Why Social Matters on Employee Intranets

Editor’s Note: This is Web-only bonus coverage from “On the Same Page” in the July 2014 issue of CU Management.

There’s a temptation to regard the more social-media-like aspects of intranets as optional add-ons, not core functionalities. But a significant portion of the return on investment often comes from giving employees an opportunity to comment and collaborate on shared data.

There’s also a lot to be said for the employee satisfaction and community-building that the social aspects of an intranet can promote. Sharon Renaud, public relations specialist at $4.6 billion/300,000-member Delta Community Credit Union with 707 employees, Atlanta, hopes her CU’s newly redesigned intranet will help forge a closer connection between the organization’s 23 Atlanta-area branches and its three out-of-state locations.

“Our employees love seeing pictures of themselves and their colleagues,” she says. “People seem to be really pleased with the fact that we've added a carousel on the landing page that cycles through every two seconds with a new picture. It’s a goal of mine to include more pictures of the people at the out-of-state branches, because even though we work for Delta Airlines, we don’t get to travel to those branches very often. We hope we can make everyone feel included and part of the family.”

Duane Nicol, former manager of marketing and communication at $3.6 billion/110,000-member Assiniboine Credit Union, with 533 employees in Winnipeg, Manitoba, says employees of his CU really love their profiles for much the same reason.

“They’re able to put a face to a name—people they've communicated with by email for years, literally, but have never met or seen,” says Nicol, who recently left the CU to become chief  administrative officer for the city of Selkirk, Manitoba. “We made the profiles fun, asking some quirky questions about their personality or their preferences. We saw spontaneous conversations pop up about shared interests. They may work in different branches, but they're able to communicate about something they feel passionate about. It flattens the hierarchy and it shrinks the size of the organization.”

Assiniboine CU’s intranet also has a forum for announcing sales awards and giving customer service kudos. Awards used to be a solitary honor, conveyed by personal email, but they are now magnified many times over by peer recognition and congratulations.

“That’s a higher form of recognition than just a simple prize,” Nicol says. “It’s that team-building, that legend-telling. This is an example of how we're shaping our culture with this new intranet.”

Chris McGrath, co-founder of Thoughtfarmer www.thoughtfarmer.com, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Assiniboine CU’s intranet provider, says he sees a lot of non-work-related community building on his clients’ intranets. For example, employees at a credit union in New York used their Thoughtfarmer intranet to self-organize a flood relief effort in their community.

“That's not possible on a one-way intranet that's run more like a bulletin board,” says McGrath. “A social intranet is what credit unions come to us for. Credit unions really place a heavy emphasis, not just on helping their community, but on being good to their employees, right? And part of being good to your employees is recognizing that they're intelligent people who have good ideas to share. By giving them an online way to do it, it makes a statement about what kind of company they are. The act of having a social intranet says that we value you, we value your opinion, and we want to hear how you think we can make our credit union a better place.”

Jamie Swedberg is a freelance writer based in Athens, Ga.