What Every Intranet Team Should Know

Important background info to note

6 phases of intranet evolution

2) Rapid organic growth (grow like coral, organic but unmanaged)

3) Repeated redesigns (same content, same functionality - just reshuffled)

4) intranet usability

5) useful, not just usable

6) business tool (clear strategy, roadmap)

4 purposes of the Intranet

Communication

Collaboration (have to expand in a manageble way) # #

Activity #

Content

Operational & BU/divisional information

Decentralised model (involves more staff)

Staff wants content that impact them #

establish clear ownership & management of col. tools

governance & support

overall strategy that positions collaboration tools alongside other platforms

developing business case for collaboration

giving access to collaboration tools from the intranet

E.g.communities of practice, senior leadership retreat - the internal communications team will contact key stakeholders to understand the agenda and activities

Convert manual forms to online forms

‼E.g. declaration of gifts, stationery requests, etc.

💥 Intranets must deliver business value

Collaboration: Display project delivery as a result of using tools

Activity: Streamlining key processes or simplifying activities

Intranet Design Process

1) Understand staff needs

Finding out staff needs

Don't ask staff what they want

"I don't know"

Use structured techniques

Surveys

Focus groups & requirements workshops

Staff interviews

Stakeholder interviews (e.g. agencies)

Workplace observation

Measure staff satisfaction

Gather evidence for business case

Get out into the field (talk to them!)

"I want XYZ "endless list

Response like will be based on current use - bad for innovative use

2) Determine project scope

3) Conduct best-practice redesign

4) Migrate content & launch

1) the intranet is born!

Delivering great content

Target efforts to highest value content (prevent burnt-out of the Intranet team)

Find the best publishing models

Fully centralised - published by the Intranet team

Decentralised publishing - business areas are responsible for publishing and managing their own content

Publishing with review - content produced by authors within business areas ;goes thru review before it is published on the Intranet

Federated publishing - a hybrid model - BU appoints a coordinator who takes responsibility of their own content

End-user contribution - Staff across org can contribute without having formal role as author

Focus on the people aspects

Understand the motivation of authors

Help authors to be effective

Build bridges between authors and the central intranet team

Encourage good practices rather than enforcement

Present a human face - some comms are more effective when they are done face-to-face. Ensure the intranet team deals in person with BU authors

Role of the Intranet team