In this blog, we’ll explore how to harness the power of relevance to drive successful intranet adoption. We’ll discuss strategies for customizing your intranet to meet the specific needs of your employees, ultimately boosting engagement and adoption.
This blog draws insights from a webinar series featuring Pascal Herreweghe, Digital Communication Expert and Customer Success Manager at Involv, and Christiaan Lustig, Internal Communication & Digital Employee Experience Expert and author of the book ‘Digital employee experience‘.
1. Identify Target Groups
Before you can effectively customize your intranet to meet the needs of your employees, it’s essential to understand who your users are and the specific roles they play within the organization. Many organizations fall into the trap of designing an intranet that aims to serve “everyone,” without considering the distinct requirements of various employee groups.
Consider identifying the following key groups, each with distinct needs:
- Desk and Helpdesk Staff: With tightly scheduled workdays and limited time for extra tasks, these employees need an intranet that provides quick and easy access to essential information and tools.
- Security and Catering Staff: Often lacking personal workstations or computers, these employees need an intranet that is easily accessible via mobile devices, enabling them to communicate and access information without the need for a fixed workstation.
- Field Staff: For employees working in the field, mobile access to the intranet is crucial. They must be able to retrieve information and complete tasks while on the move.
- Classic Desk Employees: Spending the majority of their time at their desks, these employees require access to comprehensive documents and internal tools.
- Policy Advisers and Project Staff: With the flexibility to move between desk work and meetings, this group needs an intranet that offers versatile access to a variety of information.
- Executives and Management: They need specialized tools for meetings and reporting, along with quick access to company-wide information.
Each group has unique needs and challenges. For example, a field employee, such as a field engineer, requires mobile access and offline documentation to effectively perform tasks while on the go. In contrast, a policy advisor needs extensive access to information and powerful collaboration tools to carry out their responsibilities. By tailoring your intranet to meet the specific demands of these varied audiences, you can create a more effective, user-friendly experience that benefits everyone in your organization.
2. Develop Personas
Creating personas is one of the most effective strategies for understanding your target groups. Personas are fictional yet realistic representations of your users that help to capture their specific needs, goals, and challenges.
Take, for instance, Linde, a management assistant who needs to access a broad array of documentation across different departments and frequently uses collaboration tools. By developing a detailed persona for someone like Linde, you can more accurately customize the intranet’s features to cater to her requirements—for example, by integrating an advanced search function and ensuring easy access to policy documents.
Christiaan emphasizes that effective personas go beyond basic demographics, incorporating personal preferences and working styles as well. This deeper understanding makes personas more concrete and relevant, particularly during the design and development phases of the intranet.
3. Collect Data and Analyze Needs
To develop accurate personas, it’s essential to collect data about your employees. This can be done through surveys, interviews, and other research methods. Understanding how employees work, the challenges they face, and what they need to be effective is crucial for creating an intranet that truly meets their needs.
4. Translate Needs into Functionalities
With the personas and data you’ve gathered, it’s time to translate these needs into specific intranet functionalities. Here are key areas to consider:
- Search and Navigation: Implement a robust search function that enables employees to quickly find the information they need, enhancing efficiency and productivity.
- Access and Security: Design a security framework that ensures sensitive information is accessible only to authorized employees, protecting company data while maintaining ease of use.
- Mobile Access: For field employees, providing mobile access to intranet functionalities is essential. This allows them to stay connected and productive, regardless of location.
To effectively reach and engage your mobile workforce, consider tools like Involv Intranet’s mobile app, which offers seamless mobile access and ensures your employees stay connected no matter where they are.
Christiaan Lustig emphasizes the need to consider the diverse technological preferences of employees. For example, while one employee may prefer accessing the intranet on a desktop, another might favor using a tablet or mobile device. By taking these preferences into account, you can ensure that the intranet is accessible and user-friendly across various platforms, effectively catering to the different needs of your workforce.
5. Implementation and Roadmap
With the functionalities clearly defined, the next crucial step is to develop a comprehensive implementation roadmap. This roadmap should detail which features will be prioritized for the initial launch and which can be introduced in later phases. A well-organized roadmap is vital for effectively prioritizing development tasks and establishing achievable milestones, ultimately ensuring a smooth and successful rollout of your intranet.
6. Continuous Improvement
After implementation, it’s essential to continuously gather user feedback and refine the intranet. Regular user surveys and monitoring of intranet usage are key to identifying areas for improvement. The objective is to establish an iterative process that progressively aligns the intranet with the evolving needs of your employees. Equally important is measuring the effectiveness of your internal communication, using tools like Involv to ensure that your intranet is driving meaningful engagement and delivering tangible results
Conclusion
Relevance is the cornerstone of successful intranet adoption. By customizing the intranet to meet the specific needs of various target groups within your organization, you can greatly enhance engagement and usage. Key steps in this process include understanding your users, identifying their needs through personas and data analysis, and translating these insights into actionable functionalities.
If you have any questions about how to implement these strategies in your organization, don’t hesitate to reach out. Together, we can ensure that your intranet is not only functional but also relevant and valuable for all your employees.