Anette Wittenberg, IntraTeam.
The superlatives are pouring in to describe this year’s winner of the IntraTeam Prize. VELUX One is one of Denmark’s best intranets. In a few years, the team behind the success have managed to create an exemplary product.
The combination of a substantial background in IT and communication topped with a long presence in the intranet sphere make up a bubbly cocktail. Asked about the three most important ingredients in the recipe for intranet success, Helle Helgren and Christian Skjæran from Strategic Change and Communication point out:
- A decentralised starting point and local ownership are fundamental building blocks in a global organisation. Through a strong and dedicated network of community managers, the foundation has been laid for a user-friendly intranet.
- Backing from top management is crucial. “Our managers are 100% supportive and are active users of VELUX One and Yammer”, Helle says.
- An agile approach equals speed and flexibility. ”Agility has been important to our success. It has led to satisfactory intranet adoption and harmony in relation to the demands of the business”, says Christian.
More Success Criteria
In collaboration with key colleagues and the community managers network, one and a half full-time employee and two student workers are on the job. It is important that the people involved cover a broad range of competencies, they are accessible and can act as both technical and communicative feedback partners.
With a continuous flow of other agendas and projects in the organisation, it is a constant challenge to maintain priority and momentum for the intranet. “The object is to constantly have updated content. This does not happen automatically, so we keep the community managers up to the mark and show the value to the organisation”, Helle says.
VELUX and Microsoft 365
VELUX was among the initial brave ones to go plain vanilla – in this context meaning a platform without a vender product – on a Microsoft 365 not quite finished solution. There have been no regrets, and today they have a good and dynamic technical platform. The intranet appears to be intuitive and user-friendly containing much more than news. The information structure is based on hubs for each business unit, and they function as main sites with connections to associated sites.
Employees at VELUX have long ranked among the most active on Yammer in Denmark with more than 8,000 users and 1,000 groups with both professional and social content. They are also pioneers into “Yammer in production” which works well so far and is quite popular among production workers.
Community Managers Network
The network was established in 2015 and consists of app. 150 participants with different roles and workloads. From day one, the mandate was there to designate relevant people for the job. The intranet managers have succeeded in recruiting and developing an efficient and indispensable team with committed content providers who also have dialogues with their network colleagues on other issues.
There are three community roles: Community Managers, Editors and Ambassadors spending 5-10% of their time on the task. On the intranet, they have their own VELUX One Community.
The hub structure is central to the intranet, and Hub Editorial Boards support the ambition to ensure targeted, relevant and updated content. Each hub has a Hub Chief Editor.
VELUX One and the Near Future
With an all-time high validated score in IntraTeam’s intranet benchmark and a generally positive user survey, there is still room for improvement. A specific project is planned for this year within search and findability, and better use of HR data is needed in the effort to optimise personalisation and customisation. The information architecture is also up for revision following a recent and radical organisation change.
VELUX One and Covid-19
Also here, we cannot avoid mentioning the pandemic. Briefly speaking, VELUX One has proven its value under these challenging circumstances, and the appreciation for the utility value of the intranet and the digital workplace has really matured. The use of Teams is a given but interest in webinars is surging. In this context, credit also goes to the prize-winning adoption program called ”GET IT” with Frederik Zebitz in the lead.
The first step in the IntraTeam Prize process is filling in the benchmark model of IntraTeam. The answers are verified by IntraTeam in a half-day session after which the employees are asked to assess the quality of their intranet and digital workplace in a user survey.
In the benchmark survey VELUX achieves 71%; the highest validated score ever and far above the 23% average:
A 69% score in the user survey bears witness to thoroughly prepared and user focused content.
IntraTeam congratulates VELUX on winning the IntraTeamPrize 2021.