Throughout 2015 we’ve brought you tips, insights and thought-provoking posts on the world of social intranets through this blog.
Our aim is to highlight the trends we’re seeing in the marketplace and share our observations on how social intranets are being used successfully by our clients.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading this blog as much as we’ve enjoyed writing it! As we approach the end of the year, here are some of our favorite posts from 2015.
Laying down the foundations for a successful social intranet
Back in May we looked at some of the best practices in deploying a social intranet. In the first part of three posts, we explored the work that’s needed upfront to lay the foundations for a successful project.
This is very much about having a vision and strategy, working with the right stakeholders and establishing ownership and rules to ensure that the social intranet gets the attention and steer it deserves. We also observed that you should work with your legal and risk teams early to avoid any problems further down the line.
A deep dive into driving social intranet adoption
In June we started a three-part series that covered twenty five ways to drive adoption of your social intranet. This is a massive area for intranet teams who want to increase the value of their social intranet, and get the most out of their effort.
From celebrating success, to getting visible senior management participation and improving processes to using metrics, there are many different ways to get your whole organization contributing to the intranet!
Getting remote employees on your side
In July we looked at a very modern problem for many organizations, which is how to ensure company goals and objectives are aligned among employees who work remotely. This can be challenging to address, but resolving it delivers multiple benefits, including better performance.
In the second post on this topic we explored the way a social intranet can help remote staff, and some of the legwork you need to carry out to get there. (It’s important to remember that social tools are only tools, and success is largely due to how you use them to communicate).
Driving employee engagement
Improving employee engagement is a key driver for introducing a social intranet. In October we looked at seven reasons why intranets rock at engaging employees. There are multiple reasons why a social intranet is highly engaging, including giving employees a voice and offering them more control over their time.
Ultimately, a social intranet provides an opportunity for organizations to listen to their employees, as part of an HR-driven employee engagement strategy.
Can intranets be a gateway to the digital workplace?
An emerging theme in the intranet space is the ‘digital workplace’, which takes a more holistic and integrated view of employees’ experience of technology at work. We looked at the role intranets can play by providing a gateway to the wider set of apps and tools within the enterprise, providing seven tips for success.
Using your social intranet for good
Social intranets can make a really positive contribution to employees and the wider community. We covered this in two posts in the summer, the first of which showed how the intranet can give fantastic support to a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program. Using communications, contribution and the ability to coordinate activities, the intranet can power your CSR program, so it helps those less fortunate outside your organization.
We also looked at how the intranet can promote employee health and well-being, an important topic on the agenda of many organizations.
Making employees the stars of the homepage
Social intranets celebrate and reflect the employees in the organizations they serve. In the fall we looked at ways you can make sure employees and their content feature prominently on your intranet homepage, such as spotlighting individual profiles, adding an activity feed or even including a ‘photo of the day’ submitted by an employee.
New opportunities for leadership communications
Intranets provide exciting opportunities for leaders to engage and communicate with employees in a more authentic and personal way. We touched on this topic in a couple of posts, first of all looking at best practices for CEOs who want to use a social intranet for messaging, and next how to run a Reddit-style “Ask Me Anything” session where employees can quiz your senior leaders.
In each case, leadership communication is transformed into genuine dialogue. This is far more impactful and beneficial for both employees and management.
Improving processes
A theme we continued to return to throughout the year was the various different processes within organizations where using a social intranet could make a significant improvement. These included improving customer service, using a social intranet to gather feedback for technology projects and helping new hires onboard into your company.
Why we built a delightful social intranet
We also wrote about how our obsession with delighting customers has led the direction and design of the Simpplr intranet. This is all about creating engaging user experiences, as well as building Simmplr on a world-class social platform in Salesforce and Chatter.
Nine months from our original post, our underlying passion to deliver a beautiful user experience hasn’t changed — and we’ll be continuing to improve our delightful social intranet throughout 2016!
That’s a wrap for 2015
We hope you enjoyed our review of posts from the past year as much as we enjoyed looking back at the work we’re proud to have done. We’ve had an exciting year here at Simpplr and we know 2016 is going to be even better!
Wishing all our customers, partners, friends and the wider intranet community a very peaceful and prosperous 2016 — Happy New Year!
