Intranet adoption is measured by daily active users as a percentage of the workforce — not downloads, not registrations, not page views. Above 60% DAU means the platform is genuinely useful. Below 30% means people have no reason to open it.
Adoption is the problem that arrives after launch, and it is usually diagnosed too late. This covers what to measure, what good looks like, and how to recover a rollout that has stalled.
The metrics that matter, in order
| Metric | What it measures | Target | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily active users | Whether it is genuinely useful | 60%+ of workforce | — this is the one to use |
| Weekly active users | Broader engagement | 85%+ | Hides a decline until late |
| Read rate per post | Whether communication lands | 70%+ | Varies by content type |
| Acknowledgement completion | Compliance evidence | 100% required items | Only covers mandatory content |
| Activation (% ever signed in) | Access friction | 90%+ | A one-time number, not ongoing health |
| Downloads | Launch communication | — | Tells you almost nothing |
Downloads is the metric most often reported to leadership and the least informative. Someone who downloaded the app in March and has not opened it since counts identically to someone who opens it every shift.
What good adoption looks like
| DAU | Interpretation | Typical cause |
|---|---|---|
| Above 70% | Excellent | Something essential lives in the app |
| 60–70% | Strong | Regularly useful, well-maintained content |
| 40–60% | Moderate | Useful sometimes; competing channels still active |
| 25–40% | Weak | Opened when pushed, not by choice |
| Below 25% | Failed | No reason to return, or access is too hard |
Two caveats. Measure DAU against your rostered workforce, not your total headcount — a casual working one shift a fortnight cannot be a daily user, and including them distorts the figure. And always look at the range across sites, not the average.
The most diagnostic number is not your average DAU — it is the gap between your highest and lowest site. A group averaging 55% with sites ranging from 31% to 82% does not have an adoption problem. It has a specific problem at specific sites, usually traceable to a specific manager.
Diagnosing a stalled rollout
Work through these in order. Each one rules out a cause and points at the next.
The six causes of low adoption
1. Nothing worth returning for
The dominant cause. An app containing an about-us page, a values statement and last quarter’s newsletter has no daily purpose. The fix is to move something operationally necessary into it — the roster is the strongest candidate in almost every frontline business.
2. Competing channels
People take the path of least resistance. If the same information is on the noticeboard, in an email and in the app, the app loses because it is the only one requiring a behaviour change.
3. Access friction
Every additional step costs users. A company email requirement is disqualifying for most frontline workforces — covered in reaching employees without company email.
4. Manager disengagement
Consistently the strongest site-level predictor. A venue manager who posts, comments and points people to the app produces a team that uses it. One who does not, does not.
5. Stale content
Nobody returns to a feed that has not changed. A post a day is unnecessary; a post a week is roughly the floor.
6. Notification fatigue or silence
Untargeted notifications get disabled within a fortnight, and once disabled they rarely get re-enabled. Targeting by site and role is what keeps them alive.
Prosper Intranet & Hub See adoption by site, not just the average Prosper reports daily active users, read rates and acknowledgement completion by location and by team — so a stalled site is visible in week three rather than at the six-month review. See Prosper Intranet reportingHow to recover a stalled rollout
Recovery is possible but it requires changing something material. Reminder emails do not work — if they did, the problem would not exist.
Responding to low adoption with a communications campaign. Posters, emails and reminders address awareness, and awareness is almost never the problem — people know the app exists, they have simply concluded it is not useful. Change what is in it, not how loudly you talk about it.
Adoption in multi-site organisations
Expect a spread, then narrow it. A 25-point range between your best and worst site is normal at month three and a problem at month twelve.
Use your strongest site as the example. A venue manager explaining what they do is considerably more persuasive to other managers than head office explaining what they should do.
Watch the seasonal intake. A wave of new casuals will drag DAU down mechanically. Segment by tenure before concluding adoption has declined.
Report it publicly. Sites comparing themselves to each other moves the number faster than any central initiative. This is not a competition — it is visibility.
Common mistakes
Reporting downloads to leadership. It looks like progress and measures nothing.
Averaging across sites. Hides exactly the variance you need to act on.
Measuring against total headcount. Include irregular casuals and your DAU is structurally understated.
Waiting for the quarterly review. A stalled rollout is recoverable at week four and entrenched at month six.
Blaming the workforce. Low adoption is almost always a content or access problem, not a motivation problem.
Frequently asked questions
Daily active users above 60% of the rostered workforce indicates the platform is genuinely useful. Above 70% is excellent. Below 25% means there is no reason to return, or access is too difficult.
Daily active users as a percentage of the rostered workforce is the primary metric, supported by read rate per post, acknowledgement completion and activation. Downloads tell you about launch communication, not adoption.
Six common causes: nothing worth returning for, competing channels still active, access friction, disengaged managers, stale content, or notification fatigue. The dominant cause is the first — an app with no daily purpose.
Move something operationally necessary into the app — usually the roster — then remove a competing channel. Reminder campaigns address awareness, and awareness is almost never the actual problem.
Active users. Someone who downloaded the app months ago and never opened it counts the same as a daily user in a download figure, which makes it close to useless as a health metric.
Manager behaviour, almost always. Sites where the manager posts, comments and directs people to the app show materially higher usage than sites where the manager ignores it.
Yes, but only by changing something material — adding a necessary function, removing a competing channel, or fixing access. Recovery is realistic at week four and considerably harder at month six.
No — measure against the rostered workforce. A casual working one shift a fortnight cannot be a daily active user, and including them structurally understates your figure.
See adoption before it becomes a problem
Daily active users, read rates and acknowledgement completion reported by site and by team — so you know which location has stalled while it is still week three.