If you're from an organisation that cares about keeping employees engaged and up to date with important internal information, you've probably implemented an employee intranet.
In short, an intranet is a private organisational network for sharing information, encouraging collaboration and increasing employee engagement.
Your staff intranet should be at the beating heart of your organisation. It's the place where employees should go to find key information, interact with colleagues and collaborate on important projects.
The possibilities of what an employee intranet can do for your business are far-reaching. But, like most big projects, it's not a case of distributing your intranet to your workforce and leaving it there.
The work on your intranet should never stop.
A successful employee intranet requires regular monitoring, updating and maintenance to ensure it continues meeting the needs of your workforce.
If you've noticed a drop in engagement on your employee intranet, it could be time to overhaul your platform and give it a refresh.
So, let's take a look at how to keep your intranet relevant and engaging to your employees.
Recommended reading
What is an intranet? The Ultimate Company Intranet Guide.
Establish the Purpose of Your Intranet
Here at Oak, we've seen many organisations through their intranet journey.
We've noticed that organisations achieving impressive results are often the ones that have an established purpose for their staff intranet.
Before investing time in new functionality or content, consider what your intranet software should help employees and the wider business achieve.
The three main purposes of an intranet could be:
Internal News and Information Distribution
Probably the most common purpose of a staff intranet is to distribute news and information.
According to Gallup, 74% of employees feel that they're missing important company news, highlighting communication challenges within organisations.
If the main purpose of your employee intranet is to resolve communication issues, make sure this is reflected throughout your platform.
Storing information in different, disconnected places can confuse employees and make them less likely to use your intranet.
An article by The Hub explains that some intranet projects fail because they don't establish the platform as a central hub for information.
Social Interaction
It's important to remember that your employee intranet doesn't have to be all about work.
Your platform can also be a place to encourage social interaction and improve workplace relationships.
Organisations that value good employee relationships can benefit from improved retention, productivity and collaboration.
Features such as instant messaging, timeline feeds and blogs can help encourage social interaction in the workplace.
Oak's Hubs feature allows employees to create spaces where they can collaborate and interact on different topics.
This can support wider employee engagement by helping colleagues feel connected to the organisation and each other.
Productivity and Collaboration
As businesses have transformed how they work, some organisations have experienced challenges maintaining productivity and collaboration.
An employee intranet can improve productivity in a number of ways.
It gives employees convenient access to the tools they need to do their jobs, helps them reach colleagues and provides opportunities to contribute ideas and feedback.
By making resources easier to find and communication more accessible, your intranet can support employees in their day-to-day responsibilities.
Ways to Keep Your Employee Intranet Relevant and Engaging
An employee intranet needs continuous attention if it's going to remain useful and engaging.
From maintaining a consistent flow of content to acting on employee feedback, the following five areas can help improve long-term engagement.
Content Planning Should Never Cease
You probably spent months planning content before launching your employee intranet.
But to make your project a real success, content planning should never stop.
Without relevant and regular content, you run the risk of your staff intranet going stale and losing the interest of employees.
To create a consistent flow of content, assign content captains to contribute to your employee intranet.
Your content captains should populate the site with engaging and informative content and understand what their audience enjoys interacting with.
Assign content owners across different departments and locations.
Plan a regular publishing schedule that includes company news, employee stories, team updates and important resources.
Review older content regularly to keep information relevant and accurate.
Understand Your Audience
To create engaging content your team will love, you need to understand what your audience wants to see and what they'll relate to.
Consider your employees' demographics, interests, roles, locations and everyday communication needs.
Research shows that people respond positively to stories they can relate to.
The more you understand your workforce, the easier it becomes to develop content that feels relevant and valuable.
Speak with employees from different departments and locations to understand what information they need.
Use feedback and engagement trends to identify the content employees find most useful.
Consider personalising news and information for different audiences instead of publishing everything to everyone.
Open the Floor for Feedback
Feedback should play a huge role in your employee intranet.
Without feedback, your platform won't be able to develop, evolve and achieve its main objectives.
We know that feedback helps facilitate personal growth and development. It's no different when it comes to your staff intranet.
With Oak, one of the easiest ways to gather valuable employee feedback is through the pulse survey tool.
Pulse surveys can be set up quickly and allow organisations to gather insights that teams can act on.
We would suggest distributing a survey to employees approximately every three months.
Use short pulse surveys to ask employees what they find useful and what could be improved.
Include questions about navigation, content relevance and access to information.
Communicate the changes you've made based on feedback so employees know their opinions are being considered.
Recommended reading
31 Intranet Features Your Company Needs (Ultimate Checklist).
Track Analytics
As with any other project, you'll need to keep track of the analytics within your employee intranet and measure results.
Monitoring analytics will help confirm whether your intranet is meeting its objectives and provide a better understanding of the content employees find useful.
Whether you measure analytics weekly or monthly, gaining insight into employee interests makes content planning easier and can help improve engagement across your platform.
Don't just measure how many employees use your intranet. Look at what they're doing when they get there.
Engagement and content performance can help identify opportunities to improve communication, navigation and the overall employee experience.
What should you review in your intranet analytics?
A regular review of the following areas can help you understand how employees use your platform and where improvements may be needed.
| Area to review | What to look for | How to improve |
|---|---|---|
| Employee usage | How often employees access the intranet and whether usage is increasing or declining. | Review accessibility, communication channels and the relevance of homepage content. |
| Content engagement | Which news stories, updates and resources generate the most engagement. | Use the findings to inform future content planning and publishing. |
| Employee feedback | Responses to surveys, polls and employee suggestions. | Identify recurring themes and prioritise improvements that address employee needs. |
| Important communications | Whether key announcements and mandatory updates are reaching the intended audience. | Refine audience targeting, distribution methods and follow-up communication. |
| Content relevance | Pages or documents that are outdated, unused or difficult to find. | Update, reorganise or remove content that no longer serves employees. |
Make It Mobile Friendly
Did you know that research from the Deskless Workforce 2018 report estimated that 80% of the global workforce worked in deskless roles?
Many of these employees don't have regular access to a company computer, which can make staying informed about important company announcements difficult.
So, what's the solution?
It's no secret that mobile phones have become an integral part of everyday life. Statista's smartphone adoption research tracks how mobile technology has become increasingly widespread around the world.
Making sure your employee intranet is mobile-friendly is essential to making it a success, particularly for organisations with frontline, remote and deskless employees.
With a staff intranet mobile app, employees can access company information wherever they are.
Push notifications also help organisations draw attention to important messages and urgent updates.
Providing a consistent experience across mobile and desktop means employees can access relevant information through the device that suits their working environment.
Make mobile access a priority
Ensure your intranet is easy to use on smaller screens.
Make important news, policies and workplace resources easy to find.
Use notifications for updates that need timely attention, without overwhelming employees.
Keeping employees engaged requires ongoing improvements, not a one-off intranet launch.
Regular content planning, employee feedback, analytics and mobile accessibility can help ensure your intranet continues to meet the needs of your workforce.
If you're considering a more substantial platform refresh, our best intranet software comparison can help you explore the different solutions available.
Keep Your Employee Intranet Relevant and Engaging
With the right approach and methodology, your employee intranet has the potential to deliver valuable results.
From more engaged and productive employees to better-structured communication and collaboration, the benefits of a successful intranet are far-reaching.
At Oak, we've been helping businesses engage their employees and improve their company culture for over 20 years, and we know what it takes to create a successful employee intranet.
If you'd like to learn more about how Oak could help your organisation achieve its internal communications and engagement goals, explore our platform and discover how it can support your workforce.
