SharePoint systems, no matter how attractive or well designed, will fail if your employees aren’t willing to use it. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than when introducing a new SharePoint solution to your company’s user base. Below you’ll find the top 10 tips for your organization to find success during your next attempt at SharePoint user adoption.
Keep It Simple
This is perhaps the most important point with regards to SharePoint user adoption. There is no need to reflect every piece of trivia and minor attribute in your website design, especially when it comes to workflows and automating processes. The simpler your site is, the easier it will be for users to interface with and understand.
Keep It Relative
The look and feel of your SharePoint platform should be instantly recognizable to its intended users. It should reflect the culture from which you come, meaning everything from your organization’s mission to its colors, branding, and logos. As a rule, the more familiar something seems, the more likely people are to use it.
Make Sure It Works
This may seem obvious, but the instant something doesn’t work with your site, whether it’s an error popping up or a failure to find a requested item when searching, your users lose faith. Make sure that the system works the moment you release it and responds well to your company’s major pain points. Also, have a clear communication loop in place for users to report and resolve bugs or other needed fixes.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
It’s very important to inform your users ahead of time about future updates, so they can anticipate the changes and adjust their behavior if need be. Keep the message simple and straightforward: what you’re doing, the timeline for accomplishing it, the reason for doing it and how it will affect them.
Training Is Important
SharePoint training is importantbut doesn’t have to be a complicated or expensive endeavor. You can provide guidance to your users simply through a series of web videos on the site, or perhaps a brown bag lunch session.
Let Them Have Ownership
When you allow different business units to own their sites and control the content that appears on them, you’re capitalizing on the potential for growth. They now have a stake in the game and can envision other ways to use the system.
Keep Exposing the Cool Features
Once you’ve rolled out the first edition of the system, keep having training and brown bag sessions where you can shed light on new or underused features. Figure out how these features align with users’ goals and make your users aware of their potential.
Keep It Close to the Business
Think of how you can automate or create sites that have relevant, fresh content to keep your users coming back for more. Identify your users’ basic business needs that can be met online, and then find ways to fulfill them.
Make Sure There’s Sponsorship
A SharePoint user adoption initiative can really take off when someone at the top believes in it and works to align it with core business goals and objectives. With sponsorship, you’ll have the budget to ensure that the system is getting the appropriate care.
Don’t Change It Too Often
Tweaking your site too often, or for the wrong reasons, can alienate users. But don’t be afraid of change, either – you definitely want the site to evolve and reflect new technological and business realities. It’s all about balance, so be mindful about how and when you implement these changes.
Final Thought
From a practical standpoint, none of these tips may seem particularly difficult to implement. The real challenge lies in conceptualizing what “keeping it simple” really means to your company. And how you’ll execute each of these points in detail will determine how successful your SharePoint user adoption will be for your organization.
