Photographs can be a very valuable inclusion in a staff directory. They are helpful for putting faces to names, and nowadays in our on-line socially connected world are somewhat expected.

However, talk to any intranet team and you will hear about how difficult it can be in practice to achieve this.

The reality is finding staff in organisations is difficult and in most organisations the staff directory has grown to be business critical.

This article outlines the main arguments for and against photos in staff directories and some tips on how to succeed.

Reasons for including photos

• Useful when matching names to faces, for an upcoming meeting, phone call or email conversation.
• Help new staff to get up to speed on ‘who’s who’ in the organisation, as well as familiarising them with key staff they are likely to interact with regularly.

[CMb 2009-19 written by Catherine Grenfell, read the full article]