Check out this helpful video to walk away with a plan on how to take a strategic personalization approach and apply it to your website. You’ll get real direction on how to use tailored experiences to deliver business value and guidance that works whether you’re on Sitecore today, considering a move to Sitecore, or vetting other digital experience platforms.

If you’re like many hospitals and health systems, you’ve outgrown your current intranet. When the pandemic hit, it likely brought to light some of your intranet’s limitations – from missing functionality to content that’s hard to update, to the inability for employees to access critical information off-campus. Attend this webinar and learn the latest trends in modern intranets, top functionality you need to deliver a great user experience to your employees, and how to use storytelling and content marketing internally to build a community inside your organization.

In this webinar, you’ll learn:

• How COVID-19 has turned employee intranet needs on its head
• Trends in modern intranets – for 2020 and beyond
• Top functionality in healthcare intranets and other findings from our 2020 Healthcare Digital Marketing Trends Survey
• How to use storytelling on your intranet as a vehicle for empathy, compassion, and community – with real healthcare examples

Many of the common complaints employees have with their intranets are multifaceted – difficult navigation, outdated or duplicate documents and forms, inaccessible from some devices (like their phones) – but most of them can be addressed with effective content strategy.

What is content strategy? We like this definition from content strategy pioneer Kristina Halvorson: “Content strategy guides your plans for the creation, delivery, and governance of content.” It’s a way, she says, to make smart, informed decisions about content.

Content Strategy is Key to Your Intranet’s Success

Maybe you didn’t develop a formal content strategy when you launched your intranet. Or maybe you did, but after years of use, it’s time for an update.

In the 3^rd edition of their Intranet Usability Guidelines, Nielsen Norman Group estimates that the average annual cost to businesses for performing internal tasks on an intranet with poor usability is $13.4 million. And moving from an intranet with bad user experience to “average” can save organizations upwards of $4 million.

Here are 4 ways content strategy can take your intranet from drab to fab.

#1 – Use Surveys to Create Better User Experience

When it comes to intranets, it can be tricky to get the data you need to support the best user experience (UX) possible. That’s where user research comes in!

User Surveys

By creating a survey and sending it out to your employees, you can find out firsthand what is working and what needs improvement on your intranet.

At Geonetric, we’ve facilitated and collected data from hundreds of employees using surveys. One of the most interesting ways to present the data from these surveys can be a word cloud from the results.  Word clouds display a cluster of the most common words used across answers, with the most used displayed larger and more prominently.

Card Sorting

Card sorting helps your team think through groups of content types, which can help you organize your intranet. This is another exercise that helps you learn and best use the verbiage that your employees understand and make the organization of your intranet make sense to your users.

Analytics

Reviewing the data you have at your fingertips is essential to understand how your employees use your intranet. Looking at things like popular pages, search terms, and time spent on certain pages gives insight into your user experience on the intranet.

Usability Testing

Test your theories on what will help your users with usability testing. This gives you an opportunity to test and then iterate on the updates you’re planning to make. The results will help either confirm that your changes will be effective or, they may tell you to make adjustments so that your updates are even more helpful!

Identifying Pain Points

Often you find common threads of what your users are looking for on the intranet and what their pain points are.  This information can be helpful as you (or your content strategists) outlines what should be prioritized when you address the content strategy of your intranet.

Data like this can help create a user-centered intranet, tailored to the unique needs and culture of your organization, and one that creates a more intuitive tool to help your employees, teams, and leaders do their jobs more efficiently.

Stay Informed About Experience After You Make Changes

Ongoing surveys – even temperature checks, pulse surveys, etc. – are tracked to better employee engagement. Gallup notes a 21% increase in profitability for an organization when employees are engaged. So consider using your new, friendlier intranet to stay in touch with what your employees want and need, both on the intranet and more broadly. This is also a helpful way to make sure that the changes you’ve made are effective and quickly find future opportunities for improvement.

#2 – Create a User-Friendly Navigation & Information Architecture

The hard work that goes into research will be helpful in more ways than one. For example, it can also help you make your intranet more intuitive to navigate.

How? Well, the insight from employee responses to the survey and card sorting will show you the words they use to refer to things like documents, departments, and policies. These tools are crucial for employees, so make them easy to find by using familiar language. That also means fewer frustration points and feelings of “I can’t ever find what I want!” for your users. Instead, you can boost productivity, creating a better experience for your employees.

A Powell Software study found that 50% of employees are design-focused – but often times users will refer to elements of content strategy as design! Therefore, if your intranet is not intuitive or easy to use in its “design,” less than half of its users will find it useful or return to it on a regular basis. So, there’s a real benefit to making sure your intranet plans and provides for your users’ individual needs and wants.

A large part of that benefit is that your content strategy will help you determine top task and needs of your users. Then, on the new site, you can create easy-to-follow paths to the information and tools that your employees and colleagues need on a daily basis.

Sometimes, it pays to have an agency come in to help you prioritize this, because they’re not engrossed in internal politics for your organizations. An outside content strategist, for example, brings industry knowledge and insights based on the research they do about your organizations. And they’ll help you honestly re-evaluate your intranet’s architecture and make sure you’re providing a user-friendly navigation and experience throughout.

#3 – Functionality is Key

Content strategy can help you understand how to use your CMS’s features to their full potential. That means less work for your team and a better experience for your users.

For example, if your documents and essential files are stored in a tool that sorts them alphabetically, you may find this structure and functionality makes it easier for employees to find what they need. An effective site search for your intranet is also a valuable tool that prevents frustration and enables employees to complete their goals.

Your intranet doesn’t have to envelop each and every tool or app your employees use. In fact, it shouldn’t. However, it should be your cohesive, neatly packaged front door to give employees news, events, and access to the everyday tools they use to do their jobs.

#4 – Content Governance to Keep Files Relevant and Up-to-Date

A solid content governance plan is crucial to keeping your intranet useable and relevant.

Content governance is a “discipline that focuses on establishing clear accountability for digital strategy, policy, and standards.”

The great thing about content governance is that it gives you the framework and the tools to help you keep your website – or intranet – up-to-date. With content governance, you’re set up to:

• Facilitate conversations about team roles and responsibilities help teams work more efficiently and effectively
• Document workflows for content updates and document standards (like core content strategy statements and style guides) to support consistency and efficiency
• Create tools to assist with planned content updates (e.g., a content maintenance calendar) and unplanned content updates (e.g., a request form)

Your content strategist can help you create an approach that includes a core group of super users to make this task a little easier to manage. That group can also work to establish a workflow, outlining who reviews documents and who approves them so that everyone is on the same page and everything stays up to date.

The Time to Start is Now

When it comes to your intranet, it’s never been more crucial to have it in working order. It’s an important part of communicating with your staff during a public health crisis like COVID-19.

If tackling your intranet seems daunting, especially with changing priorities due to the pandemic, a partner could be key in getting the project up and running. Contact Geonetric to get the help you need to ensure your intranet is the effective tool it can and should be.

Attend this webinar and get an inside look at the state of digital marketing in healthcare right now. This 10th edition of Geonetric’s popular survey gives updates on the tried-and-true benchmarking information you’ve come to rely on – from team sizes to budgets to top web functionality. But this year new sections have been added to address the heightened focus on internal communications, data transformation, content marketing, and even the overall morale of healthcare marketers today.

Watch today and learn:

• How COVID-19 has impacted marketing plans and marketing teams
• How leading healthcare organizations are structuring teams and allocating budgets
• What goals healthcare marketing teams are working towards and how effective they are at tracking success
• What functionality is must-have for both websites and intranets
• Top areas for staffing growth
• Where do organizations fall in the content marketing maturity model

But even still, many live in antiquated or homegrown platforms or disorganized SharePoint sites.

Build a Case for an Empathetic Intranet

These poor experiences can transfer into employee satisfaction, too.  A survey from Limeade found that 31% of employees across industries feel that their employers cared about them as individuals.

You’re probably shaking your head because of course you care about your team and employees. But how are you connecting that empathy to their everyday needs? Part of that empathy should include checking in with your teams on a regular basis.

Sure, a quick chat in a hallway may do the trick. Or maybe your organization is ready to implement a “voice of employee (VoE)” program, which uses that feedback to institute change, from your intranet functionality to overarching goals and employee satisfaction.

Don’t get overwhelmed – let’s take a smaller bite from that statement and start with your intranet.

Your Intranet Can Make or Break Employee Satisfaction

Your intranet is one of many pieces of your employee’s everyday experience. A poor intranet can cost millions in lost productivity, while a well-developed and designed one can increase profitability by nearly 21%.

In the difficult challenges of a worldwide pandemic, employee satisfaction is crucial. The unknowns of the world causes stress at home, but the ever-changing world of health care during COVID-19 is another layer. Employees want confidence to do their job, but also need assurance that their organization, team, and manager has their back.

Your intranet should be a tool in that source of relief, not a frustration. This means redesigning your intranet is a big step (maybe too big right now), but at least moving the needle toward engaging employees in new ways should be on the top of your list.

Set Up an Ongoing Survey

You probably know how your immediate peers and teams are doing based on everyday interaction or meetings, but have you checked in with everyone? Does your executive team know how employees are coping with stress and anxieties amidst the pandemic?

An online survey is a great place to begin. A survey opens the door to employees to provide feedback. Here are a few tips if you’re considering to start with a survey:

• Keep the survey brief. Three or four open-ended questions, or a couple of range (i.e. – strongly disagree to strongly agree) or multiple choice questions will work
• Understand the variables you’ll receive. Not every response will give you a wealth of data, so consider breaking surveys up into multiple iterations to dig deeper
• Offer alternatives for feedback. If an online survey isn’t the best option for an employee, make sure they have another route to provide feedback, such as to their direct manager, or to human resources
• Don’t focus solely on the pandemic. Message the survey as a response to the crisis, but also consider making it a permanent part of your employee engagement rotation — and let them know this when you send out your first one

Check out this helpful list of employee survey recommendations to help you strategize your survey.

HIPAA-complaint tools, like Formulate, are a great place to start if you haven’t used an online survey in your intranet before. Whether you offer multiple choice questions or open text fields for people to provide free-flowing thoughts, it’s a consistent way to gather information and extend an empathetic ear to your teams and employees.

Open Yourself Up to Meetings or Video Calls

No matter if your employees are working on your hospital campus or working from home, creating a pathway for them to meet with you one-on-one is essential right now. Your intranet or calendar can help you do exactly that.

By opening your door to informal check-ins and chats with your team, you’re displaying not only a tremendous amount of empathy, but creating an engaging conversation that can help your team operate more efficiently and compassionately.

Use your employee profile on your intranet and your calendar, if you have system like Outlook that allows you to block sections of your day, to note any open office hours, for example, where you’re available to take meetings with your team, specifically. Tell your team — in meetings or in email — about your new open-door policy to help them manage their stress and concerns.

No, you’re not expected to be a mental health counselor per se, but being a manager who lets their teammates share their anxieties and concern can have a great effect on their morale and mental health and help curb burnout.

Invest in an Intranet Blog

If your intranet is responsive and built on a system that allows it, consider implementing an intranet blog. Blogging may not be a top priority right now, but building an engaging space for stories and answers to employee questions can be helpful.

Gallup found that 74% of employees feel they’re missing out on company news. This is either because it’s not easy accessible, such as a printed PDF, or they’re too busy with their daily tasks to feel caught up with what’s going on in the organization.

Henry Mayo in Valencia, California did exactly that with the Ask the CEO section of their intranet. Employees are encouraged to send questions to their CEO, Roger Seaver, which he answers on a regular basis through the intranet’s blog.

If receiving and answering questions is a lot to ask of your leadership team right now, consider opening a leadership blog. This allows stakeholders to discuss any topics or concerns directly. This type of transparent communication doesn’t only engage employees, it also builds trust, understanding, and empathy, especially during a difficult crisis like COVID-19.

Provide a Manual Feedback Option

If an online survey and updating the intranet is a lot to ask right now, consider an old-school method of feedback cards. Consider, for example:

• Printed feedback cards that employees can fill out and return to their managers or in private locked boxes in common spaces.
• Hold team meetings that open the floor for employees to talk about whatever is on their mind, including any anxieties or lingering questions they want answered.
• Share your office hours, email address, and phone number on your employee profile in your organization’s intranet, so it’s easy for someone to get in touch with you when they need to — especially your employees.

Get Started on Engaging Your Employees

If you’re reading this and feeling like it’s time to build or reinvent a more engaging employee intranet that builds bridges and not frustrations, you’re in the right place. Contact Geonetric and set up an intranet consultation call or learn about the many services — from intranet design to employee surveys — that we can do for you.

That’s easier said than done – especially if it’s been a few years since your team evaluated your current intranet or vetted potential partners.

Download this white paper and learn how to prepare internally before you embark on your next redesign. You’ll learn more about how to:

• Identify intranet stakeholders and gather useful feedback
• Define goals based on top user tasks
• Assess your current platform, design, and information architecture
• Determine requirements for the new intranet
• Find a partner for the long-term