When a company has widely dispersed staff, working on a variety of sites and projects, it can be difficult to maintain both standards and the right information flow. Electrosonic has used internet technology for many years at its Hawley Mill HQ both to inform staff and to maintain standards.In addition to its public website. Electrosonic operates an intranet within the company, which it considers an essential component of its HR policy, ensuring that employees are properly informed. It's also the means by which all quality procedures are disseminated, and it underpins the company's ISO9001:2000 accreditation.
Electrosonic's number of outsource sites has increased significantly in recent years, and for some time the company has been working on extending the intranet to employees working at these sites. Security issues relating to the host employer have in some cases previously prevented a direct connection, and in these cases an intranet has been set up within the host's environment.
The company introduced its first client-site-based intranet in 2003 - a move which it says significantly boosted morale at the site concerned. Besides being a morale-booster for the staff, the intranet facilitated the achievement of ISO9001:2000 accreditation on the client site. In 2004 the idea was extended to a second major client site, but this revealed that the work needed to achieve the high standard required was beyond the resources of typical sites, and led directly to the idea of a company based 'Infra-structure' manager to ensure consistency across all sites.
Now, the new Intranet replaces all local host-based sites; each customer group will have a customer specific website that carries site's health and safety information, individual professional development plans, HR forms and policies. As well as company news, the sites also carry many features specific to the employee group concerned. Work is also in hand to add a time and attendance package to monitor working hours and overtime for all staff based away from Hawley Mill, say Electrosonic.
(Lee Baldock)
