Web Communications from the Inside Out
An organization's web presence is generally considered a marketing vehicle, used to communicate with outside audiences. But if that's all you're using your online presence for, then you're missing out on the incredible potential the web has to enhance internal communications and increase productivity within your own organization. More and more businesses are finding that through intranets, online collaboration tools, and other resources, they're able to improve how their teams communicate and as a result operate more effectively. This month we'll explore how organizations can leverage these web tools to create more efficient, team-oriented, productive organizations.
Intranets. Intranets have evolved in recent years in many of the same ways that the rest of the web has, creating new opportunities for social interactions within organizations and streamlining processes. Companies like Walmart and General Electric have implemented discussion forums and blogs into their intranets, and non-profit research group, Howard Hughes Medical Institute allows employees to customize their intranet homepages. Other organizations use intranets for employee enrichment opportunities such as offering online courses, demonstrations, or specialized industry resources. With so many opportunities available through intranets, the hard part can sometimes be getting employees to take advantage of new tools. SCANA Corporation, an energy-based holding company responded to this challenge by launching an internal marketing campaign for its intranet's new features, complete with cafeteria demos, posters, and e-mails blasts.
Collaboration Tools. Online collaboration tools can improve company performance by making it easier to work together from separate offices or while traveling, preventing versions of documents from becoming lost or confused, and keeping team members up-to-date on a project's status. Premium solutions like Workamajig and Basecamp are available in addition to free tools like Google Docs and Wave. According to a late 2009 report by Frost and Sullivan Research, companies that utilize collaborative technologies perform better than those that don't, and net a strong ROI on their investment. This can be attributed in part to the fact that the study found collaborative technologies help reduce employee stress, increasing productivity. Inc. Magazine recently found through an experiment of its own that free collaboration tools are often as useful as their enterprise counterparts, meaning that even organizations operating on small budgets can benefit from online collaboration resources.
Social Networks. Encouraging team members to participate in social networks can have big rewards for companies. For one thing, employee networking can create awareness and opportunities for your organization. Furthermore, a study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that organizations where employees have a strong social network are 7% more productive than organizations where employees lacked strong social networks. Some large companies like Adobe and EMC feature dozens of blogs on their websites, all written by employees, which increases employee engagement. And a study by the Corporate Leadership Council found that increasing engagement increases employee retention up to 87%. Small organizations can benefit by inviting employees to participate in their online communities as well by offering them the chance to contribute to a company blog or creating Twitter Lists of team members, linking to their personal accounts.
When evaluating your organization's web presence, it's essential to consider how your organization functions throughout the web eco-system and not just on a single site. Your company's complete web presence extends far beyond just your public-facing website, it includes secure areas for members and partners, intranets for employees, collaboration tools, search engine rakings, your team members' social networks and more. As the external web evolves and creates new marketing opportunities, it creates opportunities for improving internal communications as well, which should be taken into account when developing an overarching web strategy.
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