19 May 2008
Intranet forum showcases innovative portal features
Governance at the forefront of delegates' intranet challenges.
Disneyworld's Grand Floridian resort in Orlando, US, provided a sunny backdrop for Melcrum's first Intranet 2.0 and Portal Makeover Forum, which took place last week. Leading the event was Watson Wyatt Worldwide's Global Intranet and Portal Practice leader, Michael Rudnick - who is also this month's guest expert on the Hub.
Beginning Day 1 with an overview of challenges facing those in charge of their company's intranet, Rudnick listed the following most common complaints from employees:
- "I can't find anything"
- "How many times do I have to log in?"
- "Where the heck am I now?"
- "Who do they think I am anyway?"
Half of the employees questioned found their intranet search function ineffective.
Employees just aren't happy
Do the above comments sound familiar? One of the major points made over the 2-day event was that employees just aren't happy with their current intranet's offerings.
Quoting a 2007 Intranet report by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, half of the employees questioned found their intranet search function ineffective and half don't actually use their intranet on a daily basis. However, employees do access:
- Employee phone directory.
- Cafeteria menu.
- Expense report.
- Pay stub.
Managing user expectations
To find out what other features employees want and need, Rudnick says, intranet strategists and designers should simply look to popular external websites, such as Facebook for example.
While some may think adjusting their intranet design would ostracize a large section of the workforce that isn't part of social media-loving generation y, Rudnick noted (see Figure 1, below) that plenty of Facebook's users are actually over 35.
Figure 1. Facebook: Not just for the kids
"Expectations are made by what they see on the internet. Design is important because people want a user-grade user experience," Rudnick says (see Figure 2, below). But what many of those in charge of overhauling their intranet do, is concentrate on the aesthetic aspects too much, without changing the navigation or other areas in need of attention.
Be careful not to add features just for the sake of it, he advises, as they just might not be the right tools for your particular organization (see Figure 3, below).
Figure 2. Rudnick discusses managing higher user expectations
He uses the analogy of building a brand new house but removing the interior aspects: "It looks great, but there's no furniture in it," Rudnick says. I.e., you wouldn't want to stay there as there would be nothing to make it inviting, user-friendly or comfortable.
What counts as inviting for today's employees includes features like YouTube-esque "video snacks", discussion forums, blogs and photo galleries. To emphasize the power of user-generated content, Rudnick notes "YouTube alone uses as much bandwidth today as the entire internet did in 2000". (Source: CEA Broadband)
Figure 3. Rudnick exposing the reality at some organizations
How to get funding for your intranet
Adam Wootton, senior consultant at Watson Wyatt Worldwide, led us through a session on the key considerations when developing your intranet, and how to put forward a case to management for increasing your budget for necessary intranet investment.
His key lessons to remember:
- Engage your senior stakeholders. Make them want the project to succeed.
- Stay strategic. Don't present too much detail – but present regularly.
- Itemize all budgets and potential ROI items.
- Don't try to "do it alone".
- Align what you're doing with your corporate goals.
- Deliver in phases and don't get distracted.
Intranet governance issues
A lively panel discussion followed, which included Wootton and 2 other Watson Wyatt employees, Julie Moore and Dan Wu (see Figure 4, below).
Figure 4. Governance: Can you handle it?
Many delegates present seemed to be facing some kind of intranet governance challenge. Rudnick suggested that it might help to categorize how you approach intranet governance, for example, by grouping it into 3 areas – strategic, operational and tactical.
1. Strategic
- Provide executive sponsorship from relevant business units and staff groups.
- Ensure program vision and strategy aligns with corporate objectives and that benefits are realized.
- Actively develop and implement consistent enterprisewide communications regarding vision and strategy.
2. Operational
- Provide user-facing program management organization.
- Responsible for developing and operating the program in a manner that meets the business unit/staff group requirements.
3. Tactical
- Content and service providers and end users identify e-enablement opportunities.
"Go Publish" at Disney
Rick Gaffney (pictured, right), manager of communication technology for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts led delegates through the features of Disney's intranet site – now called The Hub.
The organization uses a decentralized approach to publishing on the intranet, with a few hundred "cast members" (what Disney calls all its employees) trained in using its "Go Publish" software to allow them to upload items to the intranet.
It's understood across the company that managers are responsible for the content uploaded by their direct reports.
Disney's intranet security ideas
One discussion that really captured delegates' attention was about how to maintain security, particularly across a major organization like Disney which has 62,000 employees, some of whom access the intranet at home, and others who do so at dedicated "kiosks" onsite.
To maintain security at the booths, Gaffney explained "At our current kiosk locations there's a mat attached on which the cast members stand. When they step off the mat, it automatically logs them off the site". Cue gasps of wonder.
When they step off the mat, it automatically logs them off the site.
Gaffney acknowledged this method wasn't ideal, but that the comms team is also in the process of educating the workforce about the need to log off after use.
Blogging at Disney
Backing up Rudnick's suggestion that interactive social media elements of external websites are also popular on internal sites, Disney's "Slideshow" feature, which highlights a selection of cast members' photos, is unsurprisingly getting an increasing amount of hits each week.
However, The Hub doesn't yet feature an executive or cast member blog "We've shied away from that so far because of legal complications, but an internal IT technical blog has taken off".
This blog features comments and reviews about external IT events that only a small selection of staff are able to attend. By having a blog available, news and information about the industry now gets to more of the cast members who are interested in the topic.
Disney plans to update its navigation and introduce other improved features by 2010.
Enticing games on Motorola's intranet
On Day 2, Mary Owens, director of employee communications at global communications organization Motorola, spoke about her organization's intranet – i'Moto. In comparison to many corporate intranets, i'Moto seems to be leading the pack. This isn't necessarily surprising, however, due to the in-built advanced technical expertise of Motorola's workforce.
By having a blog, information about the industry now gets to more of the cast members who are interested in the topic.
To get employees enthused about using their revitalized intranet and to familiarize them with the site's adjusted navigation, Owens and her team devized the i'Moto Treasure Hunt game, asking employees to "find the link to the TalkMoto radio show". The first successful 20 participants would win an i'Moto branded computer mouse.
This simple idea took employees on an informative journey through all the different sections and features on the site, and received great feedback. More than 20,000 employees took part over a 2-week period.
Motorola's ideas stock market
Another method Motorola uses to encourage intranet users is its "Tix Ideas Stock Market" (see Figure 5, below) in which employees put forward ideas for improving any part of the business, and other employees "virtually invest" in these suggestions.
Figure 5. Owens explains the Tix Ideas Stock Market on i'Moto
Motorola also uses Facebook-style employee networking software, so employees have their own information pages. Internal blogs are popular too, but Owens says they're mainly used to discuss short-term projects rather than long-running issues.
When beginning your own intranet overhaul, Owens advises to bear the following in mind:
- Don’t skimp on process.
- Consider business strategies, but place user at center of experience.
- Think about more than just messaging.
- Draw a clear connection to your brand.
- Find creative ways to market and measure.
- Communicate frequently with sponsors.
Behind-the-scenes at Disneyworld
To round off the event, some delegates took part in a "Behind-the-scenes" of Disneyworld tour. Participants discovered that there are no "secret tunnels" at the Magic Kingdom resort, but actually a buried network of purpose-built corridors for employee use.
When the resort was built in the 1960s, the space between the network of corridors was filled with cement to create a raised "ground floor" on which to build the park's building's and the famous "Main St" (see photo, right).
It's in this set of corridors that employees receive training, lunches are eaten, and waste is filtered into long tubes and vacuumed off to a separate building offsite, so that guests never witness a garbage disposal truck onsite.
Want to attend an event like this?
Melcrum is running a similar event to the Orlando Intranets event – the Intranet 2.0 Forum, being held in the UK. Hub members receive a discount. To register or for more details visit the Melcrum website.
Have your say
Do you struggle to get funding for developing your intranet? Or even if you make back-end changes, do you find it difficult to persuade management to appreciate the positive effects of those changes?
What other ideas do you have for encouraging users to return to the company intranet? Do you use innovative methods like Motorola's Treasure Hunt game to familiarize employees with a new-look intranet?
Discuss these issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
Alternatively, attendees of this past event who've not yet logged in to the Communicators' Network, please sign up to the dedicated event group to continue the conversation with your fellow delegates.
Other recommendations:
Intranet teams must do more to promote their successes
Quick and cost-effective ways to overhaul your intranet
Melcrum report: Transforming your Intranet
Got a news story? Contact the newsdesk