Social intranet for more job satisfaction and better care; HVO-Querido makes it happen

Thorough internal knowledge sharing and development, as HVO-Querido knows, is the first step towards external knowledge sharing and development. This allows leading services, sharing knowledge and expertise, to be provided to clients who desperately need it.

Leontien Kuip, communication advisor and project leader of the social intranet project at HVO-Querido: “Our organization consists of dedicated and committed employees who want to do the best they can for their clients. As an organization, it is our job to support our people in this as best we can. As we get better, so do our clients.”

Communication is key

So everything outside starts from the inside. Good internal communication is essential here. Because well-informed employees experience more job satisfaction, which contributes to more connection, sustainable employability and good care.

The organization has known for some time that an intranet can play an important role in the internal communication flow. “In addition to meetings, meetings and e-mail, the old intranet was already a prominent part of our internal communication. Especially for news and information. However, we were looking for a more facilitative and connecting function of our intranet. That could be implemented more strongly. Hvoquerinet, our new social platform, offers these opportunities, in line with our ambitions to be a knowledge organization.”

By, for and by HVO-Querido

Hvoquerinet was launched in the organization on October 5. From that moment on, all employees, around 1,500, worked with the new Hvoquerinet. Despite the limited opportunities for celebrations due to the coronavirus, still a joyful moment and a successful start! The project group owed this to a careful communication and adoption strategy.

“Perhaps the most important thing about adoption is the personal recommendation of a direct colleague. So we're using project staff, some other colleagues and a number of MT members as ambassadors.” In doing so, they ensured that information about the project and how Hvoquerinet worked was disseminated by the organization.

“In addition, certain choices were able to be tested by us as a project group against these representatives of our organization. This way, Hvoquerinet would really be for, for and by everyone, and we could be sure not to overlook things. After all, as a project group, we can figure out what's useful, but whether that's actually true is another matter.”

“We see that our employees want to use the platform. Not because we made that choice, but because they make it every day”

A good intranet (be) proves itself

The wish for a new intranet did not come out of thin air. The organization has long shown that it needs more connection and mutual interaction. Moreover, searching and finding information was not always easy on the old intranet. That could be better.

An important added value of Hvoquerinet therefore came in the form of an A-Z knowledge base. One page, with links at a glance and in alphabetical order to information pages about all topics within the organization. Demand-oriented and on a topic level. For example, there are pages about leave, experience expertise and corona, complete with documents, relevant links, knowledge holders and frequently asked questions and answers.
“A significant improvement in usability, findability and manageability compared to our old Sharepoint intranet. And for many people, a breath of fresh air compared to the old search-and-click work.”

Leontien wanted to convince the employees of HVO-Querido as little as possible of this added value. So no communication campaigns with big promises and elaborate arguments for using the new intranet.

“With Hvoquerinet, we wanted to respond as closely as possible to the wishes and needs of our employees, so that their working day would be smarter, more efficient and more fun. By thinking about this as a project group with the organization, we were able to facilitate them as optimally as possible with the platform. We see that our employees want to use the platform. Not because we made that choice, but because they make it every day.”

The connecting factor

Wanting to use starts with being able to use. The focus of the project was therefore the digital skills of employees, so that people who are less experienced in this area could also have an accessible connection. And employees who don't work with a computer all day, and therefore often, will log in to the mobile app.

We see that the early adopters are along, but something still needs to be done in terms of adoption. To also reach, serve and get other employees involved, HVO-Querido recruited a community manager as the first point of contact for HVOquerinet. “She supports our users with guides, smart tips & tricks and answers to questions. She also participates in team meetings. In addition, she remains focused on needs with regard to internal communication and information provision and will continuously try to connect the intranet to them. In addition, she ensures that the intranet remains clean and up to date, and that our comprehensive management plan is complied with.”

“We really see that our people find it a nice meeting place to talk to each other and exchange information. That alone is pure profit.”

What next?

The intranet has been part of HVO-Querido for less than six months now. “We really see that our people find it a nice meeting place to talk to each other and exchange information. That alone is pure profit. In the coming period, we will focus on even more adoption and sharpening our ambitions to be a knowledge organization. This means that we want to make knowledge and competences more transparent and discoverable. The implementation of the Knowledge Connector is likely to play an important role in this.”