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Some organisation are concerned with the concept of encouraging employees to ‘socialise’ more. The realities of giving employees the freedom to create content, share and comment across an open business platform makes some decision makers very nervous.
However, launching a well-designed, user centric social intranet can be a really powerful tool that can actually increase productivity and reduce costs (1).
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In this guide we look at:• The consequences of having no intranet solution• The problem with existing intranets• What is a social intranet?• The three core elements of a social intranet • 5 mistakes to avoid when scoping your intranet• Top Tips for creating a successful intranet
“A well-designed, user centric social intranet can increase productivity and reduce costs”
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Introduction
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If you don’t provide the tools employees need through an official company social intranet that is functional useful and attractive, employees will find and use any of the many other social tools available to them externally (2).
To solve particular needs business units or departments will often use a variety of individual tools such as Skype, Slack, Google Hangouts, Basecamp, Trello or DropBox to enable communications, task management and document sharing. This can result in a proliferation of different accounts for different needs and potential duplication of work. With so many accounts to manage this can lead to risks of security compromises and data vulnerability.
In addition, with so many ‘privately’ managed groups across an organisation, senior managers will become detached and isolated from the conversations within the business, becomingignorant of what is actually going on in the company culture.
What are the consequences of having no intranet solution?
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What is the problem with existing intranets?According to Forrester, 75 percent of people solely use their intranet for human resources purposes like benefit information, company directories, and training courses.
Employees aren’t shy about sharing their feelings on their company’s intranet shortcomings either.
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So, what is a social intranet and what are the mistakes to avoid when scoping and launching your new social intranet platform?
The most common reasons employees hate their intranets include:
• Stale and out-dated information
• Poor search functionality and navigation
• Frustrating or non-existent communication tools
• Terrible document management capabilities
• Weak or difficult content publishing and sharing
• Inability to segment the community (3)
It is surprising that more organisations aren’t dedicating more resources to this neglected area, especially when a McKinsey study showed that social technologies raise productivity of knowledge workers by as much as 20 to 25 percent.
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What is a social intranet?Imagine a place where employees can share ideas instantly, check real-time project status, co-ordinate responsibilities, connect with their colleagues and support social learning.
A social intranet is not just a one-way tool for businesses to communicate at their staff. It is not purely a document repository for HR forms, and it shouldn’t be left to just one or two people within an organisation to update.
A social intranet is about placing people at the centre and then creating a digital solution around them to support the business goals and fulfil the users’ needs.
Social technologies can raise productivity by up to 25%
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The three core elements of a social intranet:
It is vital that relevant information can easily flow vertically and horizontally, with the flexibility of content formats such as articles, posts, comments and status updates.
Enabling and facilitating ideas and knowledge sharing by providing collaborative workspaces.
The ability to evolve the platform with the business and integrate with existing and new business processes, systems and data.
It might sound pretty easy. Find an existing platform that has the right functionality to meet your needs now. Unfortunaely it is not that simple. A successful intranet needs much more than this.
Content flow
Collaboration
Flexible technology
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Here are 5 mistakes to avoid when scoping your intranet:
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Believing the ‘social’ element is about social media.
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A social intranet is not about integrating social media elements into your intranet or creating a look and feel that resembles a Facebook newsfeed. It is about embracing the philosophy of social media – the sharing, collaboration and free flow of communication.
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Believing your intranet will survive on one-way, top-down communicationWhilst you may want to push out certain messages across your organisation, an intranet that is only one-way is essentially just a message board. It will not engage users, nor will it inspire colleagues to work more effectively together.
The only way to create an engaging intranet that employees want to use is to allow them to get involved. A social intranet is an opportunity to bring to life a company’s entire culture, increase knowledge across the business and bring people together. This can be achieved by encouraging the sharing of relevant content, whether that is customer feedback, sharing learnings from a recent training course or allowing employees to invite colleagues to join a company book club or football team.
Whilst the content may include non-work related content, it will increase overall adoption and on-going engagement. Don’t be afraid of users uploading their last night’s dinner – they won’t. With guidance they will understand the role of your platform and how to use it effectively.
It is really important however that senior management get actively involved. Imagine the impact of a senior manager posting an update on a new client win and asking for the employees to share a recent work success. This type of activity is guaranteed to drive engagement and reinforce a sense of connection throughout an organisation.
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Thinking an intranet is just for office-based staff.When an intranet is more than just a message board, it can open up knowledge and experience throughout an organisation. Employees such as engineers or technicians who work off-site could benefit immensely from being able to instantly message a colleague for advice or search for a peer’s relevant blog post related to the problem they are trying to solve. Field sales teams will also be able to enjoy having a constant connection to the office and bring them into the culture despite any distance.
It isn’t just large companies that should be implementing a social intranet, smaller companies with remote workers can benefit hugely. Enabling easy document sharing, instant communication and effective collaboration can boost an individual’s sense of belonging.
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Not considering user buy-inUser adoption is what will make or break the success of your intranet. The best way to achieve this is to take your employees along on the journey from the very beginning.
Every successful web project is founded on user research and an intranet should be no different. It is important to bring together key stakeholders from all levels of the business to discuss the objectives of the intranet as well as the needs, wants, frustrations and expectations of the users.
For example, it’s vital to understand the barriers and motivations of millennials to engage these users. Just because they are considered digital natives doesn’t mean they will want to automatically engage with your platform. Getting to know these employees’ expectations is just as important as any other audience, tech-savvy or not.
The developments of the project should be communicated and once live, it should be formally launched to all employees of the business. In addition to the initial research, our experience has shown that intranet champions are a great way to help maintain momentum with engagement and help fuel content.
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Not choosing a flexible enough systemThere are many off-the-shelf intranet systems available with standard features for standard companies. However, for those companies who are seeking to make a real business impact with their culture and communications, then a standard solution will not suffice.
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Our Top Tips for creating a successful social intranet1. Explore the needs, wants, motivations and expectations of your users and unite these with the goals of the business to achieve a solution that increases productivity, efficiency and innovation.
3. Encourage your staff to participate by empowering them to contribute and giving them the tools to do it effectively.
4. Create a set of intranet user guidelines to let employees know how to use the platform effectively.
5. Keep the momentum of your intranet going by assigning Intranet Champions to manage and drive the success of the platform internally.
Sources:
1. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/how-social-tools-can-reshape-the-organization
2. David Gray, author of Gamestorming and The Connected Company. Bloomfire
3 Website Magazine
2. Forget an off-the-shelf solution if you want to make a real impact on your business, instead get a system that is specifically designed for your business and employees’ needs and wants. Choose an experienced provider that can deliver a flexible platform that will grow with your organisation.
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About usDotLabel UX Digital agency has over 10 years experience in designing and developing user-centred digital solutions. Taking a listen-first approach, we believe it is essential to understand the needs of the business stakeholders and users in order to craft a solution that meets (and where possible exceeds) expectations.
Our experience of implementing intranets and bespoke web applications means that you will benefit from our technical expertise and also our tried and tested techniques to drive intranet user adoption and engagement.
To discuss your project, please contact the DotLabel team on 01256 329972 or email [email protected]
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DotLabel has at its very core, a strong partnership ethosWe truly believe the best work comes from creating strong long-term partnerships with our clients
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Southern Cross, Basing View, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 4HG
Want to kick start your Social Intranet project?
Contact us today on 01256 329972 or Email us at [email protected] to discuss your goals and ambitions.
