How to Ensure a Stress Free Intranet Launch

You did it. You finally selected an intranet. The hard part is done right? Well, sort of. Next up is the actual company-wide launch which is understandably making you a little nervous.

Here are a few tips to ensure a stress free intranet deployment:

Don’t get Hung Up on an ROI

With all the pressure to validate the importance of your intranet, it’s natural to want to achieve a quick ROI. Yes, an ROI is attainable, but the real value of your intranet is often from things that are not so easy to measure--like improved communication and collaboration between employees.

Align with Corporate Goals and Vision

If you want your intranet to be successful, it needs to align with company goals as well as your core values. For example, if one of your core values is people, how does your intranet reflect this? Or perhaps your vision revolves around customer service; does your intranet align with this vision? The more aligned your intranet is with your company’s goals and vision, the greater chance it has for success

Brand It

When employees see a face and personality in your intranet, they are more likely to use it. There are many things you can do to brand your intranet and personalize it. For example, you can give your intranet a name. You can also incorporate specific style and language into it so that it develops a particular look and feel.

Make Sure it Integrates With Existing Tools

The easier your intranet is to access, the more likely employees will use it. One way to improve accessibility is to ensure your intranet integrates with existing technologies. This is why it always makes sense to talk to IT before rolling out any enterprise technology. Make them your ally and your deployment will be a piece of cake.

Don’t Roll Out Everything at Once

While it may be tempting to unveil every section of the intranet at once, going this route can confuse employees. Revealing a little at a time helps make the project more digestible which makes it easier for everyone to learn. It will also give you an opportunity to meet with users on a regular basis to understand any difficulties they may have.

Make New Hires a Priority

It’s important to ensure that all new hires are educated on using the intranet during initial onboarding. Articulating the benefits of an intranet to new employees is always much easier than explaining it to employees who have been around a long time. Depending on the size of your company and the rate of turnover, you can see the impact of this quite quickly.

Make the Launch a Process

While intranet launch parties are a good idea, they sometimes fail to engage employees a month later. Why? Well, an intranet deployment is not an event, it’s an ongoing process. Throwing the party is just one of many milestones in an ongoing strategy. A successful launch requires months of training, tweaking, and gathering feedback. .

Meet Regularly with Key Stakeholders

If you haven’t already, you need to assemble a key group of stakeholders that have your intranet’s best interest in mind. You should aim to meet at least monthly to discuss things that are going well as potential problems.