Often it’s a slow death, but making a killer intranet mistake means the end of the intranet as you know it. Of course, a quick death is sometimes a good thing... but a slow death is far too painful not to avoid.
To continue The top 5 killer intranet mistakes...
#4 Killer – Forgetting the employee
One of the top three complaints I hear from intranet managers is that “employees just aren’t using the intranet!” If they’re not coming to the intranet en masse then you’re not doing your job.
More often than used to be the case managers are finally asking employees about the intranet. Unfortunately, their techniques and approaches leave little to be desired in most cases. Often its one or two questions about usage in the annual employee survey or a handful of usability testing that focuses more site navigation (usability testing has nothing to do with understanding user and content requirements!). More and more companies are using WebTrends or Urchin as a metrics analysis software, but the results are rarely examine to the extent required. None of this however will tell you what users want and expect.
Employees are your target audience; you need to know your audience intimately. In addition to talking to employees face-to-face, there are a number of tools that can be used to better understand your employee needs and expectations including:
- user surveys
- focus groups
- advisory panels
- help desk e-mail tracking
- usability testing
- metrics analysis
- return on investment (ROI)
At minimum, you should be using three or four of these tools every year. Using all seven is strongly recommended. If you don’t know how to effectively use these tools, please don’t guess how to do it or ‘wing it’; any research that isn’t sound will only undermine your credibility. Hire an expert.
Recommendations:
Does Your Intranet Measure-Up?
#5 – No executive support
Go ahead – just try and build a successful intranet without executive support! It’s damn near impossible!
At the heart of a site’s potential for success, is the backing of senior management – both moral and financial support. Many organizations have intranets that are mid-management or grass-root initiatives, and some enjoy a certain level of success. However, the potential of your portal or intranet will never be fully realized without proper executive support and a senior management champion (ideally either the CEO or CIO).
The number one challenge facing corporate intranets today is not technology, nor tight budgets, but rather internal politics, specifically, the politics of competing priorities and management agendas. The second biggest hurdle is a financial one. To win financial challenge (as well as the politics) you need senior management in your corner.
“Without the support, the site is more of an organizational afterthought and your work is almost an underground effort.” says Shel Holtz, ABC and IABC 20-year veteran of organizational communication (see Nexus of Intranet Success). “So if you want your site to be taken seriously, you need executive support.”
Recommendations: