Board Directors Love Board Portals - Most of the Time

4 Best Practices for Boards to LOVE Board Portals

If you are looking for a new way to enhance the communications between your company and your board of directors, effective board portals will help you reach your goal. Using it will help you optimize the productivity and efficiency of your administration and executive team, which will also improve the engagement and guidance from your board. The problem, though, is that many people are resistant to change, and the board might be feeling a little reluctant to use the board portal software.

1) Individual Training

Group training is a must, but offering training to individual users is a great place to start when you want to get everyone on the same page. The most common reason that people will resist implementing new board portals is that they won’t know how to use it. When you want people to embrace a new system, helping them to understand it and making it as simple as possible will work wonders. Your board members will have different levels of tech savoriness, and individual training will help bridge the gap between those that pick up the portal right away and those with reservations.

2) Transition Slowly

No matter how much training you provide, the transition period can present challenges and roadblocks, and although you might be feeling tempted to make the change instantly, doing so would be a mistake. Giving your team enough time to get used to the board portal and to iron out any bugs will allow you to enjoy the best possible results. Your board will be less likely to object to the process and be much more willing to cooperate. The best way to transition slowly is to run your current process in tandem with the board portal for a few meetings until everyone is familiar with the new system. Give a clear “switch over” date to help them prepare.

3) Identify a Champion of the Board Portal

Integrating board portals may come with mixed feelings, and your board won’t always agree on what steps to take at a given time. This problem can not only lead to confusion, but it can also slow adoption and harm productivity. Identify a board member who is excited about making the change to a new board portal and have him/her champion the project along with your administrators. Having a board member who is “on board” can make all the difference in board portals adoption.

4) Strong Communication

If your board members feel as though the transition to a new board portal caught them off guard, then the process will be harder than it needs to be. So, inform everyone about your plans to make the switch as far in advance as possible, providing clear deadlines. But don’t forget to keep the board members updated on the status of the project so that they will know what to expect.