Businesses are always looking for new ways to work more efficiently. If you find yourself spending large amounts of time attending meetings and dealing with emails, it’s time to streamline your communication, it’s time for an Intranet System!

Intranets are powerful tools, but they’re often the unsung heroes of the modern workplace toolkit.  The word is associated with clunky nineties software that’s impossible to navigate and full of outdated files, but the world of work has changed a lot since then and some intranets have evolved to keep up. Now they actually help you get work done, rather than inhibit it. Here’s how.

10 Benefits of an Intranet

1. Improves internal communication

A modern intranet encourages communication to flourish across your organisation, meaning:

• Teams can have open discussions
• Individuals can share knowledge
• Leadership can stay in touch
• Departments can provide updates

The best part of this is that communication flows both ways. Anyone can share information and articles, and everyone can comment and provide feedback.  In this way, an intranet both streamlines communication by bringing it into one place and empowers individuals with a voice and company knowledge. This can help employees to become more productive and better performers.

2. Connects your company across locations and time zones

Your intranet will become the central hub for your company online, bringing multi-location teams together. Each employee and location will have insights into what’s happening throughout the company, regardless of where they’re based.

3. Helps employees find information

An intranet is a rich pool of information. There’s everything from Social Committee updates to the most recent dental form. All of this information is valuable for helping people get work done and stay connected to the softer side of the business.

4. Boosts recognition and reward

Recognition is an essential part of the employee experience, and it serves to improve employees' satisfaction and engagement levels.  Research shows that the recognition or reward doesn't need to be monetary or excessive (it can be a simple 'thank you'), but it does need to be timely.

It's easy to do this with your intranet if it has a live-feed and/or an integration with a peer-to-peer recognition tool like Bonusly.  

5. Simplifies employee onboarding

A good intranet makes onboarding simpler than ever. New hires can use it to find their feet with easy-to-access documents, up-to-date organisation charts, rich bios on their peers and a vibrant news hub that provides information and insights into the culture of the company.

6. Provides organisational clarity

Intranets with clear and dynamic organisation charts provide clarity on the shape and set-up of your company. Bios or profiles can also help employees understand the roles and responsibilities of individuals throughout your business.

7. Encourages knowledge sharing

Intranets allow organic knowledge sharing to grow, as the person-to-person connections increase and deepen across your company. Knowledge experts are more visible, and it’s easier for people to connect with them. 

8. Reinforces your brand and values

Intranets provide many avenues for putting your company values front and centre, such as:

• Publicly recognising employees for living out company values
• Sharing web articles relevant to your values
• Asking employees to share examples of the values they see in daily work life

9. Reduces emails and meetings

If you find that your inbox is cluttered with emails and your calendar is stuffed with meetings, it may be time to invest in an intranet.

Intranets with a good, integrated chat feature make discussions easy. You’ll be able to ditch the dreaded reply-all email and have productive conversations away from messy inboxes.

10. Brings your workplace culture to life

A company is not a company without its people, and modern intranets are about those people. Bringing them together, bringing out the best in them, and enriching your company culture in the process.

Conclusion

I wish I could say every intranet will help you in this way, but unfortunately, they can’t. The intranet market is a congested and confusing place, a lot of very different products fall under the intranet umbrella. If you’re shopping around for an intranet, be careful about the one you choose.

An intranet can be a powerful tool. It can turn your employee engagement around, clarify internal communication, and streamline processes. But you need to make sure you choose the right one. Only then will you see the benefits unfold.