Oral culture, what is the hidden cost for your business?

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An employee spends an average of 7 hours a week looking for the information necessary to carry out his mission. That's almost an entire working day spent researching information per week, often due to ineffective oral transmission of knowledge and skills.

A study of McKinsey also reveals a solution to combat oral culture: the use of a tool for transmitting knowledge, which can improve employee productivity by up to 35%.

So what is the hidden cost of this oral culture for your business? How can the digitalization of processes and better skills management help to reduce this cost and increase productivity? That's what we're going to explore in this article.

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The digitalization of processes to fight against oral culture

Let's quickly recall 2 concepts:
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• La digitalization of processes, which is an approach aimed at transforming traditional processes, often based on oral or paper, into digital processes. This makes it possible to gain in efficiency, speed and precision.

• The culture of speaking, which means that information is often scattered and difficult to find. This can lead to a considerable loss of time for employees who have to search for the information they need to carry out their mission.

By centralizing information and making it easily accessible, you fight against oral culture.

For example, with a tool like Komin.io, employees can create “Playbooks” that document company processes and knowledge. These playbooks are then accessible to all employees concerned, making it easier to find information and reducing the time spent looking for information on the same subject.

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Other factors need to be taken into account

After using our ROI calculator, you should have a better idea of how much speaking culture costs your business. The time spent looking for information, when scaled across a business, can be astronomical.

Even if it is not always easy to quantify the ROI of tools like Komin.io, it's easy to see a positive impact on productivity. Moreover, several studies prove it, by facilitating the transmission of knowledge and by reducing the time spent looking for information, the productivity of your employees can increase by 20 to 35%.

Factors to consider when estimating the cost of speaking in your company:

• The size of the company: In small businesses, communication is often more direct and informal, which promotes a culture of speaking. On the other hand, in large companies, even if information is written and stored more often, as the volume of information is significant, it can be difficult to know which information flows are relevant to one person.‍
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• The nature of the work: In some sectors or professions, work is heavily based on speaking (for example, sales, consulting, etc.). In these cases, the oral culture is often more present.‍
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• Employee habits and preferences: Some collaborators prefer to communicate orally rather than in writing, and in this case, you will have to deal with it. But all is not lost, with Komin.io you can give them Ways to express yourself orally while centralizing information.
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• Training and education: The training and education of employees can also influence the oral culture.
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• ‍Knowledge management: Finally, the way in which a company manages its knowledge can also influence the oral culture. If a company does not have an effective system for documenting and sharing knowledge, this can encourage employees to rely more on oral communication.

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Conclusion: the culture of speaking, an economic and know-how loss

The culture of speaking, although natural and often appreciated for its spontaneity and humanity, can represent a significant economic cost for businesses. The time spent looking for information, repeating the same instructions, or reformulating the same concepts represents a cost per hour of work that could be invested more productively.

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In addition, the culture of speaking can also lead to a loss of know-how. Information transmitted orally is not always well remembered, and can be forgotten or misinterpreted. Without an effective system for documenting and sharing knowledge, businesses risk losing some of their intellectual capital, which in the case, can be invaluable.

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That is why it is essential for businesses to become aware of these hidden costs and to put in place solutions to deal with them.

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In the end, transforming the culture of speaking is not only a question of economy, but also a question of know-how and competitiveness. By investing in the digitalization of processes and knowledge management, businesses can not only reduce their costs, but also improve their performance and their ability to innovate.