What is an Internal Knowledge Base?

What is an internal knowledge base?

An internal knowledge base is a centralized repository of information and resources that is specifically designed to be accessed and used by an organization’s employees or internal teams. It promotes cross-functional collaboration, streamlines knowledge sharing, and lowers operational costs by reducing redundant inquiries and minimizing time spent searching for information.

The primary purpose of an internal knowledge base is to empower employees to find answers to their questions quickly and independently, thereby improving productivity and reducing the reliance on subject matter experts or other colleagues.

What’s the difference between an internal and an external knowledge base?

An internal knowledge base is typically accessible only to employees, team members, or specific departments and contains information that is pertinent to internal processes, company guidelines, training materials and proprietary knowledge. It reduces the need for one-on-one information exchanges or repetitive inquiries as information and resources are present at one location.

On the other hand, an external knowledge base is intended for use by individuals outside the organization, such as customers, clients, or the general public. It serves as a self-service resource that provides information about the organization’s products and services. The goal of an external knowledge base is to empower users to find solutions to common issues on their own, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing the demand on customer support teams.

Understanding internal knowledge base

Examples of an internal knowledge base resources

A typical internal knowledge base includes:

• Company policies and guidelines: Employee handbooks, compliance rules and workplace policies
• Standard operating procedures (SOPs): Step-by-step instructions for recurring tasks and workflows
• Product and service documentation: Internal guides, FAQs and troubleshooting steps
• Training and onboarding materials: Resources for new hires, skill development and professional growth.
• IT and technical support: Troubleshooting guides, software documentation and security protocols
• Project documentation: Team-specific insights, best practices and past project learnings
• Internal communications: Company updates, announcements and key initiatives

Many modern knowledge bases are powered by AI-driven search and categorization, enabling employees to quickly find the right information at the right time.

Why do you need an internal knowledge base?

For employees to efficiently and accurately do their work, they need access to the directions, details and information required to execute. They also need to be aware of company changes that could impact the direction and approach of their work.

Easy access to knowledge is essential for maintaining employee productivity and alignment with organizational goals.

But too often, knowledge silos create information breakdowns. A knowledge silo occurs when one individual or team holds information that is not shared with others. This breakdown can result in: 

• Loss of productivity
• Leads to employee misalignment 
• Reduces employee engagement 
• Prevents innovation 
• Limits opportunities 
• Lowers company trust

According to APQC, knowledge workers spend an average of two hours weekly recreating information and about 1.7 hours weekly providing duplicate answers and updates. Organizations need a centralized internal knowledge base to avoid this type of productivity loss. 

One of the best ways to build this type of knowledge base is through a company intranet with strong search features. Your intranet will serve as your organization’s knowledge repository, one central space for employees to find what they need and share insights, best practices and lessons learned.

Benefits of using internal knowledge base tools

Creating a well-orchestrated knowledge management strategy equipped with the right tools ensures that valuable insights, best practices and critical resources are easily accessible at one place, ultimately leading to:

Secured “tribal knowledge”

When people leave, they take their acquired knowledge and expertise with them — and that hurts, as it’s estimated that 42% of the expertise required to capably perform a given position is known only by the person currently in that position. Setting up an internal knowledge base enables proper documentation, valuable insights, best practices, and critical processes are saved at one location.

Increased employee productivity

Employees spend a significant amount of time searching for information, which can slow down workflows, increase frustration and lower efficiency. Easy availability of knowledge assets can reduce the search time by up to 35%. You can use AI-powered knowledge bases to maintain a centralized repository, enabling employees to quickly find and share accurate information. 

Related: Enhance your workflow with GenAI for productivity

Enhanced collaboration and innovation

By centralizing information and making it easily accessible, an internal knowledge base encourages team collaboration in the workplace. Employees can build on each other’s insights, resulting in an educational environment that fosters employee growth and the development of new solutions to business challenges.

Related: Explore 13 collaboration tools for productive teams 

Higher employee retention

Providing a centralized knowledge base helps reduce frustration and allows employees to perform their tasks more effectively. This leads to higher job satisfaction and a stronger sense of accomplishment. Studies show that employees with the right tools and resources are more likely to stay with the company long-term, reducing turnover and the associated costs.

Simpplr’s Chief People & Experience Officer, Miriam Connaughton, says: 

“If employees feel supported in how they do their work, and it’s easy, and you’re enabling them to be productive so they can focus on more interesting work, then that’s all going to help in retention.”

Faster onboarding and learning

Instead of relying solely on hands-on training or shadowing, new hires can access detailed documentation, tutorials, and FAQs stored in a repository to quickly familiarize themselves with company processes, culture and expectations. This self-service model not only reduces the burden on existing team members who might otherwise have to spend a considerable amount of time training new hires, but it also empowers new employees to learn at their own pace.

Scalable, friction-free operations

An internal knowledge base enables businesses to scale efficiently by centralizing SOPs, employee handbooks, and knowledge transfer processes in one accessible location. This streamlined approach ensures consistency across teams, reduces onboarding time and breaks the cycle of over-dependence on IT departments and support staff. 

Related: Multinational automotive service provider connects 18,000 distributed, deskless employees

How to create an internal knowledge base?

Establishing an internal knowledge base involves a series of strategic steps to ensure its effectiveness and usability. Here is a step-by-step guide you can follow: 

Determine the goal of the internal knowledge base

Start by pinpointing the specific purpose it will serve, whether it’s for employee training, customer support resources, or streamlining internal processes. 

1. Use cases: Identify the purpose of your knowledge base. Is it for company-wide information, project-specific documentation, or closing knowledge gaps for particular teams? Define the primary audience and the challenges it aims to solve.
2. Roles & access levels: Outline the roles and establish permissions to maintain security and relevance. Such as:

• View-only access for general employees
• Company-wide or team-specific access based on roles
• Department-based contributors with defined editing and approval rights

Create and organize content

The next step is to collect and organize all the necessary information to set up an internal knowledge base for your organization and employees. Start by identifying the main topics and categories relevant to your organization. Focus first on essential documents, such as:

• Basic company information
• Leave and compensation policies
• Performance review rating and guidelines
• Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
• Workplace code of conduct
• Organizational charts
• Training materials for new employees

Develop new content to fill gaps using various formats, ensuring clarity and consistency across all documents with a unified format, style, and easy-to-understand language. This could involve writing new guides, creating video tutorials, or recording webinars. Implement version control to ensure access to the most up-to-date information.

Organize information logically with intuitive navigation, fostering efficient knowledge sharing and empowering employees with readily available resources.

Find and choose an internal knowledge base solution

To help employees execute more effectively, create one centralized hub where employees can quickly access business-critical material. Choosing a platform to organize the information intuitively is critical so it’s easy to find and offer tools that support each phase of an employee’s workflow.

Here are a few features to look at while choosing the best knowledge management solution:

• AI-powered search: Enables quick and accurate retrieval of relevant information.
• Intuitive user interface: Ensures easy navigation and accessibility for all employees.
• Role-based access control: Provides secure and customized access levels for different users.
• Content version & updates: Maintains accuracy with real-time updates and version control.
• Integration capabilities: Seamlessly connects with existing tools like intranets, CRMs, and collaboration platforms.
• Mobile accessibility: Allows employees to access knowledge anytime, anywhere, on any device.

Looking for a solution that can provide access to all business-critical information and tools in one place? A modern intranet.

A modern intranet like Simpplr puts everything an employee needs to do their work in one system. It centralizes information, integrates with tools employees use, and offers features that customize the platform so employees can find what they need faster and easier.

The most advanced intranets include virtual assistance to help employees get quick access to important information and tools. This feature uses a conversational interface that turns indexed results into human language with a high rate of response accuracy.

Focus on seamless usability and search

The effectiveness of your knowledge base depends on its design. It should be clean, intuitive, and easy to navigate, ensuring employees or customers quickly find what they need. A clutter-free interface increases adoption and usability.

Don’t forget the importance of AI-powered search, which delivers the most accurate and comprehensive answers, reduces time spent searching, and increases efficiency. Use Simpplr Enterprise Search: a combination of AI and unified search. 

With this search functionality, employees can: 

• Find the most accurate and comprehensive answers with a search that leverages GenAI 
• Search across documents, intranet content and even people using profile information and expertise tags. 
• Search across all apps from multiple cloud-based file management systems, including Microsoft Office 365 and Google Drive.
• Refine search results by filtering by site, content type, author and publish date to find exactly what they need.

Continuously monitor user behavior

Monitor behaviors like which articles get the most views, the search terms used, whether users are finding what they need, and the time spent in the knowledge base can reveal areas for improvement.

Many knowledge-based platforms offer built-in analytics to help track these metrics. These insights enable you to optimize the content and structure of your knowledge base. Simpplr prescriptive analysis feature analyzes real-time employee sentiment and engagement across departments, functions, and regions for a more targeted approach.

Regularly update and check content

As your business grows and your product or service offerings expand, upgrading your knowledge base with updated information is essential. Conduct periodic reviews to ensure content accuracy, relevance, and alignment with current company policies, processes, and best practices. Use analytics to weed out content that employees don’t want or need, fill knowledge gaps and incorporate employee feedback to keep the knowledge base a reliable and valuable resource.

Look for a knowledge management solution that has an auto-governance engine and content moderation feature. Simpplr launched the industry’s first Auto-Governance Engine to combat the challenge of stale intranet content — a top reason intranets fail. It deprioritizes more irrelevant content and auto-archives stale content.

Upgrade your internal knowledge base with an AI-powered intranet

Upgrading your internal knowledge base with an AI-powered intranet revolutionizes the way your organization accesses and utilizes information.

Unlike traditional systems, which often struggle with organizing and retrieving information, an AI-powered intranet can intelligently categorize and tag content, offer personalized recommendations, and enhance search functionality. This enables employees to find relevant information quickly and efficiently, reducing time spent searching and improving overall productivity.

Introducing Simpplr, an AI-powered employee experience platform that transforms the employee experience by connecting distributed workforces, unifying information silos and giving employees instant access to news and information.

Simpplr puts everything your employees need to thrive at work in one place.

Simpplr simplifies the tech stack by unifying critical EX capabilities such as the Intranet, AI assistant, workplace search, surveys, newsletter and recognition & rewards in one single platform. This consolidated approach provides employees with one-stop-shop, cultivating a more positive and productive work environment — ultimately leading to better overall company performance.

Get a live demo to see how Simpplr can transform your employee experience with a solution that goes far beyond basic internal knowledge bases.