How do you incentivize employees to write and update documentation?
Incentivize documentation by reducing friction, tying it to performance reviews, and recognizing contributors publicly. Make creating documentation as easy as recording a screen. Most employees don't resist documentation itself — they resist the time it takes. Automate the creation step and make updates part of existing workflows, not a separate task.
Why do traditional incentives for documentation fail?
Telling people to "document more" doesn't work. Neither does mandating documentation without changing the tools or expectations. Common failures:
- Documentation sprints — Teams write a batch of docs, then never update them
- Generic mandates — "Everyone should document their processes" without specifying which ones
- Guilt-based motivation — "You'll regret not documenting when someone leaves" doesn't create daily habits
- No time allocation — Expecting documentation on top of a full workload guarantees it gets deprioritized
What actually motivates people to document?
| Strategy | Why It Works |
|---|---|
| Lower the effort | Use Glyde that generate SOPs from screen recordings — documentation becomes a byproduct of work, not extra work |
| Tie to reviews | Include "knowledge sharing" as a performance metric with specific examples |
| Public recognition | Highlight documentation contributions in team standups or Slack channels |
| Make it the default | New processes aren't "done" until the SOP is created — build it into the definition of complete |
| Peer accountability | When someone asks a question answered in the docs, link the doc instead of re-explaining |
The most effective lever is friction reduction. When creating a document takes 5 minutes instead of an hour, people stop seeing it as a chore. The second most effective: making documentation visible as a contribution. People write more when they see their colleagues reading and referencing their work.
This answer is part of our guide to capturing and preserving team knowledge.