Slow communication in your municipal workplace?

Slow communication at your municipal workplace? Here’s what other municipalities are doing to solve it

If you work in the public sector, you have probably experienced increasing demands, limited resources, and, at times, sluggish internal communication and knowledge sharing?

Do you feel that your workplace is sometimes characterised by: 

• Wasted time

• Misunderstandings

• Silos between departments

• Lack of knowledge sharing

• Too many meetings and emails

• Lack of dialogue between colleagues or between colleagues and management

• Employees who are not heard – for example because of their field-based role and the lack of a place to communicate wishes, opinions, new initiatives, etc.?

These are unfortunately familiar challenges from municipal everyday life, which you will probably recognise:

• Geographical dispersion: Employees are often stationed at different locations, making it difficult to bring everyone together in one place.

• Very different communication needs:  From teachers and educators to technicians and administrative staff

• Technological challenges: Not all employees are equally tech-savvy, and many do not have access to a PC during their working day, so some are completely cut off from hearing from management, other colleagues or head office

Recognisable challenges at, for example, Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality. Jette Rask, Project Manager at Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality, explains:

”The size of the organisation means that there are long distances between our departments. We therefore experience a major challenge in relation to cross-disciplinary collaboration. We have found it difficult to reach our external employees, who are in the various institutions – both school teachers, childminders and care home assistants, etc. At the same time, we have found it difficult to search for colleagues with specific professional competencies and convey information to employees through our previous intranet.”

Why a digital communication platform – a modern intranet is the solution

A modern intranet that functions as a digital internal communication platform has proven to be a  game-changer for municipal internal communication in Denmark, Norway and Germany. It serves as a central hub where employees can:

• Share knowledge: Best practices, experience and new knowledge can be shared in relevant work groups, via video, images, documents and comments/dialogues within or across departments and geographical areas.

• Collaborate: Projects can be coordinated more efficiently, and employees can work together across departments.

• Find information: With a good search function, employees can quickly find the information they need.

• Receive relevant and segmented information: Employees who were previously cut off from important information can now get the relevant information they need. Fewer emails and better knowledge sharing. With segmented work groups and a news feed available via mobile, tablet and PC, employees only receive the relevant information – news, events and important announcements can be shared on a central platform.

• Communicate both ways: All employees now have the opportunity to take part in shared discussions and contribute their knowledge, comment, like and engage. It changes communication from one-way via email or SharePoint to two-way with open dialogue.  

• Find exactly the right colleague: via competency tags, employees can easily search for the right person. Who was it, for example, who had taken that Excel course, or who can give first aid?

Colibo is the largest provider of a modern intranet for municipalities in Denmark. A platform developed in collaboration with municipalities to understand the complex structures in the public sector.

Lisbet Rosendal, Web Consultant at Esbjerg Municipality, explains why they chose Colibo:

The responsive platform has been a crucial factor for us. We want access to the intranet via mobile phones and tablets, so that we can also include the childminders, home care workers and social and health care assistants who do not necessarily sit at a computer in their daily work.

Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality also uses Colibo:

External employees can quickly access relevant information and at the same time be given the opportunity to create their own ”collaboration spaces” through the workgroup feature. Colibo is also an intuitive and user-friendly intranet platform that allows us to quickly and easily find colleagues with specific competencies.

– Jette Rask, Project Manager, Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality

Silkeborg Municipality uses Colibo. John Andersen, Head of Administration,  IT and Finance for the home care and nursing section, says:

Previously, employees on the go had to call in or log on to different networks from a PC in order to access information. Now they have everything right at their fingertips.

What characterises a good municipal intranet?

• User-friendliness: The intranet must be intuitive and easy to navigate so that all employees can use it.

• Mobile accessibility: Employees must be able to access the intranet from their smartphones and tablets.

• Personalisation: Employees must be able to tailor the intranet to their own needs.

• Integration with other systems: The intranet must be able to integrate with other systems, e.g. HR systems and financial systems.

The municipal intranet of the future

A modern intranet is no longer just a tool for sharing information. It is a platform that can strengthen collaboration, increase productivity and create a stronger sense of community among employees. By investing in a good intranet, many municipalities ensure a more efficient and cohesive organisation.

Would you like to know more about how an intranet can benefit your municipality? Or what other municipalities have specifically done or achieved with their intranet? Contact us at contact@colibo.com or + 45 28 14 40 15