist or standard operating procedure |
| Troubleshooting | What to do when the walk-in alarm goes off | Short guide with photos |
| Who to call | Supplier contacts, after-hours maintenance | Directory in one shared place |
| Judgment | When to call a manager versus handle it | Examples and rules of thumb |
Start with the standard operating procedure template for tasks with fixed steps. For a person who is leaving, use a knowledge transfer plan.
EZTime digital HR forms let you send, sign and file employee documents online.
A food plant’s senior maintenance technician announces he will retire in 3 months. The maintenance manager lists every recurring task he handles: 40 in total. For 12 of them, nobody else knows how, including the quarterly reset of an old packaging line and where the shut-off valves for a 1980s section of the building are.
Over 6 weeks, a younger technician shadows him on each of the 12 and writes a one-page procedure with photos. The test for each page: the younger technician does the task alone while the senior one watches and says nothing. 3 pages fail the first test and get rewritten.
When the senior technician retires, all 12 procedures exist and have been performed by someone else at least once. The first time the packaging line needs a reset, it takes 40 minutes instead of a call to a retired employee’s personal phone.
A procedure that was right last year can be dangerous this year. Give every written procedure an owner and a review date, and add a line at the bottom: “Last checked by, on”. Review dates can follow risk: safety and food safety procedures every 6 months, others yearly, and any procedure immediately after the equipment or process changes.
Make it easy for the people who use a procedure to flag a problem. A short note to the owner, such as “step 4 no longer matches the new machine”, is often the first sign a document is out of date. Count the flags each month; a procedure that is never flagged is either perfect or never used.
A hotel asks its night auditors to write down every question they had to call someone about over 4 weeks. The log has 23 entries, and 15 of them are the same 6 questions, such as how to process a late cancellation and who to call when the card machine fails.
The front office manager writes a one-page answer for each of the 6, with screenshots, and stores them where the night team can reach them on shift. Calls to the on-call manager at night drop from about 6 a week to 2.
To make sure the knowledge needed to do the work is available to the people doing it, regardless of who is on shift or who has left.
Standard operating procedures, checklists, troubleshooting guides, shared contact lists and recorded training.
List the tasks only one person can do, and write those down first, tested by someone else doing them.
Knowledge management captures and stores what the organization knows. Training teaches it to people.
Set the date by risk: safety and food safety procedures about every 6 months, others yearly, and any procedure right away when the equipment or process changes.
Somewhere they can reach on their phones during a shift, organized by task, with each document showing when it was last checked.
Digital HR forms, e-signatures and a digital employee file with expiry reminders, plus announcements by location, department or role.