Gearing up for a new job as Intranet Manager

I’m a Christmas lover! Candles, holiday, gifts and food—and our special Swedish Dec 13 tradition Lucia procession, when every parent’s heart is filled with joy.

But this year, I’m also looking forward to Jan 16—because at that time I start my new job as Intranet Manager at Scania Region, Sweden’s fifth largest employer. Scania Region is a government county organization primarily responsible for healthcare in the southmost part of Sweden, where 15% of the Swedes live.

My planning for this task has already started.

• What big target groups are there in the organization? How does the existing intranet support them? (Some obvious ones: physicians, nurses, assistant nurses and some supporting professionals e.g. physiotherapists and speech therapists.) I’m sure it will be necessary to split these core target grops into smaller segments in order to provide the right intranet content for them. There will also be several other core professions I will discover when I start. What has the intranet already good solutions for and what can be improved?
• What are the standard organisational core functions, that have services that should be on the intranet? (Economy, HR, comms…) How is the collaboration with them and the intranet manager role? These groups also themselves uses the intranet as a place for support and efficiency, and need specialized areas. How is this solved in the intranet today? Is it possible to tune up even more?
• How should the intranet work together with other important systems? In a healthcare organization, the main system for most of the employees is the core healthcare system containing the patient records. The data stored in this system should obviously not be on the intranet. Boundaries between systems (e.g. the intranet vs. the core healthcare system, the intranet vs. several document systems) should be thought through, taking steps on the road towards the digital workplace. In the end this is about forming a coherent model for the data life cycle and the tools and places for the data—the intranet and the Intranet Manager has an important role in this.

It is not everyday one gets a chance to start over again as Intranet Manager. I will enjoy every minute of it!