The way employees connect and exchange information is changing as more firms transition to a digital and hybrid workplace. The digital workplace allows employees to interact and collaborate even when they are not in the office. Email, instant messaging, and HR systems, as well as document management software and, of course, social intranets, can all be used to support this virtual work environment. A social intranet is at the heart of the digital workplace, and it's crucial for enabling real-time collaboration and meaningful connections.

Social intranets offer robust, mobile-friendly capabilities that can help businesses transition to a more digitally focused workforce. They integrate flexible content management systems, sophisticated search capabilities, and engaging collaboration features to increase productivity, information sharing, and community development.

Let talk about social media in the workplace

Social media has already posed an issue for thousands of employers, with incidents involving defamation, cyber bullying, freedom of speech, and invasion of privacy occurring on a regular basis. The eclipse of social media is showing no signs of halting anytime soon, with 82% (41.8 million) of adults using the internet in 2016. This, compared with only 35% (16.2 million) in 2006, illustrates the staggering growth of the platform. It was also found that, in 2016, 70% of adults accessed the internet 'on the go' using a mobile phone or smartphone, up from 66% in 2015 and nearly double the 2011 estimate of 36%.  Social media is now moving in to the workplace and can in fact make your company a better place to work.

1. Enhanced collaboration 

Communication is a snap when every employee is just an instant message or social tag away.

Despite its many advantages, email is not a great tool for internal communication. You know that emails are quickly misplaced amidst a deluge of other emails.

Internal and external communications are separated on social intranets, and team members can easily transfer huge files and answer to each other more quickly.

Finally, social intranet software's community feature enables employees to contribute ideas in a transparent and streamlined manner. Different ideas and proposals are frequently beneficial to businesses.

2. Boosted productivity

It's simple to believe the polar opposite is true. Isn't it true that having separate teams encourages productivity? Isn't it true that fewer distractions equal more output? This isn't always the case.

Sure, employees may occasionally use intranet social media portals to socialize or share personal information. However, this is a modest price to pay for improved teamwork, communication, and organization, all of which lead to higher production.

It's also worth noting that social intranet software permits dialogue monitoring. Making this information available to staff will frequently deter inappropriate sharing without jeopardizing the company's culture.

3. A higher level of employee satisfaction

It's crucial to ensure your team's happiness. According to studies, the typical employee tenure at a company is only four years, and employee turnover costs businesses six to nine months' income per departed employee.

This can be avoided. Team members will have fewer reasons to leave if employee satisfaction is improved. Employee engagement is considerably improved by an intranet social media portal. According to studies, engaged employees are generally happy employees.

4. Security risks are reduced

Slack or Dropbox will be the only option for your employees if they don't have an internal system for interacting and sharing crucial papers.

These are fantastic tools, but they are not under the supervision of your company's IT staff, and they may be more vulnerable to hacking than an internal system.

5. Increased output and results

A social intranet improves company output by allowing departments to easily guide and schedule internal communication. This means that company-wide communications or material may be distributed in minutes, allowing for rapid acceptance of new policies or quick responses to work changes, and assisting your organization in connecting with all of its locations and divisions.

6. Search features

Fully comprehensive search options that allow employees to simply find material to like, comment on, and share foster collaboration and online engagement for enhanced organizational productivity. While office surroundings may be disregarded when a workforce is busy and remote, it's vital to maintain open business interactions when successfully managing client objectives and deliverables.

7. Easy setup and user interface

If the search feature sounds great and easy to use, it is because we are used to it. Social intranets are quicker to set up and more pleasurable for all employees to accept as a new software solution when they use a common interactive design from mainstream social media platforms. You can also add open publishing rights, commenting, instant message, and activity feeds to your social intranet.

8. Collaboration on a global scale

If you work for a multinational corporation, communication tools like an intranet social media portal can help you improve collaboration. Adopt a solution that includes a mobile app, which allows for improved communication across time zones and schedules.

Also, make sure that your digital workplace offers translation services as needed so that all of your employees have the resources they require and feel valued. In fact, the system can "suggest" suitable material based on their own surfing behavior, location, and hobbies.

9.An innovative and customized solution 

Prioritize a customized social intranet solution, which means it will be a comprehensive out-of-the-box resource for all of your corporate processes and will be ready to use immediately.

This is time saving because you will not have to design your preferred digital workspace from the ground up. Your IT team will be able to easily deploy, update, and customize the platform.

10. Personalization

You can use your social intranet for employee onboarding. Company news, project updates, work instructions, events it's all easy to locate on a social intranet. It keeps you up to date. And the best part is: you only see what you choose to see. When you initially log in, you'll be presented with a list of appropriate groups to join, and you may always join other groups or start your own afterward. Because of this group structure, you only get to see stuff that is relevant to you. And you can pick how to take in all that information: you choose how and where it's put on your homepage. You can also pick and choose which alerts you want to receive.

11. Profiles of employees

  It's difficult to get to know your coworkers when there is no physical office. Employee profiles on the intranet, on the other hand, encourage employees to form personal bonds. Many firms incorporate personal information alongside professional information such as current projects and company knowledge. Colleagues might bond with shared interests such as scuba diving, baking, or being on a baseball team. It also enables identifying internal subject specialists to counsel on a workplace issue easier. Additionally, employee profiles can be used to identify team members for a corporate project.

Conclusion

There are a lot of benefits of using a social intranet, from boosting transparency and content search to supporting cooperation and increasing productivity. Many firms also find them valuable in regulating costs and boosting productivity.

To make the most of the possible benefits for your organization, the first step is to decide what business goals a social intranet will need to fulfill. Once goals are clearly established, you may assess what accessible tools are most suited to achieve those goals.