Intranet challenges we are all facing right now and how to overcome them
We are now being advised by the government to return to work if we can. If, like us here at Sorce, we have all been able to fully operate remotely, this news may bring all sorts of new emotions, challenges and for your employer, additional pressure to make sure your workplace is Covid secure.
For many, there is a reluctance to return to the pre pandemic normal but one thing is for sure, our intranets have to adapt to this strange transitional period we are experiencing, to meet the changing demands of our new look workplace for the foreseeable future. Here we highlight some of the common intranet challenges we are all facing right now and how we might overcome them.
Understanding views on returning to the workplace
Who knows what the feeling amongst your team is, unless you ask them. Many organisations have already issued return to work questionnaires to gauge response. If you haven’t, your intranet can help with this. Our Engage forms functionality can certainly be used here.
Not all of us can be like twitter and shun our physical workplaces, nor would we want to as they are great for collaboration and social contact. However, once you know the general feeling of co workers, you can make decisions and set about creating your return to work plan to meet their needs.
Like many other businesses, there is no pressure here at Sorce to return to the physical office but it’s fully open and it’s great to meet up with colleagues when you are collaborating or creating new initiatives. We have seen a steady increase in the number of people who are trying this out.
Supporting your HR team
HR teams across the world are feeling the strain now. The need for everyone to read new policies, complete health questionnaires, update personal contact information and making sure everyone has the equipment they need to continue functioning is immense. In addition to this, providing extra health and wellbeing support is testing many organisations’ intranet capabilities.
The good news is your intranet can help with all of this. From regular news articles, microblogs, vlogs and making use of your secure document management functionality, it should be easy to communicate new policies, publish mandatory read documents and get everyone to ensure their details are up to date.
Many of our clients have created amazing new health and wellbeing areas within their intranets, publishing the support that is available and enabling colleagues to share advice and experiences. Some, use this area to publicise who their go to contacts are, should anyone need any support or advice.
Re-onboarding furloughed colleagues
Hopefully furloughed colleagues will begin to return to work, but lots of things will have changed, their role may have changed, how the business functions may have changed. Your intranet is a great place to provide video updates on what has changed and reassure them about any concerns they have returning to work.
Managing your office space
Going forwards, we can’t all cram into the lifts and pack our offices like we used to. Office capacity is limited due to social distancing and the practicalities of the office environment. Here at Sorce, we have created an office space booking system by adapting existing intranet functionality. We have set a maximum number of places available each day and everyone can see who has booked and the number of places available.
Keeping everyone engaged and motivated
If you are not used to homeworking, it can be a shock and no one can deny that it hasn’t been tough when the choice to meet up with colleagues in an office environment in the UK or abroad was taken away from us.
To keep everyone engaged is an eternal challenge and one that existed pre lockdown, but it has meant that many of our tools to support staff engagement were removed overnight, the physical became virtual and we weren’t prepared.
A few months on, and everyone is adapting, the adventurous are trialling lots of new ways of keeping everyone engaged, supporting the sense of community and team. Intranets are a great way to support all of this great work. With great content that is regularly updated, vlogs, news articles and giving people an area to express themselves your engagement programme is well supported.
Here at Sorce we are currently running a #WishIWasThere daily photo article, where our team can post photo’s of where they would have been going on holiday this year. We have also included an area to showcase our pets and tips on surviving home schooling.
I hope this has given you some ideas and helped frame your thoughts around your own intranet. If you would like to chat further about your intranet challenges and how we can help please get in touch by email or telephone 01635 551777. We are here to help. You are also welcome to browse our intranet guides and events.
