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Snap – Internal Communications Solutions.
Hot Tips for Internal Communicators
Give staff what they need
What will people use our Intranet for? The only valid answer is “To make
their lives easier.”
Aidan Cook in KM Review
By all means ask staff and departments what they would like to see on their Intranet. But be warned
that many individuals and departments get expansive and persuasive about what information they ‘need’
and what they see as ‘essential’. They may even manage a burst of enthusiasm for the launch but after
that they never find the time to keep their ‘essential’ information updated.
As a result, Intranet usage falls off as out of date content is not removed and new content is not added.
The Intranet stagnates.
Research shows that most people do not live on the Intranet. People tend to get in, get what they want
and then get out. Of course, if they repeatedly do not find what they want, they stop visiting the
Intranet.
So what do staff need from their Intranet? The main reasons to visit an Intranet are to find a specific
piece of information as quickly as possible, or to complete a task. Finding out what types of information
are most commonly required and working out what tasks could be completed online, is one way of
making your staff’s lives easier and more productive.
You may have an additional agenda from an internal communications perspective. You may want to
improve internal communications, to promote your company brand, or inform staff about the company.
You will need to think about how you can maximise your Intranet’s potential for increasing effective
internal communications.
Once your project is underway, why not poll employees about their sense of value derived from the
improvements to your company Intranet? Questions should be around process improvement, efficiency,
productivity and satisfaction. Any testament supporting these value drivers can only assist you. If client
reps report that the use of the Intranet directly helps them close deals, it’s a powerful statement for
value and should be captured.
Polling may also identify problem areas. The good news is that you can learn from problems and
mistakes. If you can find out about issues quickly you have the opportunity to try new approaches and
to make changes fast if required.
Try these Snap tools
Snap Poll can be a useful tool to find out what people want and to assess what’s working and what’s
not working with the existing Intranet. Snap Poll is pushed to the employees’ computer screens and
therefore does not add to email overload. Built in reminders help drive participation rates.
A Snap Poll can also operate in silent mode. In silent mode, the poll does not pop up on the
employee’s computer screen unless they have opted in by clicking a link or a button. Such buttons
can be included on relevant Intranet pages allowing users to ‘rate this content’. This tool enables
you to gain a clear view of what is hitting the mark and where changes need to be made.
Snap Forum and Snap Blog. Increasingly, staff are becoming more comfortable using online forums
and blogs in their private lives. They are now starting to expect some of these tools in the workplace
too. Snap Forum and Snap Blog are an easy, cost effective way to provide this functionality.
Administrator(s) can quickly set up each forum and specify who can post, who can comment and
who can view content via comprehensive user targeting structures. Staff only see the forums and
blogs that are relevant to them.