Once the project was voted on by senior leadership, it unlocked much-needed department resources crucial to make this project a success.Īlong with eight other members of project team, Hughes blew up the old portal and started over. Jennifer, along with Tricia and Marie, created a comprehensive business case outlining the positive organizational impact the relaunch would have. Having the support from key leaders like Tricia Lewis, VP of Human Resources, and Marie Spencer, Training Manager, is what brought this organizational project to fruition. To build the relaunch team, diverse individuals were picked from different roles to represent various areas of the organization so that everyone had a voice on the team. With support from management, a relaunch team was assembled, led by Jennifer. Jennifer presented a plan for this organizational project to organization leadership who granted their approval and resources. One of the biggest factors in relaunch success was getting the right management support. It was time for an update, and I knew it was going to take starting over.” “We knew, as a growing organization, we needed a better tool to communicate to our employees that was reliable and accurate,” Hughes shared. Too many people had access to make changes. There was so much text, it was visually difficult to navigate, and links were neglected and broken. The portal had no guidelines, no consistency, and no branding. Our home page looked pretty, but it was just a façade.” OWL needed a relaunch. She shared that “when I came into ownership of OWL, we were several versions behind the current technology and had no clear owner. Enter Jennifer Hughes, Internal Communications & Development Specialist. Over the years, ownership became disparate and disorganized. In 2006, A+ launched their first OnSemble portal, named OWL (Online Wisdom Link). With 22 branches, $1.7 billion in assets, and 450+ employees, internal sharing of documents and communication is critical to their success. Read how Jennifer Hughes led A+ Federal Credit Union to relaunch their employee portal taking it from antiquated to awesome, from passé to purposeful.Ī+ Federal Credit Union is a 70-year-old credit union located in Austin, Texas. A+ Federal Credit Union recognized that they were missing a true leader for their portal. An employee intranet takes careful planning, organization, but most importantly, ownership. Without effective leadership, your intranet solution can quickly turn into an intranet problem.