Modern intranets have evolved from a place to consume information to a place to share information. Participatory or social intranet tools range from liking a story, commenting on it, or filling in details on an employee profile to or more complex formats like microblogging, posting or answering questions, participating in discussions, and using collaboration tools.
Participation on intranets depends on how appropriate the new tool is for the company and its culture, how clear the intent of the tool is to employees, and how easy to use the interface is. However, even when the right social tools are implemented in the right way, employees may be slow to share information on the intranet: they may be unsure about what to share, hesitant to take time out of the workday to post, or wary about management’s response to posting on the site.
It is not enough to simply launch a tool and hope for the best, since people can be hesitant to participate in online communities. Here are some strategies to encourage intranet participation:
1. Populate Content Quickly
Most people don’t want to be the first to use a tool or to post content on an intranet. It is easier to encourage people to respond to a piece of content than to create one.
Consider an initial limited or beta launch. A prelaunch to a restricted audience has two advantages: (1) it lets the team work out the kinks before the entire company has access to the tool, and (2) it populates content before the wider release. Because of this initial effort, the broader audience in the eventual larger release may never see a tool or function that lacks content. A tool that is already in use is easier to understand and take part in than a tool that nobody has used before.
When a new tool launches, enlist the help of intranet friends and fans around the organization to start using tools right away. Consider who in the organization can help you with this task — intranet team members, governance team members, content authors and editors, well-known or liked personalities within the company, supporters of the participatory nature of the intranet, or employees involved in the development or testing of the new tool. Enlist help in creating content, commenting, liking, or populating profiles.
Content created by others in the organization can naturally engage users and can encourage them to respond or to add new topics to the conversation. The existing content also serves as an example and helps clarify the purpose, tone, and intent of the tool. Rather than guessing what is or is not appropriate, users can see what the tool is meant to do. Show, don’t tell. (Posting guidelines won’t be widely read anyway.)
2. Lead by Example
Participation by managers, executives and other leaders within the organization can go a long way to showing employees that being active on the site is not just permitted, but encouraged. If leadership uses the tools, it implies that the tools are valued.
Employees may be worried that if they spend too much time on the intranet, it will reflect poorly on them: maybe others would think that they weren’t doing their jobs or that they had too much free time at work. Active posting by leaders demonstrates that the new tools are valued and their use is encouraged. Managers can also offer reassurance by providing direct, positive feedback (either informally or in performance reviews) to employees when they choose to participate.
3. Support an Event
Is something big happening at the company? A reorganization? An all-hands meeting? A charity campaign? Integrate the use of the tools into the event or encourage use of the tool to discuss it.
Topics in which much of the company is interested are natural subjects for conversation throughout the organization and can be a good fit for social tools. The catch is to keep people using the tool after the event is finished. You don’t want employees to associate the tool too closely with the event, or participation may die off completely when the event is over.
No event coming up? Create one. Ask an executive or leader to answer questions for a half hour. Set up a conversation about benefit selection with Human Resources. Create a place where people can communicate with IT about recent technology upgrades. Encourage employees to use a tool for a particular purpose to become familiar with the tool and understand more about how it works and why it is valuable.
4. Involve Everyone
Unequal access to tools can be a deterrent to participation. Some employees simply may not be able to participate, because of limited access to the intranet or technology problems that make participation difficult. Is there a portion of your workforce that doesn’t have regular access to the intranet? Who in your organization does not sit behind a desk every day? Can your participatory tools be used on mobile? Are you limiting access to any audiences and what can be done to fully support everyone?
For instance, a responsively designed version of Verizon’s intranet, featured in our Mobile Intranets and Enterprise Apps report, included commenting features across all screen sizes in order to be inclusive to employees away from desks and offices. Though removing commenting for smaller screen devices would have resulted in a faster page load, the team decided that making it available on all devices, and therefore being inclusive of all employees, was more important than speeding up the page.
Involvement can also come from posting questions and inviting a diversity of responses and perspectives. End articles or blog posts with questions posed to the organization. Give employees something to write about or respond to. Consider all employee types and the different insights you may gain by asking questions aimed at, but not limited to, particular employee types, groups, or roles. For instance, salespeople or installers may have different insights and experiences to share.
5. Keep the Tone Light, as Appropriate
“Light” doesn’t mean “frivolous” (though “fun” content every now and then can certainly help employees feel valued as people and not just workers.) A light tone allows participation to be more casual. Rather than writing a formal article, employees can post a quick update.
The tone can be set by the name of the tool. Ikea, a 2008 Intranet Design Annual winner, created a This is Silly tool for posting ideas for improving the company. The tool name set the tone for casual participation; the employees’ reaction would likely have been different if the name had been Ideation for Corporate Enhancements and Efficiency.
Tone is also set by content — specifically, by the content posted early. Social tools often naturally evolve over time, but setting the wrong tone early on can limit the contributions. A tone that doesn’t match the intent can derail the tool quickly.
One of our clients had created a forum intended to encourage ideas for improving the company. Unattended and unread by the intranet team or by the leadership, the forum quickly evolved into a complaint board with no one offering solutions. While some tools may naturally take on a different slant than intended, early monitoring can help redirect conversations and steer usage towards the intended purpose.
If you do encounter a situation like this, make sure to emphasize positive content. Writing formal responses to casual site discussions or overreacting to critical content on the site can quickly shut down participation or make employees feel that their use is being monitored rather than supported by management.
Klick Health, an Intranet Design Annual winner from 2015, allowed employees to post questions on the site; a member of the content team went with a smartphone in hand to an expert in the organization and recorded video responses, which were then posted to the site. The process made sharing knowledge simple and easy for those asking and answering questions and involved a minimal amount of effort on the content team’s side. Rather than compose an email or write an official response, experts could address the question in a more casual way. This simple approach lowered the barrier to share knowledge, or to seek it out.
6. Use Employee-Generated Content to Inspire Corporate Content
Social areas of the site can inspire story ideas for corporate-level content. Did a news item generate a lot of discussion? Create a poll around the topic or write a follow-up article addressing the conversation. Did you see an interesting tidbit about a project shared between employees? Talk to some team members and turn it into a feature article. Asking employees for ideas for improvement? Write stories about improvements that have been implemented or are in the works.
When user-generated content is used as inspiration for corporate-level content, not only does the organization benefit, but the employees can also learn that their participation is valued and important. This positive feedback can motivate others to contribute to the intranet.
Not Just for Launch
While these methods are useful when launching a new social intranet tool, they can be implemented at any time to help jumpstart participation on the site.
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217-page report with 106 full-color screenshots presents best practices for designing social features on intranets.
