Large companies with many thousands of employees dispersed across great regions and dozens of locations require an effective intranet. Communications, connection and community are critical making the intranet a mandatory requirement for success.

Sodhexo USA provides a solid example of how to deploy just such an intranet for a large diversely situated organization – and it’s one of the biggest companies you may not know. Sodexho USA (www.sodexhoUSA.com) is the leading provider of food and facilities management in North America, with $6 billion in annual revenues and 110,000+ employees. Sodexho runs cafeterias, housekeeping in the hospitality sector, grounds keeping, plant operations and maintenance and laundry services to more than 6,000 companies principally in health care, schools, and the military.

Headquartered in Gaithersburg, MD, Sodexho has employees spread out across and in all corners of the continent. An even greater challenge than the geographic disparity of its employees is the nature of their work. The vast majority of these employees are hourly workers who are not desktop workers with their own computers – they’re on the frontlines rather preparing and serving food, cleaning, and performing site operations. The intranet home page, SodhexoNet, is a tying bond that links most of the managers and management of this diverse and disparate group.

While most employees are not registered users with access, the value of the intranet drives the growth in the number that do use the intranet. Registered users have grown from 2,000 in April, 1999, to more than 14,000 users today.

Like all effective systems, SodhexoNet has a vision: SodexhoNet is a one-stop shop for all of our managers’ information needs and an indispensable part of a Sodexho work day.”

Accompanying the vision is some practical but key goals:

·     Essential business and communications tool

·     Robust, timely, relevant, accurate content

·     Intuitive navigation

·     Quick access

·     Easy to search

·     Feedback capacity

·     Cost-effectiveness

SodhexoNet’s greatest strength however is its management team, lead by corporate communications. To be specific, the strength lies in the team’s understanding that the intranet must intimately understand its target audience and constantly measure its performance. By measuring its success, Sodhexo knows where to concentrate its efforts and resources and constantly strive for improvement.

Among the many measures the intranet team tracks (for the last year measured compared to the previous year):

·     User behavior and how usage is trending (those never using SodhexoNet dropped from 19% to 1%)

·     SodhexoNet as a “valuable resource” to employees (from 74 to 84%)

·     Registered users who visit the site monthly (from 55 to 90%)

·     Most visited pages (career center, HR, health care, phone book, and search)

·     Most searched terms (forms, recipe collection, performance appraisal)

·     Return on investment (where possible)

One of SodhexoNet’s more innovative and successful tools is its SuperSleuth sales lead program. SuperSleuth is an intranet web page and application that encourages employees to submit sales leads and prospective clients via the intranet. Successful leads submitted via the SuperSleuth intranet page generate cash rewards of up to $1000 for the person making the submission. Sodhexo says it has contributed to a 100% increase in sales leads in the past year. Let me repeat: a 100% increase in company sales leads. Wow!

While the site has evolved considerably and its value has grown measurably in recent years, it hasn’t been without considerable effort and some lessons learned, says Angelo Ioffreda, VP, Internal Communications.

Amongst the key lessons learned:

·     Create a vision

·     Partner with IT (“big time,” says Ioffreda stressing the importance of a healthy working relationship with IT) – and HR

·     Establish clear standards for the site

·     Make end-users the center of your universe

·     Incorporate real-time feedback from end-users

·     Track user behavior

·     Make content ‘king’

·     Involve, support, and communicate with your content owners

·     Develop an editorial / programming mindset

·     Strive for intuitive navigation

·     Improve your search and speed

·     Commit to continuous improvement in product and processes

·     Make your site a business tool

o        Reduce costs

o        Raise efficiency

o        Bring in revenue

Sodhexo also knows that just simply creating an effective intranet is not enough. Successful intranets also require marketing. More on Sodexho’s efforts and how to market your intranet in the next installment.