A frequent question we encounter is “how can I ensure that my intranet is successful once I launch the site?” Success may be defined differently within corporate environments; however one obvious rule for measuring intranet success is getting buy-in from your employees. The goal is daily visits to the intranet by each and every employee in the company.

A strong roll-out plan can affect the immediate and long term success of your new intranet. Here are four key components to consider when planning your intranet launch.

Make It Easy

When preparing for an intranet launch, the last thing you want to do is to make it difficult for employees to access the site. Make sure that the intranet is set to be the default home page for all web browsers. Your IT group can push these changes out to all users through Active Directory Group Policies. Once you’ve launched, the first site employees see when they open their browser is the intranet, and they will never have to remember the URL.

Enable a single-sign on process for your intranet so that your employees do not have to remember another set of login credentials. Knowing who is logged into the intranet allows you to properly monitor usage, stats, and you can eventually tailor content to individuals, groups and teams.

Push for a company policy on restricting global emails, as it encourages daily use of the intranet. Don’t let mass emails be a competing form of communication within the organization. Place the intranet as the center of internal communication.

Brand Your Intranet

When you enter the latest top-rated restaurant in town, the ambience makes you feel: if the restaurant design is warm and intimate, you feel comfortable and relaxed; if the design is hip and leading edge, you feel upbeat and cool. Think of your intranet design as ambience. How do you want your employees to feel when they visit the site? Here are three different approaches to branding your intranet.

1. Personality: create an identity for your intranet. Think of a mascot or name then design a logo and theme around the identity.

2. Comfort: design your intranet to be in line with your corporate branding. Use color schemes, images and logos that employees are familiar with and are used throughout the company. Employees may be more comfortable with a site design where there is immediate recognition.

3. Get Creative: create a different theme for holidays or for each season (spring, summer, fall, winter). This can help to pique interest by introducing fresh designs throughout the year.

Above all, keep your designs simple. Don’t overcrowd with content on the home page, don’t put in flashy graphics that blink, don’t use a black background with hot pink font, and don’t overwhelm.

Go Social First

Employee engagement is critical when it comes to user adoption of the intranet. If you can engage employees from the first visit to the site, you are well on your way to long-term intranet success. Humans are social by nature, so use the social aspects of your intranet to engage. Remember, your goal is buy-in and to get employees on the site daily. Once that happens, you can scale back the social and focus more on the tasks. Here our top five ways to immediately engage your employees.

1. A successful intranet launch includes building awareness. An excellent way to do this is to include employees in the name-game. Set up a contest to name your intranet as part of the roll-out plan.

You do not have flash or javascript support.

Average (2 votes)

Reply