This week's tip comes from Carl Fitzsimons who explains some of the tricks he has used to boost the popularity of a staff learning intranet.

One item you may wish to consider is come pre course downloads e.g. we use a learning contract for each event to capture pre and post course planning /evaluation

I have just introduced a tailored development resource in partnership with the Ashridge Business School - together we have tailored a portal, which maps online learning tools, available through the business school, against our value and behaviours. I am pleased to say that the response from staff within its first month of launch has been very positive.

Having seen good and bad examples of intranet based tools - the key thing is to keep traffic high through topical and interesting content. To this end in my last company we included pictures and URL links to news of the day stories- (major headline, sports headline and 'dog on skateboard' type story) - our clever colleagues in the IT department also moved this on to include some other general interest stuff ranging from a trivial pursuit style game (taking staff 30 seconds a week to complete) complete with league tables of current placings (great for office banter) through to an e-bay style site for staff to sell items to each other etc. Yes it may seem a bit light and fluffy - but the user rate and hit rates of 'work' focused pages increased significantly through the higher levels of traffic.

For more tips on boosting the popularity of a learning and development intranet click here.