Making Good Great

Achieving Engagement and Enthusiasm.

The differences between a good intranet and a great intranet might be subtle, but it is measurable as all 'great' intranets will share key characteristics and features.

When it comes to delivering Employee Engagement a great intranet will exceed its objectives because it has involved it's audience.

There are three things you can do to help your intranet perform to its optimum.


Seek feedback – regularly

Schedule frequent employee (user) surveys, but don’t restrict it to an electronic, intranet based survey. (If you have someone who doesn't use the intranet they won’t see the survey, so there’s small chance of them completing it.) Get out and have face to face meetings with the audience; individuals, user groups, departments, locations.

Be specific in the feedback you want, don't ask a general question such as "What do you think of the Intranet." Define your questions so that they are specific ~ you'll then get quality feedback that you can do something with. Ask questions like "What do you think of the design", "What do you think to the layout?", "How would you change the structure?", "Describe a time when you struggled to find what you needed."

But – don’t ask too many questions at the same time. See if you can pick 5 key questions.


Conduct Usability Testing - regularly.

Don’t assume it’s all going smoothly or because it works for you it works for all. If you designed it and structured it then you will know your way around it. Increase the objectivity of the exercise by involving others. For instance, if a new starter joins, sit with them to see how they use it and how it performs. Such an opportunity to see through fresh eyes and get a different perspective is invaluable. As far as is practically possible test new additions or enhancements amongst a control group before things go live to a wider audience. Spring clean your Intranet – fix or clean up dead links, edit jargon, check labels and tags are user friendly – understandable and useful.


Act on the feedback you got and the testing performed.

Simple.