Intranets For Employee Communications

Learn how intranets and internal social enterprise communities can foster higher employee engagement and productivity to meet business goals. You’ll also gain insight into ways to handle the change and uncertainty of mergers, acquisitions, integrations, restructuring, cost-reduction initiatives and other business transformations.

You will leave this workshop with a deeper understanding of tools, tips and techniques to manage organizational change successfully, including how to:

• Tailor a communication plan to the uniqueness of the situation 
• Turn leaders into both communicators and change agents 
• Keep employees focused on business-as-usual AND up-to-date on possible change via intranets
• Replicate an employee ambassador model as an extension of your team and technology
• Implement low cost, high impact, online change communications 

Brian Justice, Principal
Brian Justice Strategic Communications

Whether your organization is looking to launch a new intranet project, or you are struggling with your existing intranet and seeking options for improvement -  this workshop is for you.

During this interactive workshop you will be tasked with developing a plan for intranet success. As a group you will discuss your intranet must-haves, existing challenges, and goals. Return to your office with a plan of action and the tools needed to:

• Build your business case
• Develop a plan for getting leaders to not just participate, but to engage and take ownership for collaboration
• Understand why adoption is the wrong metric – and build a plan for sustained team engagement
• Identify the content and data that is critical for engagement
• Assemble and engage a roadmap dream team

Geoff Ables, Managing Partner
Tricia Desso-Cox, Project Manager
C5Insight

One of the most frequent questions asked by employee communications teams is how to best get communications out to an audience that is already struggling with information overload?  The answer lies in user-centered design that is supported by an understanding of how people work, build relationships and behave within your workplace.  

Effective, powerful and engaging communications is more than ever about embracing approaches that recognize your employees’ ability, desire and motivation to absorb communications based on their context.  One example is that of designing for the need of an employee who spends most of their time on a mobile device – what formats are they more open to, and what might they need to know? 

This workshop is extremely valuable for anyone who is interested in innovative design approaches for employee communications, intranets and digital workplaces that allow the organization to stay aligned, make better decisions and pivot in today’s rapidly changing landscape.

Dive into topics such as:  

• Trends in user experience design for the digital workplace
• A persona spectrum for communications and other useful tools
• Case studies: UX Wins for Employee Communications
• Learn how to apply and practice different concepts

During this workshop you will be tasked with both individual and group exercises to bring techniques to life. Yo will also have a chance to ask questions and share insights for the benefit of the group based on participant mix.

Amy Yee, Director, Digital Strategy
Nonlinear Creations

Many failed intranets suffer from a similar problem — they reflect organizational structures and desires rather than the needs, goals, and contexts of their users. The design of most intranets are still from an “inside out” rather than “outside in” perspective. As a result, even newer “social intranets”, often don’t pull together the tools and content employees need to complete work processes. 

Take part in this interactive workshop and discover best practices and tactics needed to ensure a successful intranet that helps your employees – and your organization – achieve results, including:

• Gathering input from across a decentralized organization
• Centralizing a technology strategy in the face of a diversely owned and managed IT landscape
• Establishing a governance model that enables the businesses while empowering the brand
• Encouraging adoption through delivery excellence
• Perfecting the balance between collaboration, information sharing, knowledge management, and employee engagement 
• Planning for a phased adoption/roll-out

Cathy McKnight, Co-Founder/VP Consulting
Digital Clarity Group

  Allegiant’s population of Team Members is literally in the sky.  With the majority of their workforce being pilots and flight attendants, or away from their computers as mechanics and ground agents, they have had to be very flexible and creative with strategies to keep all employees engaged with their intranet.

See first-hand how Allegiant Air has continued to foster collaboration and engaged employees despite their physical location, including how to:

• Entice your employees to act quickly to the information posted on the intranet
• Engage employees across a broad spectrum of programs and announcements
• Encourage feedback from employees across the organization to express their opinions

Katy Campo, Manager of Culture & Engagement

Allegiant Air

Presbyterian Homes and Services wanted to get their first true intranet right, so they approached the planning and development for their 2015 intranet relaunch  with an engaged team – utilizing internal and external resources.

See first-hand how an outside-in approach can make your intranet a hub of productivity, including:

• Gathering input from across a decentralized organization
• Centralizing a technology strategy in the face of a diversely owned and managed IT landscape
• Establishing a governance model that enables the businesses while empowering the brand
• Encouraging adoption through delivery excellence
• Finding the right balance between collaboration, information sharing, knowledge management, and employee engagement 
• Planning for a phased adoption/roll-out

Randy Kirsch, Co-Head of IT, Director of Applications

Presbyterian Homes and Services

Cathy McNight, Co-Founder/VP Consulting

Digital Clarity Group

Hear first-hand best practices of organizations such as T-Mobile, Vertafore and the United States’ diplomatic mission to Mexico that have successfully completed an intranet overhaul. You will learn how to leverage modest resources – not everyone has a big budget -- to make major change within your organization.

This session will share tips on how to build support and momentum for your project, especially in an environment where there’s a limited appetite for technology and competition for resources. Gain an understanding of how a project can transform your organization and tips on how to make it last, including how to:

• Grow support and momentum for your project in an environment where there’s a limited appetite for technology and on a shoestring budget
• Build successful governance
• Change the culture of your organization and ensure the project takes flight and outlives you

Brad Meacham, Management Officer, U.S. Department of State

• Implement the 5 step LUCK Principle to equip your workforce with the ability to engage employees online and offline
• Identify the differences between standard business processes and relationship business processes
• Understand the steps for intranet development and evolution and lessons learned from the Wells Fargo process

Carole Millberg Windle, Executive Vice President

Wells Fargo

Geoff Ables, Managing Partner

This session will show you the  timeline of how the Zillow team received buy-in to create a useful intranet and provide you with practical tips to do the same, including how to:

• Lobby and receive-buy in from upper management to increase resources to update your existing intranet
• Capitalize on non-traditional communications methods excluding emails
• Create a strategy to layout your ideal intranet for your organization

Alison Paoli, Sr. Manager, Employee Communications

Zillow

Return to your office with these practical tips proven to work by Petco and use them as a launching pad for your own organization, including how to:

• Actively encourage your leaders to be engaged, and excited, about using internal social media
• Implement best practices for dispersed employee recognition & engagement
• Discover background information that will set you up for success

Daniel Sundin, Partner Communications Manager

Petco

Brian Duke, Senior Manager, Intranet SolutionsCorporate Communications and Public Relations

Thermo-Fisher

Margaret Cerilli, Senior Manager, Intranet & IC

Putnam Investments

Golda Akhgarnia, Sr. Manager Internal Communications

Jack in the Box

In today’s business world: we meet to talk about what we’re going to do, we go off in our vacuum, we create something, we come back to review, we get feedback, we debate, we revise, and ultimately create something that doesn’t hit the mark from all sides.

This is wildly inefficient and produces subpar results. Co-creation brings groups together to jointly produce a mutually valued outcome. Co-creation can be used with clients and agencies, companies and customers, between internal departments, basically any number multi disciplined teams looking to produce something.

This highly engaging workshop will provide you with exercises to get your mind moving. As a group, you will discuss the important aspects of how to bring people together to create fantastic outcomes within your organization, including:

• Knowing why and when you should co-create
• How to facilitate co-creation successfully
• What it takes to produce awesome work together that hits the mark from all angles

Pinaki Kathiari, Managing Partner

Local Wisdom 

 It’s not enough for an organization to create an intranet for their business related news. Meaningful content needs to be created to drive employees to the site and engage frequently. Intranets are valued by the content they house. Valuable, compelling and useful content drives employees to your intranet causing them to engage with it. Crafting the message is almost more important than the platform.

Learn how to communicate your message effectively by identifying your target audience, crafting the right message using the three C’s, and determining if your organization’s intranet is the best platform and part of a multi-channel approach.

Leave re-energized and inspired to develop content that your employees will want to read, including how to:

• Understand the most important thing in communicating out a message
• Identify communication tactics for specific audiences among your employees
• Ask yourself key questions needed before crafting a message
• Write thought provoking headlines

Brenda Velasco, Assistant Director of Public Relations and Internal Communications

Biola University

Steve Shultz, Assistant Vice President of Digital Media and Communications

First American Financial Corporation 

At Cisco, there were multiple platforms and communication methods that HR & upper level management were using to communication with employees. In September, 2015 it was agreed upon that the Cisco Employee Communications (CEC) would be the majority platform for employee communications moving forward. This meant that the IT & Internal Communication teams had to streamline processes that crossed over 6 platforms as well as change how the teams were set up.

Learn how this merger was accomplished and how you can successfully streamline processes over multiple platforms connect employees, including how to:

• Decide what soft-wares you want to move forward with
• Understand what tools and platforms make the most sense for your organization and employees
• Plan for what’s Next: collaboration, social, sales and more

Ellijah Lovejoy, IT Architect

Cisco

Scripps Health restructured, redesigned, and rebuilt its employee portal, InsideScripps.org. Live since the Fall of 2013, key strategies for the portal included applying a user-centered approach and engaging stakeholders and employees throughout the entire project lifecycle. By implementing a multi-tiered governance structure and organization-approved policies and procedures, Scripps empowered employees to continue to be involved in website operations through content generation and maintenance.

This session will provide you with key strategies and tactics  behind the benefit of multiple trained users creating content for your intranet, including:

• Implementing a transparent governance structure that will reinforce accountability and involvement through clearly defined roles, responsibilities and expectations
• Empowering and providing employees to post content across all sections of your intranet
• Generating website content that is more accurate, timely, and consistent
• Competing priorities and employee turnover

Robin Noble, Web Product Manager

Scripps Health