If you oversee your intranet it’s easy to get caught up in the amazing benefits and see only the good stuff. After all, you know why a corporate intranet is the best tool possible for your company. You don’t need to be reminded that an intranet helps employees share information, manage documents, and help overall business productivity. If only everyone else saw it that way too right?

Just like every other piece of enterprise technology, getting people on board doesn’t happen overnight. Here are a few tips to help turn your group of angry intranet hostages into a group of happy passengers:

Assemble a Fan Base

If you want a successful intranet you need people on your side who share the same goals. While it may be tempting to assemble a group from within your department, it would be wiser to look outside and include other departments. The more diverse your intranet team is, the better chance for overall adoption. Use this team to create awareness and spread enthusiasm wherever possible. This group can also help motivate you on days where you don’t feel the love.

Create a Focus Group

Similar to intranet ambassadors, it’s equally important to understand why employees may not look favorable at your intranet. This is why a focus group is a good idea. Again, you will want this group to be diverse. Take the time to truly understand concerns and criticisms and remind them that their input is valuable. In some cases, it might be worth setting up incentives for this group, even if it’s just free lunch for their time. Always remind your employees that it’s work in progress and is only as successful as the input they provide.

Set Realistic Goals

Success won’t come right away no matter how amazing your intranet is. This is why it’s important to have attainable goals. Set up weekly, monthly, and yearly goals and monitor from there. And never assume that a wildly successful launch party is an indication of your adoption forever.

Aim for Improvement

If your employees have discussed what’s wrong, it’s now time to put an action plan in place. For example, maybe they don’t feel the content is relevant to them, in which case you can add content that speaks directly to them and their department. Or maybe they feel the intranet is too difficult to navigate, so you might want to set up frequent workshops or video tutorials that show how easy it is to use.

Accept it

It’s you need to understand that not every employee is going to embrace it. This doesn’t mean there is necessarily something wrong with the technology, but rather some employees never come around to accepting change. If you have done all you can with this group, it’s likely time to move on and focus instead on employees who understand your vision and will work with you to achieving it.

Most importantly, if you're employees are unhappy with your current intranet ask yourself; Are you providing them with the right tools? Bonzai Intranet for SharePoint and Office 365 provides your organization with exactly what you need in core intranet functionality on day one. Plus, it's flexible enough to deliver important customization. Bonzai with SharePoint is a powerful way to ensure everyone in your organization gets exactly what they want out of an intranet. After all, the intranet is for everyone and happy employees that know how to leverage the value of an intranet make a highly productive workforce.

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