Common mistakes, tips and problems with SharePoint
SharePoint is a document storage and collaboration platform that can be configured as an Intranet - due to this flexibility, it’s easy to make mistakes, overload the content and give you workforce a poor experience.
These tips should help you avoid common pitfalls when creating or managing SharePoint as an Intranet.
Plan for search
In our personal lives, we’re used to having instant access to knowledge - and that usually starts with a web search. In businesses and organisations, content is hidden and hard to find.
Make sure:
Your content is structured well and longer content is broken down into multiple pages.
Includes tag and keywords that people may search for - if you have a page about Closed Circuit Television, include a tag for CCTV.
Don’t hide text in banners or pictures - SharePoint won’t be able to access these when searching.
When adding any new pages, ask yourself what would I search for to find this, and test it out.
In fact, Search is so important, in our employee platform, Engage we built our knowledgebase search to be just like Google, but for your business.
Don’t upload Word, PowerPoint, Excel or PDFs
Whilst it’s tempting to layout and design launch packs and guidance in PowerPoint, or create a PDF about a new policy or product launch, these don’t always work well for your employees.
These might look good on your large computer screen, but your workforce accesses your content from a variety of devices with small screens and devices that won’t have access to all of the features you’d expect. For example, PowerPoints opened on the iPad won’t be able to play embedded videos.
Additionally, search won’t always be able to find content hidden in these formats.
In Engage, we have different article layouts, so your content can be displayed in the best possible way, whilst keeping your content consistent and mobile-friendly for your workforce.
Keep it mobile-friendly
Your workforce will access your content from a variety of devices; make sure they can access it on their mobile and test how your content looks before publishing.
Depending on the nature of your workforce, even uploading videos in Portrait can be something to consider, to give content that informal, social media vibe.
This isn’t just your non-desk workers, more and more traditionally office-based workers are keeping on top of their comms and training on the go. When was the last time you checked your email whilst waiting in line for coffee, or read your internal newsletter on the train?
Our employee platform was built mobile-first with native iOS, Android and web apps, so, unlike SharePoint, it’ll always be available where your staff work - everywhere!
Off-grid & offline
All too often staff stop engaging with your content as they either have no VPN access, or connecting is complex, so they give up.
Ensuring your Intranet works where your staff want, not where you want, helps you reach more of your employees.
Better still, think about your users that may work, how does your Intranet load with a poor 3G connection, or no connection at all?
Recently, our Engage customers in Retail have been able to keep communicating and reskilling their workforce as they work from home, without access to corporate systems and VPNs.
Naming sections
Give everything meaningful names, there’s enough jargon in organisations and you don’t want new starters or existing colleagues getting confused.
Give each sub-section or hub on your SharePoint site a clear purpose and role.
That said, if there’s a good pun that makes sense… One energy provider calls their Intranet, The Volt.
Update content, don’t add
A common complaint former SharePoint users share with us is that whenever they need to find something, they’re presented with 10 copies of the same information where various people have uploaded it over the years. Often when searching, the most recent version doesn’t show first - spreading misinformation.
Before adding any new content, do a search to see if it already exists elsewhere and update or remove it where possible.
With Engage, we promote updating and replacing, taking away the worry of the same content in duplicate places.
Avoid “big bang” launches
Wanting to launch with a big bang can lead to poor behaviours, like copying old outdated content or uploading a load of old presentations in a bad format.
Take the time to launch with enough content that it serves the needs of your workforce, but not so much that you spend months preparing.
The wonderful thing about digital is your updates are available in realtime, so your Intranet continues to grow and improve, giving people a reason to keep coming back.
Governance
Set guidelines and governance over your Intranet, some Intranets become a free for all, some become neglected.
Consider:
Style, branding, categories and formatting.
Who can manage content - do you want ever team having to manage their own section?
Who should keep content reviewed and up to date?
Categorise for users, not for you
Categories are a helpful way for employees to discover content they don’t know about, and ideal for grouping common content together, however, try to limit these top a Top Level Category -> Sub Category.
As a content owner, it’s nice to keep your pages on the Intranet structured with lots of categories and nested categories, but, as an employee, you get lost navigating and will give up browsing.
In Engage, we allow Categories and Subcategories, but no further, making it really quick for employees to navigate content.
Take the time to learn
Due to the flexibility of SharePoint, using it as an Intranet often requires expert setup, and guidance on the best third-party apps to get it to do what you want.
Consider external support or subscribe to an online training tool like these courses on SharePoint from Lynda.com.
With Engage, if you can send an email, you can add content.
Don’t duplicate your LMS
Often, the content in your Intranet mirrors content in your Learning Management System, which leads to information being duplicated, mistakes being made, and updates forgotten.
Employees learn one thing when being onboarded, then find conflicting information once they navigate your Intranet.
Try to focus on one platform, but where needed, ensure you have processes in place to update content across your organisation.
In Engage, we let you extend your knowledgebase with microlearning, so you only have one set of content to update and staff always see the latest info.
