Intranet Needs and Wants Survey
Intranets: what staff really want: This is a really good survey from Gerry McGovern’s company that answers a pretty important question that I see a lot of confusion about: what should we put on our intranet? They asked a bunch of people to pick what they wanted their intranet to do. The top picks…
A survey conducted by Gerry McGovern’s company reveals that the most desired features for an intranet include an employee directory, policies and procedures, forms, benefits information, company news, job postings, and payroll information. The survey also found that employees view the intranet as a practical place to do their jobs, with wikis, blogs, and personalization being less popular. The report suggests that companies could improve their intranets by implementing an employee directory, a lightweight content management system, an easy-to-use file library, and a solid search system.
Generated by Azure AI on June 24, 2024Intranets: what staff really want: This is a really good survey from Gerry McGovern’s company that answers a pretty important question that I see a lot of confusion about: what should we put on our intranet?
They asked a bunch of people to pick what they wanted their intranet to do. The top picks are pretty obvious to me, but not a lot of companies know or ever bother to ask.
Employee Directory
Policies and Procedures
Forms
Benefits Information
Company News
Job Postings
Payroll Information
They had 58 options people could pick from, and they constitute most of what anyone has on an intranet. The first three options are heavily weighted. The first one alone – the Employee Directory – got 18% of the vote, and the first three together were 33% of the vote. The seven I listed above were fully 50% of the total vote.
Other conclusions:
[…] staff see the intranet as a practical place that should make it easier for them to do their jobs. While things like wikis, blogs and personalization got some votes, they were way down on the list when compared to finding people and forms.
Intranets require better organization, but instead many of them are becoming dumping grounds for all sorts of content. They need much better search, but search is nearly always neglected.
I’ve always thought that a lot of companies could make huge strides towards an intranet by having four simple systems:
An employee directory
Some lightweight content management system to handle the two major types of content you’re going to find: (a) reference information, and (b) announcements.
An easy-to-use file library
A good, solid search system
Those four things would be a dramatic improvement for a large percentage of intranets.
This report is a great resource for anyone considering implementing a new intranet or improving an existing one.