5 Ways to Make Intranets More Engaging

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Intranets can be great tools for business AND communication if you're smart about content.

Intranets can be great tools for business AND communication if you’re smart about content.

It’s been about 20 years since someone got the bright idea to build a website on their corporate computer network and call it an intranet.  In that time, intranets have evolved from curiosities used mostly by IT professionals to become indispensable business tools.

Unfortunately, they’ve also become a source of frustration at some companies — and not just for their users.

IT gets frustrated when people complain about search and navigation.

Communicators get frustrated when people don’t read the articles. (“But I used all the right acronyms and buzzwords! And I worked for three weeks on that article about the employee awards dinner held last month!”)

Continue Reading →

Case Study: Creating and Launching New Company Values

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Situation

Defining the values for a pharma spin-off company involved a nine month process of engaging employees to define what kind of culture they wanted for their new company.

Defining the values for a pharma spin-off company involved a nine month process of engaging employees to define what kind of culture they wanted for their new company.

A business unit spinning-off from a large global company needed to establish a culture distinct from its parent organization.

Leaders of the spin-off company saw a unique opportunity to define their new company’s values, as well as behaviors to support the desired values.

Rather than imposing a set of values on the company, they wanted to start a discussion with employees about the kind of company they wanted to be and give employees a voice in determining the new company’s values and culture. Continue Reading →

Case Study: Driving Results Through Engaging Email Content

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All-text emails aren't effective at driving employee engagement with business programs; eye-catching emails grab attention and motivate employees to take action.

All-text emails aren’t effective at driving employee engagement with business programs; eye-catching emails grab attention and motivate employees to take action.

Situation

We all know that email is powerful.  It is both fast and personal.   Email is one of the most effective channels for reaching employees and motivating employees to take action, but many companies implement it badly – even when their marketing teams produce highly effective emails for customers or prospective customers.

All too often, businesses send employees long text-heavy messages that aren’t even broken up with subheads and bullets. Such messages are visually dull and do not engage readers.  Even worse, calls to action are typically lost amid all the text. If the message includes hyperlinks, the link is usually positioned awkwardly, breaking the flow with something like “click here” – that’s not a call to action. “All text” emails actually negate engagement because the employee must stop and focus on the message.

Since most employees are typically very busy, they skim the first few paragraphs (if that) and go on to something else. Text heavy emails are a missed opportunity. Continue Reading →

Case Study: Clean Air Ambassador Program

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Situation

An employee ambassador program for an important new product engaged thousands of employees at all levels of the company.

An employee ambassador program for an important new product engaged thousands of employees at all levels of the company.

The air conditioning business of a Fortune 250 diversified global manufacturer had invented a highly effective electronic home air cleaning technology.  By removing dust, pollen, dander, pet hair and other irritants from a home’s air, the unit offered relief to allergy sufferers and people with breathing problems.

This technology opened an entirely new line of business for the company.  The system developed from this new approach became a strategic product highlighting the company’s best-in-class technology and innovation.  Competitors at the time had nothing like it. Continue Reading →

Case Study: Turning CEO Town Halls into Engaging Events

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Situation

Executive town hall meetings can be engaging events if you borrow lessons learned from broadcast media.

Executive town hall meetings can be engaging events if you borrow lessons learned from broadcast media.

A financial services firm was undergoing a difficult period of change.  Low interest rates resulting from the 2008 financial crisis meant the firm’s traditional operating model no longer generated the same levels of revenue.  The firm was still prospering due to wise leadership and a portfolio of services valued by clients, but with a major source of revenue gone, it needed to align employees with this new reality and identify new lines of business.

The company had a tradition of holding monthly employee town hall meetings.  The format was very formal:

  • The Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer would make remarks
  • Another executive or functional leader would then deliver a presentation on a topic of interest to the senior leadership
  • Time permitting, the speaker would take questions
  • A scheduled Q&A segment received little participation beyond senior leaders, and often was skipped entirely to keep the meeting from running late

Employee attendance at the meetings was very low, hovering between 400 and 500 participants from the two largest U.S. locations.  The meeting was held in the late afternoon, after the close of the market, which discouraged participation from employees in Europe and Asia. Continue Reading →

Case Study: An Intranet Portal Modernizes and Unifies a Fortune 250 Manufacturer

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Situation

A Fortune 250 global consumer products manufacturer was reinventing itself under the dynamic leadership of a new executive team.  The previous leadership had used a loose holding company management model which led to inefficiencies including redundant operations and many outdated paper-based systems. Further complicating the situation, the old model encouraged employees to identify with their brands, so there was no common identity, and the lack of common systems meant there was no platform to centrally disseminate news and information to employees across the company. Since employees identified with their brands rather than the company as a whole, they saw the corporation and its CEO as irrelevant to their work. Continue Reading →