Intranet Shortfalls

Is your intranet the productivity and communications tool it should be?

By Jennifer A. Redmond | 
 

Does your intranet fall short of your expectations? The following checklist points out potential shortfalls and their likely causes.

The concept is flawed.

  • Technology, not your employees' needs, is your main focus.

  • The intranet is not treated as a real project. Resources -- time, money, staff -- are not invested to develop and maintain it.

  • The intranet is not designed around tools that will enhance productivity and communication.

    • Management is inconsistent.

  • There's not one person responsible for overseeing the intranet and its development, production, and maintenance.

  • You don't use a standard page design.

  • You don't have a template in place for page design.

  • Pages are complicated, unstructured, and inconsistent.

  • Each section of the intranet operates independently, like its own site.

    • Content is outdated or irrelevant.

  • No one is responsible for maintaining and updating content.

  • You post printed manuals, policies, and other information without rewriting and editing for clarity.

  • Your text isn't Web friendly. (See Four Fatal Errors of Web Writing.)

    • You're unaware of the intranet's value and usefulness.

  • You're not tracking the areas that employees access and what they're using the site for.

    • Technical issues abound.

  • Employees don't understand how the intranet works.

  • Features are too technically complex.

  • Not all employees have access to the intranet from remote locations.

    • Read more:

  • 9 Most Common Start-up Mistakes
  • Accelerator vs. Incubator: What's the Difference?
  • How Pinterest Really Makes Money

    • Sign-up for our Technology Newsletter