West Midlands Combined Authority
Customer success case study
WMCA saw a 515% increase in intranet usage during lockdown, to help bring teams together
West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) comprising of 12 local authorities and 3 local enterprise partners, had seen a 515% increase in intranet usage across their 850+ employees during lockdowns. Utilising the available functionality of their Invotra intranet, WMCA kept employees safe, informed and connected during this difficult period.
Challenges
- Understanding the different reasons users were, or were not, engaging with the intranet.
- Research showed employees didn’t feel connected to senior leadership.
- Bringing teams across the combined authority up to speed on making the most out of the new intranet that is ‘light years ahead of the old one’. Functionality that could support organisational goals were not yet in use.
Goals
- To utilise all of the available functionality on the intranet to increase engagement.
- To break down barriers between senior management and employees.
- To encourage the intranet to be used as an easily accessible ‘one-stop shop’ for all the content and information.
- To use the intranet as a tool for data collection.
Solutions
A number of actions were taken by WMCA to support its users throughout COVID-19 and meet its organisational goals.
- Creating a COVID 19 tool kit on the intranet which is directly accessible on the home page.
- Turning on commenting to allow people to share, communicate and collaborate.
- Utilising polls to understand employee opinion and morale - particularly on initiatives, campaigns and well being.
- Regularly sharing video content on the intranet, increasing visibility with senior leadership and encouraging an open culture.
- A large increase in hosting guides, resources and information on the intranet that support staff in being able to self serve.
- Collaborating with government departments and other authorities on GOV.invotra (Invotra’s exclusive customer portal) to share best practice.
Results
Utilising Invotra’s functionality to drive the message of the intranet being the place to go for support, communication and information, WMCA have seen a 515% increase in intranet usage with page views increasing from 652 – 4015 over the last few months.
Employee feedback gained through channels such as polls has shown a surge in positive morale with staff expressing the barriers with senior leadership are now dissolving.
WMCA are fully utilising Invotra’s functionality to ensure employees now have access to all of the information, resources and collaborative channels they need in a single, easily accessible location.
I now believe that the intranet is the centre of our internal communications galaxy and our other channels rotate, revolve and orbit around it. We are physically distant, but we’re not socially distant – and the intranet means that we can still be socially connected. The intranet has really helped support our goals in terms of comms, data collecting and connecting our people together.
