"Companies seem to be taking news much more seriously," says Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen-Norman Group in an interview with Richmond.com (Communication at Work).
I have a lot of respect for Dr. Nielsen – he is a guru of usability. However, I’ll respectively disagree with him – companies have little respect or care for their intranet. Unfortunately, looking at the world of intranets through the rose color glasses of the Nielsen Norman Group Intranet Design Annual (a.k.a the “best intranets of the year”, which largely judges paper submissions of an intranet written and prepared by the intranet manager who of course is trying to look as good as possible) it is easy to make the assumption that intranets are improving. It’s wishful thinking, and correct with respect to a few that fill out an award submission, but not reality.
I’ve worked with dozens of intranets and my company, intranet consultants Prescient Digital Media, works with a few dozen every year (including past winners of the “best intranets of the year” that often don’t in fact have spectacular intranets). We spend hours surfing and evaluating all (most) aspects of these intranets and do not rely on any paper award submission that focus on what’s best or most attractive about an intranet. We look at and examine the good, the bad and the ugly (including the areas of planning and resources, governance, staffing, content processes, etc.). According to our evaluation scoring methodology, the average intranet receives a score of between 5 or 6 out of 10. And many of these companies have thousands, tens-of-thousands of employees, or more.
Why are most intranets so poor? Because senior management don’t give a damn.
“It amazes me that after 20 years of working in corporate communications, I still run across business people – usually leaders or middle managers – who believe employee communication is a luxury and not a fundamental piece of company infrastructure,” muses Robert J. Holland, who wrote Communication at Work. “These people believe there is no need to ensure workers have any more information than what is minimally required for them to do their jobs.”
Ü 44% of respondents say the intranet is not seen as a priority and is a “serious obstacle”
Ü 40% of respondents say the lack of senior management ownership (stewardship or championing) of the intranet is a serious obstacle
Bingo. The intranet is not a priority in most organizations – and senior management is a serious obstacle.
Of course I sound like a broken record and know I’m preaching to the converted and the thousands of you that read this blog, but it’s worth stressing one more time: intranet managers have to become better sales people. Learn to sell the intranet – or hire an outside intranet consultant who can help you:
Ü Showcase to executives what a winning intranet looks like
Ü Secure an executive champion – or three
Ü Build an effective business case for investing in the intranet
Ü Sell, sell, sell
Dr. Nielsen deserves, and has earned, a lot of respect and accolades for all his work with respect to Internet, and the corporate intranet. Unfortunately the executive suite and senior management have proven that most companies care little for intranet, and still in fact view it as a cost center. Unless intranet managers can find their sales hats then little will change the minds of executives who, by and large, will not further invest in the corporate intranet or enterprise portal.
To read more about combating complacent executives read Building sustainable leadership support.
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Building sustainable leadership support
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