In today’s fast-paced business world, a well-designed intranet an essential tool for communication, collaboration, knowledge management, and data security.
The reality is that many companies struggle to get their users on board with the corporate intranet. Many intranet solutions suffer from poor usability, stale content, and an outdated user experience.
An intranet that no one uses is a mistake that no company can afford. With some smart planning, these three steps can improve user adoption of your intranet.
1. Make the Business
Case Communicating the value of the intranet to your users is essential. Don’t think that the value will be self-evident to your end users. Also, communication can’t end with the launch and initial rollout. Develop a long-term plan for reinforcing the importance and use of this tool.
It’s not enough to tell users to jump in; the content has to be relevant and stay fresh. In order to accomplish this, you will need a clear governance plan to set responsibilities for curating content.
Once the solution is in place, it is important to track and analyze usage. The best way to discover problem areas and make changes that will continue to drive user adoption is to evaluate user behavior.
2. Design for Success
Don’t fall into the trap of keeping development solely within the IT department. User feedback should be incorporated early and often in the development process to ensure assumptions don’t drive development.
Users want to find the things they need on any device handy. An intranet that is not accessible and useful on mobile will not gain traction with users.
A company intranet is a sea of information. End users need to be able to find what they need and fast. Otherwise, the solution will be abandoned. Top-notch information architecture, taxonomy, and metadata make up the underlying structure that supports usability and findability.
3. Tech Matters
In the past, technical decisions rarely took into account the effect on users. To keep users coming back, make sure your intranet is fast, reliable and responsive. A page that takes 10-15 seconds to load can be a deal breaker for users.
Another hurdle is multiple sign-ons. If possible, a single-sign-on should be the goal of any new solution. Not only is it elegant, but it also cuts confusion and increases usage.
Share the full capabilities and roadmap for the complete solution with users. They will understand the limitations, see how their feedback is incorporated and see what features will be coming down the pipeline in the future.
Final Thought
A shiny new tool doesn’t do much good if no one uses it. The reality is that success relies on a community of users that adopt and incorporate the solution in their everyday working lives. Make sure that these areas are addressed to ensure that users get on board with your new intranet solution.
Want to learn more about how to improve transparency and content findability, increase efficiency and control costs? Download our white paper, How To Build A Social Intranet That Boosts Workplace Collaboration And Employee Engagement.
