for small businesses with big ideas
SubscribeWhat to put on your intranet
by Jennifer SmithAn online space for sharing news and information with your colleagues sounds like a great idea… but then you have to fill that space. At that point many people go blank on what should they actually put on their intranet. Well, here’s an A-Z of ideas to help you make the most of your intranet, and a few tips for getting going:
A Acronyms used in your organisation or sector, particularly useful for new team members, plans for your next Away day
B Business plan for your organisation, a list of Books in your library, internal Blogs
C Calendars for the organisation and individuals. Competitions for new ideas for products, services, or marketing solutions. Your Client directory – does everyone in your organisation know who all your clients are? Coming soon… to let everyone know what’s on the horizon
D An online Diary reflecting on the progress of the organisation, or on a particular project
E Expense claim forms and instructions, Email and internet usage policy
F Financials of the organisation, updated regularly, details of First aid officers
G Gossip? Or a Glossary of terms used in the organisation
H Holiday request forms, and dates of booked holidays. Health & Safety information, perhaps even your Health and Safety Certificates
I Instructions for the office, discussions to generate Ideas for products and improvements
J Directions for Journeys to your offices (ready to send to clients) and to your client’s offices
K Knowledge bank: good work or useful material you want to share with your colleagues
L Links to useful web sites, Lessons learnt, the Latest versions of those documents you need all the time, your Logos and other branding and style guides
M Maps, Mashups, Missions statements, Marketplace of team items for sale, Minutes of Meetings
N New staff induction pages, Company and industry News
O Organogram to show who’s who, Operating instructions for your equipment
P Projects and Plans, Pay dates for the year
Q Questions and answers, Questions seeking answers
R Recommendations of local cafes and shops
S Strategic direction, Staff directory, links to other Systems used in your organisation, preferably with a Single Sign-on so you don’t need to keep entering usernames and passwords, Search for your intranet and preferably any other repositories in your organisation
T Targets for the organisation, notes from Training courses you’ve been too, Time zones in the countries you work with, Telephone numbers for your colleagues and clients
U Ugly moments: lessons learnt of mistakes you don’t want to repeat. Useful tips for using IT
V Values common to people within your organisation, to help build and maintain a healthy working culture
W Weather, Wiki, online Whiteboard for thrashing out ideas
X Xmas arrangements: who is on holiday when, office opening times, and of course, the Xmas party
Y Year plan: what is your organisation aiming for this year, and when will it happen?
Z A tricky one. Maybe the timetable for your Zen Buddhist meditation classes? Details of your company’s Zombie film collection? Or the ever popular Zymurgy lectures?
Quality not quantity
It’s always better to have a small selection of quality information than fill the pages with everything you can think of. There’s normally plenty of information that should be made more easily available, but start small and grow. Think about the information which is most useful to your colleagues, publish that first, and see what feedback you get.
And don’t let it get out of date. If it’s no longer relevant, replace it or simply delete it. If the intranet can’t be trusted to be up to date and correct, your colleagues will stop using it.
Don’t forget the social side
Don’t make it too formal, and let everyone help. Everyone should feel it’s easy to contribute and their information is useful.
There’s nothing wrong with a bit of gossip and chat. I’m sure you can think of lots of useful bits of information you’ve found and the ideas you’ve had while chatting to your colleagues. Your intranet shouldn’t be a sterile place, it should be a vibrant place full of conversation and inspiration.
This is especially valuable if you have a dispersed team working on the road and from their homes. While your intranet can never be a replacement for seeing each other face to face, it can help to make everyone feel part of the team and connected to each other.
Getting going!
You don’t need lots of fancy software and servers to have an intranet. You can start with something as quick and simple as a free hosted wiki from one of the many providers out there.
Once you’ve shown it working, you can graduate to more a powerful system, like OneIS.
Start small, start quickly, and think social.