2. Ensure experienced community management
Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 4:58 am
From director to researcher in Africa: people blogging
Several employees, including the hospital director, regularly blog on ReinierNet. These blogs are popular and lead to valuable discussions, regardless of where the blogger is located. Because it is also possible to connect from Africa. A specialist who was in Africa for research kept a blog about everything he experiences and does there. Hundreds of colleagues were happy to read about it and respond.
Lessons we learned
What went well?
1. Rapid implementation: maintaining momentum
Because we opted for a 'standard' product, the realization phase was relatively short. After signing the contract, we had a workable intranet within two weeks. This gave the project group and the first users the opportunity to gain knowledge of the system and its functionalities at an early stage.
Parallel to the design of the platform with content, we created the technical links (including Single Sign On and links with killer applications) and adapted the design to our house style. The first users were also trained. Through these parallel projects, we were able to go live completely within five months.
Doctor medicine online © pressmaster - Fotolia.com
2. Make end users complicit: gain support
From the very beginning, we directly involved the end users – nurses, doctors and staff members – in the project. On the one hand, this provided a lot of useful input. We learned what the social intranet could mean for the organization and how the platform could best be set up. On the other hand, it created a lot of support. By making the employees complicit in the success, they were also prepared to go the extra mile and work a bit harder to make the platform a success.
3. Allow non-work related content: more connectedness
The top management, a great supporter of the project, clearly indicated that besides the work-related subjects there was also room for leisure subjects. This led to the development of groups such as Reinier culinary, Reinier market and Sportief Reinier (see image).
Here, colleagues share information about hobbies and areas of interest. These groups demonstrably contributed to the effort to connect colleagues more with each other, but also worked as a threshold lowerer in the learning curve of employees. Some employees indicated that they did not necessarily want to log in for work-related information during the weekend. They were only too happy to log in to quickly look up that one tasty recipe or to offer a bike for sale.
What could have been better?
There are also a number of things that could have been better.
1. Pay close attention to middle management
We did not do this sufficiently in the beginning. When we started the project, the management and the work floor were very enthusiastic. There were sufficient resources (time & money) and sufficient enthusiasts to help. After two months we saw that a large number of groups did not progress.
When asked, we discovered that team leaders did not give their employees time to further set up and fill the intranet. The team leaders were busy with the day and did not immediately understand the added value of a social intranet. After a 'charm offensive' among team leaders, the project got back on track.
It was difficult to estimate in advance how the role of the comm armenia mobile phone number list unications department would change. The role of community management was new to the communications department. After the initial phase, a good implementation of it turned out to require much more than was available in terms of capacity and experience. For the communications department it was positive that, partly due to ReinierNet, the organization became increasingly capable of communicating 'itself'. As a result, communications advisors were given a more coaching role.
This does not, however, prevent colleagues from other departments from still asking the communications department to put what they consider to be 'important' news on ReinierNet. Old habits die slowly.
3. Make the intranet part of daily work
A large part of the employees has not yet included ReinierNet as a permanent part of their daily work. We especially miss people who do not work with a screen every day, or who only use a screen for patient information. One of the ways to involve this group is the possibility to also view ReinierNet at home on a PC, via a tablet or on a smartphone. The platform is fully responsive and works well on small screens.
From vision to practice
Our experiences with ReinierNet show how you can translate the vision of a hospital into practice. We have chosen to implement a social intranet, where people can actually connect with each other. By starting with an enthusiastic, good cross-section of the organization, we have succeeded in creating inspiring examples for everyone in the hospital.
Several employees, including the hospital director, regularly blog on ReinierNet. These blogs are popular and lead to valuable discussions, regardless of where the blogger is located. Because it is also possible to connect from Africa. A specialist who was in Africa for research kept a blog about everything he experiences and does there. Hundreds of colleagues were happy to read about it and respond.
Lessons we learned
What went well?
1. Rapid implementation: maintaining momentum
Because we opted for a 'standard' product, the realization phase was relatively short. After signing the contract, we had a workable intranet within two weeks. This gave the project group and the first users the opportunity to gain knowledge of the system and its functionalities at an early stage.
Parallel to the design of the platform with content, we created the technical links (including Single Sign On and links with killer applications) and adapted the design to our house style. The first users were also trained. Through these parallel projects, we were able to go live completely within five months.
Doctor medicine online © pressmaster - Fotolia.com
2. Make end users complicit: gain support
From the very beginning, we directly involved the end users – nurses, doctors and staff members – in the project. On the one hand, this provided a lot of useful input. We learned what the social intranet could mean for the organization and how the platform could best be set up. On the other hand, it created a lot of support. By making the employees complicit in the success, they were also prepared to go the extra mile and work a bit harder to make the platform a success.
3. Allow non-work related content: more connectedness
The top management, a great supporter of the project, clearly indicated that besides the work-related subjects there was also room for leisure subjects. This led to the development of groups such as Reinier culinary, Reinier market and Sportief Reinier (see image).
Here, colleagues share information about hobbies and areas of interest. These groups demonstrably contributed to the effort to connect colleagues more with each other, but also worked as a threshold lowerer in the learning curve of employees. Some employees indicated that they did not necessarily want to log in for work-related information during the weekend. They were only too happy to log in to quickly look up that one tasty recipe or to offer a bike for sale.
What could have been better?
There are also a number of things that could have been better.
1. Pay close attention to middle management
We did not do this sufficiently in the beginning. When we started the project, the management and the work floor were very enthusiastic. There were sufficient resources (time & money) and sufficient enthusiasts to help. After two months we saw that a large number of groups did not progress.
When asked, we discovered that team leaders did not give their employees time to further set up and fill the intranet. The team leaders were busy with the day and did not immediately understand the added value of a social intranet. After a 'charm offensive' among team leaders, the project got back on track.
It was difficult to estimate in advance how the role of the comm armenia mobile phone number list unications department would change. The role of community management was new to the communications department. After the initial phase, a good implementation of it turned out to require much more than was available in terms of capacity and experience. For the communications department it was positive that, partly due to ReinierNet, the organization became increasingly capable of communicating 'itself'. As a result, communications advisors were given a more coaching role.
This does not, however, prevent colleagues from other departments from still asking the communications department to put what they consider to be 'important' news on ReinierNet. Old habits die slowly.
3. Make the intranet part of daily work
A large part of the employees has not yet included ReinierNet as a permanent part of their daily work. We especially miss people who do not work with a screen every day, or who only use a screen for patient information. One of the ways to involve this group is the possibility to also view ReinierNet at home on a PC, via a tablet or on a smartphone. The platform is fully responsive and works well on small screens.
From vision to practice
Our experiences with ReinierNet show how you can translate the vision of a hospital into practice. We have chosen to implement a social intranet, where people can actually connect with each other. By starting with an enthusiastic, good cross-section of the organization, we have succeeded in creating inspiring examples for everyone in the hospital.