Support to be able to do the job well
Posted: Sat May 24, 2025 10:29 am
An intranet is not just the linchpin within your organization. Because, when does an intranet really deliver something? By supporting employees in the (top) tasks that matter? No, not only! Accessibility is just as important. Certainly for an organization where employees are regularly on the road.
For Stichting Nidos we developed an intranet. Accessible for smartphone, tablet or desktop. In this article we describe how we went about it, what we encountered and what choices we made.
About Nidos Foundation
Stichting Nidos is an independent (family) guardianship institution that stands up for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers. At Nidos, professionals work who carry out the guardianship task and find shelter, manage the development towards independence of the young asylum seeker and intervene when that development is in danger of being jeopardized.
Nidos does this from 11 regional offices, each with around 15 youth protection officers — latvia phone number list they support the young people/clients in their asylum procedure, education, development, etc. — around two support staff and one regional manager. The head office in Utrecht offers support to these regional offices with 25 people (facilities, communication, IT, etc.). In total, around 200 people work at Nidos, of which at least 150 are regularly on the road or on location.
First research and strategy, then design and development
Nidos did not have a fixed strategy for intranet in advance. There were (still) no frameworks set within which we could make choices for target groups, objectives, content, functions and tools with which intranet supports the user in his daily work. Only the idea of sharing information among employees and supporting employees in their daily work was the starting point.
Together with Nidos we therefore decided to first do research. This consisted of 2 parts:
First we sat down with managers in a strategy workshop to gain more insight into the activities and work processes, goals and objectives for the intranet;
Then the users themselves had their say: in focus groups we mapped out work processes, inventoried their information needs and specific requirements for the intranet. In addition, card sorting made it clear how users cluster the information and how they subsequently name the clusters.
Online strategy established
With the results of the strategy workshop as input, we wrote an online strategy. In this we summarized the goal, the target groups and the core questions/tasks of the intranet. This document became the basis for plans and choices in the follow-up process. The most important goals for the intranet for Nidos are:
Stimulate a sense of togetherness;
Stimulating professional collaboration;
Learning from each other(s) experience.
Tasks and activities on or with the intranet
The results of the focus group with employees and the strategy workshop clarified a number of things:
Employees want to change their working methods, collaborate more and share information;
There are multiple usage scenarios among employees: youth protection workers/guardians who are on the road a lot versus support workers/staff members in the office.
For Stichting Nidos we developed an intranet. Accessible for smartphone, tablet or desktop. In this article we describe how we went about it, what we encountered and what choices we made.
About Nidos Foundation
Stichting Nidos is an independent (family) guardianship institution that stands up for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers. At Nidos, professionals work who carry out the guardianship task and find shelter, manage the development towards independence of the young asylum seeker and intervene when that development is in danger of being jeopardized.
Nidos does this from 11 regional offices, each with around 15 youth protection officers — latvia phone number list they support the young people/clients in their asylum procedure, education, development, etc. — around two support staff and one regional manager. The head office in Utrecht offers support to these regional offices with 25 people (facilities, communication, IT, etc.). In total, around 200 people work at Nidos, of which at least 150 are regularly on the road or on location.
First research and strategy, then design and development
Nidos did not have a fixed strategy for intranet in advance. There were (still) no frameworks set within which we could make choices for target groups, objectives, content, functions and tools with which intranet supports the user in his daily work. Only the idea of sharing information among employees and supporting employees in their daily work was the starting point.
Together with Nidos we therefore decided to first do research. This consisted of 2 parts:
First we sat down with managers in a strategy workshop to gain more insight into the activities and work processes, goals and objectives for the intranet;
Then the users themselves had their say: in focus groups we mapped out work processes, inventoried their information needs and specific requirements for the intranet. In addition, card sorting made it clear how users cluster the information and how they subsequently name the clusters.
Online strategy established
With the results of the strategy workshop as input, we wrote an online strategy. In this we summarized the goal, the target groups and the core questions/tasks of the intranet. This document became the basis for plans and choices in the follow-up process. The most important goals for the intranet for Nidos are:
Stimulate a sense of togetherness;
Stimulating professional collaboration;
Learning from each other(s) experience.
Tasks and activities on or with the intranet
The results of the focus group with employees and the strategy workshop clarified a number of things:
Employees want to change their working methods, collaborate more and share information;
There are multiple usage scenarios among employees: youth protection workers/guardians who are on the road a lot versus support workers/staff members in the office.