Norwegian companies have increased their web presence, but are still lagging their Nordic counterparts

By Sophie Karlsson

This year’s Webranking by Comprend has shown that Norwegian websites have increased their web presence since last year, this can be attributed to improvements in areas such as sustainability and functionality. The average score for Norwegian companies is 42.6, which means that despite improvements, Norwegian websites are still falling short of their Nordic counterparts.

There is still quit some work to be done for many of the ranked Norwegian companies to meet the demand of their stakeholders. Over 2/3 of the ranked companies are still scoring under 50 points out of 100. Although it should be noted that the average score for Norwegian corporate websites continues to increase, which is a move in the right direction. Norwegian websites are meeting half or just above half of their stakeholder’s expectations in areas such as reporting and governance, which is positive in times when transparency is in demand. However, to start competing with Nordic counterparts, Norwegian companies must aim at meeting more than half of the stakeholder demands.

Summary of findings:

This year’s winner is Orkla
There has been an increase in the number of responsive sites
Norwegian websites have become better at communicating their sustainability efforts
A slight decrease in their careers section

SEE ALL NORWEGIAN RESULTS

Facilitating the use of a corporate website

Over the course of the last four years, Norwegian companies have increased the average score for areas including features and functionalities by 28%, seeing an increase from the score of 32% in 2013 to 60% this year. A large part of the improvements have happened only in the last year, with the average score increasing by 11%. This is a direct result of Norwegian companies improving their internal search engines by on average 20% since last year from 36% to 56%. The number of responsive websites has also seen an increase, from 70% last year to this year’s 80%. An improvement well in line with what stakeholders want.

Sustainability – improving year by year

Just like their neighbouring countries, Norwegian companies have become better at communicating their Sustainability efforts. Although Denmark and Finland remain at the top with scores that still outperform Norway, Norwegian companies have seen improvements. Since last year, they have increased their average score in communicating sustainability by 10% year on year from 24% to 34%. The increase can be attributed to companies providing a CSR strategy, which has seen an increase from 40% to 62%. Also providing their CSR reports which has improved their score from 27% to 50%. To see continued improvement, Norwegian companies would benefit from presenting their environmental targets, at current only 15% publish this information and their environmental target achievements, only 5% of companies including this information on their site. According to Comprends surveys, 64% of stakeholders finds this information important, which should serve as motivation for Norwegian companies to provide this.

A slight decrease in the career section

In comparison with last year, Norwegian companies have decreased their average score for their careers sections slightly from 28% to 26%. The decrease has largely been attributed to an underperformance when it comes to providing employee testimonies, information about compensation and HR contacts. Improving these areas should be of interest to companies as Comprend’s career survey show an increase demand for transparency and feedback among jobseekers. For example, many jobseekers look for testimonies from current employees before accepting a job, which is why it is favourable for companies to provide this.

This year’s results

Last year’s top three remain on the podium. For the third year in a row, conglomerate company Orkla stands as the Norwegian number one with a score of 70.5, a slight decrease from last year’s 71.7.

“We are very pleased that we have retained our top ranking. This strong result is recognition of the systematic efforts that have been made over time to continuously improve Orkla’s website,” says Orkla web editor Julie Lochner.

Telecommunication company Telenor has increased its score by 8.9 points since last year and arrives in second place with a score of 67.7. Statoil arrives in third place with a score of 56.9. This year’s best climber is engineering company Subsea 7, who have increased its score by 10.2 points from 36.7 to 46.9.

Rank	Company	Score
1	Orkla	70.5
2	Telenor	67.7
3	Statoil	56.9
4	Yara International	53.9
5	Norsk Hydro	52.8
6	Schibsted	47.5
7	Subsea 7	46.9
8	Gjensidige Forsikring	44.6
9	Aker	43.5
10	DnB NOR	41.6