October 28, 2012 at 21:29Corporate portal to help HR
The intranet, an internal corporate network of the company, provides unique opportunities for an HR specialist. It is an effective tool for creating the necessary corporate attributes, from the introduction of corporate standards to the management of information channels and business processes.
A special need for a portal is, as a rule, large organizations that have regional, and in some cases, international offices. But, unfortunately, not all the leaders of such companies are sure of this need. It was then that the difficult task for the HR specialist arises, how to convince the boss of the effective use of this tool.
In this article, I will describe the real experience of creating a corporate portal in a large holding company. This duty fell heavily on the shoulders of my colleague, who at that time was the director of the HR department. Due to some circumstances, we will not begin to disclose the name of the company, all of a sudden some of the respected readers will have to work there.
Peppy start
We omit that part of the description that is devoted to the goals, the choice of the portal, the stage of preparation and implementation, because in our article they play a secondary role. In exchange, I propose to dwell on “problematic” points, which in theory do not raise unnecessary questions, but in practice are difficult to achieve.
It is worth noting here that, based on the results of long discussions and approvals, it was decided to purchase a ready-made portal solution. It was a kind of designer with an intuitive interface, it allowed you to manage the internal portal without special programming knowledge and layout skills. In addition, it consisted of elements known to all Internet users - search, blogs, tags, social services, etc. As it turned out, these “social” principles are easily transferred to the corporate environment and help to work with information - to collect, structure, publish, edit, search, etc.
I would like to write, the work has begun to boil - the tool has been selected, the budget has been allocated - and here our enthusiasm was interrupted by the question of the general: “Are you sure that we need this. Prove it? " - and this is in a company where at that time there were more than five hundred employees only in the main office, not counting regional branches!
Economic justification
It is generally accepted that personnel officers only do that they spend money on companies. But not in this case, believe me. Therefore, having made a choice, my colleague began to prepare a “reinforced concrete” justification for his “venture”:
1. Saving working time:
• since all the information necessary for work will be accumulated on one resource, the cost of finding the data needed at a certain point in time will be reduced. Over time, this will accelerate the company's business processes;
• the risk of corporate information leakage due to employee communication on the intranet will be reduced, and the number of conflicts between employees will be significantly reduced;
• adaptation of beginners will take place in an accelerated mode - the need to find the right HR will disappear, all documentation (a list of documents for registration, an employment contract, a provision on vacation, bonuses, etc.) will be available on the internal resource.
2. Optimization of business processes:
• the corporate portal enables employees to simultaneously work on documents, due to which the company will significantly save in the speed of approval processes;
• horizontal connections between departments will become much more efficient and rally the team;
• the need for business trips with a geographically distributed company structure will disappear.
3. Improving the quality of management decisions:
• the results of the work of employees and departments will become transparent through joint discussion in working groups;
• employees will be able to find solutions to common business problems in the corporate library.
4. Improving the efficiency of employees:
• work experience will be accumulated and stored in the corporate library, and will also be reused and more efficiently within the company. As a result, the staff will be constantly trained and undergo vocational training.
5. Ensuring control and manageability:
• internal correspondence of employees will be under control, which will allow to avoid noisy discussions in the smoking room.
• Employment and lack of staff can be controlled;
• staff feedback will become faster and more efficient.
6. Business efficiency:
• the quality of the work and customer service of the company will increase and the company's competitiveness in the market will increase;
• the image of the company will rise in the eyes of employees, customers, partners and investors (all leading companies have their own corporate portal).
A structured presentation, convincing arguments and the necessary figures in the “Savings / Benefits” section became enough to approve the budget estimates and launch the project, which brought tangible dividends as a result.
“Money saved is money earned”
The corporate portal is a solution to save resources and increase employee productivity. Any organization that is following the right path of development measures cost savings. For employees, their working hours are money. If they spend less time finding information for work and other routine daily operations, therefore, they spend more time on the work itself.
By using the capabilities of the portal, each employee saves at least 5 minutes a day .... And now, calculate and compare how much it will cost to implement the portal, taking into account the savings of 5 minutes of working time for all employees per year! And if you think a little more, you can calculate the profitability from the implementation of this solution! Agree, a weighty argument in his favor!
A special need for a portal is, as a rule, large organizations that have regional, and in some cases, international offices. But, unfortunately, not all the leaders of such companies are sure of this need. It was then that the difficult task for the HR specialist arises, how to convince the boss of the effective use of this tool.
In this article, I will describe the real experience of creating a corporate portal in a large holding company. This duty fell heavily on the shoulders of my colleague, who at that time was the director of the HR department. Due to some circumstances, we will not begin to disclose the name of the company, all of a sudden some of the respected readers will have to work there.
Peppy start
We omit that part of the description that is devoted to the goals, the choice of the portal, the stage of preparation and implementation, because in our article they play a secondary role. In exchange, I propose to dwell on “problematic” points, which in theory do not raise unnecessary questions, but in practice are difficult to achieve.
It is worth noting here that, based on the results of long discussions and approvals, it was decided to purchase a ready-made portal solution. It was a kind of designer with an intuitive interface, it allowed you to manage the internal portal without special programming knowledge and layout skills. In addition, it consisted of elements known to all Internet users - search, blogs, tags, social services, etc. As it turned out, these “social” principles are easily transferred to the corporate environment and help to work with information - to collect, structure, publish, edit, search, etc.
I would like to write, the work has begun to boil - the tool has been selected, the budget has been allocated - and here our enthusiasm was interrupted by the question of the general: “Are you sure that we need this. Prove it? " - and this is in a company where at that time there were more than five hundred employees only in the main office, not counting regional branches!
Economic justification
It is generally accepted that personnel officers only do that they spend money on companies. But not in this case, believe me. Therefore, having made a choice, my colleague began to prepare a “reinforced concrete” justification for his “venture”:
1. Saving working time:
• since all the information necessary for work will be accumulated on one resource, the cost of finding the data needed at a certain point in time will be reduced. Over time, this will accelerate the company's business processes;
• the risk of corporate information leakage due to employee communication on the intranet will be reduced, and the number of conflicts between employees will be significantly reduced;
• adaptation of beginners will take place in an accelerated mode - the need to find the right HR will disappear, all documentation (a list of documents for registration, an employment contract, a provision on vacation, bonuses, etc.) will be available on the internal resource.
2. Optimization of business processes:
• the corporate portal enables employees to simultaneously work on documents, due to which the company will significantly save in the speed of approval processes;
• horizontal connections between departments will become much more efficient and rally the team;
• the need for business trips with a geographically distributed company structure will disappear.
3. Improving the quality of management decisions:
• the results of the work of employees and departments will become transparent through joint discussion in working groups;
• employees will be able to find solutions to common business problems in the corporate library.
4. Improving the efficiency of employees:
• work experience will be accumulated and stored in the corporate library, and will also be reused and more efficiently within the company. As a result, the staff will be constantly trained and undergo vocational training.
5. Ensuring control and manageability:
• internal correspondence of employees will be under control, which will allow to avoid noisy discussions in the smoking room.
• Employment and lack of staff can be controlled;
• staff feedback will become faster and more efficient.
6. Business efficiency:
• the quality of the work and customer service of the company will increase and the company's competitiveness in the market will increase;
• the image of the company will rise in the eyes of employees, customers, partners and investors (all leading companies have their own corporate portal).
A structured presentation, convincing arguments and the necessary figures in the “Savings / Benefits” section became enough to approve the budget estimates and launch the project, which brought tangible dividends as a result.
“Money saved is money earned”
The corporate portal is a solution to save resources and increase employee productivity. Any organization that is following the right path of development measures cost savings. For employees, their working hours are money. If they spend less time finding information for work and other routine daily operations, therefore, they spend more time on the work itself.
By using the capabilities of the portal, each employee saves at least 5 minutes a day .... And now, calculate and compare how much it will cost to implement the portal, taking into account the savings of 5 minutes of working time for all employees per year! And if you think a little more, you can calculate the profitability from the implementation of this solution! Agree, a weighty argument in his favor!