The unexpected benefits of an excellent intranet

At Wellcome we have a good intranet.

In fact, according to the Nielsen Norman Group we have a fantastic intranet that ranks in the top 10 globally for 2020. (Massive brag!!)

The reasons that we won are well described in the Nielsen Norman report (https://www.nngroup.com/articles/intranet-design/). Fundamentally, we have put substantial effort into our intranet over a long period of time.

So, for those considering whether to invest in their own intranet, what are the benefits, and has it been worth it?

There are some obvious benefits…

Lots of people (98% of staff go to the site within any two-week period) read Trustnet (Wellcome’s intranet) and so senior leadership can be confident that information they want to share will be seen quickly and widely.

As well as high levels of reach, Trustnet has high levels of engagement, so senior leaders also get rapid feedback.

…and there are some not-so-obvious benefits

• Democratising input

Trustnet gives a voice to people whatever level they’re at in the organisation.

Lots of people in any organisation don’t get the opportunity to have a voice, either because they don’t feel confident to speak out or because they don’t get the opportunity.

With 40% of Wellcome staff contributing an article to Trustnet last year — and even more commenting — a lot of people have been given a voice who may not have had one.

• Supporting staff networks

Wellcome had staff networks before we had a good intranet. But Trustnet has allowed groups ranging from BAME, LGBQ+, Women of Wellcome, Religious Inclusiveness and many more to have a forum, a mouthpiece and an audience to spread and share ideas.

• Contributing to organisational culture

Trustnet isn’t the most beautiful bit of software in the world, but it is distinctively Wellcome. It looks and feels like the organisation we now are, and if we wanted to change direction in terms of culture, we would change the intranet too.

• Connecting people across departments

If you, like me, believe that the people in your organisation are the most powerful resource you have, then giving them opportunities to connect outside of their day job is really important.

Our intranet supports groups for a variety of interests from choirs to cats and from cycling to knitting. These groups help to build relationships across departments and help to start conversations that lead to innovations in how we work and what we work on.

• Something to be proud of

Several people have told me that when they are asked what they like about working at Wellcome, they say something along the lines of “this might be surprising, but we have a really great intranet”.

While I’m sure some of them say that to me purely to blow smoke up my …, from the reactions we’ve had to Trustnet winning this award, My Wellcome colleagues are genuinely proud of our intranet.

• Removing pressure on the main website

As Head of Digital, responsible for more than just Wellcome’s intranet, one side-effect of having a great intranet is that it takes the pressure off the organisation’s main external website and allows it to focus on doing what it should do.

What I mean by this is that before we had Trustnet, people used the main website as the place to talk about the work they do. Sometimes that is fine, but often it clutters the site with information that is of no interest to the majority of our users.

Now, nearly all work updates are put on the intranet and the external website is freed up to have a very clear focus. (There is a weird downside too, where people stop caring about writing content for the main website.)

As a foundation with an important mission, as well as a registered charity, making sure that money is well spent is very important. The investment in Trustnet has been worth it.

And the downsides?

If you build a really good intranet, people might spend too much time on it 😉