If your business is growing, then it could be time to consider developing an intranet for your company. It can be a handy and powerful tool to use if it’s designed right. You can use it to promote communication and store useful business information for employees to access. It will encourage a feeling of community and build on teamwork. It should show your employees that you value their opinions as it gives them a voice.
Have a look at this quick guide for getting you off to the right start with creating a useful intranet:
Keep It Tech Simple
You should try to use or develop a straightforward and straightforward platform for your intranet, not something that’s going to take a considerable amount of commitment to maintain once established. Using tools such as an API Mocking Guide, WordPress and professionals can be helpful for specific areas. You should also try to make sure it’s not to complex to set up, especially if it’s a brand new platform as there is probably plenty of other things your IT department could be getting on with.
Make It Usable
There is no point in having a fancy intranet that your employees struggle to use. That is why having a user-friendly experience is one of the critical aspects of your intranet. For your intranet to be a success, even your least technically minded staff need to be able to use it and to find what they’re looking for and quickly. Focus on making it attractive, easy to navigate, have a clear purpose, and a clear layout. Build around the needs of the users, so if you need a more effective way for your staff to book holidays, make sure this feature is included in the intranet.
Phase It In
It doesn’t matter if you’re starting from scratch or revamping an existing intranet you should try not to get too focused on it and bombard your employees with all the changes at once. Phasing in something new to a business is much more successful than scaring them and potentially putting them off using something. Try to start with getting the basics set up first, make sure staff know how to engage with it, then gradually make changes and improvements.
Ask For Employee Input
Once you’ve got users starting to use the platform or have established a small testing pool, there’s nothing better than having honest feedback from people who are going to be using it. It’s vital for you to listen to and act on the needs of the users as at the end of the day its for them to use. Ask the users what they want from their intranet, and request feedback and suggestions that you can use to develop it further.
Employee Training
Your intranet is only ever going to be as efficient as it’s users, so if you want to get the best out of it, it’s best to arrange some essential employee training sessions. You should think about training people from similar departments at the same time so you can tailor your training to the areas they will be using. For example, training all line managers together would be beneficial as they will probably have access to areas that other staff members won’t such as authorizing leaves. This way, you avoid overcrowding people with the information they won’t be using. Ask for feedback on any training sessions as it may highlight any training improvements needed.
Write Specific Content For The Intranet
A business intranet isn’t the place for relevant paperwork or facts and figures that everyone should be absorbing; These should be left to email and team delegations. When people use the intranet and see content such as latest business news they tend to skim it for the bits that they’re genuinely interested in. It’s just a fact that people don’t read online material; they tend to scan it. Also, if your employees are busy, they may only be using the intranet as a quick pit stop to find a piece of information and will be off it as quickly as they were on. If you want people to read a specific article that’s important, it might be a good idea to send a newsletter around via email to direct them to the intranet page.
When you’re writing this content, use clear, catchy titles, and make the information easy to scan and quick to digest. Try including images, videos, and other media to keep people focused. You could always try inviting employees to write pieces and articles to be placed on the intranet for others to read too.
This is a short guide to hopefully get you started with any considerations for creating a useful intranet that’s right for your business. Is there anything that you think has been missed off the list that could be useful? Please share them in the comments area below.
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