Boosting productivity through a social intranet

The client

Fraport Slovenia is a company that operates Ljubljana Airport (LJU), central international airport of Slovenia. Airport operations require intensive communication among various departments, offices, and airfield workgroups. However, not all tasks can be conducted through formal channels and established protocols.

Here is where the intranet comes into play. With that said, the company’s hard-to-use legacy intranet was not up to the job. Moreover, it could not cope with the cultural change that has happened within the organization in recent years.

Challenge

The company needed a new communication hub that would speak to employees’ interests and needs reflecting the company values at the same time. Above all, it should

• Improve internal communication
• Improve productivity and collaboration
• Provide a primary source of company news, information, and knowledge
• Enable centralized knowledge and information management
• Improve employee morale and retention

What the management did not want is to waste resources on another tool only to realize that employees aren’t using it. How to ensure the new intranet will speak to employees’ interests and needs?

Approach

The company’s corporate communication department was tasked to deliver the solution. They knew the project success hinged on two main factors:

1. It had to be user-centric. The company managers knew they had to enroll employees early into the design process to ensure the product relevancy.
2. It should employ communication patterns that people feel familiar with. In other words, it should drive on established principles of social media like tagging, liking, sharing, and commenting.

Now the company needed someone to conduct the requirement gathering process and design the user experience according to social principles. They turned to Creatim.

Solution

To explore all aspects of business requirements, Creatim conducted several workshops, a survey, and interviews with employee representatives. Considering their inputs and specifics of airport business, we designed personalized user experience tailored to the needs of various departments and workgroups. Working hand in hand with the client’s IT department we aligned the coming solution with the company’s performance and security targets.

Overall it took us six months to deliver a custom-tailored solution that is

• Informative - It shows the most recent company news prominently on their homepage, enables quick access to frequently required information, and promotes knowledge sharing.
• User-friendly - no technical skill is required to use or manage the solution. Intuitive user experience ensures the learning curve is close to zero.
• Personalized - various access levels provide a tailored experience for different departments, from head offices to warehouse and airfield operatives.
• Engaging - by drawing on social media, the Intranet encourages employee responsiveness, knowledge sharing, and feedback.
• Connective - The solution embeds all the information sources and tools employees have already been accustomed to.
• Mobile friendly - tailored to airfield operations, the solution enables access from anywhere, anytime.
• Safe and secure - A robust firewall and SSL protocols ensure the intranet data and content stay within the company. A double-check identification protocol is automatically activated if access from an unauthorized device or outside of the company premises is required.

Results

Intranet, if done right, can bring many benefits to a company. However, these benefits - although obvious - are “soft” and difficult to quantify.

Nevertheless, the internet has changed the way Fraport Slovenia employees communicate and collaborate.

The social media-inspired user experience plays a vital role in project success. It encourages people to express their opinion and provide feedback, making them feel more part of the team. For the managers, this feedback is an important indicator of employee satisfaction, making it easier to intervene and offer an additional explanation of their decisions and plans if necessary.

We developed a great partnership with Creatim. Their commitment to understanding our business specifics reflects throughout our new intranet and in the positive feedback of our employees. Thanks to Creatim for understanding our needs and for being so supportive and creative!
Brigita Zorec, Head of Corporate Communications