In today’s digital working environments, intranets are emerging as the welcoming front door for a multitude of collaborative tools. But while employees start to experience the power of collaborative features, internal communication departments struggle with keeping all these tools together. Preserving a centralized information channel that ignites the desired sense of community and spreads corporate messages is a common challenge, regardless of organization size or industry.
Whether you're responsible for managing an ongoing intranet program or in charge of launching a new digital workplace project, following the right approach to drawing the connection between business goals and intranet objectives can drive game-changing outcomes.
While your CEO expects an intranet masterpiece, your co-workers are fumbling through a maze of business tools looking for the holy grail of digital collaboration. A well-defined vision will ultimately result in an intuitive, user centric and context-aware interface that engages teams and enables them to work faster, productively and flexibly. But with so many agendas and priorities pushing to different sides, it can certainly get overwhelming to get your strategy right.
But hey, wait! An intranet that really promotes engagement and collaboration doesn't have to be a daunting initiative to set in motion. We’ve taken over 15 years of strategizing and implementing collaboration ecosystems for clients across industries, and put together the do’s and don’ts, best practices and pitfalls in digital workplace implementations. So before you set on your expedition, here are the Ten Commandments that will help you sail through planning an intranet that really promotes engagement and collaboration.
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Thou shalt take employee experience as your primary aim
Employee-centricity improves engagement and talent retention
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Thou shalt support anytime, anywhere, any device access
Mobility makes employees happier and more productive
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Thou shalt eat the elephant piece by piece without losing sight of the big picture
Dream big, deliver often
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Thou shalt not forget about content
An intranet with no or outdated content is worse than no intranet at all
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Thou shalt breathe your brand and embrace design
Create an intranet identity, but keep it simple and consistent
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Thou shalt allow employees to express themselves
Transparency and interactivity boost engagement and satisfaction
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Thou shalt apply innovation where appropriate (& only there)
Look for added-value technologies and not eye-catching novelty
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Thou shalt not block work at the firewall
There is such a thing as too much security
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Thou shalt protect your data adequately
Your digital workplace can be the cure for shadow IT
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Thou shalt avoid chaos by introducing governance principles
An uncoordinated environment leads to complexity and frustration
Want to learn more? Check out our ebook – we cover all the essentials to get your intranet strategy on the right path.