© 2011 Towers Watson. All rights reserved.

Writing for the Intranet/Internet

Exploring Strategies for Effective Web-Based Communication

NYU School of Continuing and Professional StudiesPublic Relations Writing Seminar IIMarch 7, 2011

Barbara B. ZajacSenior ConsultantTowers Watson

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Today’s Discussion

Introductions Some about me, my background Some about you, what you hope to learn

today

Creating a great web site Set the stage – get grounded, define terms Tips, techniques Strategic objectives Context and alignment

Taking your site to the next level Engagement Web 2.0 and social media

Organization and structure Governance Support

What’s on your mind Questions Further discussion

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Introductions

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Introductions - about me

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Introductions - about you

• Your name• Your experience writing for the

web• What you hope to talk about and

learn tonight

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Creating a great web site

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Stage setting

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Internet / Web / Intranet / Portals

Users / Customers / Visitors / Employees

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The elements of a web site

Assessment

Benchmarking

Business case

Roadmap

Governance

Operating model

Staffing & resources

Content management

Metrics and measurement

Focus groups and user input/sensing

Interface design

Information architecture

Navigation

Usability

Taxonomy

Content creation

Awareness and promotion

Training

Graphic design

Platform development, configuration, maintenance and support

Product configuration

Product optimization

Hosting

PMO

Your Web Site

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Nuts and bolts

Let’s get to the basics of good web writing

The content-related roles you might play• Content developer/writer• Editor• Forum reader, reviewer, responder• Content aggregator

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Writing tips

Concise

Scannable

Brief

Descriptive

Teasers

Credible

“Marketese”

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Enterprise portals

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HR portals

Knowledge Base

SPDs ESS & MSS

Total Rewards

HR4HRCase Mgmt

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Key questions when evaluating web site usability

Usefulness/intrigue

Is there a compelling reason for me to visit the site?

Design

Does the home page capture my attention and interests?

Is the page organized or overwhelming?

Is there too much going on? Too much animation? Too many ads?

Navigation

Is it easy to find what I’m looking for?

Is the navigation easy to understand?

Is there a search?

Content

Is there information I can use on this site? Is it up to date?

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The layout design, content architecture and web site information work together to define the user experience

Visual Experience

(Layout Design)

Content Experience

(Website Information)

ideal user experience

Navigation Experience

(Content Architecture)

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Anatomy of an effective portal: strike the right balance

Tip: Create the right first impression

Page layout is not too cluttered or overwhelming

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Information is easy to scan,

providing effective

directional movement: Color

usage aids eye movement

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Appropriate emphasis on content and visual elements — main features attract the most attention

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Information is organized into discrete sections (sense of order — not chaotic)

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Reflects company “brand” and creates excitement and

engagement vs. sense of sameness; Colors reflect the

organization’s brand and culture

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Anatomy of an effective portal: engage them to keep them

Tip: Give users something of interest — and a reason to keep coming back

Provide a forum for leadership to have a dialogue with employees

2 Use ads sparingly to create the “pull” they require

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Create content and features that draws users to the site

3Feature the most important content where people see it first — and keep

it up to date

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Anatomy of an effective portal: make it easy to find things

Tip: Make sure your search is prominent and useful

Information is organized into how most

employees think about content/issues related to the company, their

work and themselves; Words and hierarchy of navigation are intuitive

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Robust search functionality is available on every page

2 Navigation is easy to find — looks like navigation

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Provide space for links employees use all the time; Recognizes differences in how people access information (life events, search, etc.)

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Anatomy of an effective portal: balance consistency with creating interest

Tip: Keep content fresh

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Subpages reflect the brand of the site yet are visually distinguished from the home page

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Present information from a viewer’s point of view; make sure content is appropriate and to the point (short), informative, understandable complete, and up-to-date

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Use of left hand navigation for subpages

Style and placement of navigation are treated

consistently throughout the site

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Let’s take a closer look

• Usability of portal on its own• Relationship to company’s

external site

When evaluating a company portal, consider:

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Taking your site to the next level

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Evolution of a portal

Intranet Value Added

Time/Experience

PublishingPublishing

Content presented on the web with static pages

Limited technical sophistication

Hundreds of separate sites competing for audiences

Decentralized

Little or no discipline

Not personalized

Content presented on the web with static pages

Limited technical sophistication

Hundreds of separate sites competing for audiences

Decentralized

Little or no discipline

Not personalized

InteractingInteracting

Introduction of web applications

Integration with transactional systems

Increased technical sophistication

Individual personalization

Increased centralization of control

More formal management processes

Introduction of web applications

Integration with transactional systems

Increased technical sophistication

Individual personalization

Increased centralization of control

More formal management processes

CollaboratingCollaborating

Combined transactions, content, workflow and role-based, dynamic web sites

Everyone contributes knowledge

Fundamental infrastructure and source for all data

Distinction between intranet, internet and extranet blur

Clear Portal Governance

Combined transactions, content, workflow and role-based, dynamic web sites

Everyone contributes knowledge

Fundamental infrastructure and source for all data

Distinction between intranet, internet and extranet blur

Clear Portal Governance

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The key to changing behavior is engagement

EngagementLow High

User Effort/Behavior

Low

High

ReadBookmark

Tag

Comment

Subscribe

Write/post

Share

Moderate

Lead

Respond

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Trends in consumer engagement: High performers set new directions

Using social networking to increase employee involvement

Percent High Performers Responding Doing/Will Do to a Great/Moderate Degree

Using blogs as a communication/connection tool

E-learning programs

Using social networks to impact employee health and well-being

24%

42%

55%

4%

11%

25%

Today

2012Source: Towers Watson 2010 Health Care Cost Survey.

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Web 2.0

H&R Block corporate site&

H&R Block Digits community site

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Nuts About Southwest Airlines

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Our goal with the new Nuts About Southwest [blog] remains to give our visitors the opportunity to take a look inside Southwest Airlines and to interact with us. This is as much your site as it is ours…

We want to build a personal relationship between our Team and you, and we need your participation. Everyone is encouraged to join in, and you don’t need to register to read, watch, or comment.

The Southwest Airlines Blog

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Reviewers Are Nuts About Southwest Blog

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Web 2.0 in corporate environment About Web 2.0

Wiki

Discussions

Profiles

Social networking

How they are making advances in the corporate world Onboarding – Candidate recruitment sites

Offboarding – Alumni and/or Retiree Sites

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If you have not implemented or

expanded the use of social media for

employee communication,

please indicate the reasons.

Limited staff/resources to implement social media

45%

Limited knowledge of social media 40%

Lack of IT support or technical capability 36%

Lack of CEO or senior management support

33%

Lack of employee access to online social media tools

32%

Lack of metrics to measure impact of social media

32%

Restrictions imposed by our legal department

19%

Barriers to using social media

Source: Towers Watson Communication ROI Study, 2009

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Quick Response (QR) CodesMerging print, web and mobile

Bring interactive functionality to your print communications

When a smart phone takes a picture of the QR code it can:

Send an employee to a website

Launch a video

QR codes are easy to use, easy to generate and are appearing in many marketing print communications

Leverage QR codes to:

Link a poster directly to a registration page for a benefit

Link a brochure to an educational video

Link it to a reminder for a date coming up to put a reminder in their calendar

Allow employees to share a promotion to Facebook or Twitter instantly

Many other creative options are available

For more about QR codes: http://tinyurl.com/qrcodereview

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QR Codes Applications

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Don’t try to do it all at once

1. Plan• Include social media in communication and IT strategy• Determine your goals for social media• Set policies by working with Legal

2. Prioritize • Choose one or two issues to focus on• Ensure that you are aligned with the business objectives

3. Pilot• Choose small groups to pilot launch• Listen to their feedback and make changes• Let them know that things will be dynamic• Think BIG, but start small and scale up

4. Deploy• Roll out to a larger audience• Encourage feedback (good and bad)• Be willing to change

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Organization and structure

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Main categories of work related to a portal

Strategy and Oversight

Strategy and Oversight

The intranet needs clear points of executive leadership and responsibility commensurate with its growing scale and business importance

Authoring and Publishing

Authoring and Publishing

Everyone in the company needs to understand their roles and responsibilities in providing content for the intranet, and some individuals will take on roles related to publishing/editing content

Design and DevelopmentDesign and

Development

Design and develop intranet sites that are easy to use, help people do their work efficiently and effectively, and leverage best practices and standards around the company

Support must be provided for the underlying technology infrastructure, intranet applications and for site content

SupportSupport

Content and Production

Content and Production

Ensure appropriate people can add, manage and control content so that it is in the right place at the right time. We also need to provide information management expertise to support authors and publishers

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Key elements of portal governance framework

Portal Strategy Portal Roles and Responsibilities

Portal Policies and Procedures

Governing Framework and

Principles

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Change staffing levels and deployment to supportnew requirements

Design enabling support function organizational model

Reengineer business processes

Define service level expectations

Redefine key jobs in organization

Enhance competencies of individuals

Create and nurture supportive work environment Support new ways of working, rewarding and recognizing Fully engage workforce in change effort

Redefine web architecture

Change and/or implement specific applications, sites etc.

Defining a portal support organization

StructureStructure

ProcessProcess PeoplePeople

CultureCulture

Portal SupportOrganization

TechnologyTechnology

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Case studies

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Towers Watson Case Study #1Maximizing SharePoint functionality for the enterprise

Case Study #1: Seeking Integrated Talent and Reward Management TechnologyOrganization Multi-national manufacturing and services provider

Business Issues Given the high visibility of the enterprise portal to every employee worldwide, the organization was concerned about its current deployment of SharePoint. Information was not structured optimally and there was lack of use. The client wanted to redesign the portal to drive increased use and improve user perception of existing SharePoint 2007 enterprise portal.

Our Solutions Our approach included a combination of portal strategy consulting and the deployment of a redesigned portal. Specific deliverables and activities included:

Create new design, layout and optimized information architecture and taxonomy of existing SharePoint 2007 platform

Develop and configure new designs, create new master page templates within existing SharePoint deployment

Rebuild and deploy existing SharePoint deployment based on best practices Implemented SSO to internal systems and external vendors

Results High acceptance of new design and usability Provided training to content owners on new templates Built out all SharePoint templates and components

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Towers Watson Case Study #2Creating collaboration for the HR function and delivering HR content globally

Organization Large Aerospace company

Business Issues The organization wanted to extend reach and increase user adoption by the employee population of its online HR content as well as create a resource center for the HR function to share information and experiences. In addition, the online experience must be simple and enable easy access from home since many employees do not access a desktop/laptop at work.

Our Solutions Our approach included a combination of portal strategy consulting and the deployment of a redesigned portal. Specific deliverables included:

Strategy for a new, engaging portal with consumer-grade content, design and navigation Enabled the client to update their own content via an integrated content management tool Built in feedback to maintain effectiveness Provide one-stop online location for all information, referrals, and access to services Created an area for HR functional leaders to blog and have HR function staff comment on

postings

Results Support cost savings and communication goals Redesigned user interface to improve end user adoption and enhance content value Performed a detailed portal inventory to assess content, level of key portal capabilities Successfully created opportunities for the HR function to collaborate Established a corporate governance framework and operating model to delineate ownership and

accountability, support highly decentralized content ownership and to limit proliferation of redundant content

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Towers Watson Case Study #3Rapid onboarding during M&A and ongoing new hires

Case Study #1: Seeking Integrated Talent and Reward Management TechnologyOrganization Large cable company

Business Issues Faced with the acquisition/assimilation of two workforces representing 12,000 employees due to M&A activities, the organization was looking for a solution for onboarding that would provide employees with an outstanding user experience as they acculturated into their new careers at the new organization. In addition, the organization expects to grow through acquisition and needs a tool that can be leveraged to support the assimilation of all acquisitions. Regular new hire onboarding is another 15,000 employees. Given this context, the organization faced the following challenges: Accuracy and timeliness – mass onboarding of 12,000 employees in 5 weeks Disjointed, autonomous operations, structures and solutions Current HRIS and recruiting systems could not provide appropriate functionality

Our Solutions Phase I: Creation of Onboarding Site which included: Pre-population with personal data received from acquired companies Integration with PeopleSoft and other vendor applications Ability to view benefit information and FAQs; submit e-forms including W-4, state tax forms, I-9tc. Background check and drug screening authorization/Integration Confirmation statements Administrator Tools for overriding employee information, call tracking, password resets, etc. Onboarding of 12,000 employees in 5 weeks

Phase 2: Leverage the framework for the acquisition to rollout the onboarding application for the regular new hire population 15,000+ employees annually

Results 99.9% of the 12,000 acquired employees went through our application seamlessly Exceeded client’s expectations with respect to timeliness, accuracy, and overall delivery The client views this as a transformational tool/project (33 divisions asking for this tool and

accepting standardization) A second small acquisition has been processed with the onboarding tool

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Questions?

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