What is Operational Knowledge?

Employees often make mistakes and rely on supervisors.

It’s not because they’re unqualified, but because they can’t access operational knowledge when they need it. 

So, what is operational knowledge? And why is operational knowledge so unique? 

Watch the 3.5-minute video to discover the ins and outs of operational knowledge, how it compares to other types of knowledge, why it’s critical to your business’ success, and how to transfer it for employee success.

Quick definition: Operational knowledge

Operational knowledge is the actionable information employees need so that they can:

• Perform tasks
• Answer questions
• Troubleshoot problems

This can involve anything from handling a physical procedure, answering customer and employee questions, completing tasks on a computer screen, or solving other day-to-day problems on the job.

3 types of knowledge — Understanding the difference

It’s important to know the difference between these three types of knowledge because how you capture and share each type of knowledge is different.

1. Regulatory knowledge

Regulatory knowledge is the universal rules and regulations for an industry. These are the requirements for every company across an industry. Because these rules are overarching, you can typically find the rules and regulations online.

For example, if you are a financial institution, this would be the FDIC regulations every bank and credit union must follow.

2. General policies and processes

The general policies and processes are where an organization starts to adapt the regulations. This is where your company asks: How are we applying these rules to our business?

Because of that, the general policies and procedures start to become a little more specific to your organization. However, they can still easily be adapted for another company.

This knowledge is the general rules and guidance employees follow, enabling the company to comply with industry regulations. They do not get into the specifics of how to perform the tasks — they merely provide a general overview.

Typically, these general policies and processes are stored in a knowledge base or knowledge repository, like SharePoint. It is a location that makes it easy to document and file away for compliance audits, but not easy for an employee to access and follow.

3. Operational knowledge

Operational knowledge is the most detailed type of knowledge. This is where you get into the company-specific, step-by-step how-tos for handling tasks, questions, and problems in your organization. 

It answers the questions:

• What do I do in ___________ situation?
• Where do I click on the screen?
• Which decisions do I make when confronted by variables?
• What do I say?

When it comes to documenting and sharing operational knowledge, it requires a more dynamic system to transfer the necessary information to your end-users. The instructions need to drive action. That’s why operational knowledge is captured, transferred, and maintained in a Knowledge Operations Platform.

Why is operational knowledge challenging to transfer to employees?

The nature of operational knowledge makes it difficult to capture and transfer. Operational knowledge is:

• Complex: It has many decisions and variables.
• Detailed: It has a specific order for where to click, ask, do, and when each of those things happens.
• Unique: It is specific to your organization.
• Constantly changing: The step-by-step processes and procedures change regularly (in both big and small ways).

That’s why operational knowledge is typically stuck in the heads of your subject matter experts (SMEs). It’s why SMEs — your supervisors and managers — spend most of their time answering employee questions.

Transferring operational knowledge requires a Knowledge Operations Strategy. Learn more about building a Knowledge Ops Strategy with this free course.

How operational knowledge works

Operational knowledge has an input, process, and output.

Your inputs are your questions, requests, and needs that come in from customers or employees. The process is the tools you use, which are the software applications and the documented procedures you provide. The output is then the completed task.

That’s the ideal scenario.

Unfortunately, the ideal scenario isn’t always the reality.

What often happens is the employee receives the input, but then they don’t recognize the input, don’t know the steps, or can’t find the resource to help them. This then changes the output to the employee needing to ask for help.

The goal is to achieve that ideal scenario where you transfer operational knowledge to employees without them needing to receive additional assistance.

How to transfer operational knowledge to employees

Before diving into the best way to transfer operational knowledge, let’s first look at the approach organizations typically take — traditional training.

The wrong approach: Traditional training methods

For decades, companies have used the same strategies to onboard and train employees. Those traditional knowledge transfer approaches include:

• Classroom training (in-person or virtual)
• Learning management system (LMS)
• Digital adoption platforms
• Shadowing

But, because of the nature of operational knowledge, those don’t work. Why is that?

• Employees forget steps in a complex procedure, causing them to make mistakes
• Procedures change, making step-by-step instructions employees learned during training outdated and inaccurate
• Employees become reliant on supervisors 

When those don’t work well, businesses usually think, “We need better training.” But that’s not the reality. In most cases, better training doesn’t work when it comes to operational knowledge.

Why ‘better training’ doesn’t work and needs to change

Traditional training methods aren’t built to help employees handle the change and complexity associated with operational knowledge.

To see why, look at this chart that compares the ability to transfer knowledge depending on how frequently (or high) the rate of change versus the level of complexity of the knowledge.

The green dot on the chart (low change and low complexity) marks where a training strategy will work just fine. But as you increase in high complexity, high change, or both, training doesn’t work.

That’s because by the time you learn the knowledge you have learned has changed. So memorization or a training strategy doesn’t give you the results you need.

What works?

So, if traditional training doesn’t work, what does? The key is shifting from a training mindset to a knowledge transfer strategy.

Knowledge transfer is the ability to share expert knowledge from you experts with your employees.

To better transfer knowledge, you need a Knowledge Operations Strategy. This is a combination of the right technology and behaviors.

To figure out how efficiently your organization transfers knowledge, look at the Knowledge Ops Maturity Model. The Model will help you identify how effective your knowledge transfer is and provide a path for how you can advance to Knowledge Operations.

Check out the Knowledge Ops Maturity Model here.

What are the benefits of better knowledge transfer?

When you can transfer operational knowledge more efficiently, it impacts many areas of your business.

The most impacted areas are:

• Onboarding
• Supervisor bandwidth
• Consistency
• AI
• Change management

Onboarding

With a clear Knowledge Ops Strategy, you can transfer operational knowledge more efficiently. This leads to shorter onboarding and training periods. New hires reach proficiency and can work independently sooner.

Supervisor bandwidth

Supervisors and managers have more bandwidth. That’s because those they oversee are more confident and independent workers. This means supervisors can spend less time answering the same questions over and over again and instead work on other projects.

Consistency

There is more consistency across the company. Employees provide the same answers and follow procedures in the same way, providing customers with a consistent user experience.

AI

The rise of AI is highlighting the fact that you have to capture your operational knowledge BEFORE implementing AI into your system. Your documented operational knowledge is what will feed into AI. 

If you want AI to provide accurate answers, it needs to pull from reliable resources. 

Learn more about AI and operational knowledge here.

Change management

Whether it is a day-to-day, small procedural change or a tech rollout, change management is more difficult without a Knowledge Ops Strategy. Operational knowledge makes businesses more agile. They can make changes and transfer the knowledge instantaneously.

Build a strategy to transfer operational knowledge more efficiently

Operational knowledge is unique in its challenges and its role in your business.

If your supervisors are constantly answering the same questions, if employees struggle to perform tasks accurately, or if procedural changes create chaos, it’s time to rethink your approach to knowledge transfer. 

A Knowledge Ops Strategy can transform how your business operates—reducing errors, improving efficiency, and empowering employees to work independently.

The ScreenSteps Knowledge Ops Platform — paired with the Find & Follow Framework — helps businesses transfer operational knowledge more effectively. It helps decrease onboarding times, reduce stress, and free up supervisor time.

Ready to get your operational knowledge in order?

Learn how to build a Knowledge Ops Strategy and make operational knowledge work for you with this free one-hour course.