Intranet Journal: IT Advisor

P.G. Daly's Intranet Talk :

What Happens When the Intranet Users Have Spoken?

"Ask and you shall receive" ...feedback that is. After over 18 months since the intranet was "officially rolled out", it was time to formally ask users if they were using the intranet or not and to find out what they found useful or useless as well as determine what would get them to use it more. In many ways, I was hoping that the feedback I got would help to confirm some of the issues already identified and give me some real data I could take back to management so I could basically say, "See, I'm not making this up. Can we now make some real changes?"

After much ado, I decided the best way to conduct the survey would be in-house and online (especially after getting some quotes from research vendors& wow!). So, I used a product called Survey Said® to conduct and analyze the survey right on the intranet itself. I e-mailed all employees (and that in and of itself was a monumental task since there is no easy way to actually e-mail all the employees of the company, go figure!) with a little blurb about the survey and a link that took them directly to the intranet to complete it. In the background, all their answers were written to a flat file database which the software then used to analyze the survey, create cross-tabs, graphs and other funky analyses.

When all was said and done, I ended up with about 650 respondents and about a 33% response rate which was very good based on the recent trend with other surveys at my company (maybe it was the incentive of a drawing for a DVD player that helped ;-)). Most importantly, it managed to get people who weren't even aware the intranet existed as well as people who very rarely use it to provide valuable feedback.

So, what did users have to say and what could I conclude from their responses? Well, overall, users seem to believe that using systems such as the intranet will help lead the company into its future. I believe even many of the users who cited that they have "no time" to use it would find it beneficial if management made the intranet a priority and users were made aware of the benefits of using it. Surprisingly, the majority of the responses came from geographically remote plant locations with the second largest group being from the Corporate Headquarters. This told me that company employees in the plants want to be involved in shaping the intranet (and they are not really involved today) and want to feel part of the larger whole of the organization.

Since the "technical IQ" of my company has always seemed below average, one question asked on the survey was, "How would you describe your PC abilities?". Over 80% rated themselves as self-sufficient or better. From this, I concluded that people tend to overrate their abilities at least a little or perhaps aren't even aware of their shortcomings (ignorance is bliss). For instance, I got several responses that said "I don't use it because I don't have access to it". Hmmm, well, maybe they didn't realize that there were completing the survey ON the intranet - thus were already there? Or the ever popular paragraphs of comments that pertained to the company's Internet site and not the intranet even thought they were completing an intranet survey. Part of the "Internet, intranet, Extranet, must all be the same thing syndrome". Suffice it to say, there were responses worthy of deep and full belly laughter scattered amidst the valuable feedback. Hopefully, though, with some guidance and user aids, users can become more educated and self-sufficient. Even though users rated themselves highly on PC ability and over 90% use their PC's on a daily basis, most only tend to use the intranet a few times a month. Therefore, part of the ongoing challenge is to make the intranet a part of their daily activities.

Although the majority of users indicated receiving some form of encouragement to use the intranet, over one-third feel they are not encouraged to use it. This confirmed for me the lack of active support from management that exists for the intranet. In addition, almost half of the respondents indicated that they were either unaware of the intranet or felt they were not properly trained on its usage. Many also voiced a concern that they are not aware of the benefits of using the intranet. In these areas - awareness, communication, and informal training, my group as well as each of the businesses have fallen short of the mark.

This is just some of the stronger feedback I received on the intranet as it exists today. What do users want to see? What would encourage them to use the intranet more often? And, most critical, what recommendations and actions do I have planned to address some of the biggest issues?

In my next column, I plan to continue my look at the survey and answer some of these key questions. Meanwhile, if you have any comments, suggestions, or stories of your own to share, drop me a line at paulag@enter.net.

The Author

P.G. Daly is Webmaster for the intranet of a large durable goods manufacturing company. In addition, P.G. writes for several online publications and does freelance web design and consulting. P.G. welcomes your feedback at paulag@enter.net .