Schools and intranets have a shaky relationship, at best, Intranets have a reputation as being seen as old school, enterprise, boring, and clunky. Meanwhile, schools are a breeding ground for creativity, learning, growth, and progress. The contrast here is one of the main reasons why schools have a difficult time finding a way to engage teachers and staff in an intranet. Beyond that, most intranets are constructed for corporations and traditional business models. And while many of the needs are the same--centralized internal communications, information sharing, and connection--schools are unique in the variation of roles within them and the day-to-day schedules of the employees that run them.
A quick Google search will tell you that there is not much, if any, research around the success or failure of school intranets, let alone how to construct one in a way that suits the needs of its users and incites engagement and community. That is, until now. Happeo has surveyed and discussed intranet successes (and failures) with their education-base customers and unearthed some key data points in a new report about what works and, conversely, what does not. Here are some key findings:
- Teachers and staff want an intranet.
Many schools experience stagnancy in intranet adoption and engagement, but when we surveyed our education customers, we found that 97% of them visit their intranet site at minimum of once per week, and 67% at minimum of once daily. Teachers, staff, and leadership often find themselves dispersed across classrooms, offices, buildings, and campuses. They have a desire to stay connected to important news, updates, and announcements. So when schools can provide them with an intranet experience that is catered to their unique needs, it's natural for engagement to grow.
- Their roles vary, and so should their intranet experiences.
Teachers, support staff, and school leadership have days that look very different. Teachers are always on the go, with very little time to scroll an internal site for information. They need an intranet as agile as they are. Support staff sit in offices, oftentimes disparate from the hustle, bustle, and goings-on within the student and faculty body. They need a way to stay connected and also provide vital policy information and documents to their classroom counterparts. Leadership needs ways to oversee activity across locations and share top-level news and announcements. Based on our customer feedback, all three core roles use features in differing ways and frequencies. Overall, if a school intranet can't provide all of these things in one, its success will likely suffer.
- They need personality.
School spirit is typically seen and felt across all aspects of a school. From sporting events, bulletin boards, school merchandise, and the external school website, there is vibrancy and energy. If transitioning to an intranet feels as though you've stepped back in time a decade or two, schools may struggle to engage employees, let alone encourage them to share their own knowledge and updates. Education is all about progress, so having a modern intranet to match is vital for peak adoption.
- There are 3 stand out features that schools need to find intranet success.
Across all roles, the data showed very clearly that there are three keystone use cases that make up an active and engaging school intranet. First, users need precise internal communications. A poster with one-way announcements isn't enough. Staff and teachers need to be able to react, comment, and engage in two-way dialogue. Next, is the ability to find information in a centralized, reliable, and speedy manner. No more tracking down colleagues, or sifting through email hoping that that file is the most-recent version. Intranets need to mirror the same crisp, accurate search engine experience all modern consumers are accustomed to. Finally, school intranets must provide an optimized space for urgent and important real-time news and announcements that enable every employee to feel in-the-know and on top of it.
- Some use cases are less important.
Within traditional business intranets, social connection and onboarding (among others) are two principle use cases for an intranet, but schools are different. Onboarding for educators takes on a heavily in-person model, since teachers are rarely parked in front of a screen all day. Almost 60% of school leadership surveyed told us that their intranet has not improved onboarding, And since teachers and staff are so busy, they aren't finding the time to create content on intranets that isn't relevant to their work.
This data, and more, can found in the full report, which will be available on February 27th, when our own Happeo product expert and educational experts from C-Learning and Inspire Education Group sit down in a free webinar to discuss how to create a successful intranet experience for Google-run schools.
Join us for helpful insights and a free copy of the full 2024 Happeo Education Intranet Data Report for Google-Run Schools.
Register to reserve a spot now, here.
Why do schools often struggle to find success with traditional intranets?
Schools frequently struggle to engage teachers and staff with traditional intranets because these platforms have a reputation for being clunky, outdated, enterprise-focused, and boring. This creates a stark contrast with schools themselves, which are vibrant environments of learning, creativity, and progress. Furthermore, most standard intranets are designed specifically for corporate environments and traditional business structures rather than educational institutions. While schools share basic needs with businesses, such as a desire for centralised communications, they operate very differently in practice.
A primary issue is that educational staff have highly varied roles and schedules compared to corporate employees. For instance, teachers are constantly moving and rarely sit at a desk, meaning they cannot spend time scrolling through complex systems. When a school introduces an intranet that feels like stepping back in time by a decade or two, it fails to match the energetic spirit of the institution. This mismatch makes it incredibly difficult to encourage staff to share knowledge or adopt the platform.
Additionally, certain features that are crucial for businesses, such as digital onboarding and purely social connections, are far less effective in schools. Education relies heavily on in-person onboarding because of the active nature of teaching, with nearly sixty per cent of surveyed school leaders noting that their intranet did not improve onboarding processes. Consequently, generic business-centric intranets fail to gain traction in schools because they do not cater to the specific, practical day-to-day realities and fast-paced schedules of educators.
What are the key features that educational staff need from a school intranet?
Educational staff require three specific keystone features to find success with an intranet, starting with precise internal communications. Rather than relying on static, one-way announcement boards, teachers and school staff need a collaborative platform where they can actively react, comment, and engage in two-way dialogue. This level of interaction helps bridge the physical gap between staff members who are often scattered across different classrooms, buildings, and campuses, fostering a stronger sense of community.
The second essential feature is the ability to locate vital documents and policies quickly in a centralised and highly reliable repository. School staff can no longer afford to waste time tracking down colleagues in person or sifting through cluttered email inboxes hoping to find the most up-to-date version of a file. An effective school intranet must mirror the fast, crisp, and accurate search engine experience that modern consumers are accustomed to using in their daily lives.
Finally, school intranets must provide an optimised, dedicated space for urgent and important real-time news and announcements. This feature ensures that every employee, regardless of their location on campus, feels fully informed and connected to the wider institution. When these three features are combined within a modern, vibrant interface that reflects the school’s unique personality and spirit, intranets see massive adoption rates, with ninety-seven per cent of surveyed education customers visiting their site at least once a week.
How do different roles within a school utilise an intranet according to the data?
The data shows that different roles within a school utilise intranet features in highly distinct ways, meaning a one-size-fits-all approach will likely fail. Teachers, for example, are always on the move and have virtually no time to sit at a desk and scroll through internal pages. They need a highly agile intranet that delivers key updates quickly and efficiently, allowing them to stay informed between lessons without disrupting their teaching schedules.
In contrast, support staff are typically office-based and can feel disconnected from the daily hustle and bustle of classroom and student life. These employees use the intranet not only to stay connected to school activities but also to distribute vital policy documents, safety guidelines, and administrative updates to their teaching colleagues. Their needs centre around reliable document management and ensuring that accurate, up-to-date information is easily accessible to everyone who needs it.
Meanwhile, school leadership teams require features that allow them to oversee activities across multiple locations and campuses. They use the platform to share high-level announcements and ensure that there is a unified strategy across the entire institution. Because these three core roles interact with the platform in such diverse ways, a successful school intranet must seamlessly integrate all these different use cases. When an intranet successfully caters to these unique demands, adoption is incredibly high, with sixty-seven per cent of education staff visiting the portal at least once every single day.
