Intranets aren’t just for a steady flow of information between all internal stakeholders, but they are also an effective way to create more vibrant and connected workplaces. However, if an intranet is poorly maintained, it can have quite the opposite impact. This is because a traditional intranet uses outdated structures that are hard to navigate and don’t offer much value.
And even if you have your new, modern intranet set up and you are satisfied with the increasing collaboration and internal communications, there is a lot you need to keep in mind. The success of your intranet, in the long run, is determined by how well you manage it.
Here are five of the best practices of intranet management:
1. Encourage Two-Way Participation
The biggest shortcoming of traditional intranets is that they are inherently one-sided and often only used by HR representatives to post announcements. This limits the number of participants, which results in less contribution to the intranet.
The easiest way to overcome this issue would be to establish open channels of communications across your platform. This includes allowing for both criticism and feedback. People should be motivated to like, comment, and share posts as well.
2. Make It the Go-to Communication Channel
Your intranet needs to be the place for both informal conversations and official internal communications. If it isn’t, now would be a good time to deploy a strategy to bring more employees to it.
The first thing you should do is discourage the use of other avenues such as email threads, chats, newsletters, etc. Then gently phase these out for internal communication. Next, ensure that your intranet makes it easy to find information and people and connect with them.
If every team receives information relevant to only them, they will stop checking the intranet. So, see if there is a way to filter info before sending it out to ensure it gets to the right recipient.
3. Leverage Community Leaders
Find people who aren’t afraid to start discussions. These are the thought-leaders who can help their colleagues contribute to the intranet more often.
The theory of transference by Freud talks about how people tend to become followers if they trust a person. So, selecting community leaders from within your workforce is a great way to motivate others to start posting.
These community leaders can be tasked with developing well-thought-out posts, so healthy discussions and conversations are initiated.
4. Establish the Intranet for Remote Work
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the demand for remote work increased by 460%. As a result, organizations with a viable intranet already had all the tools and resources to make a seamless transition to remote work. But this goes well beyond the scope of chat programs, newsletters, and long emails – these features are not engaging or efficient enough to keep remote workers motivated.
To ensure all members of the office can communicate effectively with one another, include 4 these features within your intranet:
1. Video calling features
2. Instant messaging
3. Newsfeed
4. Mobile capabilities
5. Use Engaging, Relatable Content
As discussed earlier, communications shouldn’t be limited to company news unenthusiastically penned by HR representatives. Instead, for authentic engagement, ensure you promote posts and share important updates to attract your employees.
Here are some types of content you could put up on the intranet to attract and engage employees:
- News articles regarding the organization
- Birthday posts
- FAQs
- Promotion announcements
- Sales successes
- CEO-authored posts
- Introduction posts for new customers and employees
- Conference and events announcements
- Company events
- Surveys and polls
- Individual acknowledgment accomplishments
In Conclusion
These intranet best practices require minimal effort but ensure that people start using and stay active on your organization’s intranet platform. In addition, a successful digital interface makes way for people to collaborate and interact so that even if employees are working remotely, they are connected.
If you want an in-depth analysis of your intranet platform and targeted advice from professional strategic advisors, you can reach out to Definity First. We have helped countless businesses with digital transformation. Call us today for more information.
