A common question we hear is “How can I get more of my employees to use the Intranet?” Here are a few tips to help with this issue.

Use Social Tools to encourage Employee Involvement

When managers hear the words Social Intranet they start to smirk. Visions of employees chatting away about Saturday night and posting pictures of their cat come to mind.  Of course this isn’t what Social Intranet means.

The term Social Intranet, in our opinion, is really just an Intranet that is taking advantage of popular social consumer applications and readapting them for a corporate environment.  This creates a familiar function that the staff can understand, since most use them in their own person life. Social Intranets encourage interaction and engagement by creating an environment where people feel they are a member of the site, not just a user.

Make an Exceptional User Navigation

In most cases the user interface is the last thing companies think about when deploying an Intranet. However, it should really be the first thing to consider. If you want your staff to spend part of their work day within the Intranet, the user interface has to be intuitive, and easy to use.  Also keep in mind that attractive design and intuitive navigation are two very different things.

Create New Content Daily

Many Intranets contain information that is outdated by the time it’s posted. Think of your Intranet as a daily newspaper for your company.  Make sure that the news is up to date.  Your staff will disregard the Intranet if you don’t keep the information current.

Find out What they Want to Know

Not only does the content have to be timely, it also has to be relevant. Cover the topics that people are interested in.  How can you figure out what people are interested in? Ask them! Many intranets have survey and polling capabilities built in. Use these features to find out what people want to know or what users feel the Intranet is lacking.

Power to the People

The company’s web master can’t possibly create and post all the data that should be on the Intranet. In many cases, this is the main reason why Intranets fail.  By the time the webmaster posts content to the Intranet, the information is out dated.  To resolve this issue the content creation must be decentralized so that people throughout the organization with information that would make interesting and valuable reading, can post it themselves. Of course, each department will need to set permissions and establish procedures for posting content.

Build a Social Network

A major worry for companies is that too much fun means not enough work.  However, the most successful Intranet deployments are the ones with the most employee interaction.  People need to feel connected with their colleagues.

Companies should create a place for each department’s social network. Here employees could post birthdays, recognize service awards, introduce new hires, and even have monthly photo contests. This will create an Intranet that is alive rather then static.

Be Transparent

If you want employees to use the Intranet, truthful information is important.  No one will come back to a site that is a whitewash, except maybe to ridicule it. Be direct and forthright in your communication, and people will respect and appreciate it. That may mean posting the bad news as well as the good.

Post Important Information only to the Intranet

Frequently, a company will create an informative white paper or report and post it to the Intranet. The problem is that it may have also been sent via email to the entire company, removing any motivation to visit the Intranet. You can change this dynamic by developing a new habit.  Post the document only to the intranet site and then notify people that it’s there. This will encourage employees to visit the Intranet site more regularly and alleviate the burden of excess email attachments.

Notify Users about New Content

Set up an automatic email notification system to let your staff know when new content is published.  Even better, allow the staff to choose what they care to be notified about, and when they wish to be notified.

Create an effective system for showing “What’s New”

It’s important to have an effective “What’s New” page that lists all the new information that has been posted to the site in the last 24 hours. It will become a great time saver for your staff and provides a better user experience.

Monthly information searching contests

Our company and many of our clients hold a “Monthly Information Search Contest”.   A piece of information is hidden somewhere inside the Intranet.  It could be a graphic, a chart, a word file or anything else that can be stored on the Intranet.

The first person to locate the information is awarded a prize. What usually happens as a result is that while searching for the target, staff members get caught up in reading other information, become more familiar with how to use the Intranet, and discover useful information that they will go back to later.  This is just one example of how companies can encourage employees to interact with their Intranet.

About Vialect

Vialect is a software company with a big idea. Our product Noodle will enable any company to harness the knowledge of employees thus increasing the corporate wisdom within the enterprise.

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

Portlets are small boxes that pull new content from applications within Noodle. They can be added to any page within Noodle.

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

A quick overview of the applications within Noodle.

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

We are looking for a few guest bloggers to create content for this blog.  Topics are open and the main categories being Enterprise 2.0, Intranets and collaboration.  This could translate into a full time blogger position for Vialect.  Please use our contact page to get in touch with your topic ideas.

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration

As time and technology changes, so does the way that we do business. It was not too long ago that the computer age began and ushered in a new era of efficiency. Today, business owners are looking for new business methods and applications to take the work experience to the next level. Enter the world of social software and Enterprise 2.0. Enterprise 2.0 was defined by Andrew McAfee as “the use of emergent social software platforms by organizations in pursuit of their goals.”

Perhaps it is simpler to define Enterprise 2.0 as a practical focus on creating, managing and governing business communities within the framework of social media. Overall, Enterprise 2.0 must be value added to a business. Because of this, the key benefits offered by it and are of critical importance.

Productivity – productivity is increased by allowing easy access to information and streamlining the communication process
Knowledge – Through the use of “Wiki” like pages, information is readily available to users of the system
Communication – Enterprise 2.0 allows for increased communication through social media like outlets.
Modernization – the emergent technology represented by Enterprise 2.0 systems is the future of business
Transparency – because information, data and knowledge is readily available, Enterprise 2.0 increases the transparency of a business

Enterprise 2.0 manages to provide these benefits, and more, through the use of simple and intuitive tools.

Wiki – software that encourages the creation of content by users. Hyperlinks are supported, as are cross-links. Easily edited, Wiki portals are the perfect method for sharing knowledge across an organization.
Blog – Blogs, originally developed as a sort of public journal, are an excellent model for today’s businesses. Through interaction, such as commenting, audiences can participate in discussion relating to a variety of business topics.
Voting – Perhaps the most simple of all social media tools, voting mechanisms can be used to provide feedback on ideas and concepts.
Agents – a type of query or search functionality that runs, 24/7, in the background. Agents allow relevant information and date to be delivered quickly and can be filtered through the use of unique user preferences.
Relationship Building – Social networking sites are known for their ability to develop and foster relationships. Enterprise 2.0 brings this trend to the business place.
Social Network Analysis – SNA provides a framework that allows businesses to visualize the way that work is performed throughout their organization. This information can identify potential bottlenecks as well as uncover ‘extra’ effort by employees through the number, strength and even volume of interactions and connections.

At the end of the day, Enterprise 2.0 marries the needs of business owners with the ease of use and reliability of social media. By providing a platform that employees are familiar and comfortable with, employers set in motion an environment that will encourage change, growth and productivity.  The tools utilized by Enterprise 2.0 allow businesses to grow and change with the times and technology and can foster positive change for the future of business both large and small.

Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration