This article is a guide for Intranet Administrators who have recently launched their site and are considering how best to train and engage their user base as part of the Claromentis Onboarding process.
Please find the Knowledgebase article containing a Pre-Site Launch Checklist and Launch Templates via the attached links.
Introduction
Building and launching your intranet is a significant milestone, and you’ve laid the foundation for a more connected and collaborative workplace. With the site in place, the focus now shifts to ensuring your users are able to embrace it as an essential part of their daily work routines.
This article offers inspiration to help you train, drive engagement and encourage adoption among your team. These ideas hope to spark interest and excitement to ensure continued usage of the Intranet.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to tailor these approaches and train your users in a way that reflects your organisation’s unique culture and goals. With the right approach, your intranet can transform into a thriving hub for communication, connection, and collaboration.
Personalise the site
Tailor the Intranet experience by role, department or location to ensure they can find relevant information quickly. e.g. create a different theme, homepage and menu per department (with relevant items in each) so they see content unique to their responsibilities on login.
Make it essential
Position the intranet as the go-to source for critical information, such as important forms, company news, booking holidays, storing documents, accepting policies, etc. Internal comms around the business should include the Intranet as much as possible to drive attention and engagement to it, ensuring that over time, it's where work is being done and is the first place users think to check or look for something.
Keep content current
Once your site has launched its important to keep growing it with new content. This can be as simple as highlighting who is responsible for what and deciding the frequency content needs to be created, as well as decisions on how to support everyone involved in the creation chain to achieve this. Having the most recent updates and information available on the site reinforces to users that this is where they need to come to get the latest. Avoid falling behind on new updates or content as much as possible, as old information is one of the biggest killers of engagement we see for an Intranet.
Identify 'Champions'
Train users across different departments who will take the lead on encouraging others to use the system and be their 'go-to' for any questions or issues. Have these responsible users showcase features or applications most relevant to their department and refer to them as much as possible in documentation or in meetings to reinforce the Intranet's importance in everyday work.
Start a 'Did you know?' series
Send out weekly/monthly announcement emails or News articles that highlight important or underutilised features to your company. This will keep users' attention on the site and make them feel more confident using it over time. e.g. Did you know how to upload a new version of a document, how to book a holiday, how to submit a ticket, how to submit an expense, how to view timesheets etc
Encourage user-generated content
To start with, your core group of administrators will set up all applications and add the first content to the site. After this, it is recommended to train other responsible users to create content, whether this is for their own pages, news channels, etc to keep the site growing. Allowing more users to create content keeps them coming back to the site and gets them excited about publishing something for everyone to see, generating buzz from likes and comments. It also shares the burden of content creation amongst more people rather than relying on a select few to process everything, preventing a slowdown in updates.
Run a homepage Survey or Poll
Involve users straight away by including a fun survey component immediately on your homepage as users log in. We’ve seen it work well with clients before, whereby they’ve asked their user base to name the site. This creates initial engagement while also building a sense of ownership.
Make use of the Badges application
Celebrate users in any way you like by creating virtual “badges” that can be awarded on their profile. In addition to your work within your organisation, you may want to reward certain-users for intranet-specific contributions, such as creating news articles, logging in frequently, or making use of the thank you application. For more information about how to do this, refer to this Badges Knowledgebase article. Recognition not only motivates users to participate but also helps build a sense of community within the platform.
Design a scavenger hunt
Encourage users to explore different features of the intranet with a fun and interactive scavenger hunt. This activity can guide users to discover hidden “easter eggs” across various sections of the platform, or you can ask them to take screenshots of different parts of the intranet to send to you. The prize could be something as simple as a badge or points towards a gamified system, motivating users to learn more about the intranet’s features while having fun.
Share a video demo
Create a video walkthrough of the intranet to provide a clear and accessible guide for your team. The video can include:
- A guided tour of the homepage
- An overview of key features
- FAQs and top tips for navigation
For inspiration, refer to our Site Launch Templates Knowledgebase article here. This video can be recorded by your team or outsourced, offering a valuable resource for onboarding and ongoing reference.
Publish training content
Host short training sessions to focus on specific applications or functionalities with particular users/departments. These sessions can help users become comfortable with the system and address any immediate questions. For ideas on which applications to highlight and their sequence, consult our Site Launch Templates Knowledgebase article here.
Utilise Quiz (If you have our LMS)
If your organisation has access to the Learning Management System (LMS), you can create interactive quizzes to test users’ knowledge of the intranet. Quizzes can include multiple-choice questions on topics like:
- Navigating the homepage
- Locating specific documents
- Submitting forms or polls
Implement “User ranks” to gamify the system
There is a way to configure the system so that administrators can see who has logged in and used the intranet the most out of your users, via a manually configured ranking system. You can utilise this to boost engagement by configuring the platform to display user ranks based on activity levels, encouraging healthy competition and sustained participation. For more details, visit our Knowledgebase article here.
General feedback Surveys/Polls
Leverage the “Polls & Surveys” application to collect feedback from users. These tools allow you to:
- Identify areas where users may need additional training
- Gather questions or concerns about the intranet
Launching a survey after the initial rollout gives users a chance to share insights once they’ve explored the system. Use this feedback to plan future training sessions, create new demo videos, or make platform improvements. Acknowledging and implementing user suggestions will demonstrate your commitment to their experience and enhance overall satisfaction.
Conclusion
By implementing some of these strategies, you may be able to drive engagement, increase and ultimately ensure your intranet becomes a valuable and well-loved tool for your team. With a bit of customisation and creativity, our hope is that the full potential of your site can be realised.
