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5 Key Benefits of the Intranet
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According to a Workvivo study in 2020, 57 % of employees feel that the intranet used in their company serves no real purpose. A figure that speaks volumes about this tool’s poor reputation—increasingly dismissed as “outdated”. Yet the intranet has come a long way in recent years! In 2023, according to an OICD study, nearly 2 in 3 companies consider the intranet an essential channel in their day-to-day operations. Gone are the days of static, hard-to-navigate internal networks. Today’s intranet is more modern and incorporates more social features, bringing it ever closer to the enterprise social network.
This Intranet 2.0 offers numerous benefits for employees and the organization alike. Here are the key ones to keep in mind when making the case to your teams.
Before we dive in, why not assess your internal communication together? Take this quiz to measure the effectiveness of your efforts and receive personalized recommendations 👇
end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code 1) Streamline Your Internal Communication
One of the key benefits of the intranet? Improving your internal communication, of course! The intranet allows you to:
- bring all your employees together in one place, whether they are remote, in the field, or in the office,
- personalize the messages you send them (for example, through a welcome portal that lets you create multiple pages per audience),
- share important updates on a news feed accessible to everyone,
- collect employee feedback through surveys.
At a time when only 45 % of employees report being satisfied with internal communication¹, implementing an intranet can give you a real edge. Keep in mind, however, that not all intranets are created equal—some are far more modern than others.
Read also: Set Up Your Intranet Easily with Talkspirit
If you’re looking to deploy—or replace—your intranet, we invite you to check out our top 14 best intranet solutions.
2) Engage Your Employees
Contrary to popular belief, the intranet is no longer just a top-down information broadcast tool. More than a one-way sharing platform, it now serves to encourage employee feedback from employeesand to involve them in company life. It’s therefore an essential tool for boosting employee engagement!
On the Talkspirit platform, every employee can like and comment on posts from their colleagues. They can also publish their own messages, for example to share best practices or suggest ideas to management.
It’s also possible to create groups around specific topics (for example, dedicated to training, industry monitoring, sharing professional knowledge, or even personal interests), where everyone can support each other, exchange ideas, and find answers to their questions—helping to strengthen motivation and engagement across your teams!
3) Make Information Easy to Access
Another key benefit of the intranet: giving employees the ability to easily access any piece of information, wherever they are. This is particularly useful for multi-site organizations—as well as those that have adopted hybrid working or fully remote models.
A true knowledge library, the intranet centralizes all your internal resources! Whether it’s “hot” information (such as an event invitation, a company news update, or a project brief) or “cold” documents covering best practices, workflows, or elements of your company culture.
Talkspirit, for example, includes a secure drive that lets you store your important documents. You can also share them with your teams in posts. It’s also possible to find this information easily thanks to a built-in intelligent search engine. No more wasted hours hunting for documents!
4) Foster Your Company Culture
Beyond its role in storing and sharing information, the intranet is a powerful vehicle for conveying your company’s culture and values. For instance, it helps highlight key objectives as well as the achievements of the various teams working toward those goals.
Many intranets also let you schedule internal events—both remote and in-person. For example, the Talkspirit calendar lets you organize meetings via video conference or as interactive webinars. More dynamic than posts or chat, webinars can be used to broadcast a leadership message live, host a Q&A session, or run a brainstorming workshop with your teams. It’s an option worth considering if you want to make your internal communication more dynamic.
Read also: How to Improve Internal Communication in Your Company?
To get the most out of your intranet, we recommend appointing community managers. They can take charge of organizing events, facilitating discussions, and showcasing your company culture on a daily basis. With dedicated community managers, your intranet will be more vibrant—and more effective at engaging your employees.
end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code 5) Facilitate Exchanges and Collaboration
Finally, the intranet can also serve as a gateway for fostering cross-team and intra-team communication. Many solutions come equipped with a chat and/or a video conferencing module. Every employee can communicate in real time with any stakeholder—internal or external—regardless of their position in the hierarchy. A great way to say goodbye to endless email threads.
Want to learn more about this use case? Discover how the non-profit organization Place aux jeunes en région successfully streamlined communication among its agents spread across Quebec using an Intranet 2.0.
As mentioned earlier, it’s also possible to create groups to boost internal communication. For example, you could create:
- a group dedicated to sharing best practices,
- cross-functional groups bringing together multiple departments (marketing/sales, admin/customer service, etc.),
- an “idea box” group where everyone can make suggestions to improve the intranet and/or workplace life,
- a group for informal exchanges.
Several intranet solutions—Talkspirit included—also feature a directory that makes it easy to identify the role, expertise, and location of each colleague. No more time spent figuring out who does what.
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Conclusion
No, the intranet is not dead! Its features and interface have evolved enormously since the early days. Faster exchanges, simplified information sharing, more dynamic internal communication… Intranet 2.0 offers a wealth of benefits for organizations that know how to leverage it—benefits that have a direct impact on employees. With an intranet, employees can quickly find all the information they need—boosting their day-to-day productivity. A better work experience for everyone. In short: it’s a win-win investment!
Looking to implement an intranet or replace your current solution? Check out our methodological guide “8 Key Tips for Choosing the Right Intranet” to help guide your decision:
Access the Methodological Guide
In this guide, you’ll find: the 8 steps for choosing an intranet, the key elements for defining your needs, and the decisive criteria for comparing the best solutions on the market.
