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Every organization has departments that reflect the specific nature of the business, and every organization also has operations that are common to all businesses. These operations are called "staff functions," and they are the departments that are not unique to the kind of business the organization is in, yet are required for the business to function. Every organization has to find and retain employees, train them, provide them with places to work, and pay them. In every organization, customers need to be billed and vendors need to be paid, books have to be kept, and documents need to be filed with appropriate agencies
agencies at every level. You'll recognize these functions by the following names:
Three staff functions-Human Resources, Training and Development, and Finance-have a very important common denominator: They have an impact on all employees across the organization's boundaries. Thus, their presence on the intranet can be of tremendous importance to employees (who need information) and to the departments themselves (to improve existing processes). Public Relations can provide information that is of great value to employees and that allows employees to represent the business in an informed and accurate manner.
Most staff functions are clearly evident on the home page of an intranet, as shown on Apple Computer's demonstration intranet site in Figure 9.1. (Apple has created a fictitious company, Acme Fruit & Nut, for its demo.)
In this chapter, we will review each function, looking first at the function's task in the organization, then in detail at how they can use an intranet strategically. Of course, these examples and applications are not designed to represent the be-all and end-all of what you can do on an intranet. Your organization's needs, existing systems, and the imagination you and your colleagues bring to the table will result in more and different solutions to a wider variety of issues.
We begin our exploration of staff functions with the department that can make the most use out of an intranet, and therefore occupies far and away most of the space dedicated to staff functions: Human Resources.
In most organizations, it makes sense for Human Resources to be one of the elements clearly identified on the intranet home page, the page that employees first see when they log onto the intranet.
In the broadest sense, the Human Resources department is charged with hiring and retaining the best possible workforce for the organization. Human Resources is also where employee policies are set. The specialties that reside in a typical Human Resources operation include five functions.
The benefits department assembles the benefits plans that the company offers to its employees. These plans are designed as incentives for prospective employees to join the company and for existing employees to stay. The benefits plans that are offered need to be balanced among a variety of factors, including the cost to the organization, what other companies are offering (both competitors and other companies in the geographic area), trends in benefit coverage, and analysis of the employee population. In addition to its responsibility for designing the plans, the benefits department facilitates the enrollment of employees into the plans and the administration of the benefits throughout the plan year.
Benefits plans come in two basic flavors: traditional and flexible. Flexible benefits are a far more complex scheme than traditional plans. Traditional plans offer simple coverage for each benefits component, with the company picking up the cost of each employee's coverage. "Flexible" benefits offer a variety of choices at different costs, with employees generally sharing a small percentage of the cost. Employees must select which plan best meets their needs based on cost, level of coverage, and a host of other factors. The companies provide each employee with an amount of flexible benefit "credits" they can spend on their benefits, representing the company's contribution. If they have credits remaining after getting all the benefit coverage they want, the balance often is returned to the employee's paycheck in after-tax dollars. If the employee buys more benefits than the credits cover, the employee pays for the rest out of his or her paycheck; some benefits are paid for with before-tax dollars, other with after-tax dollars, based on government tax rules.
Each benefit program offers benefits in several categories. The most common are:
Additionally, many organizations offer government-approved savings accounts. There are two kinds:
There are three components to a benefits enrollment, all of which can be made easier and more efficient on an intranet. These are:
These three elements, which traditionally are distinctly separate activities, can be consolidated under the single interface of the intranet Web so that they work in concert.
One of the most common applications to debut with an intranet is related to benefits. It's a natural, because benefits are often a confusing topic and one about which employees frequently need information. Making benefits information available on the intranet allows employees to quickly and easily find the information they need instead of having to call the benefits department.
Online benefits enrollment also solves a problem for benefits managers during the enrollment process. Benefits have grown so complex in recent years that employees-already faced with greater workloads and less discretionary time-have begun to take their benefits enrollment materials home to complete. Remember, employees are supposed to be aware of their benefits in order to develop an appreciation of their value so they will be more likely to stay with the company that matches competitive offers. If they do not take the time to understand the value of their benefits, they lose that retention element that is so important. By offering employees the ability to enroll painlessly-and even have some fun doing it-accountability for enrollment returns to the employee and that appreciation for the value of the package remains a viable retention tool.
Online information and enrollment via the intranet solves other problems, as well:
With so many advantages, converting enrollment to the intranet is a natural.
Finding the Benefits Site Employees can find the benefits department's site on the intranet through a variety of sources. The primary entry should be from the Human Resources home page, although a link can be established directly from the intranet home page during the enrollment period. Additionally, links should be established from any articles or announcements related to the enrollment process.
The Benefits home page should include each of the three major elements of the enrollment process-news and bulletins, benefits plan information, and the enrollment itself. Figure 9.2, from the Alexander & Alexander Consulting Group demo Human Resources intranet, offers a sample benefits home page.
The Enrollment Process The process of enrolling employees on the intranet begins with an awareness campaign. The complexity of the campaign is based on the degree to which the plan is undergoing change. A lot of change means that employees need to absorb a lot of information. Little change means there is less information to absorb. If there is any change-even to the pricing of the plan if not to the design of the benefits themselves-employees need to understand why the changes have been made and how those changes affect them. The most common means of developing that understanding is through the distribution of a series of bulletins.
Why a series? Because benefits information is complex and it is a subject with which most employees do not deal from day to day. Therefore, benefits communication specialists have found it is easier on employees if they receive information about changes in logical chunks dispensed over a period of time, allowing them to absorb categories of information. These categories can deal with such issues as changes to the plan, making a smooth transition to a new insurance carrier, and so on. The problem with distributing this information by paper is that employees often misplace one of the series and can't find the information when they need it.
The bulletins saved on the intranet help solve that problem. Employees can learn that a new bulletin has been posted through a simple, brief e-mail message that reads something like this:
"Flexible Benefits enrollment bulletin #2 has been posted to the Benefits site on the intranet. Bulletin #2 deals with the cost increase in benefits for 1997, and is must reading. You can find it at http://ourintranet.com/hr/benefits/bulletins/."
When employees visit the site, they will see the list of all bulletins that are currently available, as Alexander & Alexander's site shows in Figure 9.3.
Selecting one of the bulletins will present employees with a single page that identifies the bulletin's theme and its contents. The elements of this list of bulletin contents are each linked to the story they represent, and at the end of the article, the employee can click on a link that returns them to the table of contents, allowing the employee to select and read only those items in which he or she is interested without excessive scrolling in order to find those specific items. A typical bulletin, from the A&A demo intranet, is shown in Figure 9.4.
The second element of the enrollment process is the distribution of specific plan information that employees can use to make decisions about the plans and levels in which they will enroll. This, like the bulletins, is a link that employees can follow from the Benefits home page, or from other relevant locations on the intranet's Web. The home page lists all of the plans the employee will have available for enrollment, such as shown on A&A's demo site in Figure 9.5.
Selecting any of these benefits categories allows the employee quickly to drill for the information for which he or she might be looking, because links are always provided to help identify that information without having to page through a lot of irrelevant material. Figure 9.6 shows a sample information page from the A&A demo intranet.
Figure 9.6 : A sample benefits information page from the A&A demo intranet.
In addition to providing links to information, allowing employees to find details in a non-linear, non-hierarchical fashion, links also can provide quick access to definitions of confusing terms. In print materials, these terms often are presented as a glossary in the back of the book. Taking advantage of the glossary means constant flipping back and forth between the material and the definitions. With an intranet, an employee who doesn't know what a "deductible" is can click on the highlighted word and go straight to a definition. Once he or she has read the definition, using the back button will take return the user back to where he or she left off.
The final element of the enrollment-and the most complex from an intranet development standpoint-is the enrollment screen. This is essentially an interactive, online version of the enrollment form. A&A's demo enrollment form is shown in Figure 9.7, and Figure 9.8 shows the enrollment edit screen for one of the plans.
Figure 9.7 : Part of the benefits enrollment form on Alexander & Alexander's demo intranet.
Taking advantage of the capabilities of an intranet means adding functionality to the form that was never possible before. Some examples of intranet innovation applied to the form include:
When employees complete their enrollment choices, they can save their choices in order to think them over, then come back and make a few changes the next day. Or they can commit their elections; the option is shown in Figure 9.9.
When an employee commits a selection, the form is processed through a "consistency check." Any inconsistencies found at this time are returned to the employee in the form of hyperlinks. The kind of inconsistencies this check would find represents violations of plan rules that cannot be identified during a specific selection, such as the excessive contribution example noted above. For example, employees would be permitted to elect a medical plan for themselves and their family on the presumption that they will go into the dependent section of the form and add the dependents they want covered. However, if they commit their selections without adding any dependents, the consistency check will flag the inconsistency and alert the employees that they have to either add dependents or change their medical selection. Figure 9.10 is a sample inconsistency from A&A's demo intranet.
Figure 9.10: An employee is alerted.
An employee is alerted that she needs to make a change to her enrollment selections, and is provided with links to the enrollment edit screens where she makes those choices. When the enrollment is complete, the employees are presented with a screen that announces they have successfully enrolled. At this point, if their enrollment results in the need to complete and sign any forms, a list of forms (hyperlinked, of course, to online versions of the forms) is presented. As for the enrollment itself, some organizations accept digital signatures, in which case the employee is finished. Other organizations require a physical signature, and the enrollment ends when the employee prints out a copy of the confirmation statement, signs it, and returns it to the benefits department.
Digital signatures can be handled in a variety of ways. Some lawyers find a unique password is acceptable as a digital signature. At Apple Computer, they have taken it one step further, asking each employee to sign a card that will serve as their "signature-on-file" for all electronic transactions. Each form completed online is accompanied by legal disclaimer language that reminds the employee that they are authorizing the signature-on-file to stand in as their signature on this electronic form.
External Links for an Internal Enrollment One of the most frustrating parts of a benefits enrollment is encountered by employees who need to select a Primary Care Physician (PCP), the doctor they will see for all of their care. Lists of PCPs are published in book form by insurance carriers and distributed to employees whose companies use those carriers' plans. The information in those books is almost always out of date. An effective intranet enrollment incorporates the lists-searchable, of course, by zip Code, county, medical specialty, and doctor name-into the online enrollment process. This can be a painful chore, particularly if the data provided by the insurance company is as "dirty" as experience has shown it to be.
The insurance companies are themselves providing the solution, posting all of their networks on their own World Wide Web sites on the Internet. Employees can search for a PCP simply by clicking on a link to the home page of the appropriate carrier, making a selection, then returning to the intranet enrollment site where he or she can enter the name (or provider number) of the doctor selected.
Administration of the Enrollment Process So far, we have looked at the benefits enrollment from the employee's point of view. What about the benefits department employees responsible for administering the process? They can use the same front-end the employees do, with additional functionality built in that they see when they enter a password (or through some other authentication process). This screen allows them to add new employees, delete departing employees, and handle other requirements of the enrollment process.
One of the key issues of administration is the relationship between the data on the Web server and the data in the flexible benefits administration system. Because most flexible benefits administration systems are proprietary, they are not compatible with the way information has to be configured to work on a Web server. Thus, data needs to be exported from the administration system in a format that will work on the Web server (generally some sort of delimited ASCII file that can reside in a Web-compatible database, such as an SQL database), and then imported into the Web server database. You and the benefits department will need to make decisions about how frequently the data is passed back to the flex administration database, and how you will keep track of changes to records on that system.
A more elegant solution-but one that is infinitely more expensive and complex-is to abandon the proprietary administration system in favor of a database that is compatible with the Web server, and might even reside parallel to the server (such as an Oracle or Informix database). This could be a longer-term solution, one that you and your company can plan and build for while handling current benefit enrollment needs with the existing system.
401(k) Plans In addition to the benefits program, employees need to make regular choices about their company investment plan, the 401(k) plan. Here, employees need to enroll at the appropriate time, but they also have the ability to make changes in their plan. These changes include:
Companies can develop intranet capabilities for 401(k) plans, and should definitely provide plan information on the benefits site. However, many of the 401(k) administrators are creating the ability for such transactions on the World Wide Web, and it would be far easier simply to create a link from your company's 401(k) site to the administrator's site, where the employees would enter a Social Security number and a password in order to make any changes they desire.
Employees work primarily for a paycheck. The amount of that paycheck is up to the compensation department. These specialists determine the value of each job in the organization based on job descriptions; the salary ranges assigned to each position are based on competitive survey data and other factors the specialists study. The compensation department also handles the process for performance evaluations and merit increases, as well as bonus calculations.
The compensation department can take almost as much advantage of a Web site on the intranet as the benefits department can. Consider, for example, the process of performance evaluations. Each supervisor is responsible for conducting such evaluations for each employee who reports to him or her at least annually. Performance reviews are required for an employee to receive an annual merit increase (also known as a raise). Late performance reviews are a source of tremendous frustration to many employees, but because they are so time-consuming and form-intensive, many supervisors put them off as long as possible. Transferring the process to the Web can make the job much easier, leading to more timely completion of reviews.
Alexander & Alexander's demo intranet features such a review process, which is shown in Figure 9.11. Here, a supervisor completes his or her appraisal of each employee, then allows the employee to log into the system and review what the supervisor has read from his or her own desktop, adding his or her own comments for each category. At the end, the supervisor can review the employee's comments and then submit the form, which is sent directly into the compensation department's database, eliminating the need to re-enter information that already exists.
A variety of other compensation functions can be built into the intranet, including:
Each division of a company has at least one Human Resources generalist responsible for H.R. activities within the division. These individuals handle requisitions for new hires and new jobs, conflict resolution, organizational design issues (that is, how the boxes on the organization chart would best work), terminations, and layoffs.
A generalist section of the intranet can be a rich section, including the employee handbook, as suggested by Apple Computer's Acme Fruit & Nut employee handbook, from the Acme demo intranet (Figure 9.12).
The generalist site would also be an appropriate location for such online Human Resources information as:
Every organization needs to know who is working for them, where they work, where they live, and loads of other information. This information is kept in a computer system that, at its best, is able to interface with other systems (such as payroll). The system also needs to be fairly easy to update with new hires, terminations, and changes (such as a new address when an employee moves).
For this unit, the intranet can provide forms that allow employees to take accountability for their own information files.
Organizations routinely need to find new employees, whether to fill new positions or due to turnover. Recruiting the best employees-both in terms of their qualifications and their fit into the organization's culture- is the job of the Human Resources Department.
The recruiting or staffing department can play an active role on the intranet in two key ways:
One of the best ways to find new employees is to obtain referrals from current employees. Many organizations offer incentives for referring employees to the company. Not too many employees take advantage of the offer, though, because of the administrative hassle involved in finding the right form and submitting it. Putting the form online, and creating links from promotional materials, news articles and other sources will encourage more employees to pass along the name of an individual who could just be the inventor of the company's next million-dollar product!
Many companies require that new job openings be offered internally to existing employees before the job is opened up to external candidates. In an earlier chapter, I outlined the process employees have to go through in order to complete and submit a paper-based application. The employee can apply for the job via e-mail, using the e-mail link included in the job description. Other systems use online forms to apply for the job. In addition to streamlining the process of submitting a job, employees always have access to a current list rather than needing to access a master list (usually posted in multiple pages on company bulletin boards). On some intranets, the job postings are searchable based on a variety of parameters, including job title, department, location, and nature of work.
Training and Development is sometimes part of the Human Resources Department, sometimes part of another corporate staff, and sometimes a standalone function. For purposes of clarity, I have split it out as a separate function here. This department is responsible for ensuring that employees have access to the kinds of training courses and development resources they need. Employee training is necessary so that:
Training comes in many flavors. For some courses, the Training group needs to identify training available from outside sources, including private training institutes, local community colleges, and associations, to name a few. For others, it makes more sense to develop the training courses in-house. Some of those courses are taught by skilled employees, others by members of the Training staff, and still others by contract employees brought in specially for their skills and abilities in the subject area required for that particular course.
Training is one of the great benefits a company can offer an employee. In the downsizing era and its associated end to the notion of a guaranteed-for-life job, many companies offer comprehensive training opportunities as an enticement, since that training will help an employee in the future whether he or she stays with the company or not. Training also is necessary in order to prepare employees for new jobs as technology becomes more prevalent in the workplace.
Still, there are many inefficiencies in the area of training. These include the following:
The "development" side of the Training and Development Department can mean different things in different organizations. In most cases, it refers to training geared toward helping an employee develop leadership and personal skills as opposed to specific job-related skills. It also can mean providing access to resources-reading material, video and audio tapes, and other tools-that the employee can use to make various kinds of career-related decisions.
The most obvious application of the intranet for the Training and Development Department is the publication of training schedules, eliminating the need to print and distribute up-to-date calendars. That's the approach Apple Computer has taken on its Acme Fruit & Nut demo intranet, as shown in Figure 9.14.
The publication of a calendar, though, is just scratching the surface of the intranet's potential for training and development. Here are three more uses for an intranet.
Not all training needs to be conducted by an instructor in a classroom. On the Internet, universities are offering advanced degrees through online classrooms, and there is no reason this concept cannot be transferred to the business environment and an intranet. In fact, some organizations, like Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are doing just that. At Sandia, an employee seeking to be certified at a new level can determine if the training required for that certification is available online. If it is, the employees can launch the appropriate training module and study at their own pace, from their own desktop, when they have the time. When they feel ready, they can order the test delivered to their desktop from the Web server; the server sends random questions for that certification level, ensuring that no employee can simply copy the test and pass it out to friends-no two tests are ever the same. The employee gets instant feedback on the test. Correct answers are registered as correct, while an incorrect answer instantly generates a screen that shows the employee what the correct answer actually is. The test is scored on the fly. If the employee passes, he or she is notified instantly and appropriate notifications also are made to Human Resources and to the supervisor; he or she is immediately logged as certified at the new level. If the employee does not pass, they are informed when to take the test again and offered some assistance in terms of areas in which they need to log more study time.
Online training modules can be complex and rich in multimedia, or they can be simple HTML. A training module, for example, can begin with some narrative that explains a situation, then four buttons from which an employee can select, one for each of four possible actions the employee can take. Each choice has a consequence that leads to more choices, which lead to more choices. Following the path can result in a good resolution to the situation, or the employee can learn why certain choices do not lead to acceptable solutions. All that is required for a comprehensive training module that works this way is HTML with hyperlinks that branch off to the right pages; it can be accomplished without any code-writing at all!
The training modules designed for the Web also can be supplemented with links to reading lists or materials that have been archived on the Web. Links also can show other resources in the organization, such as lists of mentors who have offered to be available to help individuals studying certain topics (with links to their personal home pages or other relevant sites), as well as live training classes that can be offered.
Another model for online training is the virtual classroom, which is the approach the University of Phoenix has taken with its advanced degree program. Here, employees would sign up for a class and would be informed of dates that lecture material would be posted. They read the lecture (and any associated material that may be required), then move to a discussion forum where they can post questions for the lecturer. The nature of the discussion forum or newsgroup allows for an exchange between students and teacher-and among the students themselves-that is often richer than in a live classroom setting. The discussion continues until the next lecture and reading assignment is posted. (Homework can be assigned too, of course.) At the end of the class, a test can be administered, either in a classroom environment, on paper distributed through interoffice mail (or as a file attached to e-mail or as a paper test employees print directly from the intranet), or using a Web-based test.
The training calendar is only the beginning of the registration process on an intranet. Once employees have found a class to take, they can complete an online application. The information in the application can be dropped directly into the Training and Development Department's database, which can reside on its Web server. The server can determine if there is any room in the class and if the employee qualifies for that particular course, then return a confirmation or rejection directly to the employee's screen. The confirmation can include a list of pre-reading, a list of materials the employee needs to bring, and even directions (and a map) to the training facility (particularly if it is being held offsite). This is the type of system GTE has developed in its Texas-based operations.
Many universities and other institutions that provide training also are moving toward online enrollment. For those courses the employee needs to take from external resources, the Training and Development Department can offer links to the institutions offering the courses and to their online enrollment forms.
The big question for most employees remains, "What courses do I need to take?" At Cisco Systems, the intranet helps answer that question. Employees can follow a career path through a simple point-and-click interface on the company's extensive internal Web. For each career choice an employee makes on a graphically represented chart, the chart shows training that needs to be completed in order to advance to the next level; the chart also shows training that would be a good idea for the employee's own development along the line. Clicking on the courses takes the employee to additional information about that course.
Using a system such as this takes the guesswork out of training, allowing the employee to chart a path toward ultimate career goals. Clearly a lot of work is involved in developing paths for every career direction in the organization, but the payoff is a workforce in which every employee can direct his or her own training activities.
The Finance Department in a company, usually headed by a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), is responsible for anything to do with money in the organization. That runs a large gamut, including:
There are several Finance applications that transfer nicely and improve processes and solve problems. Since any information residing on company databases can be transferred between the database, the Web server, and the individual employee's desktop, the Web serves as an excellent interface for submitting various kinds of documents, including spreadsheets and calculations that previously had to be turned in on paper, diskette, or at best as a file e-mailed to the Finance Department. The intranet also provides the Finance Department with a vehicle for making detailed financial information-such as earnings reports-available to employees and managers in formats that make sense to those who can use the information.
The financial information produced by the Finance Department is of value to whoever needs it at the time. The Finance Department, though, generally distributes its information-even public documents such as those submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission-to a limited number of employees based on its understanding of who uses those numbers on a routine basis. In companies owned in part by employees (such as those with an Employee Stock Ownership Plan or ESOP), every employee may receive an annual report, but where is it three or seven months down the road when they need it?
The Finance Department can publish these documents on the intranet and ensure their availability to employees when they are needed, which is the approach Microsoft has taken with its demo intranet (at http://www.microsoft.com/msoffice/intranet/). Figure 9.15 shows a Finance home page on the fictitious Volcano company's intranet.
In addition to public documents, the Finance Department can publish various policies and procedures-such as how to submit a capital expenditure request-and make sure links to that information are created in appropriate places.
Completing expense report forms is often a time-consuming process, and the turnaround time can be horrendous as the document makes its way through the approval process and the accounting folks transfer information from the paper expense report document into the system. (This is a necessary step, since many of these expenses are tax-deductible and need to be incorporated into the system.) Only after all approvals have been obtained and information has been transferred into the system can accounting cut a reimbursement check for the employee. In some companies, this can take more than a month.
An intranet-based expense reporting system can cut that time considerably, and save a lot of manual labor on the part of the accounting staff. An employee can complete the online form and click the submit button, which automatically places the form in a queue and sends an e-mail message to the manager who needs to approve it. Appropriate receipts can be sent to the destination required by Finance in an envelope with a routing number assigned when the employee completes the expense report, so that receipts can easily be matched to the online report. The manager goes to the site to see the form and review it, a site that requires password authentication in order to gain access. If there are problems, the supervisor can note them and return the form to the employee. Upon approval, the manager can use a digital signature to sign off on the report, which either kicks it to the next approval level or sends it to accounting. Because the Web turns the information into appropriate fields of data, accounting can simply log the information into its database and cut the check.
In addition to the actual process of filing the form, the intranet can provide the employee with valuable information about how to ensure the expense report is accurately filled out in order to expedite processing. Including incorrect expense codes, for example, often can hold up an expense report, but if an employee can simply view a list of codes embedded in the form, that can help. If the employee still is uncertain which code applies to which expense, a list of code explanations-linked directly to the appropriate part of the form-can further reduce error.
Every department perceives its budget differently and no matter how much effort the Finance Department makes to standardize the process, department managers responsible for budgeting have a strong inclination to tweak spreadsheet formats and other information submission tools to match their perceptions. The intranet and some online tools that have been designed for the intranet can solve that problem, and others, including the need for every manager to own a spreadsheet application in order to complete the budgeting process. (In many companies, the Finance Department distributes formatted spreadsheet templates that managers load onto their computers in order to complete. This not only requires that managers have spreadsheet programs, but that they have a program compatible with the template the Finance Department has distributed.)
Java-the application programming language designed to function within Web pages-and plug-ins such as F1, enable the Finance Department to create spreadsheets that are hard-coded. When the budgeting process begins, each manager responsible for budgeting is advised that a budgeting form and spreadsheet is available at a specified URL. The managers log into that URL (using password authentication to ensure that it is a real manager providing these numbers), and completes the form to indicate the department they represent. Then they use the formatted spreadsheet that appears on the Web page to fill in the budget numbers. Because this is an application running as part of the Web page, there is no need for the managers to actually have Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 on their computer. When they are finished, they print a copy of the spreadsheet for themselves and submit the electronic version to Finance by clicking on the Submit button. The data are transferred directly into the Finance Department's database (or to a holding area on the Web server, from which it can be imported into the Finance Department's database).
When the budget review process has gone through a review phase, the managers can receive instructions on how much they need to cut (or, more rarely, how much they can add to) their budget. They pull up the same spreadsheet, make their revisions, indicate that this is the second pass, and submit it again. The process repeats until the budgeting process is over.
These requests are simple forms an employee fills out in order to request the company spend money on a capital item. (A capital item is a physical asset, anything from a new computer to a factory. Most Capital Expenditure Reports are required for expenses over a certain amount, like $5,000 or $50,000.) The report asks for a justification for the purchase, some math, and other information. This paper form could be converted to a Web form in which the Web server (or a Java applet) can handle the math and the information can be submitted directly to the appropriate database.
The Public Relations Department at most organizations has a simple-sounding charge: manage the organization's relationships with its various publics. Since there are diverse publics with different information needs, that can be a more complex task than it appears. Each audience has different information needs, and the audience's opinions, attitudes, and behaviors are influenced by different things. An organization would not, for example, want to communicate with a government regulatory agency the same way it communicates with the trade press. As public relations practitioners identify the various audiences, they also build a knowledge base of audience characteristics that help them strategize appropriate approaches the company can use to maintain an effective and mutually beneficial relationship with them.
By maintaining positive relations with these audiences, the company can avoid problems down the road, and identify issues of interest to the audiences before they become crises.
On an intranet, the Public Relations department can provide a variety of information to employees about the company's efforts to maintain positive relations with these audiences, and engage the employee audience in contributing to that effort. An overview of a Public Relations page from the Acme Fruit & Nut demo intranet appears in Figure 9.16.
One of the hazards a Public Relations Department faces is the potential for the media to obtain information directly from employees. Providing information that is readily accessible about what an employee should do if a reporter calls is an obvious use of an intranet. Other P.R. policies also can be articulated in this section, including appropriate use of company logos and trademarks.
The Public Relations Department can (and should) archive the press releases it distributes to outside sources for access by employees. It is important that employees see what the company is saying about various issues to outside audiences.
Speeches, like press releases, are a means of delivering information about the organization to external audiences. Employees should know what the company is saying, and the text (or audio) files of speeches by executives should be available-particularly those that address major changes and policy issues.
Both speeches and press releases can appear in an archive section, but key information contained in releases and speeches-notably breaking news that employees have not heard-should be listed on the main intranet home page so all employees see it; that is, it is news that should be pushed to employees rather than information available for employees to pull. Figure 9.1, the Acme Fruit & Nut home page, includes links to various departments, but also features the top news item of the day, the appointment of a new vice president. Employees will see that information whether or not they are specifically interested in it.
Public relations is most effective when it is practiced by all employees rather than just those who are paid to do it. This happens when all employees understand the company's issues and can articulate them to the public. Employees who passionately believe in the organization can represent the company well in public. Conversely, those who do not understand the issue can present the organization with a public relations problem. That was the case in the mid-1970s when most oil company employees were clueless about the causes of the oil shortage; the way they responded to inquiries from friends and neighbors exacerbated the situation. At one company, though, employees were informed routinely and regularly about the crisis, and portrayed it accurately and articulately in public. They formed a speaker's bureau and addressed organizations such as Kiwanis, Lions, and other community-based organizations. As a result, that one organization-ARCO-was perceived by the public to be less responsible for the crisis than others.
An intranet can perform a valuable service in aiding employees with information about issues so they can respond accurately and in an informed manner about the topic. These services can include:
Employees with access to such information convert the entire company into a public relations force. This is particularly useful during a focused crisis-anything from a political crisis such as the short-term Congressional focus on pharmaceutical prices to an oil spill. A special link from the intranet's primary home page can help employees quickly get to updates and other information about the crisis so they can remain informed.
About half the Employee Communications Departments in American business reside in the Public Relations Department, the other half in Human Resources. Wherever it is found, Employee Communications is responsible for ensuring employees are informed; that channels exist for communication in multiple directions; and that employees have the information they need in order for their behavior, opinions, and actions to be consistent with the needs of the organization.
The entire intranet is, at its core, an employee communications tool. Everything about it serves the internal communications function. We have already discussed several critical elements of Employee Communications, such as the chapter about putting publications online, and information about facilitating communication between departments using newsgroups, Web-based conferencing, and chat rooms. There are other elements of the intranet that serve Employee Communications, such as the responsibility that department would have for making sure key information is accessible directly from the intranet home page. Again, Figure 9.1-the Acme Fruit & Nut Company home page-is a great example, with the top news and key announcements listed on the home page.
At Silicon Graphics, in addition to these key links, Employee Communications maintains a narrow, horizontal display advertisement at the bottom of the home page; the ad changes every time an employee returns to the home page. Each ad highlights a different online article that is available in the Employee Communications segment of the intranet. First an employee sees a link to an article that profiles a department, then there's a link to a feature about a key executive, then there's a link to a story about the development of a new product line, next there's a link to an interview with a key customer, and so on.
These links all can go to a special Employee Communications section, such as the demo site shown in Figure 9.17, a company news section on the Alexander & Alexander demonstration intranet. However, unlike a publication, the intranet news can be archived in chronological order within each category, dated to show when it was posted. Links from other sites can lead directly to the appropriate stories, making the information accessible when employees want it rather than relying on employees to wander into the news section to scan it for anything that might be of interest.
The Legal Department, usually headed by a General Counsel, is responsible for ensuring that the organization complies with all laws and regulations, defends the company from legal accusations of wrongdoing (primarily lawsuits), and pursues those who illegally violate the law to the detriment of the organization The Legal Department would primarily use the intranet as a vehicle for disseminating information, including what to do when an employee becomes aware of a violation, either by a fellow employee or by an external source.
Information Technology (or Management Information Systems) is another staff function that can maintain a useful presence on the intranet. Here, IT can archive software that is available to employees, including patches and updates, for downloading to their own computers. Lists of frequently asked questions (FAQs) can be archived on Web pages for employees having difficulty with their systems, enabling them to try to diagnose their problems on their own first before calling an IT representative. And employees could schedule IT service calls through an interactive form rather than make a phone call to the department.
An intranet is the ideal tool for providing a vehicle to facilitate the relationship between employees and the various staff functions with which employees interact on a day-to-day business; it is the link between employees and the corporate entity for which they work. Human Resources leads the way in terms of departments that can take advantage of the intranet, but there is a role for the intranet with all corporate staff functions.
The intranet also can play a significant role in helping employees do their specific jobs. These operational applications of the intranet are the subject of Chapter 10.