Under normal circumstances, when people are not sheltering in place, a successful intranet achieves all or some of these goals:
- informs employees of information they need to know
- provides easy access to tools, resources, and procedures
- offers collaboration capabilities
- communicates and supports leadership’s vision
- motivates employees
- acts as a single information source for the organization’s policies, benefits, and messages
In the wake of COVID-19, achieving these goals is of even higher importance, as the intranet becomes the employees’ lifeline to the organization and colleagues. Additionally, not to be minimized are the special user needs that the pandemic presents and the employees’ state of mind as they work under conditions that are:
- different from their previous work environments, processes, and tools
- often suboptimal compared to what they had
- disquieting or distressing because of change, substandard work conditions, frustration, fear of the unknown, illness, grief, or a myriad of other factors
Additionally, teams are challenged to work together in ways they never have before.
4 Types of COVID-19–Related Content on Intranets
To serve employees and the business in the current environment, intranet designers are guided by a demand for the following types of information:
- Health and benefits: helping employees get fundamental information about being and staying healthy
- Virtual-work help: giving employees easy access to the tools and information they need to work from home
- Work-process changes and guidance due to COVID-19: providing processes, information, and tools for how to work in the organizations’ recommended way and how to serve customers and the rest of the external audience as well as possible
- Connection and engagement opportunities: fostering the organization’s culture and values and supporting connection among coworkers
In addition, regardless of the type of content, intranet designers have found that essential to ensure light, fast-loading pages that keep graphics at a minimum to accommodate busy networks and slow page-load speeds.
Health and Benefits Information
Intranets are providing information related to physical and mental health and wellness, pay, time off, and other benefits and support. But they should also showcase the newest and most relevant information for the current situation. For example, normally an organization may ask employees to look to the CDC for information about staying healthy. However, today, intranet teams choose to post steps regarding staying physically and mentally healthy amidst COVID-19 because of the gravity of the situation and timeliness of information.
The actual material offered and how it’s prioritized depends greatly on:
- the organizations’ culture
- employees’ potential exposure to the virus
- exposure at the organizations’ location(s)
- the time and resources available to the intranet team
SORINT.lab, a digital technology consultancy in Italy, began its work-at-home period on 23 February, 2020. Soon after, as Italy began to see a high number of coronavirus cases, the intranet team began compiling, producing, and making COVID-19 information available.According to Andrea Forlani, UI expert & UX specialist at SORINT.lab, as of 14 April, 2020, when Italy was in the throes of the crisis, the company offered information to their employees about topics such as these:
- coronavirus
- hygienic measures
- psychological support
- Italian Red Cross
- Holiday, paid, and unpaid leave
- donations employees can make to help others
Energy company First Solar’s coronavirus-site homepage links to many helpful resources, plus stories related to staying healthy, whether working in a manufacturing plant, office, or home. Health-specific topics include:
- facemask use at the organization
- making sanitizer to meet safety needs
- keeping the manufacturing facility open
- videos of safety practices at the sites
- myth busting
- self-reporting symptoms or quarantine
- Coronavirus-tracking map
- CDC
- European Center for Disease Control
- International SOS
- Malaysia Ministry of Health
- Vietnam Ministry of Health
- World Health Organization (WHO)
The University of Arkansas System, Division of Agriculture (U of A), offers a Tips for productivity and emotional wellbeing section on its intranet.
At NIS Group, a Serbian-based energy company, the intranet team created a COVID-19 section of the site immediately after lockdown, with relevant news and information about the company and Serbia. Health-related content provided on the intranet includes:
- the number of new COVID-19 cases within the company, the number of cured cases, and the number of employees in self isolation
- the number of new cases in Serbia
- emergency contacts at the company
- contacts for healthcare institutions
- lists of measures taken by the company’s specific departments
- advice for safe work in the field and at home
- workout-at-home videos
- news related to Covid-19
Right: MassMutual’s intranet also includes content about how to practice social distancing, a reminder about a 24-hour health-information line, and telehealth services. While employees may have always had these benefits, it’s helpful to be reminded of them and have them at the ready in times of need. They show that the organization cares and is trying to help its employees.
Urgent information or critical actions that employees need to take are best relayed in a highly salient space, so organizations are taking advantage of designated “alert” spots on the intranet. For example, the intranet team of Cerner Corporation, a global health-technology company, leveraged targeted alerts functionality on the site to highlight key updates for impacted geographies. A bright red text box just below the main navigation in the intranet’s homepage targets messages by geography. A blue alert banner atop of the First Solar coronavirus-site homepage relays what employees should do if they have symptoms of COVID-19.
Virtual-Work Help
Intranets are giving employees easy access to tools for working effectively and securely from home. They also offer information and tips about how to work from home.
U of A’s intranet designers targeted staff unexperienced with virtual work and “added new calls to action and webpages on […] intranet, focused totally on educating our employees about telecommuting,” reported Amy Cole, Digital Media program manager at U of A.
“We had new policies and resources, as well as additional training resources for nontechnical employees who needed training on how to telecommute,” said Cole. For example, the team offers a Hump-Day Hacks program — a monthly technical training demoing software such as Box storage and Microsoft forms — and a weekly “Telecommuting Tuesdays — office hours (new for the virtual environment) where people ask the IT staff questions about how to best work remotely in their job.
Work-Process Changes and Guidance Due to COVID-19
Intranets are providing guidance about new work processes and about serving customers best under today’s circumstances. Some topics include:
- managing and leading people
- how to interact with coworkers in person
- working with customers
- how to deal with the public
- safety requirements and processes
The Goodwill Industries International (GII) intranet enables new processes at the organization, according to Sarah DiPasquale, Learning and Engagement manager. “Many Goodwill organizations transitioned from providing in-person services to virtual services so that important-mission service delivery could continue while facilities were closed or open with limited access,” she said. “The Mission and Partners page was designated as a page to house resources related to supporting team members while going virtual, conducting virtual case management, as well as effective practices for virtual facilitation.”
Working from home may provide a good opportunity for training. U of A converted its in-person courses to remote ones (using Zoom or Facebook Live) and expanded them with additional remote-work topics.
Working with people outside the organization is covered on the U of A’s intranet, as Cole reported: “We also added information they needed to disseminate to the public. (We are an organization that educates the public on health and wellness, as well as agriculture).”
In addition to topics like work from home and cyber security on the MassMutual intranet, some other work-related topics include:
- leading teams
- travel
- guests
- meetings and conferences
At First Solar, some of the work-related topics include:
- manager resources
- visitor screening
- social-media policy
Sorint.lab is known for following a particular Agile working method. Its intranet offers information about it and how to do it virtually.
Elabram Systems’ employees in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Philippines all use the company’s Workforce Management System (WMS), an attendance application that allows employees to record attendance at home and track their locations. Tracking individuals’ location with GPS is governed by country-specific regulations, and Elbram’s WMS app had to navigate these in order to create a useful yet law-abiding tool.
“We aim to make employees stay connected and productive even while working at home,” said M. Kenji Fadlin Azimi, IT Solution Manager at Elabram Systems. “This application helps HR and supervisors to monitor and make sure that the employees are staying at home and avoiding making contact outside the house. The application uses GPS to locate employees when they record attendance,” Azimi explained.
Connection and Engagement Opportunities
It’s important to make employees feel valued and give them opportunities to connect with the organization and their coworkers. Content about other employees and about what the organization is doing for employees, customers, or the world can boost morale. News and grounding messages that reflect organization’s culture and values can go a long way.
This connection and spirit can come in many forms. For example, the intranet at Cerner Corp. has:
- created and curated new communities on Yammer to help associates feel supported and connected during remote work
- offered a live stream of associate well-being resources, such as fitness classes and mental-health resources
Trainings like the afore-mentioned one offered at U of A are another way to keep people feeling connected to others at the organization.
NIS Group also offered various engagement elements on its intranet, such as:
- a video by the CEO
- a new company podcast
- interviews with experts
- stories about field workers in the new environment
- advice about how to have fun at home with children of different ages
- (employee-shared) suggestions for what to cook, read, watch
Light, Fast-Loading Pages
Reaching the intranet from places other than the office is no small feat at some organizations, as soMassMutual’s intranet links out to information on the public-facing website about how the company is working with customers during the pandemic. The crosslink connects employees to external messaging and information.
Recommendations for Intranet Teams Going Forward
Look for More Ways to Inform and Engage Employees
More ideas for engaging employees from intranet designers:
- Live video sessions with organization leaders
- Videos and stories of individuals and teams working
- Thank-you page to which anyone can contribute
- Thank-you note from leadership
- Letter of support to field workers from top management and employees
- Stories about employees in both internal and external media
- Joining forces to place people who have lost their job
- More, better collaboration tools:
- Grant permission to intranet sandboxes to allow for collaborative sessions for project teams remotely)
- Invest in online whiteboard and brainstorm tools (such as Mural or Invision)
- Online ergonomic training for the home office
- Better ways for managers to remotely track and connect with employees regularly
- Remote work-coaching sessions from people who work remotely (based on potential personality types)
- Better internet connectivity
- A prominent alert space for company-wide communications
- Highlight basic resources for employees (e.g., grocery locations, delivery companies)
- Offer anonymous communication with HR to ask for remote counseling sessions or on-demand therapists
- Offer more yoga and guided meditation or other sessions that help people mentally and physically deal with stress
- Provide volunteer opportunities, like supporting elderly company members with food, medicine, pet care, and so on
- Creative competition for children, to help employees with kids at home
Conduct User Research
The ideas and examples in this article may not be a perfect fit for dealing with COVID-19 at your organization. To find your special opportunities and needs, now would be a good time to do user research with your employees. Consider doing remote usability tests, interviews, and possibly surveys. Also, look at your site analytics and search logs, which could reveal unmet needs and desires.
When doing this research, remember that your research participants are employees. Heed this advice that I have always recommended to those researching anything in the digital workplace with employees as research participants:
- Ensure employees know the research is not a test of them, and they will not be evaluated in any way based on their performance in the research.
- Anonymize participants’ identity in all reporting of findings. Never share details about participants’ performance with their manager, colleagues, or friends. Research should not create or fuel any discontent.
- Share with users how their participation will assist in improving the system and that they will have a positive impact. Particularly today, this information might be motivational for those who want to help.
Also, under many circumstances, personas can help your team realize or remember what is driving, inspiring, or hindering employees. Consider creating personas specifically related to the needs, tasks, hurdles, and opportunities facing your employees now. If nothing else, a persona might remind you and your team that your colleagues may be working under very different conditions than you are.
Conclusion
We’re all searching for bright spots among the loss and suffering that people and organizations have and are yet to experience because of COVID-19. I would like to shine a light on the digital workplace and intranets that give people a sense of support, confidence, and connection. Helping people be safe, do work, be productive, and feel needed is so important today. Thank you to intranet teams who are designing with thoughtfulness, thoroughness, and accuracy of information.
You too can make your intranet a grounding, consistent information source during this pandemic, and turn constraints and needs into opportunities. Organizations like the ones in this article and others are making it happen. Companies that would otherwise not prioritize mental health-offerings for employees are doing it now. Leaders who had never made heart-felt, straight video messages to employees are making them now. Individuals who would never have been so bold as to share their solution with many others are taking the initiative. Offerings like group yoga classes that may have been considered niceties before are prioritized. And teams who thought it was impossible to be effective virtually are exceeding everyone’s expectations.
I would like to heartfully thank the intranet designers and organizations who shared their examples and allowed us to share them, in the hopes of helping other intranet teams during the pandemic and beyond. In addition to the people attributed in the article, thank you to Betsy Codding, head of Digital Communications at Mass Mutual; Amy Heisler, Global Internal Communications senior manager at First Solar; the Department for Internal Communications at NIS Group; and Tara Saylor, communications partner and intranet strategist at Cerner Corp.
See related article: How to Organize COVID-19 Information on Your Intranet.
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