This week, HR Zone is running a major online survey into the use of corporate intranets. An intranet is an ‘in-house website’ often used to publish company news to staff. However, an increasing range of facilities and services are now being deployed onto intranets, including, for example:
- organisational procedures
- organisational guidelines and best practice
- employee forms, such as sickness and holiday records
- staff directories
- staff message areas and small classified ads from staff
- special offers from external companies.
As intranets become more sophisticated, some are developing into true B2E – business to employee – portal sites. In some instances, employees can customise the intranet interface to display the content of most interest to them. On others, employees can login to access their own records and personnel data with the company.
Some writers have argued that B2E models have a significant future in helping larger companies to retain and motivate their workforce and involve them more deeply in the company’s development.
Whatever you experience of corporate intranets – whether you already have one or not – it will only take a few minutes to complete the online survey and you’ll receive a copy of the results and a relevant background briefing paper. The survey runs until 31 August 2001.