3 Important features of Intranets

I believe Intranet is one of the most neglected amongst any of the corporate initiatives. Have attempted to explain the role of intranets and what is its current state in my previous blog. As much as there many stumbling blogs to build a usable intranet, there are even more steep challenges in getting the users to adopt it. Not that it is not possible...

New Age Intranets

All great challenges can be addressed with a simple perspective change. Typical intranet is top down and  focuses on processes, work flow, monitor & control while the new age work force is living in web 2.0 era in which monitor and control style of leadership are archaic and might not cut ice... what works is creating opportunities for the individual to co-exist, collaborate and achieve individual success which in-turn adds up to organization success.So, move away from monitor and control to a new new route called empowering individual employee. How can this be achieved?

3 Features to Empower employees:

• Personal workspace: New age work force are high on self expression thanks to the exponential growth of social networks. Each user would like to create a personal workspace in their intranets,. This includes sharing of photos, creating personal themes, discuss topics of interest both personal and professional.It is more an opportunity for personal branding. The conventional intranets are mundane and boring. The this feature for personalization brings in a new lease of life in intranets.
• Documents with voice and Context: If the new age user has to use the intranet, it has be beyond document storage  and knowledge management. Typically knowledge management approach have always been from an organizations perspective. But if an employee has to gain , he should be able to access documents created in the past for his gains,be it for specific activities or strategy. More important, get to understand the context and opinion of the creator of what went right and what didn't...This will then be useful to the user than going through a boring ppt or word doc without a voice and context
• What makes me successful?  Usual organization processes are laid down to monitor and control. But with generation Y employees if a manager is able to connect by empowering the employee there is a better chance for individual to succeed. Imagine on Day 1 of joining, your boss gave you a prescription of  5 things that you need to do  in your job that will make you successful and what if he gave you access to all theses resources in the intranet. Such a progressive work culture is sure to breed success in any organization

3 simple steps is all it takes to ensure regular adoption and in-turn get the best out of your employees. Change your paradigm towards intranets and let's harness the power that it can yield!!!