Blog Why most modern SharePoint intranets fail employees (and how to fix it) Last updated: March 10, 2026 Calculating… You’ve invested in Microsoft 365. You’ve launched your SharePoint communication sites. You’ve followed the “look book” templates. Yet, six months later, engagement is hovering at 10%, and employees are still asking, “Where do I find my payslip?”… Don’t panic. 90% of intranet projects fail to meet their goals, but you’re not going to be in that 90%. Before we fix the problem, we have to admit why a platform as powerful as SharePoint struggles to keep people interested. Many organisations fall into the “feature trap.” They try to launch everything at once to justify the cost, instead of solving the two or three core problems that actually matter to their people. Here is why “native SharePoint” often falls short and how to bridge the gap. SharePoint is built for documents, not people SharePoint’s DNA is in document management. It is a world-class filing cabinet. However, employees don’t visit an intranet because they want to browse a filing cabinet; they visit to feel connected, informed, and supported. In large organizations, there can be an onus on keeping high-classification documents on SharePoint for security reasons, but that doesn’t mean your employees have to live there. The problem: SharePoint news often feels static. It lacks the vibrant, social energy of the modern web. The failure: When an interface feels like a file directory, employees only visit when they absolutely have to. It becomes a ghost town. The solution: Lead with integration. Keep your documents secure in SharePoint, but surface them through a UI that feels like a modern app. Oak sits on top of SharePoint to provide a “front door” your employees actually want to walk through. IT can be a bottleneck and content can quickly become stale In a native SharePoint environment, a simple layout change often requires a ticket to IT or an external consultant. Internal Comms teams aren’t web developers, and if the tools are too complex, content goes stale. The problem: Tools that require web development skills or certain permissions, rather than tools that are self-serving for particular teams. If the tools are too complex to use, content doesn’t get updated. The failure: Stale content is the #1 killer of intranets. If an employee sees the same “Welcome our new CEO” banner from six months ago, they stop checking the site entirely. The solution: Give power back to the Comms team. By integrating Sharepoint with a dedicated intranet with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you remove the maintenance burden. You can launch campaigns, update homepages, and change branding in minutes, ensuring your content is always fresh and agile, without a single line of code. The "frontline blindspot" (the license gap) Accessibility remains SharePoint’s biggest hurdle. To access it, an employee typically needs a Microsoft 365 license and a corporate identity. For companies with large frontline teams—like Five Guys or Aldi—licensing every store worker is an expensive barrier. The problem: This effectively locks out your frontline. Warehouse staff, delivery drivers, and retail workers rarely have M365 accounts and this creates a two-tier workforce with methods of communication varying hugely, without being effective. Frontline staff are left relying on physical notice boards and “top-down” information filtered through managers. The failure: By using a SharePoint-only strategy, you accidentally create a two-tier workforce where the people who need information the most are the ones least likely to see it. The solution: Oak Engage bridges the license gap by reaching frontline workers via a branded mobile app that doesn’t require an M365 seat or a corporate email. Whether they are on a shift or on the move, your entire workforce stays connected to the same single Source of truth. The Cost Factor: Using a dedicated engagement platform for the frontline brings huge cost savings compared to the “tax” of full Microsoft licenses for employees who don’t need them. Notification fatigue vs meaningful reach SharePoint is part of a noisy, oftentimes disconnected, ecosystem. Between Teams pings, Outlook emails, and Viva Engage alerts, updates in SharePoint can easily get lost. The problem: SharePoint lacks the sophisticated “push” capabilities needed to cut through the noise. The failure: You spend hours writing a critical update, but it’s “pulled” by the employee (if they remember to look) rather than “pushed” to them when it matters. The solution: Use Smart Push Notifications. Like Five Guys, you can create country-specific timelines and localized news feeds. Instead of shouting into the void, Oak can target news based on role, location, or department. We cut through the noise to ensure the right message reaches the right person on the device they use most. The scavenger hunt search Finding a specific policy in SharePoint can feel like a maze of nested folders and broken links. SharePoint search is often restricted to specific “silos,” meaning if you aren’t searching in the right folder or site, the file simply doesn’t exist to the user. The problem: SharePoint returns thousands of results based on file names, but often fails to prioritise the relevant or official version of a document. Employees find themselves digging through “Final_v1,” “Final_v2_edit,” and “OLD_Policy” just to find a simple form. The failure: If an employee can’t find what they need in 30 seconds, they give up and message a colleague, or worse, they use an outdated version of a policy. This “search struggle” is a major productivity killer; research shows the average knowledge worker wastes nearly 20% of their workweek just looking for internal information. The solution: Our Federated Search acts as a single gateway. It doesn’t just search the intranet; it searches through your integrated SharePoint libraries, Teams files, and third-party apps simultaneously. Oak uses intelligent ranking to ensure the “Official Source” is always at the top, delivering one set of results and zero frustration. How to fix a failing SharePoint intranet: Your new strategy The goal isn’t to “delete” SharePoint. As we discussed in our viva engage vs. intranet blog, SharePoint is an essential tool for document security. The fix is to overlay it with a platform designed for humans. The “Oak power-up” checklist: SharePoint limitation The Oak Engage solution Complex navigation A “consumer-grade” UI that feels like an app, not a folder. License requirements Reach frontline workers via a mobile app without M365 licenses. Hard-to-use templates Intuitive “drag-and-drop” editors for comms teams (no IT required). Silent news Smart push notifications that reach employees on their phones. Siloed documents Federated search that finds SharePoint files from within the Oak app. The verdict: Don't blame the tool, change the experience SharePoint isn’t broken, it’s just not been designed around reaching and engaging your people. Focus on solving your communications gaps in line with your business goals, then let your site evolve based on employee feedback. By using Oak Engage as your “front door” to the Microsoft ecosystem, you keep the security and structure of SharePoint while finally giving your employees a reason to log in every morning. Stop struggling with Sharepoint. See how you can enhance what you already have or begin to make the switch to something that connects your people.
You’ve invested in Microsoft 365. You’ve launched your SharePoint communication sites. You’ve followed the “look book” templates. Yet, six months later, engagement is hovering at 10%, and employees are still asking, “Where do I find my payslip?”… Don’t panic. 90% of intranet projects fail to meet their goals, but you’re not going to be in that 90%. Before we fix the problem, we have to admit why a platform as powerful as SharePoint struggles to keep people interested. Many organisations fall into the “feature trap.” They try to launch everything at once to justify the cost, instead of solving the two or three core problems that actually matter to their people. Here is why “native SharePoint” often falls short and how to bridge the gap.
SharePoint is built for documents, not people SharePoint’s DNA is in document management. It is a world-class filing cabinet. However, employees don’t visit an intranet because they want to browse a filing cabinet; they visit to feel connected, informed, and supported. In large organizations, there can be an onus on keeping high-classification documents on SharePoint for security reasons, but that doesn’t mean your employees have to live there. The problem: SharePoint news often feels static. It lacks the vibrant, social energy of the modern web. The failure: When an interface feels like a file directory, employees only visit when they absolutely have to. It becomes a ghost town. The solution: Lead with integration. Keep your documents secure in SharePoint, but surface them through a UI that feels like a modern app. Oak sits on top of SharePoint to provide a “front door” your employees actually want to walk through.
IT can be a bottleneck and content can quickly become stale In a native SharePoint environment, a simple layout change often requires a ticket to IT or an external consultant. Internal Comms teams aren’t web developers, and if the tools are too complex, content goes stale. The problem: Tools that require web development skills or certain permissions, rather than tools that are self-serving for particular teams. If the tools are too complex to use, content doesn’t get updated. The failure: Stale content is the #1 killer of intranets. If an employee sees the same “Welcome our new CEO” banner from six months ago, they stop checking the site entirely. The solution: Give power back to the Comms team. By integrating Sharepoint with a dedicated intranet with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you remove the maintenance burden. You can launch campaigns, update homepages, and change branding in minutes, ensuring your content is always fresh and agile, without a single line of code.
The "frontline blindspot" (the license gap) Accessibility remains SharePoint’s biggest hurdle. To access it, an employee typically needs a Microsoft 365 license and a corporate identity. For companies with large frontline teams—like Five Guys or Aldi—licensing every store worker is an expensive barrier. The problem: This effectively locks out your frontline. Warehouse staff, delivery drivers, and retail workers rarely have M365 accounts and this creates a two-tier workforce with methods of communication varying hugely, without being effective. Frontline staff are left relying on physical notice boards and “top-down” information filtered through managers. The failure: By using a SharePoint-only strategy, you accidentally create a two-tier workforce where the people who need information the most are the ones least likely to see it. The solution: Oak Engage bridges the license gap by reaching frontline workers via a branded mobile app that doesn’t require an M365 seat or a corporate email. Whether they are on a shift or on the move, your entire workforce stays connected to the same single Source of truth. The Cost Factor: Using a dedicated engagement platform for the frontline brings huge cost savings compared to the “tax” of full Microsoft licenses for employees who don’t need them.
Notification fatigue vs meaningful reach SharePoint is part of a noisy, oftentimes disconnected, ecosystem. Between Teams pings, Outlook emails, and Viva Engage alerts, updates in SharePoint can easily get lost. The problem: SharePoint lacks the sophisticated “push” capabilities needed to cut through the noise. The failure: You spend hours writing a critical update, but it’s “pulled” by the employee (if they remember to look) rather than “pushed” to them when it matters. The solution: Use Smart Push Notifications. Like Five Guys, you can create country-specific timelines and localized news feeds. Instead of shouting into the void, Oak can target news based on role, location, or department. We cut through the noise to ensure the right message reaches the right person on the device they use most.
The scavenger hunt search Finding a specific policy in SharePoint can feel like a maze of nested folders and broken links. SharePoint search is often restricted to specific “silos,” meaning if you aren’t searching in the right folder or site, the file simply doesn’t exist to the user. The problem: SharePoint returns thousands of results based on file names, but often fails to prioritise the relevant or official version of a document. Employees find themselves digging through “Final_v1,” “Final_v2_edit,” and “OLD_Policy” just to find a simple form. The failure: If an employee can’t find what they need in 30 seconds, they give up and message a colleague, or worse, they use an outdated version of a policy. This “search struggle” is a major productivity killer; research shows the average knowledge worker wastes nearly 20% of their workweek just looking for internal information. The solution: Our Federated Search acts as a single gateway. It doesn’t just search the intranet; it searches through your integrated SharePoint libraries, Teams files, and third-party apps simultaneously. Oak uses intelligent ranking to ensure the “Official Source” is always at the top, delivering one set of results and zero frustration.
How to fix a failing SharePoint intranet: Your new strategy The goal isn’t to “delete” SharePoint. As we discussed in our viva engage vs. intranet blog, SharePoint is an essential tool for document security. The fix is to overlay it with a platform designed for humans. The “Oak power-up” checklist: SharePoint limitation The Oak Engage solution Complex navigation A “consumer-grade” UI that feels like an app, not a folder. License requirements Reach frontline workers via a mobile app without M365 licenses. Hard-to-use templates Intuitive “drag-and-drop” editors for comms teams (no IT required). Silent news Smart push notifications that reach employees on their phones. Siloed documents Federated search that finds SharePoint files from within the Oak app.
The verdict: Don't blame the tool, change the experience SharePoint isn’t broken, it’s just not been designed around reaching and engaging your people. Focus on solving your communications gaps in line with your business goals, then let your site evolve based on employee feedback. By using Oak Engage as your “front door” to the Microsoft ecosystem, you keep the security and structure of SharePoint while finally giving your employees a reason to log in every morning. Stop struggling with Sharepoint. See how you can enhance what you already have or begin to make the switch to something that connects your people.
