Why don’t people collaborate on your intranet?

If you’ve been following our series on the modern intranet, then you will be familiar with our analogy of the intranet manager as being like a city planner. Ours has a meticulous mind for detail, a great vision, and wants to contribute to a place that people will have a real connection with and real affection for. The city planner loves working on a living and breathing thing; but their vision is for a place where all the city’s tribes live side by side in an atmosphere of equality, and where different communities live side by side in harmony – which is far easier said than done!

The city planner’s attempt at bringing their segregated neighbourhoods together is similar to our intranet manager’s mission to break down her company’s business silos. As an intranet manager, she also has a meticulous mind for detail, a vision and a desire to get her entire organisation working closer together more often and in a much more effective way. Yet, individuals and teams across the business are practically going out of their way to avoid her intranet. Instead of using it as a central space to meet and work, her colleagues are storing their files in multiple locations, like Dropbox or Box, or sending documents back and forth to one another via email. Content is often stored on local hard drives, multiple versions of the same files are cannibalised and employees’ frustration levels rise like steam from the grates of the city’s subway. And with the lack of organisation and cohesion, there is also a rise in potentially problematic shadow IT.

Clearly, this is not a great state of affairs. The intranet is sitting idle, your teams aren’t operating at their best, your daily business processes are slowing you down as a collective and that is costing you money. But why is this? And why aren’t people using your intranet for good?


Intranet collaboration

Barriers to intranet collaboration

Habit

Old habits die hard. This is true in many aspects of our lives but nowhere do habits seem harder to break than in the workplace – and no, we don’t mean that sneaky cigarette with a mid-morning coffee. It’s especially difficult to alter your employees’ routines if they’ve been in the job long-term – they have their way of doing things as well as the tools they are comfortable with. And why not? Work can be difficult and stressful enough without having to satisfy a list of protocol; most of us just want to get our work completed and continue being productive.

Fresh solution: The great thing about Fresh – Content and Code’s modern intranet – is just how engaging, easy-to-use and highly functioning it is. Once deployed, you can quickly put in place a fully mobile collaboration hub that users will actually be eager to use. From one central location, build a project timeline with your project management office; save, edit and discuss important project documents with your marketing team; while getting the input of the finance department to see if your project has the right budget. Broadcast your project’s successful completion on Yammer so everyone knows what a great job you’ve done.

Habitat

Exacerbating the bad habits and solidifying the intranet collaboration barrier is the lack of a promising alternative (i.e. a better way of doing things.) What hope do you have of kicking the tobacco without the promise and motivation of a healthier life? The same goes for breaking bad organisational processes. Even with great incentives or countless reminders, if you’re still relying on your old intranet solution, your employees will inevitably slide back into their previous grooves. Without the right tools, they won’t change and you can’t expect them to or blame them for it.

Fresh solution: One of the cornerstones that our intranet is founded on is collaboration, but to get your employees to actually use the solution you may need to initially coax them into it. Use Yammer to broadcast an incentive scheme that requires them to begin or end their day in their new intranet. Once they see just how dynamic the search tool is, the agility of the mobile user experience or the convenience of having their teamwork all in one place, they won’t take long to make Fresh part of a new daily routine. So, no more struggles with an out-of-date solution that users complain about, or worse, are completely indifferent to. Instead, you’ll soon be on to forming new, better habits, which enhance your intranet collaboration.

United we stand, together you grow

Returning to our analogy, often businesses are separated by department or by location like our neighbourhoods and city-dwellers are segregated by circumstances. A divided city can be an unpleasant, or even dangerous place; businesses departments which lack communication lines can lose ground on their competitors. As an Office 365 solution built in and for the cloud, Fresh is tailor-made for intranet collaboration and communication across an entire organisation. It also grows as your business does, meaning a one-time deployment. Say goodbye to those tedious migrations and upgrades, and hello to a Fresh new intranet. You’ll benefit from Content and Code’s extensive knowledge and expertise when it comes to intranet support services. We know exactly what your users want and deserve, and the steps needed to get there.

As the cloud continues to change the business landscape as we know it, more and more companies are finding ways to reduce costs and increase their production at the same time. Obviously, it’s essential for you to continue to find ways to stay ahead of the curve. A major way for you to do that is to break down your business silos with the help of your intranet.

Along with innovative technology, cities also need frameworks, administrations and guidance for their citizens. It’s the same for your employees: at Content and Code training and education is a big part of the support service we provide. Along with an innovative intranet you need long term support to make sure the new environment is accepted and education is provided to give your users the right guidance so these new best practice habits are carried on into the future for many years.

So we ask you, why have stale when you can have stunning?

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We’re positive that a Fresh intranet is something your users will love, not loath. To find out more about how Fresh can empower all of your teams and bring your company together, talk to us today.