Just as your organization is constantly changing, so your company intranet should be evolving alongside in response to the dynamic business landscape. Many organizations have made the mistake of seeing their company intranet as being a finite project that ends upon launch. But all the best company intranets include mechanisms for review and development. And top companies are constantly evaluating the intranet’s performance to ensure that it is still fit for purpose. Every year it’s important to take a step back and examine whether your company intranet is still working for you. So let’s help you get started with this guide on how to evaluate your intranet’s performance.
User Feedback
The obvious starting point is the staff members who are using the intranet day in and day out. They have a wealth of knowledge about how the intranet is working in practice and whether it is meeting the aims and objectives originally set. Get staff members to provide feedback by completing a survey on the intranet. Incentivise employees to complete the survey by entering them into a prize draw to win, say, some shopping or restaurant vouchers.
It’s important, however, to provide multiple ways for staff to contribute their feedback – relying on just a survey as your principal source of data probably isn’t enough. Get creative and think of other ways to elicit feedback from staff. Depending on the size of your organization you may, for example, want to supplement a survey by conducting a roadshow where members of the intranet steering group go out into the field, attending team meetings and speaking directly to staff about what’s happening and how the company intranet is working for them in practice. You could also set up a discussion board or blog on the intranet for staff to debate and contribute ideas on things that are working well and areas that could be improved.
At the very least employees will appreciate the opportunity to voice their views directly to management. You will, therefore, also be enhancing employee engagement generally within your organization which is certainly a welcome bonus.
Focus Groups/In-Depth Audit
User feedback acquired in step one above is central to the process of evaluating your intranet’s performance. More detailed analysis, however, can be achieved by conducting focus groups with staff members or an in-depth audit of intranet usage. When used in conjunction with a survey, this will provide a more rounded, complete picture of the intranet’s performance.
Focus groups can be conducted with particular teams, for example finance or marketing, or by job functions, say, administration officers throughout the business. They can also be held with teams in a particular geographic location or even a random cross-section of staff – whatever makes sense to your company. Whichever form they take, focus groups are the perfect way to develop a deeper understanding of how the intranet is performing in practice and are a rich source of data.
Likewise, an in-depth audit will provide much richer data than can be achieved through a survey alone. What it involves is a detailed analysis of how a team or an individual employee or groups of employees are using the intranet on a daily basis. The audit will involve consideration of the following key questions:
- What information are staff members using the intranet to source?
- What business processes are they conducting on the company intranet?
- What intranet tools or modules do they use the most and why?
- What tools or modules are being used the least and why?
- And perhaps most revealingly, the audit should also consider what processes and tasks are being completed outside of the intranet and why?
The data compiled through step two will help you to build up a much fuller picture of the intranet’s performance: what things are currently working well and what processes could be improved. It will also highlight where the intranet’s functionality needs to be developed to meet changing business needs and demands.
Review Your Intranet Usage Statistics
Regularly keeping an eye on your company intranet usage statistics can also tell you a great deal about how the intranet is working in practice. For example, if the statistics tell you that only 35 percent of sales staff are logging into the intranet on a daily basis, then clearly there is an issue that needs to be investigated. It may be that the sales staff are working remotely and that the company intranet is not sufficiently optimized for mobile use. Or maybe the tools that sales staff on the road need to have at their fingertips just aren’t available on the intranet. This scenario would be the perfect candidate for an in-depth audit. So regularly review the statistics so that you have a handle on who is using the intranet and who isn’t.
Conduct A Content Audit
Part and parcel of a high performing intranet is having content that is up to date and relevant. It can be a very frustrating experience if a staff member tries to locate the latest industry-relevant occupational safety and health guidelines only to discover that the information hasn’t been updated in two years. And broken links, disconnected or duplicated content is just as irritating. While teams and departments may be responsible for the content of individual sections, it’s a good idea to conduct an overall content audit at least once a year. In that way you can be confident that the volume and quality of the content is working for you. And you can easily remedy any discrepancies before they multiple and become an unmanageable task.
Company Intranets Action Plan
Once you’ve completed your data gathering exercise, it’s time to draw up an action plan. Hopefully, your data will suggest that only a few tweaks are required to maintain your company intranet at the optimum level. The next task is to draw up an action plan detailing your planned improvements or adjustments. Make sure you communicate the plan to your staff members and get their involvement wherever possible.
And if your information suggests that your intranet is no longer working for you and requires a major overhaul then maybe it’s time to change your cloud intranet provider. Here at MyHub, we offer a super easy to set up and manage cloud intranet using pre-built modules that require no technical expertise. Get in touch with us today for an informal discussion on how to get the best out of an intranet. Better still take advantage of our no-obligation demo or free 14-day trial.
0 Comments