You are half way through January, re-energised and focused on the year ahead. Company and personal targets have been set for the year and you are looking forward to tackling your intranet and making it the hub of your digital workplace by year end. The big question is where do you start with your company intranet?
This very much depends on where you are starting from and what your objectives are. A great place is to spend some time evaluating your current intranet’s performance as this will pave the way for either short term fixes, continual development of your existing platform or starting afresh.
I thought it would be useful to highlight some activities that could help you understand how your intranet is performing now and pave the way for you to understand how you can make your Company Intranet greater this year.
How to find out how great your intranet is now:
- Ask colleagues for feedback and input through meetings and employee surveys.
- You could undertake stakeholder interviews. You can supplement the results generated by your intranet survey with stakeholder interviews, they are a great way of uncovering what is really going on and also great for generating ideas to improve your intranet. You will find lots of great content to help you on our website.
- Take time to review your company intranet usage statistics, including employee engagement. Who is using the intranet and who isn’t?
- It might be a good time to undertake a mini intranet content audit. It’s important to take stock of the volume of content held within your intranet. You may remember writing the original intranet specification and discovering thousands of disconnected and duplicated pieces of content. This stage ensures history isn’t repeating itself.
- Digest all of the information and draft what you think are the priorities. At this stage you may reach the conclusion that your current intranet software is not fit for purpose and you therefore need to start to build your business case for greater internal support.
- If your company intranet is meeting your core requirements but in need of improvements, you might want to identify 10 small, medium and large intranet improvements that are achievable and would make a difference to your intranet’s performance. You might like to come along join our intranet events to get some inspiration.
- Ask for feedback from your company intranet contributors. If you are continuing with your existing intranet supplier, now is also a good time to engage them for their feedback on your requirements as they may have some further insight and provide ways forward you hadn’t considered.
- Once you are confident you have captured the main requirements, it’s time to finalise your “intranet priorities” and circulate to your intranet contributors and sponsors.
- It’s time to start scheduling your intranet improvements and research any elements that would require additional budget approval.
- Begin to work through your priorities with colleagues and schedule regular updates. Don’t forget to communicate to your intranet users at regular intervals.
I hope you have found this useful. Evaluating your company intranet can be a daunting process, but it is a great way to make sure your intranet is on track and is doing what you intended. If you do need any help or advice, Sorce are here to help. We’ve experienced hundreds of intranets of all shapes and sizes and are skilled at helping uncover opportunities to improve engagement and business process.
As intranet software providers our software powers the intranet and extranet for hundreds of organisations. Our clients cover a wide range of sectors from finance to manufacturing, not for profit organisations (such as charities and housing associations) as well as local authorities and other public sector agencies. To find out more about our intranet software package or consultancy get in touch.
