What is a knowledge audit and when should a company do one?
A knowledge audit is a systematic review of what your organization knows, where that knowledge lives, who holds it, and what gaps exist. Companies should do one when scaling rapidly, experiencing high turnover, preparing for compliance reviews, or noticing that teams repeatedly struggle with the same questions.
What does a knowledge audit actually involve?
A knowledge audit maps three things: what knowledge exists, where it is stored, and how accessible it is. The process typically follows four steps:
- Inventory — List every process, workflow, and decision-making framework across departments
- Location mapping — Identify where each piece of knowledge lives (Notion, Google Docs, someone's head, Slack threads)
- Gap analysis — Flag processes that have no documentation or only exist as tribal knowledge
- Risk scoring — Prioritize gaps by impact (what happens if this knowledge disappears?)
| Knowledge State | Risk Level | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Documented and current | Low | Schedule periodic review |
| Documented but outdated | Medium | Update with current process owner |
| Exists only in one person's head | High | Document immediately |
| No one fully understands it | Critical | Record the workflow and reverse-engineer documentation |
When should you run a knowledge audit?
Run one annually as a baseline. But specific triggers should prompt an immediate audit:
- Before a key employee leaves — identify what knowledge walks out the door
- During rapid hiring — ensure onboarding materials cover current processes
- After a major incident — find the documentation gaps that contributed to the problem
- Before a compliance audit — verify that required procedures are documented and accessible
Glyde can accelerate the documentation phase by capturing workflows directly from screen recordings, making it faster to close the gaps a knowledge audit reveals.
This answer is part of our guide to capturing and preserving team knowledge.