New UDOT Employee Innovation Station Puts Innovation Resources at Employees Fingertips

Item #: 20230027

CONTACTS

Implementing Organization: Research and Innovation
Implementation Lead: Winston Inoway
Development Team: Winston Inoway, Quinten Klingonsmith

Article Written By: Quinten Klingonsmith
Innovation Council Liaison: Quinten Klingonsmith
Innovation Team Coordinator: Quinten Klingonsmith

STATUS

Implementation Date: May 23, 2023
Adoption Status: Fully Implemented
Adoptability Note: This use of Google Sites is an example of how a small group can create its own content, while working with managers of the greater department's website to bring all resources under one roof.

What content and resources does your team need to share?

APPLIES TO

Topic: Communication
Organization(s): UDOT (all)
Job Role(s): Administrative Staff / Commissions, Business Analyst, Information Specialist
Tags: labor costs, labor productivity, employee empowerment, personnel development, expenses, expenditures, ( process improvement ), standardization, communications > public relations ( PR ), education and training ( employee development ), marketing > advertising

PROBLEM

UDOT is moving employee resources from its public facing udot.utah.gov website to the UDOT Employee Resources site (ERS). However, the ERS is restricted to UDOT employees and many of our resources need to be available to the public. Also, the Innovation Team updates its content frequently. Sharing a large Google Site with many other authors poses content management challenges like accidentally publishing other’s draft content.

CHANGE

The Innovation Team used Google Sites as the backbone of their new UDOT Employee Innovation Station and worked with Becky Parker to integrate it into the ERS. The new site looks and feels like it is an extension of the ERS, but behind the scenes it is separate.

RESULT

Having a separate Google Site allows the Innovation Team to update content without inadvertently publishing other people’s draft content. It avoids potential bottlenecks and allows us to create content that can be shared internally and to the public.

Moving from Wordpress to Google Sites allowed us more flexibility with site layout and design and is very compatible with Google Looker Studio and embedded Google Forms. The new site is responsive, so it works well on mobile devices too.

Because these web design tools are easy to use, the Innovation Team could complete the work themselves and avoided the cost and time it takes to sub the work to contractors.

Employees can now find all innovation resources in one spot, along with all their other ERS resources. The general public, our partners and other DOT’s can still find our public facing content on udot.utah.gov.

RELATED INNOVATIONS

Tag Wizard Brings Consistency to Innovation Catalog Search (20230017)
ROI Calculator Aids in Better Efficiencies Reporting and Decision Making (20230018)
Innovation Submission Forms and Processes (20230020)
New Innovation Catalog Built In-house with Google Looker Studio (20230023)
New Annual Innovation and Efficiencies Report Offers Up-to-date Information and Cost Savings (20230026)

New UDOT Employee Innovation Station content available from the internal Employee Resources website

Public facing Innovation Content available from the udot.utah.gov website

IMPACT

BETTER MOBILITY

GOOD HEALTH

CONNECTED COMMUNITIES

STRONG ECONOMY

Innovations are now available to the general public, partners and other DOTs
Cost avoidance efficiency realized because it is part of a larger innovation system that did not need to be purchased because we built the system in-house for less money

EFFICIENCIES*

Cost Avoidance: $52,060 over 20 years (May 23, 2023 - May 23, 2043)
Benefit/Cost Ratio: 18:1

*Benefits are estimated net of initial and ongoing expenses. Savings are averaged over the expected benefit life of the innovation. See details.

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