4 Ways To Get Employee Buy-In For Your New EXP

It’s fair to say that migrating to a new employee experience platform (EXP) or intranet can be slightly… full-on. Exciting? Yes. Energizing? Yes. All-encompassing? Also yes. So it can be easy to get swept up in the technical side of the migration, like the information architecture, the content management, integrations and workflows, user permissions, and platform security.

While all of these things – of course – need to be prioritized, it’s also important to focus on your user adoption strategy from day one. Because it’s no use launching a shiny new platform that’s excellently integrated and has perfect workflows if your employees don’t know anything about it.

Working on achieving employee buy-in for your new platform throughout the migration process is a sure-fire way to increase adoption and ensure a successful launch.

But winning that all-important buy-in takes more than just training and communication. It starts with selecting the best platform for your organization, as Simon Rutter explained in a recent blog post. It then requires you to demonstrate how the new EXP connects to your strategy, and how it will be of benefit to your people.

Throughout this blog post, I explain four ways for you to bolster your user adoption strategy by winning employee buy-in from day one.

1. Lead with the why  

The most important way to get employee buy-in for your new EXP is to ‘lead with the why’. There’s no denying that migrating to a new intranet can cause a bit of disruption in the short term, and people are naturally resistant to change. So be clear that the decision to migrate to a new platform has not been made without good reason.

Take your people on the journey from the very beginning by explaining the reason behind the new migration. Is it part of a broader strategy to replace outdated tech and improve the employee experience? Is the current technology being discontinued? Or does the migration come as part of a broader organizational change?

Whatever the reason for the new platform, always lead with the why and demonstrate how it ties to the broader strategy.    

2. Take an employee-centric approach

While it might sound obvious, the key to winning the buy-in of your workforce is having an employee-centric approach. Which isn’t always easy, when you’re buried under migration-related tasks and wading through content!  

As I touched on earlier, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of getting caught in the technical side of the migration and unintentionally neglecting the engagement element. To make sure this doesn’t happen, try to do the following things throughout the project:

• Keep an employee-centric view by considering how the new EXP will change the day-to-day habits and experiences of your people  
• Be conscious of the timing of the migration – is there a lot of other change happening across the business at the same time? Can you tie everything together to make it feel more aligned and cohesive for people?
• Make things as straightforward as possible… employees do not necessarily need to know about the technicalities of the migration, but they do need to understand what is moving where, and why.  

An employee-centric approach means looking at the project through the eyes of your people to help win over their hearts and minds. The technical elements of the migration are critical, but your efforts will be futile without employee buy-in.

3. Communicate openly  

Keeping employees informed throughout the process is essential for a successful migration. Think about training sessions, workshops, tutorials, and internal campaigns that you can deliver to raise awareness about the new platform and build excitement.

Communicating early and often will ensure employees feel informed and involved throughout the migration. It also provides you with an opportunity to address any questions or concerns as soon as they arise. Use all of the channels at your disposal to get the word out there and ensure your employees are in the loop, such as:

• Manager briefing documents
• Email or in-platform newsletters 
• Digital screens and notice boards 
• CEO update emails

And when it comes to the content, don’t be afraid of getting into the specifics – think about the kinds of logistical questions your people are going to have. Will existing content be moved to the new platform? Will employees have to download or save anything ahead of the migration? Will anything change in terms of how they access their existing workplace tools?

It’s also helpful to communicate openly and honestly when it comes to migration timings. Being transparent with your project timelines can help encourage employee buy-in and establish early support.

And remember to keep managers and team leaders fully briefed and informed throughout the migration. They will be the ones fielding any questions from team members, so be sure to provide them with the content and information they need to support their teams. Things like ‘manager FAQ’ documents are simple but impactful solutions to equip team leaders to answer employee questions.    

4. Find and engage your allies

Making use of ‘platform champions’ and other internal allies is a great way to promote engagement and buy-in across the organization. After all, The Beatles summed it up best when they said we ‘get by with a little help from our friends’, right?!  

Employees will often have a higher level of trust in the information they hear from one of their peers rather than a central communication channel or senior leader, so utilizing allies within your company can help build employee confidence in the new platform.

These allies can become ambassadors for your migration, helping to drive engagement and create awareness and understanding among their colleagues.  

Trust and engagement are two of the most important ingredients for achieving employee buy-in, and you’ll get there a heck of a lot quicker by harnessing the power of champions and other influential employees.  

But time is of the essence, and the earlier the better when it comes to finding and engaging these internal platform ambassadors. Once you have them onboard, you can invite their feedback and encourage their involvement with your user engagement and launch planning.