Increase your 'Intranet Health Score': 25 Proven Tips for a Successful Intranet

Raising your "Intranet Health Score"? In this blog, we give you 25 proven tips for a successful intranet. At Plek, we want to continuously help our customers make their intranets even better. That's why we've developed the 'Intranet Health Score'.

This relative score, which ranges from 0 to 100, is based on five key elements: 'Reach', 'Visit', 'Read', 'Contribution' and 'Interact'. If you have a high Health Score as an organization, then you are doing relatively well. If you have a low Health Score, then you are not doing so well, and it means there is room for improvement.

What does the "Intranet Health Score" entail?

The 'Intranet Health Score' is a score that gives you an indication of how well you are using Plek compared to other Plek customers, and shows you where there are opportunities to improve. You can also see over time if you are improving. With over 350 customers in different sectors, this score provides a relevant comparison and allows you to compare your performance with similar organisations in your sector (or companies of similar size). Based on your scores, we give you an advice with specific improvements.

These five elements make up the "Intranet Health Score.

• Reach: This measures how many people actually use the intranet. A wide reach ensures that your messages and information reach a wider audience.
• Visit: This metric measures how often the intranet is visited. Regular visits indicate an intranet is an integral part of daily operations.
• Read: This measures how well messages are read and understood. Well-read and understood messages improve communication and reduce misunderstandings.
• Contribution: This measures how much is contributed by users. Active contributions lead to a vibrant and engaged intranet.
• Interact: This measures how much interaction takes place between users. Interaction promotes collaboration and team spirit.

The Power of Differences: Improvement and Learning Together

At Plek, we've noticed that "Intranet Health Scores" can vary widely amongst organisations. This is not bad news; on the contrary, it provides opportunities for improvement and shared learning. Let's take an example to illustrate this. Imagine Customer 1 has a 'Health Score' of 67. See the figure below:

This is significantly higher than the average of all our clients, and also higher than other organisations in the same sector or of similar size. Upon closer inspection, we see that 'Visit', 'Read' and 'Interact' score well. At first glance, the biggest areas for improvement lie within 'Reach' and 'Contribute'. Later in this blog we provide some best practices for these categories.

However, if we zoom in deeper and compare Client 1 with other organisations in the same sector, we see a more nuanced picture:

For example, Customers 2, 3 and 16 score slightly higher on 'Reach,' but the difference is minimal. There are also customers who score higher on 'Contribute,' but again the difference is not great. So the question is how much improvement is possible in these categories, taking into account industry-specific factors. Interestingly, there are clients who score higher on 'Read' and 'Interact,' the categories in which Client 1 is already strong. Of course, Plek has insight into these best practices and we are happy to share this knowledge with you.

Conclusion: So it seems that the biggest gains for Customer 1 lie in further strengthening what is already going well. That gives a nuanced picture to arrive at an improvement plan.

Finally, at Plek, we believe that learning together and sharing experiences are important. Therefore, if required, we bring together clients who are similar to each other. This way they can learn from each other. These can be companies that do the same type of work, or companies that are the same size. Because we want to help you get the most out of Plek.

25 Proven Tips for a Better Intranet

To get you started, we've gathered some best practices that have been proven to work in practice to improve your Reach, Visit, Read, Contribution and Interaction.

Reach

• Communicate clearly the benefits and functionalities of the intranet.
• Offer training to optimize the use of the intranet.
• Ensure accessibility across devices and locations.
• Integrate the intranet into the onboarding process of new employees.
• Keep content fresh and relevant.
• Make smart use of notifications to trigger users.
• Get users to adopt both desktop and mobile app versions for greater reach.

Visit

• Create engaging content that is relevant and interesting.
• Make the intranet user-friendly and intuitive.
• Keep the intranet up-to-date to encourage repeat visits.
• Integrate the intranet into daily work processes.
• Solicit feedback to improve the intranet.
• Use the intranet for other purposes as well. Consider onboarding, learning and employee satisfaction surveys, so users have multiple motives to visit it.

Read

• Keep messages clear and concise.
• Use visual elements to make complex information more understandable.
• Ensure relevance in your content.
• Use headings and bullet points for clarity.
• Offer interactive content, such as quizzes and polls.
• Make a clear distinction between important and less important news.

Contribute

• Encourage contributions and value your contributors' input.
• Make contributions easy: The easier it is to post or share something, the more people will do so.
• Offer training: Demonstrate how easy it is to contribute.
• Provide clear guidelines: That way your employees know what is expected of them.
• Ask for contributions: A direct request to share knowledge or experiences can work wonders.

Interact

• Create interactive spaces: You can encourage interaction with forums, chat rooms or project groups.
• Encourage interaction: Encourage discussions and respond to posts.
• Respond to interactions: Show that you value your employees' input.
• Organize online events: For example, webinars or Q&A sessions can encourage interaction.
• Use gamification: Points, badges or leaderboards can make using the intranet more fun and challenging.

If you are considering choosing Plek as your social intranet partner, rest assured that we will support you every step of the way. We look forward to working with you to build a strong, effective intranet. With the "Intranet Health Score" and our proven tips, you'll be well equipped to take your intranet to the next level.

Discover the benefits of intranet yourself? Check out the free tour, and discover the secret of social intranet.