Together, Cheri and Semra form half of the communication department at Stroomopwaarts and, with Semra at the forefront, they are responsible for SNOW's community management. Before the arrival of SNOW, Stroomopwaarts used a document management system as a static intranet, where communication was mainly from top to bottom. The switch to a social intranet was therefore a major change. Then it is very important that you get — and keep — your colleagues.
Indeed, for many organizations, it sometimes proves difficult to keep employees engaged after the implementation of the new social intranet. The duo was aware of this pitfall and therefore marked SNOW's one-year anniversary not only with this anniversary, but also on bringing the basics to the attention of their colleagues and collecting feedback from their colleagues. Combining the useful with the pleasant.
Back to the basics of the social intranet
Celebrating SNOW's one-year anniversary, Cheri and Semra spread out over an entire week, renamed SNOW Week. “We had written a news article declaring Snow Week,” says Semra, “and outlined what would happen that week, such as a nice treat at the office.”
In this anniversary week, they also paid attention every day to common “mistakes” they encountered in the past year. “For example, we asked, “Do you dare to post a timeline message?” and then, at the same time, we posted a message with “How to post a timeline message”. So we linked the fact to the poll. That's how we did a different topic every day,” Semra explains.
“We want to make it workable for everyone, both for the organization and for our colleagues, and our intranet should contribute to that.”
The human factor: peer feedback
The pair ended the week with a survey via the built-in forms tool, which they distributed via a news story. “That's really a great feature,” says Cheri. “You can incorporate the survey into a news story, with the option to have it completed anonymously.” By mainly asking multiple choice questions, the survey could be completed within a few minutes; people who wanted to say more could provide an explanation. This has been gratefully used.
This shows that they are already well on their way and there are still opportunities to further optimize their social intranet for their colleagues, for example, some find it a bit messy or that it is too much about private things. “That's what we'll talk about,” says Cheri, “because we want and can do something with that.” This input from colleagues is very important to them. “We are very good at coming up with what we think is good for the organization, but of course we have to meet the needs of our colleagues.”
The survey also found that there are colleagues who are trying to use SNOW for what it's not entirely intended. “Someone said he couldn't find the documents he needed on SNOW. That's not what SNOW is for either,” explains Cheri. After all, the social intranet of Stroomopwaarts serves as a place to connect colleagues and not as an archive for documents, even though this is possible with this software. “It's a good reminder for us that maybe we should explain again exactly what we use SNOW for.” Without the survey, this would probably not have come to light, so the ladies are happy to have collected feedback from their colleagues in this way.
The measurable factor: Analytics Pro
What people say is one thing; what they do is another. That's why Cheri and Semra also look at the statistics from the Analytics Pro module. It gives them a good idea of how to use SNOW, so that they can test it against the goals they have in mind with the platform. “We want to increase employee engagement,” says Semra. “We got into this quite freely and didn't set any KPIs in that sense. For us, it's about our social intranet connecting people and knowing how to find each other. That's the most important thing.”
At the time of measurement, SNOW has 671 users, 72 groups, just under 1,200 messages, and more than 2200 responses. Among other things, Cheri and Semra identified whether their colleagues watch SNOW daily (and if so, how many times a day), whether they consider keeping an eye on the timeline part of their work, and whether they find SNOW user-friendly. Message activities are also part of the puzzle: what percent of the users actively participate and what percent of the messages get comments, what percent likes?
So measuring is still knowing. Thanks to the figures from this finger on the pulse moment, Stroomopwaarts has a nice starting point, which they can use as a baseline measure for the next time.
If human work is being done anywhere, it is at Stroomopwaarts. The organization is active in Maassluis, Vlaardingen and Schiedam and has several social workshops there. For example, they help residents who are at a distance from the labor market and who could use a helping hand with, for example, a temporary income, guidance to paid work or integration. With 400 officials now spread across 7 locations, connection is extremely important for Stroomopwaarts. Communication advisor Cheri Kloeth and communication officer Semra Karaca from Stroomopwaarts explain how they used the one-year anniversary of their social intranet to further improve the platform.
From feedback and Analytics Pro to results
The survey results combine Cheri and Semra with information from Analytics Pro. By bringing human and measurable factors together, they get a more complete picture of how to use their social intranet. They had an infographic made of this, which serves as a starting point for evaluating SNOW and identifying areas for improvement. “We want to make it workable for everyone, both for the organization and for our colleagues, and it should contribute to that.”
That's why the combination of statistics and feedback is so powerful. Thanks to comparing concrete figures on one side and users' opinions on the other, Cheri and Semra can now properly test whether their intranet also meets the goals that Stroomopwaarts has set for it. This also helps them to see where they can make adjustments, in order to increase employee engagement even more.
Wil je Embrace liever van binnen bekijken?
Meer weten over dit onderwerp?
.webp)
