An intranet impacts different people in different ways. For some people these radically change the way they work, for others it’s a series of small improvements that make a big difference. I’m going to have a look at these small improvements and show how they are the foundation of a successful intranet. For further information on this, and more, download our guide on how to manage your intranet.
A few months ago I was involved in the launch party of a housing association that was rolling out their new intranet. They had been using the intranet for a few weeks but this was the opportunity to promote this new tool to the business.
As I was going around talking to people to find out what they thought I was stopped by the receptionist, she wanted to say how much the intranet had improved the way she worked. “In the years I have worked here I have never been able to see the availability in our car park, the intranet lets me book spaces for visitors – it’s amazing”.
For most organisations, I doubt managing the parking in their car park is justification to buy new intranet software. This is an example of a simple process that the intranet can do well. It impacts the productivity of employees but is never going to form justification in itself. In my experience an effective intranet is built on a foundation of these smaller improvements that come together to change the way staff think about their intranet.
Holiday booking is another example of a simple process that the intranet does really well, one with a bigger reach than managing car parking spaces. It’s something that most employees need to do and are motivated to get right. The intranet provides workflow so when someone requests holiday their manager is informed and can check and sign this off. It manages their allocation to make sure holiday is recorded, improving the process for all involved.
Attracting staff to the intranet with these processes certainly streamlines the way things are done but it also has another unquantified effect. It staff people to other things on the intranet that may be more business critical. While they are booking their holidays they may notice the announcement showing their latest marketing campaign, or the big event that is just around the corner.
If you can show employees that the intranet can support some of the processes they do on a regular basis you’ll soon find them coming to you with more ideas. An effective intranet streamlines the way staff get work done and should begin to incorporate more and more of these tasks. The best opportunities for this is usually processes (like booking car parking) that as the project owner have never even crossed your mind.
Over the years we have many examples of different processes that organisations have used their intranet to improve. Book a demo of our intranet software where one of our consultants can listen to your objectives and cover some examples in great detail.
