The secrets to a SharePoint success!

Two years ago I published my book ‘Digital success or digital disaster?‘ that unlocked how you can successfully manage your intranet by following the examples and practical advice given in each chapter.

I avoided describing specific technologies however, one technology is quite pervasive – Microsoft SharePoint – and I have encountered it many times, both good and bad, in my work.  Wherever I go people ask me “How do I manage SharePoint successfully?”.

My answer is covered in a new chapter that explores the pitfalls and benefits of using SharePoint to underpin your intranet, and sets out ways to make sure you implement successfully using the principles that I set out apply to intranets.

Everyone will have heard of a horror story of how an intranet has failed or succumbed to the perils of SharePoint. But people will also have seen examples of how SharePoint has transformed an intranet quickly and with little effort.

Somewhere in between these two versions lies the truth that most intranet managers have experienced. It seems to take a lot of effort, hard work and time to implement SharePoint. And that just seems to be the beginning of the daily challenges you have to act upon.

SharePoint has been described as being like the best sweet shop in town. Anyone can have all these sweets on all the shelves to try. The problem is that you are outside the door to the shop and saying “Be careful what you try. Too many sweets can be bad for you.”

That analogy has proven to be oh so true, time and time again. Even after many new versions and enhanced features in SharePoint, improving what it offers, intranet managers still have a feeling of trepidation when confronted with SharePoint, especially for the first time. So how do you educate and communicate with people who use SharePoint? How do they use the right features in the right manner? How do you adopt the right approach so everyone benefits?

It can be done but it is not easy. I know from my experience shared in this new chapter. I will show you the secret of a well-managed intranet using SharePoint, setting out the steps you need to take to achieve this without too much hard work, missed deadlines or sleepless nights!

‘Digital success or digital disaster?’

When an intranet loses its usefulness over time, and people become disengaged and end up working around it rather than through it, I often find that governance has been neglected.

Even a strong and appropriate strategy will founder if the governance isn’t in place to execute it.  Governance is the foundation for a great intranet, and by ‘great’ I mean an intranet that everyone find easy to use, helps them with their work, and supports their organisation’s goals.

I have blogged about intranet governance but my book offers a lot more than I could ever drip-feed via short posts.  This book helped crystallise my thinking around governance, and delve deep into my past experiences as intranet manager and consultant.

Take a look at my book called ‘Digital success or digital disaster?’ if you have a problem with your intranet, collaboration site, digital workplace or mobile workspace that needs better governance.

It is published through Intranätverk and offers you my experience, guidance, and tips for you to consider as a toolkit to improve how you manage your intranet.

Collaborative intranets for engagement must be accessible to everyone first

My thanks to @dianarailton who tweeted an article ‘UK retailers still failing to meet web accessibility standards‘.  With so many barriers in stores if you are disabled, shopping online from the comfort of your home is an attractive option.  Furthermore, under the Equality Act 2010 all retailers must provide access to their goods online as well as in store.

There were several common themes why all of the web sites failed to meet the Level AA of the WCAG 2.0 guidelines.  This means that disabled people would face difficulty in buying a product on each site, with half of the sites completely inhibiting people at certain points in their journey.

The Equality Act 2010 applies to intranets as well as external sites in the UK.  Other countries have similar laws their intranets need to comply with.

Are you serious about engaging with people and collaboration?

How can an organisation engage with all its employees if a minority cannot use the intranet?  How do employees collaborate using the tools on the intranet if some people cannot access them?  First, your intranet must be accessible for this to achievable.

When I hear people talk about making their sites accessible, some still think as long as the design can be read by JAWS for people who are blind.  It does!  But the scope is far wider than that for a site to be truly accessible to everyone.

It is accepted that 10-20% of people have some form of disability.  This includes people whose finger joints become stiff or eyesight needs glasses and the size of text to be enlarged.  Most of these disabilities happen just through the normal ageing process and wear and tear on life at work and home.

For your intranet to be fully accessible these barriers that prevent employees fully engaging and collaborating must be removed.

How to make your intranet accessible?

Wearing my governance hat I believe you need to take the following steps:

1. Have a governance framework that covers how content is published and who is responsible for creating and managing it.
2. Have an Accessibility publishing standard that refers to the WCAG guidelines and explains how a publisher creates accessible content.
3. Have publishing templates that mean content can be enlarged to allow everyone to read it.  Have images with mandatory fields to describe what they show as alternative text for people unable to view the images.
4. Provide training to help educate your publishers to understand why this is important and how they comply.
5. Audit random samples of content to ensure it complies with the Accessibility standard.

If you put all these steps in place you will have a solid foundation for your intranet.  You can encourage people to engage with your organisation and to collaborate with each other.

You can then be confident you can reassure your stakeholders this will happen.

 

Intranets: a book that covers everything

‘Intranets’ is an anthology that covers many aspects of intranets with each chapter in the book covering a different topic relevant for your intranet.  I kept thinking as I contributed to it “If only this book had been available when I worked with intranets”.

Other organisations’ intranets are one of their best-kept secrets with no access to see the hidden gems or maybe worst horrors.  They are hidden behind firewalls which make it hard to learn from others’ successes and failures.

‘Intranets’ shows many examples with practical advice on what to do to replicate these or maybe how to avoid making a mistake.  Many people like me who have experienced the good, the bad and the ugly with intranets have contributed chapters to help your understanding and share our knowledge of intranets.

An intranet can deliver great value and be useful for everyone working within an organization.  Intranets aims to give you a guide on how to create a modern and useful intranet – through continuous improvement and governance (of course!).

You can read this book from first to last page or read each single chapter separately. The book is for intranet managers, or those wanting to understand intranets. It is also a good read for managers, communicators or anyone who wants to learn about intranets!

Is your intranet a campaigning tool?

Have you been asked to support a campaign or issue that you feel strongly about?  I don’t mean someone asking you in the same room.  I am talking about finding out using social media like Facebook posts or tweets on Twitter.

Campaign groups like 38 Degrees and Sumofus are very successful in focusing people’s attention on an issue, engaging their support and transforming that into action that is effective in achieving its aim.

The speed with which support can be gained is very impressive.  The method of giving your support is very quick and simple.  The ripple effect from publicising progress gains a momentum of its own.

I am sure we can all think of recent successful campaigns.  Probably most of you have supported a campaign because the issue meant something to you…..

……which got me thinking (I know, that’s a dangerous thing for me to do! )

Would organisations have the courage to use their intranets as a business tool to identify barriers to employee satisfaction and productivity using a version of these tools?

Accepting that factors like communication channels, inclusive culture need to be working well, would tools like this help organisations avoid long-running disputes or make business decisions without being aware of the full picture?

In the UK (still part of the EU!) if an online petition reaches 100,000 signatures it has to be debated by MPs in Parliament and people who signed are updated on its progress and the outcome of the debate. (the latest was whether Trump should visit the UK or not).

So, with my governance hat on I believe this could benefit organisations and add to an intranet’s reputation as the nerve centre with a few simple rules.

1. Avoid moderation.  Employees want to be trusted to have a free hand in the views they express and the range of support and how to gain it.  Most employees are able to see whether an issue is a genuine or just someone raising a personal gripe.
2. Set a time limit for the length of the campaign.  You want to identify the burning issues that could quickly cause problems rather than those that will keep chuntering on for ever and are unrealistic.
3. Set a sign-up threshold for issues to achieve before action is taken.  You could make that an absolute number e.g. 1,000 or a percentage of total employees.  An upper limit could mean that when the top-level of management next meet the issue is given a minimum of time to be raised and a decision to be made.
4. Give this channel/tool the appropriate prominence and senior management support.  Employees need to realise it is not a gimmick but a serious approach to tap emerging thoughts and issues.

I am sure some of you will think this is unnecessary or even ridiculous and create nothing but problems.

Others may think ‘What is the downside?’ ‘What is there to lose by trialling it and seeing what happens?’.

You decide….!

Digital equality for a better work/life balance

I have read with interest recent articles and events that show how intranets and digital workplaces are helping to create a greater sense of freedom and better work/life balance leading to more equality.

It is a view I have held for many years since I experienced the benefits working from home at BT with flexible hours and clear responsibilities and priorities to help me.

Equality

In the UK official figures show that women aged 25-54 are more stressed than their male colleagues, with this pressure peaking for those aged 35-44, when many women are juggling family responsibilities, such as caring for children and elderly parents.

One way of relieving some of that stress would be flexible hours and location policy.  However this can normally only be achieved if the culture is right and you have remote access to the information and work processes on the intranet.

Reduced working hours

In Spain, the employment minister, Fátima Báñez, announced a push to let Spaniards finish work at 6pm, rather than 8pm. The government has also said it is willing to consider, as part of a series of measures designed to improve work-life balance, reversing the Franco-era decision that put Spain in the wrong time zone.

Some companies in Sweden are moving to a six-hour working day in a bid to increase productivity and make people happier.  “The eight-hour work day is not as effective as one would think,” says the CEO of Filimundus.

“To stay focused on a specific work task for eight hours is a huge challenge.  In order to cope, we mix in things and pauses to make the work day more endurable.  At the same time, we are having it hard to manage our private life outside of work.”

The aim is for people to be more motivated to work more intensely while in the office.  Again without access to the right information and work processes on the intranet this will be more difficult to achieve.

Work/life balance

Working Families is a UK work-life balance organisation. The charity helps working parents and carers and their employers find a better balance between responsibilities at home and work.  They also share best practice with case studies highlighting the achievements of winners and nominees for Top Employers for Working Families Special Awards.

Work related stress already costs Britain 10.4 million working days per year. The human costs of unmanaged work related stress extends far beyond this. A key way to protect your mental health against the potential detrimental effects of work related stress is to ensure you have a healthy work-life balance.

Summary

The examples for the Flexible Working category show this is not rocket science.  It is something that organisation of different type, size and purpose can succeed with.

I am NOT claiming that a good intranet or digital workplace will magically lead to this happening.  There are many factors to be considered and acted upon.

What I AM claiming is that a strategy for people having access to the right information and work processes whenever and wherever it is needed.  Careful planning to implement the strategy is essential.  Making sure everything is well-managed and can be relied upon being accessible and reliable.

It doesn’t happen by chance or overnight.  Organisation need to realise the value of their intranet or digital workplace first and to understand how it is the foundation for improving people’s productivity.  That’s where we need to step up to the mark!