Monday, August 11, 2008

How strong is the link between strong internal comms and intranet maturity?

Without staff most organisations would cease to function.

Without communicating to staff what they need to know, organisations cannot function effectively.

That's one of the reasons why staff communications tools - including intranets - are very important.

However communicating with staff is generally not as exciting as making big budget television commercials, as this very amusing video from ABT illustrates.

I've often wondered about the strength of the relationship between an organisation's commitment to internal communications and its commitment to an effective intranet. I have worked in organisations with strong internal comms cultures, but with very poor intranets.

Has anyone seen any research on this?

2 comments:

  1. Craig,

    I can't say that I have any great insight into this questions, but to relate what I see in my current department, there is a strong focus on the intranet to help cover off on communication obligations, and it is usually well integrated with links to upcoming verbal addresses etc. The thing I don't see really is the social web coming to our intranet anytime soon - our dept recently moved to sharepoint, and withing sharepoint there is some capacity to identify yourself, but the general level of acceptance around putting that kind of information about yourself on the intranet is not there - so strong comms and intranet maturity... mmm we have strong comms, and a mature intranet, but are not moving very rapidly towards using it to develop social networks.... whats you measure of maturity?

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  2. Hi Ben,

    I'd consider a mature intranet as one that is closely linked to business functions, has well developed governance and editorial processes, an effective management and improvement strategy and is essentially both essential and effective for an organisation. It can be either centralised or decentralised - that's a management choice rather than a sign of maturity.

    Social media inside the firewall is potentially a different kettle of fish to a mature intranet.

    It sounds like your department has a strong alignment across internal comms and intranet, which is in my humble opinion a good thing.

    Social media can be a stimulator for intranet use, and can be driven as a comms tool, but can also be used as a HR tool for community and culture building.

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