When it comes to internal communications, there are a wide range of scenarios organisational leaders may find themselves in. A business may have identified it needs to streamline its information and document management and is in the process of developing an intranet. Other businesses may have an intranet, but it's unclear who the owner is or what the internal engagement strategy is. Or other businesses may be maximising the use of their intranet and internal engagement is thriving. No matter the scenario, a best practice approach will include an Intranet Policy. A policy will not only ensure that the intranet as a valuable tool is visible at Board level, it will also ensure a range of benefits to the business. This short slide deck is structured like a handout (some slides are too text heavy to put up on a screen) and will help leaders develop a high level view of what a best practice Intranet Policy should generally include. Let me know if you find this useful or would like to discuss further. Find out more at https://filament.digital

1. Developing a best
practice intranet policy
By Jeremy Balius
www.JeremyBalius.com
@JeremyBalius

2. Agenda
• What’s it for
• How to approach
• Framework and structure
• Guidelines and processes
• Roles and responsibilities
• Related documents
• Ownership and review
• Publish and communicate
@JeremyBalius 2

3. What’s the intranet policy for?
• Ensures best practice governance
• Infuses a common understanding of your
intranet’s purpose
• Guides all intranet users in the ongoing
use and maintenance of the intranet
• Provides a framework for how needs are
identified, how decisions are made and
how changes are implemented
• Ascribes responsibilities and mitigates
risks
@JeremyBalius 3

4. How to approach
1. No one-size-fits-all solution – what does your organisation
and stakeholder audiences need?
2. Focus on accessibility and usability
3. Define purpose and scope of intranet and intranet policy
4. Ensure all policy applies to all materials published on the
intranet, including any third party materials that may be
hosted on the intranet domain
5. Communicate that all site owners and site publishers must
comply with this policy and associated guidelines. This
includes all staff and contractors who are authorised to
publish to submit content for approval and publication to
the intranet
@JeremyBalius 4

5. Framework and structure
• Outline overall approach to structuring content
around staff (define common personas if
possible)
• Is navigation intuitive?
• Don’t just replicate divisional structure of the
organisation – focus on what staff need
• Determine if different teams and divisions will
be high touch with intranet
• If multiple news channels throughout intranet,
consider RSS subscriptions to integrate with
email
@JeremyBalius 5

6. Guidelines and processes
Identify whether a separate intranet usage and
compliance procedure document is required
@JeremyBalius 6
Content
management
Standards
Moderating
Monitoring
and review

7. Roles and responsibilities
@JeremyBalius 7
Intranet
owner
Super
users
Subsite
champions
Content
authors
Style
approver
Content
publisher
Vendor
relationship
manager
Training

8. Related documents
@JeremyBalius 8
• Privacy Policy
• Copyright Policy
• Employee Code of Conduct
• Website & Social Networking Policy
• IT Policy
Examples of
internal
documents
• Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)
• Information Privacy Act 1992 (Cth)
• Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth)
• Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth)
• Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth)
Examples of
Australian
legislative
documents
Link to any related documents, including internal policies,
procedures, guidelines and legislative documents

9. Ownership and review
@JeremyBalius 9
Define an owner or
sponsor of your
Intranet Policy. This
may be an individual
role or a committee.
Ensure your policy
document is reviewed
annually and presented
to your Board if
changes are required
Remember to be
diligent with version
control

10. Publish and communicate
@JeremyBalius 10
Once approved by
Board or policy
committee, ensure
document is
published to
appropriate
document manager
Communicate the
policy’s existence
and content to all
internal stakeholders
via internal
communications
channels
Include or reference
policy document in
on-boarding and
training processes

11. Questions
@JeremyBalius 11