There is a classic view of how intranet governance should look, and it consists of a governance committee, an overall sponsor and then the intranet team.

This works well for many organisations, and it’s often what we recommend when we’re using the Intranet Operating Model to help establish effective governance for our clients.

Tackling digital workplace governance

When looking at the broader view of the digital workplace or digital employee experience, this hierarchical structure starts to run into serious limitations.

For a start, ownership of the digital workplace or DEX can’t live with just a single team or leader. Instead there needs to be a guiding coalition for the digital workplace that involves HR, internal communications, HR, IT and beyond.

The same goes for digital workplace and DEX governance: there can’t be a single “director of DEX”, and neither can ownership of DEX lie with a single team.

This was elegantly expressed by Koushik Banerjee from Richemont, in a presentation at a London conference we were also presenting at:

Digital workplace governance must involve sitting at a round table, not a square one.

While it may conjure up images of knights at the round table, what this means that digital workplace governance must be a meeting of equals.

The governance group should involve all key stakeholders, at a fairly high level of seniority, with every participant playing an equal role. This group should report directly to the senior leadership team, and it must be robust enough to ensure alignment of activities across the business.

When it comes to global and complex organisations, governance at a round table becomes critical. Even smaller businesses can benefit from the mindset this model encourages.

We are already putting this approach to digital workplace governance into action with our clients. Get in touch if you’d like a hand.