Indeed, and if I understand correctly, Shell only take about 5% of their leavers through the ROCK process. For the remainder, it is assumed that they have been contributing effectively to the collective body of knowledge throughout their career. In other words, retention is done as an exception.

That’s why it’s hard to find a benchmark for retention alone, because the more effective your KM program, the less of an issue retention becomes.

Nick Milton
Knoco Ltd

Hi Heather,

Thank you for the reply. Yes, we’ve purchased the 2022 Intranet Design Annual from Nielsen Norman, which has been very helpful. We’re looking to see if we can connect with anyone on those award-winning teams.

I have not reviewed anything from APQC. Thank you so much for sharing the link…I will check out those resources.

Anna,

In addition to doing your own benchmarking, have you reviewed existing Intranet research and benchmarking from Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) and American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC)?

Intranet reports from NNG:  https://www.nngroup.com/reports/topic/intranets/

Intranet reports within KM and HR reports/benchmarking from APQC: https://www.apqc.org/resource-library?keys=Intranet&sort_by=search_api_relevance&items_per_page=15

Best, Heather

Heather Fox

heather@...

Hi,
I'm interested in benchmarking our intranet and looking for intranet teams willing to answer a few questions about their intranet.

We're curious how other companies' intranets have evolved, how the navigation has changed or not changed, how you user test, and what your current and ideal intranet team looks like.

Please let me know if you manage an intranet (or can connect us with someone in your organization who does) and are willing to set aside an hour to answer some questions. Open to all industries and company sizes.

We're happy to share the same information if it would be helpful. 

I work for Barton Malow, a construction contractor in the US. We went through an entity expansion in 2020, moving from one to six entities. Our intranet serves about 2,000 employees from all six entities.

Thank you,
Anna

These are the questions...open to feedback:

• What platform is your intranet on?
• If Sharepoint, do you use Modern?
• If Sharepoint, do you use Viva?
• Do you utilize a consultant?
• If yes, who?
• Do you have multiple entities/family of companies?
• If yes, do you have one or multiple intranets?
• What are the benefits of one/multiple?
• Why did you decide to design one/multiple?
• Iteration of your main navigation
• How long have you had your current navigation?
• How were the main headers determined?
• What types of user testing did you utilize?
• What feedback did you have from users that prompted the current navigation?
• What feedback do you have from users about the current navigation?
• Intranet team
• What skills do you require on your team?
• What other teams do you collaborate with?
• What skills do you wish you had on your team?
• Do you feel the size of your team is sufficient?
• Content
• Do you consider your intranet the single source of truth?
• What content can users expect to find on your intranet?
• Is there content that lives elsewhere (other systems or cloud storage) that you would like accessible on your intranet?
• How do you target content? Job roles? Location?
• Training
• What type of intranet training do you offer team members?
• Onboarding to new hires?
• At a regular cadence to all team members?
• Measurement
• How and how often do you ask for feedback?

Anna,

In addition to doing your own benchmarking, have you reviewed existing Intranet research and benchmarking from Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) and American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC)?

Intranet reports from NNG:  https://www.nngroup.com/reports/topic/intranets/

Intranet reports within KM and HR reports/benchmarking from APQC: https://www.apqc.org/resource-library?keys=Intranet&sort_by=search_api_relevance&items_per_page=15

Best, Heather

Heather Fox

heather@...

Hi,
I'm interested in benchmarking our intranet and looking for intranet teams willing to answer a few questions about their intranet.

We're curious how other companies' intranets have evolved, how the navigation has changed or not changed, how you user test, and what your current and ideal intranet team looks like.

Please let me know if you manage an intranet (or can connect us with someone in your organization who does) and are willing to set aside an hour to answer some questions. Open to all industries and company sizes.

We're happy to share the same information if it would be helpful. 

I work for Barton Malow, a construction contractor in the US. We went through an entity expansion in 2020, moving from one to six entities. Our intranet serves about 2,000 employees from all six entities.

Thank you,
Anna

These are the questions...open to feedback:

• What platform is your intranet on?
• If Sharepoint, do you use Modern?
• If Sharepoint, do you use Viva?
• Do you utilize a consultant?
• If yes, who?
• Do you have multiple entities/family of companies?
• If yes, do you have one or multiple intranets?
• What are the benefits of one/multiple?
• Why did you decide to design one/multiple?
• Iteration of your main navigation
• How long have you had your current navigation?
• How were the main headers determined?
• What types of user testing did you utilize?
• What feedback did you have from users that prompted the current navigation?
• What feedback do you have from users about the current navigation?
• Intranet team
• What skills do you require on your team?
• What other teams do you collaborate with?
• What skills do you wish you had on your team?
• Do you feel the size of your team is sufficient?
• Content
• Do you consider your intranet the single source of truth?
• What content can users expect to find on your intranet?
• Is there content that lives elsewhere (other systems or cloud storage) that you would like accessible on your intranet?
• How do you target content? Job roles? Location?
• Training
• What type of intranet training do you offer team members?
• Onboarding to new hires?
• At a regular cadence to all team members?
• Measurement
• How and how often do you ask for feedback?

All valid points, Nick.

tp

There are three things that worry me about relying too much on retiree networks:

1)      The treacherous nature of human memory

2)      The fact that the retirees, once they retire, immediately become non-current in their knowledge. They retain the knowledge of the past, not the current, activities

3)      Their lack of access (they shouldn’t have access) to the confidential company files that act as memory-joggers

So the networks may work as a short term solution, but then become a risk

Nick Milton
Knoco Ltd

This was the famous case of Bob Buckman's Buckman Labs, wasn't it, from the early days of KM? The story that retirees were retained in the network?

Thanks Murray, I will read this carefully. 

Part of the solution to the timing issue is (ideally) to do this harvesting on an ongoing basis.  Waiting for a separation event, as you point out, invites other problems.

tp

There are three things that worry me about relying too much on retiree networks:

1. The treacherous nature of human memory
2. The fact that the retirees, once they retire, immediately become non-current in their knowledge. They retain the knowledge of the past, not the current, activities
3. Their lack of access (they shouldn’t have access) to the confidential company files that act as memory-joggers

So the networks may work as a short term solution, but then become a risk

Nick Milton
Knoco Ltd