An intranet has many missions in life. But its key objective is to support people in work, so that they perceive it as their natural digital workplace… the place they come to find information, to locate colleagues, to store and retrieve documents. Basically, it’s the glue of your company. And if it’s not sticking everything together, it needs fixing.
Here are a few things to consider when getting started with your new intranet.
Content
You’ve paid to have a shiny intranet implemented. But wait, where’s the content coming from?
You need to make it the culture for users to see your new intranet as a single source of knowledge –the place to come if they want to be in the know.
First, you’ll need to have a content cleanse, so anything that’s old, outdated or irrelevant on the old system needs to go. That includes anything like your first blogs – get rid, unless you can repurpose them to make them relevant for today’s users.
Documents that you’d originally only share on Teams are now going to be shared publicly with your entire workforce so all content needs to be fresh, up-to-date and relevant to their needs, or you may lose them before you’ve even begun.
Your people directory needs to be filled with staff who currently work there, your HR files need to have the most recent guidance and the business news feed needs to let people know what’s happening now, not in 2009.
Technology
Working smarter is key to a successful intranet so you need to make sure the technology works for you. Staff need to understand the platform and what they can use it for and get out of it. With fewer channels to negotiate and realising they can come to just one platform for everything they need, staff will enjoy using a well-designed intranet with information relevant to them on the homepage as soon as they log in – with communications involving them tagged too.
It’s a good idea to put admins in charge to manage the platform to keep it safe. Managers of the system will need to have tight control over access permissions, to ensure security and compliance, and so users won’t be able to look at any files that they’re not permitted to.
Training
Once you’ve implemented Attollo, you get eight hours of free training, so use this time wisely. Designate supervisors who will be on hand to help people adopt the new system. They’ll also be responsible for pushing the training out to your organisation.
It is an ongoing process people will have to learn how to use. Training can assist users with how to use the platform strategically using SharePoint in the way it is intended. For example, learning how they could start a document version in OneDrive, collaborate and move it to Teams, before uploading to SharePoint powered by Attollo.
You can also create one-to-one training sessions for those less acquainted with technology to help boost confidence amongst staff.
Ownership
Attollo is a great vehicle for engagement but does need drivers. Organisations need to adopt content and functionality – and own it to drive a strategy. The platform needs to be led by someone – it could be your head of communications or different people for each department.
For example, you might decide it’s a good idea to have an Employee Spotlight for new starters that link to articles in the news center. But who will collate the information for the content to appear? Who will write it? Who will be in charge of arranging the next ones?
The process needs to be organised for your intranet to be a success. You want people to keep coming back because they know it’s a place where up-to-date information is guaranteed.
Don’t forget to train all managers and heads of departments – if they’re seen to communicate on the intranet then you have a much better chance of it being adopted by all staff. They should require that specific tasks be performed on the intranet, and not the old ways.
Communications strategy
Once your intranet is implemented you’ll need to bang the drum that Attollo is the place to come – it’s where the apps are, where news is and where documents can be saved safely.
Your new communication objectives should seek to create awareness, establish needs, change attitudes or drive actions. Consider what might prevent you from achieving your intranet objectives and how communications can help you overcome these barriers.
Your initial steps on implementation should be to increase the visibility of your intranet by letting all staff know it’s there and to ditch old habits. Cultivating trust in the intranet is key, along with creating intranet ‘champions’ who can get others in the business involved.
You might start by sending a snapshot email of the 5 latest blogs to everyone’s email as that would drive people to the intranet with a notification on Teams. People can use Attollo functionality ‘Adaptive Cards’ to highlight when new things are uploaded. Use video to share thumbnails in emails or Microsoft Stream – like an internal YouTube – to embed in pages within Attollo to keep interest high.
Ongoing investment
As more and more people learn to love the intranet and use it daily, you may want to consider building in additional industry-specific functionality to put you in a driving position to continuously add value and benefits for users.
Remember the aim is to give your staff the best user experience – and they can get this with award-winning Attollo intranet. It could be that you add something as simple as ‘Library book recommendations, which could be rolled out to the whole organisation – and can get everyone involved in something social.
Need more information?
Your new intranet can really help build culture, drive engagement, and give employees a sense of purpose. If you’d like to hear more about how Attollo can work for you, we’d love to give you a free demonstration, so contact us today.