4 Steps to Making the Most out of Your Experts

SharePoint is meant to bring the knowledge workers of the 21st century together, making the most out of every synergistic opportunity. However, with so many different resources inside SharePoint, it can be hard to make the most out of every one. Here are four tips to making sure your accumulated company expertise isn't going to waste.

1: Use the Social Profiles


There are a variety of social tools built into SharePoint. The profiles allow users to connect with one another, see which employees have what expertise, and otherwise get in touch with the right person for the job. If you haven't already created profiles, set aside a time where users can fill out their information completely.

2: Set Aside "Note Time"


Your experts can make use of the social elements of SharePoint to create notes that are then shared with others and made accessible for self-training in the future. These can be highly valuable – if they exist. The problem is that most of your experts don't want to take time away from their active projects for a note the won't get any credit for. Give them credit by setting aside a specific time for writing these notes up.

3: Create a Note Directory


While the users can share notes directly, it's still nice to have a comprehensive list. This is especially valuable for employees who want to learn more on a topic, since a compilation of valuable notes makes that education possible without burning more time from the expert who wrote it.

4: Enable Curation Elements


Curation – the crowdsourced vetting of your work community – can be incredibly effective. However, some elements of posts (such as ratings) can be intimidating at first. However, allowing this human feedback is a great way to ensure that the best notes and articles are visible without much digging.

There are dozens of other ways you can make the most of your experts, but the four items above are a great way to start inching into the development of your SharePoint social elements.