CU*Online Newsletter
December 2001 

1. Employees are too busy to contribute content to the intranet. 
   Everyone ultimately benefits from the exchange of knowledge. When employees are actively sharing information, the innovation curve goes up steeply because they are building on one another's experience and ideas. 
   
   It's difficult to watch one teller write up a procedure as members queue in line behind the remaining tellers. However, all managers and employees need to understand the value of this effort. When employees don't exchange knowledge, they find themselves re-creating solutions for the same problem over and over again. Solutions and best practices are not being determined. Worse, valuable experience is lost each time an experienced employee leaves.
   
   Managers need to entrust content ownership and management to their employees. Consider offering incentives for employees to contribute to the intranet. It's in your best interests to do so.
     
2. Intranet content management is out of control and disorganized.
   Information needs to be logically organized (by employee standards) and easily navigated. Political issues often arise when departments or employees put their own needs before those of the company. Take the company with the "invisible" pension calculator on its intranet; it was in the IS section of the intranet because the tool had been created by IS, not HR.
     
3. Employees aren't using the intranet.
   Many intranets fail because they don't deliver value to employees. The intranet needs to help them do their jobs, and not waste their time. Otherwise, they won't use it.
   
   The intranet should be organized around employee needs and scenarios, such as life events. Imagine you're having a baby and look at each step, such as changing medical information or setting up a maternity leave. The process should be seamless and complete. I remember my surprise when I once received a paycheck while at home with a new baby. No one at the company had mentioned the first week of maternity leave was paid!
    
4. It costs too much to maintain the site.
   While the cost will vary with the size of the organization, an improperly managed site can quickly overrun its budget. 
   
   Put hit counters on every page, and evaluate often. One company posted a chart on their intranet to show the location of every employee's cubicle. Everyone thought it was cool, but after calculating the number of hours required to maintain the chart and seeing the declining number of visitors in later months, the company decided to remove it. 
   
   On the other hand, you may learn that the intranet's value is worth the increased expenditure. One company guessed that about one-tenth of their employees visited their intranet site each day, based on the number of complaints they received when the site was down. When they added hit counters, they learned that over half of their employees were visiting the site daily. 
   
   On a larger scale, Hewlett Packard realized change was needed when they counted over 2,000 intranet sites throughout the company. They set out to create a single, unified intranet for their entire organization. The company hired a staff of experts, and examined existing intranets for user requirements, consistency issues, and content. In all, they invested $20 million up front in site planning and consolidation. 
   
   Hewlett Packard estimates the company saved $50 million the first year that the intranet was fully implemented, and expect the savings to increase over time. 

Few comparisons can be made between a Credit Union and a company of that size, but consider where Hewlett Packard made their savings. The company was able to reduce Human Resources paperwork, streamline processes such as travel bookings, eliminate the need for call centers, and reduce costs for printing, fax machines, copiers and servers. 

The ability of a growing company -- large or small -- to manage its increasing paperwork and control hiring & training expenses can significantly impact your bottom line. A successful intranet CAN make a difference.

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