Intranet as an internal communication tool
"We have an intranet. Is good? Yeah. Does anyone use it? Not."
The vast majority of companies have an intranet, but often it is not used to its full value. How do we make the Intranet as natural as phone and email?
The role of the communications manager
An internal communication manager is clearly responsible for designing and implementing the communication strategy within the company. At first sight it does not seem very complicated - unlike external communication, the audience is already known. However, within a company, only establishing a dialogue with employees (top-down communication and bottom-up communication through feedback mechanisms) is not enough. Employees communicate with each other, either formally or informally, and need direct communication channels. Therefore, the most important role of the communications manager is that of facilitator.
Intranet as a communication tool
Facilitating communication is done by providing various tools to employees, encouraging them, but also by controlling and organizing information flows. The intranet can be the most complete internal communication tool:
Company messages to their employees reach, with intranet, quickly and undistorted everyone who has access to a computer.
The intranet is a very important feedback channel through which employee opinion can be directly known by the company's management.
Organizational culture, values, the sense of belonging, the idea of a citizen of the company, can be supported and strengthened with the intranet.
Employees can communicate directly with each other within discussion groups or project teams, with a virtual private space available.
The various departments can better organize their services and support to other employees in the company.
New employees integrate faster, and the learning process can be accelerated if there is a section dedicated to where to find the information they need.
Last but not least, the intranet provides the necessary support for knowledge management - capturing, storing, transferring and distributing knowledge to employees who need it when they need it.
The intranet is not a technical tool, just as the phone or email is. Only 20% means technology, and 80% means information and how it is created and consumed by employees. Just as the email needs a technical administrator at a technical level, the intranet needs a manager, and the quality depends on criteria such as:
Editing content - how useful it is, how easy it is to read and understand
Content organization - how we group the content and what criteria
Ergonomics in use - how easy it is to find the information we need
The intranet needs a communications manager.
A useful intranet
What does ultimately mean a quality intranet? How does an intranet look like? It's difficult to answer these questions when you have not seen too many intranets. And how do you see them if they are not public?
A useful intranet can be built by setting the goals from the very beginning - what we want to do and what we want to achieve. For example, we suggest that our intranet:
Supports company values
It involves the employees
Create relationships
Manage information effectively
Facilitate business processes
Coagulate efforts to achieve the company's goals
And how do we achieve these goals? Here are some examples:
Building sites for all support departments. Such a site should be about "what services we offer" to our internal clients. Thus, any employee who needs a certain service will no longer have to ask for information from colleagues, give phone calls or emails, but will find everything he needs on the intranet.
Structure of content by processes so that all information related to a particular task (rules, procedures, training materials, frequently asked questions, contacts) can be found in the same place
Creating common virtual spaces for employees involved in project teams, work groups and practice communities, and stimulating them in the knowledge sharing activity
The intranet can be as easy and natural to use as the phone and email. It is not about choosing between these three communication tools, but about integrating them together and using them together to make things faster, better and at a lower cost.
Defining the goals and the way we want to show our intranet is just the first step. In addition, there is much to be done, from planning and allocating the necessary resources to promotion. We will talk about these again.