Intranets can waste expensive employee time, and divert them from processing valuable company business. To counter this a more strategic approach is needed when publishing.
Here are a number of ideas which have been used by some of our clients, to keep staff informed without wasting valuable staff time:
selection
A much more careful selection of intranet material is needed. No longer should a 400 word news item about Jenny in Accounts and her prize-winning geraniums be featured! Unless it is to a very restricted audience of close work colleagues.
News items need to be pared to the absolute minimum. A 600 word magazine article can often be tightened to 150 words on screen.
better signposting
Where you have a linking page to the news items, a sentence summary beneath the headline links may corporately save hours of staff time. Better signposting ensures that people won't link to items that are not relevant.
local and national news
Just as there is a clear divide between national press and local newspapers some companies see the benefit of having location-specific news areas on their intranets - in addition to a corporate news area. This ensures that staff will not waste time on news that does not interest them, but also fosters a local team spirit.
The Internet can be accessed by over 50% of homes, companies are now enabling staff to access to thir intranets from home
once a week news updates?
Some companies decide that news will only be published in a single weekly batch on an appointed day - such as a Friday afternoon.
This way staff won’t waste time tabbing in every day and reviewing the same material. Company managers are less likely to object to staff using the intranet at specified times when the departmental pressure is off.
The company can still post important news when it happens - or arrange a news flash for urgent news updates.
access from home
Now that the Internet can be accessed by over 50% of homes, companies are now enabling staff to connect to their intranets from home. So company time is saved, social networking encouraged and business continues out of hours.
intranet to paper
While some companies pride themselves on their endeavours to have ‘paperless offices’, others are more pragmatic and believe that paper is far from dead. One major UK financial institution installed fast computer printers in each department so staff can print off intranet articles to read at home.
As for the damage to the environment - I leave that to their consciences!
It’s surprising just how many prefer to read this material relaxing at home without the boss breathing down their neck. From the company’s point of view the saving in lost employee time is worth the equipment investment.