Six branches. One new Division. No single source of truth.
Intranet
Strategic communication
Change management
Graphic design
Challenge
When the Military Personnel Division (MPD) was established in July 2023 bringing Navy, Army, Air Force and enabling support HR branches together under one Division, its intranet didn’t reflect the change.
Over 700 pages of content accumulated across multiple merging branches, much of it duplicated, outdated, or incorrect. A permanent intranet solution was on the way, but the Division couldn’t afford to leave 80,000 ADF personnel relying on an intranet full of conflicting and hard-to-find information in the meantime.
Approach
We built a fit-for-purpose interim site, fast. Working across 75 stakeholder meetings and incorporated 200+ pieces of staff feedback, we reduced the intranet from 700+ pages to 135, an 80%+ content reduction, removing duplicate and incorrect content and rebuilding the structure around how the ADF workforce actually finds career information.
More than 1,071 documents were migrated to a new objective structure and linked to the relevant intranet pages, and 202 custom icons were designed to align the site with MPD’s new visual identity and reinforce the Division’s integration at every touchpoint.
The launch was supported by a comprehensive communication campaign across internal news, service newspapers, ForceNet and email ensuring the workforce knew exactly where to go and what had changed.
Impact
The interim intranet served the ADF workforce for approximately 18 months, ranking in the top 10 most-visited sites. It reinforced MPD’s identity as a joint organisation, demonstrated integration across the services, and transitioned smoothly to the new system when it was ready.
Exactly as planned.
More of our work with MPD
Providing strategic communication for a major Defence workforce transformation
When Military Personnel Division (MPD) was established, it undertook a major workforce transformation overhauling systems, processes and policies simultaneously, across four service cultures and an intergenerational ADF workforce the internal team needed two things from the outset: a robust communications strategy and the surge capacity to deliver it.
Simplifying complex processes into content the workforce can understand
The Military Personnel Division (MPD) manages complex career management processes for Australia’s entire ADF workforce. As those processes changed and evolved, the Division faced a persistent challenge: how do you help thousands of sailors, soldiers, and aviators and their commanders genuinely understand multi-step, policy-heavy processes without relying on the lengthy documents?
Simplifying complex processes with animated videos
Australian Defence Force personnel needed a clear and engaging way to communicate new human resources processes to a diverse, multigenerational workforce. These processes were often complex, involved multiple stakeholders and were prone to misunderstandings.
ADM 30 Under 30 Finalist
We’re proud to announce that Madeline Bonfini has been named a finalist in the Australian Defence Magazine 30 Under 30 Awards! This recognition reflects the outstanding achievements of the team who worked on the Military Personnel Division (MPD) project, led by...