Intranet Case Study

Engage intranet software helps ECA improve business processes, saving time and money

Electrical Contractors Association (ECA) is the UK’s leading trade association that represents and supports the interests of businesses and organisations involved in electrotechnical and engineering services design, installation, inspection, testing, maintenance and monitoring across the United Kingdom (excluding Scotland) since 1901.

ECA offers memberships to businesses across the electrotechnical and engineering services industry, achieving the highest industry standards and certifications. They also offer a number of Associate schemes for other industry stakeholders in their efforts to improve standards, professionalism and commercial opportunity.

Find out more about ECA

The challenge

To develop a group intranet that would bring the three core areas of the business together in one central place and to connect employees and business processes.

ECA recognised a need to improve employee engagement and were looking to improve efficiency by opening up visibility of business processes across the group.

To incorporate as many internal processes as possible into the new intranet, to minimise numerous standalone applications and the need to license additional products.

The solution

The new Engage intranet at ECA, named The Hub which has includes custom developed features, has quickly succeeded in improving employee engagement and has effectively connected 3 ECA core offices and 12 microsites.

One of the key custom applications that has been developed is called MyPDR. The performance development review (PDR) process at ECA was traditionally a paper-based annual process with a mid-year requirement for managers and staff to review objectives and development progress monitoring. It was recognised that a more efficient digital approach to the PDR process would offer a time efficient solution that would allow greater business efficiency to be achieved.

It was also recognised that there was a strong desire from staff and managers alike to have the opportunity to offer comments, feedback and have on going consultation throughout the year without losing days attending meetings.

Developing a new PDR application in Engage has saved cost as there has not been the need to purchase a new separate system.

Previously staff and managers had to typically wait until their annual meetings to convey comments and issues officially to each other. They are now able to log these instantly and these are then tagged, and time strapped to ensure that the system is both transparent and auditable.

Automatic notifications, using the inbuilt Engage notification system has been implemented. This allows both managers and staff members to be aware of the quarterly timelines and deadlines.

As the PDR process is built within the Engage platform, users are also able to access it via the Engage smartphone and tablet App. Allowing them to update and add comments to their objectives whilst on the move. As a result, the PDR process is no longer something that has to be done in the office or whilst logged into the company network.

“MyPDR has allowed ECA to improve staff effectiveness collaboratively. This in turn makes us a more effective organisation that is better able to service the needs of our customers and members. This output is a key focus of our organisational Corporate Plan. We are really proud of what we have achieved.”

Farhaan Mirza
Head of Digital Transformation and Engagement

“We have utilised the Engage platform to deliver an application that meets all of our objectives and fully integrates with our business process to deliver a seamless user experience for both managers and staff that has allowed an incredible amount of time to be saved in relation to our PDR process.

As the application is built within The Hub, there is no need for users of the system to log-in to a separate system as their profile is automatically logged into the Intranet via an existing Active Directory integration.

Furthermore, it has been an excellent tool to aid user adoption and drives more traffic to the Intranet which also benefits the business by increasing staff engagement in a number of additional ways such as the awareness of important company news and social interaction of staff across offices.”

Farhaan Mirza
Head of Digital Transformation and Engagement

Cost savings are being made across the organisation as the group moves away from printed brochures. Monthly costs for printing and the storage of brochures alone was huge and materials went out of date quickly. The Hub has provided a platform for storing central digital marketing materials that can be accessed and shared across the group. Users can now be certain they are using the most up to date marketing content and images. Videos are also being introduced as a way of distributing information that may have been otherwise missed on the corporate website.

The staff hub within The Hub has improved employee engagement. There is lots of interactive and engaging content being shared across the whole business. Thought of the day, image of the day, announcements, ‘have your say’ comments area and the fantasy football league which has really taken off since it was launched on The Hub is helping to forge connections across the group.

The employee benefits page on The Hub is visually very engaging and appealing for everyone. FAQ’s have been really useful for the HR team; questions are no longer being asked multiple times as answers are visible to everyone in the group.

Quicklinks are being used to provide quick and easy links to various key business systems, all of which are now easily accessible in one central location. Latest company news, a ‘share something’ microblog, an events calendar and ‘image of the week’ are all helping to improve employee engagement.

Continual improvement is important to ECA, they have put in place an intranet stakeholder group that meets quarterly to review and improve delivery of The Hub.

“Our quarterly focus group provides staff the opportunity to share feedback on our intranet and suggest ways to improve it. We found this particularly useful in identifying further training needs, navigation structure and coming up with fun ideas to drive engagement. To ensure that we give all staff the ability to contribute and to be represented, the focus group is open to all within the business to join.”

Lucianne Osideko
Project Analyst

The result

ECA have successfully achieved their mission and have created a fantastic site that is packed full of content and engaging features. Huge improvements have been seen in efficiency and employee engagement. Lots of time has been saved across much of the business and cost savings have also been made. The MyPDR application is a great success an incredible amount of time has been saved in relation to their PDR process.

ECA have been nominated for the ‘Best Custom Feature’ award in the 2019 Sorce Intranet Success Awards.

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