Challenges and objectives
As a leading organization in the field of healthcare quality and healthcare information, Zorginstituut Nederland advises the Minister of Health on the basic health insurance package. The institute has a considerable size (660 employees) and the information it manages is crucial for promoting quality and efficiency in Dutch healthcare.
Internal knowledge sharing and connection between employees therefore play an important role here - but was sometimes far away. Before Zorginstituut Nederland started using the Plek platform, internal communication was fragmented through various communication channels. At the time, this fragmentation led to less efficient collaboration because employees spent a lot of time "searching" for the right information internally.
There was thus a lack of one central platform where employees could easily (from their first day) collaborate, retrieve information, share information and respond to each other's information.
"We were already working with Plek to set up the platform," says community manager Jaimy Ramdin of Zorginstituut Nederland. "But because of corona, that gained momentum. Within two weeks after we all started working from home, we already had Plek running for all employees."
Solution
Insight and overview for more control
Plek's social intranet can provide the basis for getting a grip on all communication flows within an organization. By distinguishing between information for everyone (“channels”) and information for specific target groups (“groups”), employees are always sufficiently informed and are not overloaded with information. Through various notification options, a message can be made more or less important.
Besides ad hoc information, Zorginstituut Nederland also has a lot of static information. This information comes on information pages, through an online knowledge base. This also provides more overview for employees.
In this day and age, having information available on both desktop and mobile is important for Zorginstituut Nederland, so that any employee can look up something relevant to their work at any time. An internal poll showed that the employees of Zorginstituut Nederland actually use it; as many as 54% of employees indicated that they use Plek on their cell phones.
Engagement starts at onboarding
Online onboarding through one central platform was not a focus point when we started working with Plek; this need followed at a later stage - after the adoption of the new platform was successful. After all, streamlining internal communications also includes informing employees during their onboarding. 
Recent research shows that a strong onboarding process can increase new employee retention by 82%, and improve productivity in organizations by as much as 70%.
To make online onboarding scalable, Zorginstituut Nederland uses the program manager module. In the first working weeks, new employees are taken through an automated program with information about the company vision, strategy, (behavioral) rules, standards and policies. The institute has created three programs: for your first working day, your first working week and for after your first working week.
Implementation proces
Good preparation is key
ntroducing a platform successfully depends on proper setup and usage by end users and admins. After years of experience, we at Plek know that a good implementation process increases the final adoption for the long term.
An important part of the preparation was an ambassador session, says Jim van Stratum - project manager of Plek. “In it, we asked a cross-section of the organization what the content of the new intranet should be. At Plek, we believe that the users themselves largely determine the content of the platform.”
Zorginstituut Nederland naturally also had functional wishes and requirements: “It had to be a platform that you can get started with without too much explanation. Site immediately looks familiar. The timeline works pretty much the same as LinkedIn and Facebook. Furthermore, the look and feel had to match our identity.”
Plek was chosen after a tender process, Jaimy explains. Of course, there are government security requirements that the platform must meet. Also, the servers must run in the Netherlands. And just as important: does the provider comply with all laws and regulations, such as the AVG, which deals with the processing of personal data? At Plek, all the checkmarks were green.
For the implementation process of Plek at Zorginstituut Nederland we used four clearly defined phases:
Phase 1: Kick-off & Setup;
Phase 2: Design & Configuration;
Phase 3: Filling & Launch;
Phase 4: Activation & Evaluation.
Plek was integrated into existing processes with the necessary training and support provided to users so that the transition was easy.
From our previous experience, we know that a well-thought-out launch can make a big difference in how people pick up on something. This is why the communications team at the Netherlands Healthcare Institute set up their own special launch (a vlog challenge), as they wanted to ensure that as many people as possible embraced the new platform.
Results and advantages
Employees feel better informed and connected
Jim highlights: “Employees can easily get started - whether it's collaborating in groups you're a member of, sharing current news items with the entire organization or knowledge about a particular field. Experience shows that this creates greater efficiency, a greater degree of self-direction and ultimately more engagement and connection.”
A lot has also changed internally in terms of onboarding. At Plek, we believe that employee engagement starts at onboarding. That is why Zorginstituut Nederland recently started using the program manager in Plek. This way the 'onboarding' can be set up with specific programs for new employees; this makes the process very manageable. For the new colleagues this offers - also during corona - a warm welcome and they are active on the social intranet from day one.
Conclusion and future steps
MultiPlek: Working together with other parties
In the coming period, Jaimy and his colleagues will take the next steps. Because according to him, remote working is not going away anymore. And the first operational successes went very smoothly.
A second platform for Zorginstituut Nederland is already in the works. This will be an environment where organizations can collaborate with external parties within project groups. Because of security and manageability, we chose to have this be a separate platform, Jim explains. “With our MultiPleks, we can smartly connect two platforms. Users receive notifications from the collaboration platform within the intranet. That way they don't miss anything and can easily switch to project groups.”
This is how Plek helped Zorginstituut Nederland to remotely stimulate involvement and connection and increase its effectiveness. Do you also work in healthcare or a government organization? Plek helps vital sectors with a secure online platform on which they can communicate and collaborate effectively. Curious about what Plek can do for your organization? Get in touch with us.
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