B.C.’s intranet is anything but provincial

They do this by continuing to transform the government’s intranet from the neglected, dull afterthought it was three years ago into a living Web where 30,000 employees can see themselves talking about their jobs, collaborate and find ideas to make their work easier and more fun, shop for bargains, buy and sell personal items, send e-cards to colleagues for a job well done, and more.

The site was launched by a project team and then managed for the next couple of years by Farr, who did most of the writing, and a Web administrator. As the site evolved, so did the team, which now includes Farr, a senior content advisor, a writer, two Web administrators, a videographer, and a graphic designer.

The employee response is spectacular. @Work now averages 700,000 hits a month—doubled from a year ago—among the province’s 30,000 employees.

How do they do it? The strategies are simple: Conversing with employees like ordinary people through engaging articles that are archived for later reference, multimedia and a discussion forum.

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