The moment your portal loses trust
An HR Director once told me, “Our portal is fine, people just don’t use it.” So we watched employees try to use it.
Someone searched “maternity policy” and got an article last updated three years ago. Another clicked “reset password” and landed on steps for a tool the company no longer used. Within minutes, the mood shifted from hopeful to sceptical. Then the familiar line landed, “I’ll just email HR.”
That’s how portals lose. Not through one big failure. Through tiny betrayals.
Why content hygiene is a leadership issue
Stale content creates real cost:
- Users stop self-serving because they don’t trust what they find.
- Search results get noisy, which makes the portal feel broken.
- Support teams get dragged into repeat questions.
- Confidence in ServiceNow drops, even if the platform is solid.
A clean knowledge base is not busywork. It’s an engagement lever.
What “content hygiene” actually means
It’s a simple rhythm:
- Keep the most-used pages accurate.
- Remove what nobody uses.
- Rewrite what confuses people.
- Make search results feel reliable again.
It’s like maintaining signage in a large building. If the signs point to rooms that moved, people stop following signs.
A practical content hygiene routine that works
1) Start with the top 20 pages
Pull analytics for your most-viewed articles and highest-traffic topic pages. If these are wrong, nothing else matters.
2) Fix accuracy first, not formatting
Forget polishing. Ask two questions:
- Is this still true?
- Can a non-expert follow it without help?
If the answer is no, rewrite it in plain English.
3) Delete more than you add
Most portals have too much content, not too little. Archive duplicates. Remove outdated policy pages. Kill “placeholder” articles that never became useful. Less noise improves search immediately.
4) Standardise titles so search works harder
Users search using simple phrases. Match that:
- Reset my password
- Request a laptop
- Payslips
If your titles sound like internal project names, your search results will be a mess.
5) Set a quarterly review cycle
Make it boring and consistent:
- Quarter start: review top pages.
- Mid-quarter: review top failed searches.
- Quarter end: prune duplicates and update labels.
This is how you stop content rot.
What good looks like
When content hygiene is working, you’ll see:
- Higher deflection because users trust what they find.
- Fewer “quick questions” that become tickets.
- Better search success rates.
- Calmer support teams.
- More repeat portal usage, because it feels reliable.
This is one of those changes that looks small but shifts behaviour fast.
The thought leadership bit leaders miss
Most organisations treat content as an afterthought. The best ones treat it like product quality.
If your Employee Center is your front door, your content is the experience. Keep it clean and people will walk in willingly.
Want to make this easy?
If you want to move quickly, we can run a focused content hygiene review, fix the highest-impact pages, and give you a repeatable quarterly plan your team can actually keep up with. Not in the mood to wait 24 days for your tips?
Quick answers for busy leaders
Q: How often should we review ServiceNow knowledge content?
A: Quarterly for high-traffic content, and monthly for top failed searches if ticket volume is high.
Q: What’s the fastest win for content hygiene?
A: Update the top 20 most viewed articles and remove duplicates that clutter search.