Hyphen is an international architectural firm offering a range of services from initial site appraisals through to post construction close out and evaluation.
As well as the quality of their work, Hyphen pride themselves in being advocates for progressive values in the wider world, particularly inclusivity. This is reflected in their people; the Hyphen team is spread across 9 offices in 7 countries and is made up of 19 nationalities and more than 50% female employees.
Aim
Hyphen had identified a number of internal communications challenges including:
- Email overload
- Relying on a not-fit-for-purpose platform as a comms channel
- Inability to create and share content in a user friendly way
As a result, Hyphen wanted to introduce an intranet as a new internal channel.
The key aims for the new intranet were to create a space where employees could find information, news and documents, and connect with colleagues from across the business. To meet these aims, Hyphen identified some key features, including:
- A single communications portal for company vision, news and video
- Easily share policies and procedures
- Centralise other employee tools and apps, such as holiday requests
- Brand aligned design
- Simple navigation
The intranet also needed to be mobile friendly, easy to maintain and integrated with Microsoft Teams.
Approach
Following a Discover, Design, Develop, Deploy, Drive approach, we delivered a SharePoint intranet to act as the home for internal communications at Hyphen.
Discovery & Design
The discovery phase consisted of scoping and requirements workshops to ensure any proposed designs met employees’ needs, and were compatible with Hyphen’s ways of working.
During design, we ran additional workshops focusing on information architecture, and conducted a full review and analysis on all existing content. This allowed us to produce site architecture designs, and page designs that were in line with employee and business needs.
Develop, Deploy & Drive
This is where the intranet comes to life. Following design approvals, we built the intranet using SharePoint Online, covering all aspects from site creation and navigation set up, to brand configuration and deployment. We also provided documentation and training to allow Hyphen to maintain their new intranet.
Impact
“Our new intranet has already improved internal communication significantly and we now have a great platform on which to build. We would never have been able to deliver it in such a short timeframe without the team at Silicon Reef. Thank you to everyone involved.”
– Karen Howell – Head of Brand and Communication
