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Unlocking the Full Potential of Your Intranet Uses:13 Essential Uses for Maximizing a Modern Intranet
Intranets or employee communication apps often encounter challenges leading to failure, with a historical perception of being imposed tools rather than embraced work platforms by employees.
This post aims to dissect various use cases and provide examples demonstrating effective utilization of an intranet (or intranet-like tool) to not only address common pitfalls but also to actively foster connection, nurture organizational culture, and facilitate seamless communication within a workplace.
Explore how leveraging an intranet can transform it into a dynamic and integral part of an organization's ecosystem.
The intranet as we know it is changing in to something much more
The intranet has recently shifted from being an accepted pain point for employees to becoming a paramount corporate priority.
C-suite executives, IT leaders, and heads of communications are all confronted with the challenge of modernizing the intranet to align with the demands of today's intricate hybrid workforce.
However, it's crucial to recognize that the modernization of the intranet is just one facet of a larger challenge. Meeting the diverse needs of today's workforce necessitates a comprehensive overhaul of the entire digital employee experience.
Beyond the intranet, we examine the integral components required to create a modern digital employee experience that not only meets but exceeds the expectations of a dynamic and evolving workforce.
What problems are today's intranets trying to solve?
Over the past decade, enterprises have incorporated various tools and platforms into their digital workplaces, aiming to enhance agility.
However, the disconnected and fragmented nature of these technologies has inadvertently given rise to new challenges for employees, collectively known as "friction."
This friction, characterized by time-consuming searches for information and navigating through disparate software interfaces, has become increasingly prevalent in today's mobile and distributed workforce.
Recognizing the detrimental impact of friction on efficiency and communication, organizations are now focusing on modernizing the intranet. The goal is to establish a central hub, such as AgilityPortal, where employees can seamlessly access the information, tools, and company updates essential to their daily work.To comprehend the role a modern intranet should play, it's essential to redefine its purpose.
What is a modern intranet?
Organizations are embracing the modernization of intranets with the aim of enabling employees to achieve more with increased efficiency. The underlying vision is to enhance agility, thereby facilitating the accomplishment of overarching business objectives. A modern intranet empowers employees to undertake a myriad of tasks, including:
- Accessing company information effortlessly through web or mobile phone browsers.
- Engaging with personalized company news, fostering a more targeted and relevant communication experience.
- Accessing essential systems and applications required for day-to-day tasks.
- Streamlining the process of finding resources and documents, contributing to a more efficient workflow.
By embracing the capabilities of a modern intranet, companies aspire to create an environment where employees can optimize their efforts, ultimately propelling the organization towards enhanced agility and successful goal attainment.
Characteristics of a modern intranet
- Ensure a Positive Employee Experience: A modern intranet should prioritize user-friendliness, delivering an intuitive user experience (UX) akin to consumer applications to enhance accessibility for employees.
- Integrate Systems and Applications: The integration of corporate systems, business applications, and consumer tools, including platforms, productivity suites, and collaboration tools, is imperative for a modern intranet.
- Provide True Mobile Reach and Support: Going beyond a mere mobile web experience, a truly modern intranet should offer native iOS and Android employee apps, ensuring seamless accessibility on mobile devices.
- Complement Cloud Office Solutions: Considering the prevalence of Microsoft 365 and Google G Suite in enterprises, a modern intranet must seamlessly integrate with these cloud office solutions, recognizing that many employees spend their workdays within these productivity applications.
- Offer Personalization: Acknowledging the diverse information needs of employees, a modern intranet should prioritize personalization, tailoring the information, links, and applications each user receives based on their specific role and preferences.
In essence, the distinction of a modern intranet lies not just in the claim but in the ability to tackle real organizational challenges by embodying these key characteristics.
What should an intranet do?
Distinguishing itself from workplace chat platforms, the intranet serves the purpose of discerning crucial announcements from the collaborative noise. While workplace conversations are valued, not every interaction carries the same weight.
In essence, the intranet:
- Integrates essential work components.
- Serves as a filter, prioritizing key context and information.
As you review this, consult with your company's operations and people ops to understand the capabilities of your existing intranet.
The purpose of an intranet
Before delving into the implementation, it's crucial to reflect on the purpose behind seeking an intranet for your company. If the goal is to enhance employee engagement, intranets often serve as spaces for collaboration and congregation.
However, it's essential to avoid falling into the employee engagement trap.
Merely pushing people to contribute without offering meaningful support can be counterproductive, potentially diverting them from their primary responsibilities. Social intranets focused solely on "engaging employees" may resemble social media, causing constant distractions with content blasts and spammy notifications.Instead of risking a negative impact on focus and productivity, a valuable platform should encompass elements that facilitate employee success.
For an initiative critical to organizational success, opt for a robust platform that provides employees with a sense of belonging, facilitates seamless communication, and recognizes their contributions to a thriving team.
1.Make it a space where you can easily locate team members in the employee directory
Utilize your intranet to create a place to locate important people in your organisation:
- Import employee information seamlessly from directory providers such as Azure, GSuite, Workday, Bamboo, Rippling, etc., which becomes especially crucial during rapid scaling.
- Efficiently sort and filter employees based on key information.
- Enable easy and effective search functionality for quick access to individuals.
- Facilitate the creation of new teams with the ability to designate team leaders responsible for updating team pages.
- Establish team "spaces" where groups can share critical information and initiatives essential for the broader organization, akin to a bulletin board for the team.
In today's dynamic business landscape, having the best employee directory software which is crucial for promoting a transparent workplace and facilitating the effortless location of colleagues within the business.
2.Make it a hub for exploring key company information
Make your company intranet the focal point for crucial work-related information, particularly for new hires.
Treat it as a hybrid platform for knowledge management and intranet functions, designed to address frequently asked questions and eliminate dependence on individuals as bottlenecks.
The greater the context provided to employees, the quicker they can contribute to the success of your company.
Here are five examples of how to enhance your company intranet:
- Interactive Onboarding Hub: Create a dedicated onboarding section on the intranet that guides new employees through essential information, such as company policies, team structures, and key resources. Include interactive elements to make the onboarding process engaging and informative.
- FAQ Knowledge Base: Develop a robust FAQ section that addresses commonly asked questions across various departments. This knowledge base can serve as a quick reference for employees, reducing the need for constant inquiries and fostering a more self-sufficient workforce.
- AgilityPortal Company Handbook: Leverage the features of AgilityPortal to compile and organize a comprehensive company handbook. This digital handbook can encapsulate the company's values, mission, and policies, providing employees with a centralized resource for understanding the organization's core principles.
- Collaborative Discussion Forums: Implement discussion forums on the intranet where employees can collaborate, share insights, and seek advice. These forums can foster a sense of community, encourage knowledge exchange, and contribute to a more informed and connected workforce.
- News and Updates Section (Posts): Utilize the Posts feature to regularly share news, updates, and important announcements. This section can keep employees informed about organizational changes, upcoming events, and relevant industry news, contributing to a more informed and engaged workforce.
Utilizing AgilityPortal for a comprehensive company handbook can reinforce your values, while utilizing Posts will enhance awareness and alignment.
3.Make it a space to check-in with teams and employees
When making a introduction of a new company-wide tool, those in HR teams should consider the perspective of individual contributors and how their active participation can be encouraged. It's crucial to assess whether the tool genuinely adds tangible, everyday value for the average employee or if it's merely another checkbox for HR initiatives.
The effectiveness of an intranet in driving organizational change relies on its adoption by the average person. If the intranet goes unused by the majority, the potential for influencing positive organizational shifts diminishes.AgilityPortal presents various opportunities for individual contributors through features like the daily to do lists, member check-ins, recognition center for send colleagues appreciations, all contributing to shaping and reinforcing your organizational culture.
For managers, an intranet can serve as a valuable tool for gaining a quick overview of their team or direct reports' activities.
4.Allow employees to learn more about each other with people's profiles.
In traditional office settings, introductions were more natural, allowing for a better understanding of personalities, preferences, and dislikes. In remote work scenarios, there's a risk of perceiving co-workers as disengaged automatons.
Utilizing people profiles on your intranet serves as the designated space for employees to explore more about their colleagues, fostering a sense of connection in a virtual work environment.
Leverage your intranet to:- Automatically import data from HRIS tools, encompassing details such as birthdays, work anniversaries, and team/department rosters.
- Customize profile questions and fields tailored to your organization, incorporating inquiries like "Share one fun fact about yourself?"—essentially creating a user manual for work.
- Specify work locations, even for remote employees, by indicating their city/town or office location.
- Display an individual's manager information for organizational charts and reporting structures.
- Consider showcasing personality information, such as Enneagram or DISC profiles, to further enhance team understanding and dynamics.
5.Move away from email, and use announcements for top-down company updates
Utilize the "Posts" feature in AgilityPortal:
- It provides a rich-text editor for easy formatting and embedding of diverse content, including videos from platforms like Youtube, Loom, or other video sources.
- Important posts and announcements can be prominently featured on the company homepage.
- Cross-post your company announcements through email, Slack, and/or Microsoft Teams for broader reach.
- Keep track of who has read your posts, ensuring effective dissemination of information.
Moreover, employees should have convenient access to the historical record of announcements. This is particularly beneficial for expediting onboarding processes, especially in distributed teams, offering valuable organizational context over time.
AgilityPortal enables you to disseminate company-wide communications. It also facilitates the connection of your Slack account, allowing you to send direct messages through Slack chat.
Also, it provides a detailed breakdown, indicating who has read the communications, when they were read. You can even mark an announcement as "must-read," requiring members to confirm and acknowledge that they have read the communication.
Using announcements can help reduce email overload by replacing emails and utilizing announcements for internal communications.
6.Show the organisational chart and allow employees to view the organisational structure
An organizational chart offers transparency regarding internal roles, responsibilities, and job titles, which is particularly valuable for mid-sized and enterprise-level organizations experiencing annual shifts in employee roles and responsibilities. The org chart serves as a clear visual representation of these changes.
Through an org chart, businesses can effectively communicate employee expectations. Moreover, it provides essential contact information and other pertinent details about employees to the entire organization.Here are five benefits of incorporating an organizational chart into an intranet:
- Clarity in Roles and Responsibilities: An org chart provides a visual representation of the organizational structure, offering clarity on individual roles and responsibilities. This aids employees in understanding reporting lines and organizational hierarchies.
- Enhanced Communication: With contact information readily available on the org chart, internal communication becomes more streamlined. Employees can easily connect with colleagues, fostering collaboration and facilitating smoother interactions within the organization.
- Efficient Onboarding: For new hires, an org chart serves as a valuable resource for understanding the organizational layout and getting to know team members and their roles. This accelerates the onboarding process by providing a clear overview of the company's structure.
- Adaptability to Organizational Changes: In dynamic organizations where roles and reporting structures may evolve, the org chart can be swiftly updated on the intranet. This ensures that employees stay informed about changes, maintaining an accurate representation of the current organizational landscape.
- Employee Empowerment: Access to the org chart empowers employees by offering insights into the broader organizational context. Understanding how their roles fit into the larger structure fosters a sense of belonging and helps employees comprehend their impact on the organization.
Incorporating an organizational chart into the intranet not only enhances organizational transparency but also contributes to improved communication, efficiency, and employee engagement.
7.Maintain employee engagement by establishing company goals and OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)
Employees should understand the connection between their daily tasks and broader strategic organizational goals. Often, these high-level initiatives remain concealed or are not regularly communicated.
If your intranet aspires to serve as the hub for the "most important stuff," the absence of references to strategy, goals, and KPIs means it doesn't genuinely support work activities.Even if your organization hasn't fully developed these aspects, it's advisable to consider integrating such functionality in the future. This becomes particularly crucial for gaining leadership buy-in and fostering widespread adoption.
AgilityPortal empowers business owners to establish company goals or individual objectives within the platform, enabling our clients to effectively maintain employee engagement.
Leverage your intranet to:
- Consolidate and centralize crucial organizational goals in a single location.
- Easily update and share the status of goals, providing a streamlined communication channel for progress updates.
- Establish private goals specifically for leadership or executive teams.
- Highlight and prioritize key goals and north-star metrics on the company homepage for quick reference and visibility.
8.Centralize the company calendar with important company events in one intranet
At AgilityPortal, we are actively developing functionality to enhance this feature.
Currently you can effortlessly embed and synchronize these events directly from your Google Calendar or Outlook, ensuring that your company events are seamlessly integrated into the intranet for easy access and reference by all team members.
The benefits of a company calendar:- Keep everyone updated on company events, meetings, deadlines, and important dates.
- Enhance visibility into team projects and individual schedules.
- Minimize repetitive emails and redundant communication.
- Effortlessly schedule meetings and events, checking for conflicts and team availability.
- Enhance project management by visualizing timelines and dependencies.
- Promote collaboration by highlighting shared deadlines and milestones.
- Reduce time spent searching for information and confirming schedules.
- Ensure everyone is aligned and working towards common goals.
- Mitigate scheduling conflicts and prevent missed deadlines.
- Promote company culture and events through a centralized calendar.
- Encourage participation in team-building activities and social events.
- Nurture a sense of community and belonging within the organization.
9.Use it to ensure that you gather employee feedback through polls and surveys
Additionally, your intranet should provide the capability to effortlessly generate quick polls, enabling you to pose spontaneous questions to your company.
This straightforward feature is instrumental in ensuring that organizational leaders remain attuned to the dynamic "pulse" of the company, fostering a more responsive and engaged workplace environment.
The benefits from a Employee point of view:- Surveys and polls offer employees a platform to express their opinions and contribute ideas regarding various aspects of the workplace, such as company culture, policies, benefits, and tools. This fosters a sense of value and engagement, making them feel more involved in the decision-making process.
- Regularly conducted polls and surveys aid leadership in understanding employee concerns and priorities, paving the way for more open and transparent communication between management and staff. This, in turn, nurtures a trusting and collaborative work environment.
- Utilizing polls and surveys to gather input on company events, social activities, and other initiatives affecting employee morale and engagement helps build a stronger sense of community and belonging within the organization.
- Through the collection of feedback via polls and surveys, organizations can pinpoint areas requiring improvement in operations, processes, and the overall employee experience. This proactive approach contributes to a more efficient and productive workplace for everyone involved.
- Utilizing polls and surveys yields valuable data that informs strategic decisions within the organization. This data proves instrumental in enhancing products and services, devising new initiatives, and optimizing resource allocation.
- When employees sense that their voices are acknowledged and their feedback is valued, their engagement in the workplace increases. This heightened engagement often translates to improved productivity, lower turnover rates, and heightened customer satisfaction.
- Actively seeking and responding to employee feedback contributes to the creation of a more positive and appealing employer brand for organizations. This, in turn, facilitates the attraction and retention of top talent.
- Early identification and resolution of employee concerns through polls and surveys help organizations sidestep potential costly issues, such as low morale, high turnover, and productivity challenges.
So, polls and surveys serve as powerful tools for enhancing communication, engagement, and decision-making within an organization.
10.Spark up conversations by utilising discussion forums for Q&A
Consider providing a space where individuals can pose questions, offer assistance, and contribute to a company knowledge base or knowledge management system.
Additionally, consider incorporating discussion forums, resembling a forum, where meaningful conversations can take place.
For instance, if you using AgilityPortal, you have the option to establish a dedicated Q&A category, encouraging individuals to seek answers to pressing questions—especially crucial for organizations with a distributed or remote structure.Discussion forums continue to attract individuals for various reasons, often catering to those seeking discussions on specific subjects.
- Team members can promptly inquire, share their expertise, and seek assistance from colleagues spanning various departments and locations. This breaks down silos, fostering collaboration across the organization.
- Forums offer a space for open discussions covering a range of topics, promoting creative problem-solving and the generation of innovative ideas.
- Forums serve as a centralized hub for information and updates, diminishing dependence on email and guaranteeing that everyone is well-informed with the latest news.
11.Boost engagement with features such as comments and reactions, similar to those found on social media platforms
Is your team currently able to leave comments on your intranet? While this functionality is common in platforms like Yammer, Facebook, Slack, and Microsoft Teams, it may be absent from traditional intranets.
The ability for team members to leave comments serves as a dynamic and interactive way to exchange thoughts, ideas, and feedback within the organizational framework. Incorporating this feature into your intranet can contribute to a more collaborative and engaging workplace environment.
Integrating a commenting system within your intranet offers numerous advantages. It facilitates real-time communication, enabling team members to provide instant feedback on posts, announcements, and shared content.Drawing inspiration from social media platforms like Facebook, the inclusion of a commenting feature on your intranet can enhance the overall user experience. Beyond textual comments, incorporating reaction options—such as likes, thumbs up, or emojis—can provide a quick and expressive way for team members to convey their sentiments.
12.Use the search for finding everything across your intranet and tools
Unlock Maximum Productivity with a Well-Designed Intranet-Search Essentials.
In today's fast-paced work environment, efficiency is key. A thoughtfully designed intranet search system can revolutionize the way your employees access information, making it the quickest and simplest route to productivity.
Consider deploying a system that boasts robust or federated search capabilities. By implementing such a solution, your intranet can serve as a central hub for crucial information, ensuring that everything is easily discoverable.
Federated search takes this a step further by allowing users to search across multiple tools simultaneously, such as Confluence, Google Drive, or Dropbox. Imagine the convenience of a single search yielding results from various platforms, eliminating the need for employees to ask, "Where do I find XYZ document?"
With our advanced intranet search, empower your team to navigate the wealth of information seamlessly, saving time and enhancing overall productivity. Invest in a search solution that aligns with the importance of your intranet as the heart of your workplace communication and collaboration.
Make information retrieval a breeze and watch your team thrive!
13.Leverage the Power of Real-Time Instant Messaging with Intranet Chat Feature
Transform the way your team collaborates by embracing real-time conversation through the intranet chat feature. This dynamic tool facilitates instant communication, fostering a more connected and responsive work environment.
With the intranet chat feature, team members can engage in quick exchanges, share updates, and address queries seamlessly. The immediacy of real-time conversations enhances collaboration, promotes efficient decision-making, and creates a sense of interconnectedness among team members.
Whether it's brainstorming ideas, seeking quick clarifications, or sharing important updates, the intranet chat feature provides a platform for swift and effective communication. Break down communication barriers and promote a culture of responsiveness with this invaluable tool at your team's disposal.
Embrace the future of workplace communication with the intranet chat feature, where instant connection leads to improved collaboration and productivity.
Elevate your team's communication experience and streamline your workflow with this powerful real-time communication tool.
- Video and Audio Calls: Elevate your discussions by transitioning to video or audio calls, fostering more personalized interactions and richer communication experiences.
- Persistent Chat History: Easily access past conversations and messages for reference or future use, providing a valuable resource for seamless continuity in communication.
- Topic Channels: Cultivate focused discussions by creating channels dedicated to specific departments, projects, or interests, facilitating organized and efficient communication.
- Polls and Surveys: Streamline the gathering of feedback and input from colleagues with quick and easy polls and surveys integrated within the chat interface, ensuring a swift and efficient process.
- Emojis and Reactions: Infuse personality into your messages and convey nonverbal cues by incorporating emojis and reactions, adding a touch of expressiveness to your communication.
- Moderation Tools: Safeguard a safe and productive environment by effectively managing chat activity through moderation tools, ensuring a secure and conducive space for collaboration.
Optimize your communication platform with these features to create a seamless and enriching communication environment for your team.
Which Intranet Features Should You Consider?
Introducing an intranet can be a gradual process, but it doesn't have to be cumbersome.
At AgilityPortal we advocate for a focused approach initially, emphasizing a select set of features and use-cases. Begin with the essentials, then progressively incorporate additional functionality to transform these features into the cornerstone of your workplace.
In the contemporary landscape of remote and hybrid work, organizations require internal communication software that seamlessly adapts.
Unlike traditional intranets that demanded extensive learning curves and significant IT investment, we aim to make the launch of AgilityPortal a matter of minutes, not months.
Empower your organization to swiftly embrace the benefits of internal communication by implementing AgilityPortal's streamlined intranet solutions. Start small, grow effortlessly, and establish a digital home for your most crucial work-related information.
Use AgilityPortal as Your Digital HQ & Modern Intranet
While traditional intranets may consist of static pages burdened with forgotten logins, AgilityPortal represents a revolutionary shift—a centralized hub seamlessly binding all aspects of your work. Unlike its stagnant counterparts, AgilityPortal breathes life into your workplace interactions, offering dynamic features that transcend the limitations of conventional intranet platforms.
AgilityPortalstands as the nucleus of your work ecosystem, fostering connectivity and collaboration.
Say goodbye to the static and disconnected experience of traditional intranets, and welcome a unified, vibrant hub that enhances productivity, engagement, and overall work cohesion.
Join the evolution—choose AgilityPortal as the driving force behind a more connected and efficient work environment.
AgilityPortal: A Powerful Alternative to Microsoft Teams
Experience a centralized Digital HQ that brings together all your critical work components, creating a unified and efficient workspace. With a sleek and modern user interface, AgilityPortal ensures a clean and intuitive user experience.
What sets AgilityPortal apart is its seamless integration with Slack and work chat, making it the only intranet purpose-built to complement these platforms. Utilize posts to effortlessly share company-wide announcements and track viewer engagement, fostering transparent communication across your organization.
Delve into team dynamics with detailed team profiles and an employee directory, promoting connections and collaboration. AgilityPortal simplifies your experience initially through add-ons, but its extendable nature ensures adaptability and growth over time.
Unify your data across various systems with seamless integration, including HRIS, project management, and work chat. Keep your leadership aligned and engaged with Goal/OKR tracking, providing a perfect tool for executive buy-in.
Facilitate swift onboarding with a company handbook that turns hours into minutes for new hires. What sets AgilityPortal apart is the ability to create your company home effortlessly using no-code widgets, saving you time compared to traditional lengthy processes—transforming months into mere minutes.
Elevate your workspace with AgilityPortal, where efficiency, collaboration, and adaptability converge in one powerful digital solution.
AgilityPortal pricing
- Medium (P2): $3 per month. Perfect for small business who want to see how AgilityPortal can support internal communications
- Large (P3): $6 per month. An offering for teams who want to use AgilityPortal as a workspace
- Enterprise (P4): For entire organizations who want to create a customizable company digital HQ
Unlock AgilityPortal's Potential for Free! No Credit Card Needed. Explore All Features for the Initial 2 Weeks.
Click here to explore our intranet pricing calculator.
How To Get Your Intranet Off The Ground
Embarking on an intranet project can be challenging, but with the insights shared in this book, you can navigate the process and harness the full power of an intranet portal.
Learn the essential steps to not only launch your intranet but to make it a dynamic and indispensable tool for your organization.
Explore the key strategies and best practices to ensure a successful intranet implementation that enhances communication, collaboration, and overall workplace efficiency.
Let this guide be your companion in unleashing the true potential of your intranet journey.
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Jill Romford
I am a digital nomad, lover of exploring new places and making friends.
I love to travel and I love the internet. I take pictures of my travels and share them on the internet using Instagram.
Traveler, entrepreneur, and community builder. I share my insights on digital marketing and social media while inspiring you to live your fullest life.
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