7 Initiatives to Improve Information Sharing Across Your Company
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Information sharing is still patchy in many companies: Forrester found that 36% of employees struggle to exchange information with other teams, and 47% say information is scattered across too many places. Seven initiatives to put that right:
- Start with mindsets: if leadership and managers do not set the example, employees will not follow.
- Share the right information with the right people: groups by topic, role or project keep people informed without flooding them.
- Centralize knowledge on a single platform instead of a drive, a messaging app and a project tool pulling in different directions.
- Formalize the process: where, how and with whom to share, and how to file it, written down and known by everyone.
- Open up cross-functional exchanges, and make them playful: cross-team rituals, a peer-support group, complete user profiles, and game mechanics (profiles, rewards, quizzes, challenges).
- Ask for feedback and adjust: a regular survey tells you whether the process holds up day to day.
A genuine strategic priority, effective information sharing in the workplace is essential to streamline internal communication and help employees collaborate day to day. Yet in many companies, it’s still far from optimal. According to a recent study by Forrester, 36% of employees struggle to exchange information across different teams, and 47% feel that information is scattered across too many places at once.
These silos can quickly become a real burden for your company, especially when employees work in a hybrid setup and lack the right tools to communicate remotely.
Ready to put an end to these silos? Follow these 7 best practices to improve information sharing across your company 👇
end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code 1. Shift mindsets
The first step to streamlining information sharing across your company? Start by shifting mindsets, particularly those of leadership and managers. Because it’s no secret: if management doesn’t lead by example, employees won’t follow!
Building a sharing culture means changing the habits of all your employees. In practice, though, that’s often easier said than done… So here are a few tips to make knowledge sharing a fully integrated part of your company culture:
- Identify ambassadors (ideally managers) who can relay your messages to the different teams
- Clarify your process for sharing information (see section 3)
- Run workshops (in person and/or by video call) dedicated to information-sharing best practices
- Encourage employees to share information themselves and to weigh in on the topics that concern them using the tools available to them (for example, on your internal social network)
- Promote the right to make mistakes so employees feel free to speak up
Read also: Improving knowledge management with Talkspirit: the Pôle emploi case study
2. Share the right information with the right people
If you want to break down silos, you also need to make sure all your employees can access the information you share, wherever they are. For example, if some of your employees work in the field, you’ll need to set up an internal communication tool that’s accessible on mobile and without a work email address (like Talkspirit, for instance).
Read also: Top 14 Best Internal Communication Software
That said, be careful not to overwhelm your employees with too much information. Otherwise, your tool could have the opposite effect to the one intended… To avoid this information overload, it’s important to share the right information with the right people (in other words, only those concerned by that information, or who need it to do their job).
To do this, we recommend sharing information across different groups (organized by topic, role, project, and so on) that you can create on your enterprise social network. That way, every employee knows where to share or look for a specific piece of information. And that’s a significant time-saver!
3. Centralize knowledge in one place
A great way to make your employees’ lives easier is to centralize your information and knowledge on a single platform. That way, there’s no more excuse for not sharing information in the right place!
Instead of using several collaboration tools for different purposes (for example, a drive for file storage, an instant messaging app to chat in real time, a project management tool to track your tasks), set up an all-in-one platform that brings all these features together.
Read also: Email, Intranet, or Collaborative Platform: What’s the Difference?
For instance, Talkspirit combines features to chat, run video calls, share information, store and co-edit documents, organize events, manage projects, and much more.
All-in-one tools like Talkspirit are the ideal solution to fight information scattering, cut down on internal emails, and make your company’s data easier to access. So don’t wait to roll out your platform!
Read also: How Agence Bergamote cut its emails by 95% and boosted productivity with Talkspirit
4. Formalize your information-sharing process
Of course, rolling out the right tool isn’t enough to improve information sharing across your company. It’s also, and above all, essential to create a clear process that everyone knows, so each person can share information in the best possible way.
This process should spell out, in particular:
- Where to share information (your internal social network, your intranet, your collaboration platform, your project management tool?)
- How to share information (for example, by creating a post in a specific group, sending a message on chat, sharing a document from the drive, and so on)
- Who to share information with (all employees, leadership, or only certain teams)
- How to organize information (which folders and subfolders should each piece of information be stored in?)
Take the time to think through these elements, and don’t forget to consult leadership and employees from the different teams, so you can build a process tailored to everyone’s needs and easy to apply day to day. The simpler and quicker your process, the more likely your employees are to follow it!
5. Encourage cross-functional exchanges
Once your process and internal communication tool are in place, it’s now time to encourage knowledge sharing between the different teams (and not just within teams). These cross-functional exchanges are essential to keep information flowing across your company, and so limit working in silos.
Several initiatives can help you develop this cross-functional approach. For example, you can:
- Create rituals to encourage knowledge and feedback sharing, such as a monthly workshop and/or training session bringing together employees from different teams.
- Launch a group on your internal social network dedicated to peer support and/or employee Q&A (if needed, you can create different groups based on role and/or location).
- Ask employees to fill in their skills and contact details on their user profile (if you’ve set up a tool with this feature). Every user can then easily find anyone in the company with a simple search in the directory.
- Rethink your office layout, for example by adding more collaborative spaces, so the different teams can interact more often.
6. Get creative
Don’t hesitate to think outside the box, either, and to come up with innovative initiatives to encourage information sharing. For example, why not turn to gamification? Popularized in the 2000s, this concept applies game mechanics to the workplace to make your internal communication more fun.
In concrete terms, you could for example:
- Rank the users of your enterprise social network by profile type: the more engaged they are and the better they share information, the more points they earn and the faster they can reach “expert” status
- Set up a reward system for the “top performers” who apply your information-sharing best practices (to be adjusted based on each person’s score and/or goals reached)
- Run a quiz to test employees’ knowledge (do they know how to use your internal social network properly? Do they know your information-sharing process inside out?)
- Launch challenges to motivate employees and managers (for example, challenge them to come up with the best idea to improve knowledge sharing across your company)
7. Ask for feedback
Finally, remember to regularly survey employees to gather their feedback on the processes and tools you’ve put in place, and to collect their suggestions for improvement.
Here are a few ideas for questions to include in your survey:
- What do you think of the information-sharing process in place? Are you able to apply it day to day? If not, what’s stopping you?
- Do you feel this new process saves you time or costs you time? And why?
- Do you feel comfortable with the internal communication tool(s) available to you? Do they seem effective enough to share information with your colleagues and/or leadership? If not, what are their limitations?
- In your view, is internal communication inclusive and transparent enough? If not, how could it be improved?
- Do you feel that leadership and management lead by example as they should? If not, what would it take to get them more involved?
Read also: Webinar recap: “Why and how to build a feedback culture”
What matters is that your employees feel involved in the process, and that they help you continuously improve your tools and processes. Who knows, they might have new ideas to suggest for encouraging information sharing!
| Initiative | What it changes | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| Initiative1. Shift mindsets | What it changesSharing becomes a team habit rather than one more instruction | Where to startPick ambassadors, ideally managers, and run dedicated workshops |
| Initiative2. Share the right information with the right people | What it changesEveryone gets what concerns them, without drowning in the flow | Where to startCreate groups by topic, by role or by project |
| Initiative3. Centralize knowledge | What it changesNo more excuse for posting in the wrong place | Where to startReplace scattered tools with a single all-in-one platform |
| Initiative4. Formalize the sharing process | What it changesEveryone knows where, how and with whom to share | Where to startWrite the process with leadership and employees from every team |
| Initiative5. Encourage cross-functional exchanges | What it changesInformation travels between teams, not only inside them | Where to startLaunch a peer-support group and regular cross-team rituals |
| Initiative6. Get creative | What it changesEmployees take part instead of putting up with it | Where to startAdd game mechanics: profiles, rewards, quizzes, challenges |
| Initiative7. Ask for feedback | What it changesTools and process follow actual usage | Where to startSurvey teams regularly, then adjust |
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“A sharing culture can’t be decreed. It takes time”, said Adeline Brenne, Project Leader at Valiuz, during a webinar dedicated to information sharing. Indeed, sharing information better across your company requires shifting the mindsets of your leadership and your employees, putting the right tools and processes in place, and actively involving your employees. So don’t lose hope if your initiatives don’t bear fruit in the first few months. Patience is key!
🤔 So what does this look like in practice? In our practical guide, discover 10 examples of initiatives our customers have put in place to improve internal communication and information sharing across their company:
Get the Practical Guide
In our practical guide “10 customer initiatives to improve internal communication”, you’ll discover: 10 examples of companies using Talkspirit to improve their internal communication, along with tips and tricks to share information better and strengthen cohesion across your company.
FAQ
Forrester found that 36% of employees struggle to exchange information with other teams, and 47% say information is scattered across too many places. Silos weigh even heavier once teams work in hybrid mode, across several offices or countries.
With mindsets, starting with those of leadership and managers. If management does not set the example, employees will not follow. Building a sharing culture means changing everyone’s habits, which takes ambassadors, workshops and the right to make mistakes.
One, wherever possible. Instead of running several collaboration tools for different purposes (a drive for files, a messaging app for real time, a project tool for tasks), set up an all-in-one platform that brings information and knowledge together in one place.
Where to share information (internal social network, intranet, collaboration platform, project tool), how to share it, who to share it with, and how to file it. Rolling out the right tool is not enough: the process has to be clear and known by everyone.
With a tool they can reach another way. For frontline staff, an internal communication tool that works on mobile and without a work email address is what makes the difference. For teams spread across several sites, groups organized by role or location keep each audience with the information it needs.
By asking. Survey employees regularly about the process and the tools: can they apply the process day to day, what gets in the way, does it save or cost them time? Their answers are what your next adjustment should be based on.
