An organization’s intranet is the place where employees can go for trusted, published content. Over the last couple of years, as employees have moved to hybrid or fully remote, the intranet is increasingly important. Intranets is how workers stay informed about relevant happenings within the organization.
In 2019, the Kiefer team attempted to create a maturity model that would help organizations better understand their “modern workplace maturity”. Kiefer Modern Workplace Maturity Roadmap highlights common characteristics of organizations at both low and high maturity. When building the roadmap, we also considered observed and anticipated challenges at each level.
This tool has enabled us to have better conversations with clients about where they are today and where do they aspire to go. We ask questions to assess an organizations appetite and capacity to mature with specific tools that enable the modern workplace.
Here are the 5 levels of maturity for a modern intranet.
Level 1: Undirected
- Intranet is not seen as a valued tool to drive employee engagement and information sharing
- Intranet does not serve the purposes that are important to users
Challenges at Level 1:
- Lack of employee engagement from employees.
- Without 2-way dialogue, employees do not feel their voice is heard and feel disengaged with the organization
- Users do not find value in the current intranet solution
Level 2: Contained
- Certain departments are using an intranet to share information and collaborate, however, use of intranet is contained
Challenges at Level 2:
- Intranet tools and the user experience does not mirror user experiences on other sites
Level 3: Invested
- Reduced costs by retiring 3rd party intranet solutions
- Integration of various collaboration tools to build one cohesive intranet experience for users
- The intranet is designed with input from users and key stakeholders
Challenges at Level 3:
- User adoption
- Tools may need to be modified or customized
- Content audit may need to be performed to identify what information is out-of-date
Level 4: Strategic
- Engage employees by changing your intranet from monologue to dialogue
- Modernize work place intranet from a static
- More interactive features and a personalized experience
- Integration of hub-sites and team-sites
Challenges at Level 4:
- Team sites and collaboration sites have been adopted and use is prevalent, however, the organization seeks a more integrated user experience
- Intranet may need to be updated to improve user interface/user experience
Level 5: Pervasive
- Modernize work place intranet from a static portal to dynamic social portal
- Increase workforce productivity by leveraging new capabilities such as dynamic news, hub sites, and intelligent search
- Metrics to assess what content is being accessed
Challenges at Level 5:
- User adoption/Change management
- Organization stops using/supporting the intranet in favor of emerging/disruptive technologies
Kiefer Consulting has a strong modern workplace practice and deep expertise in modernizing intranets. If you’d like to learn more, see examples or discuss your vision, please contact us for a free consultation.