Despite the fact that new technology is emerging to advance the field of communications, for many companies, there are still key advantages to having an intranet made and managed by a dedicated in-house team. Here are three strategic benefits of having a company intranet. Every organization has hundreds, if not thousands, of differently formatted files floating among email threads, Google Drive, or hard drives on laptops or desktops.
Having a company intranet makes it easy to store and access all your files in one central location. Any communication that happens on an intranet is also saved for as long as the intranet is up.
This makes it easier for individuals to search for past posts from their company intranet. Intranets usually feature user profiles similar to your LinkedIn profile. They contain a photo, job title and description, and contact information. Any employee with access to the intranet can discover new colleagues and message them through the intranet.
This facilitates increased collaboration and helps establish a workforce network. Intranets started off in the s as a simple welcome page with sparse information about an enterprise.
Since then, they have evolved to include discussion forums, blogs, and social features. This has enabled internal communicators to be able to use their intranet to share key messages and organizational updates.
CMS intranet enables internal communicators to easily create and share content across the system. Here are five common disadvantages to having an intranet for many companies. Intranets have traditionally been structured in an outdated format that forces employees to search through thousands of pages or folders to find the information that they need.
Content is often out of date because publishing to intranets can be difficult and time-consuming. With information being hard to find, workers may get disillusioned with keeping up with intranet communications. This negatively impacts the employee experience and lessens the effect of your messages on broader business objectives. Intranets are limited in their ability to reach all employees as they are sometimes only accessible on the desktop.
Remote workers, such as retail workers, nurses, warehouse staff, and truck drivers , may not have the ability to access intranets. Frontline workers may not have a company laptop, home access to the intranet, or regular access to the internet. Even if these workers wait until they have a computer to access the intranet, the information on the intranet is often out of date or disorganized, making it difficult for employees to quickly find the content they need.
In order to reach every worker, you need to make sure that your communication tools support remote and field workers.
We compiled direct feedback from IT leaders about this issue. It is no secret that as a society we are addicted to our cell phones. Many intranets do not support mobile or need to be updated with the next mobile release.
If you already have an intranet, it can be tempting to wait until the next update that has a mobile feature instead of committing to a communications makeover. But by waiting to make the switch over, you are losing an easy, accessible way to communicate with your entire workforce. Mobile communications , especially native apps, are convenient for every worker and more likely to keep them engaged.
Communication technology and software are constantly improving and evolving. We are accustomed to regularly scheduled software updates, new releases, and exciting new features.
In comparison, it can take years for new intranet versions to come out. Microsoft, for example, is on a three-year release cycle.
This lag prevents internal communicators with intranets from getting access to the latest strategies to keep workers informed and up to date. With these big new releases, employees need to learn complicated new features and adjust their old workflows. New releases may not integrate well with other software that you use or be tedious to install if you wait too long between releases. This is just an overlay to your existing intranet, so all your same problems are just covered over with a prettier interface.
Intranets are run, created, and updated by a dedicated intranet or digital workplace team. These teams use a variety of cross-functional skills to run the intranet. The Spark Trajectory Intranet and Digital Workplace skills matrix shows how intranet and digital workplace teams have a variety of skill sets that stem from technology and IT management, content and communication, user experience design, and social and collaboration management.
All these skill sets lend themselves to creating a tool that incorporates communication, database management, and design. The Sparks skills matrix also highlights how the department and its responsibilities are not as fixed or defined as HR or IT. Because the intranet team is responsible for both creating, uploading to, and managing the intranet, it can be difficult to uncover where exactly new features and tools need to be added.
However, other features—self service functionality and collaboration, for example—have shared the spotlight. Therefore, these only served to compromise the initial goal of internal communication. For Employee Experience Intranets, communication is the number one priority of a modern intranet. Functions such as push notifications, group-specific channels, tailored communication for specific moments e.
Companies are more dispersed than ever. According to US census data, the average person company has an average of Journeys is one example of modern employee-centric comms from Staffbase. Deliver tailored content at exactly the right moment, guiding employees throughout their entire time at your organization. Organizations need to store vast amounts of knowledge for their employees: emergency procedures, pages on frequently requested topics e. For all of it, intranets must serve as a easy-to-navigate single source of truth.
In contrast to distributed information, educational materials that are stored must be structured and easy to find, while simultaneously separated from the clutter of discussions that belong in team rooms or collaboration platforms.
The line between learning and empowerment is somewhat fluid. An answer to a frequently asked question also offers practical benefits that employer employees. However, while learning focuses on topics that are important to the company, information that empowers relates to an individual's daily work routine.
In addition, the more relevant the information staff directories, lunch menus, payroll accounting, vacation requests, etc. In other words, increasing employee usage of the intranet through self-serving tools only supports the achievement of the other goals. This empowerment is particularly important for millennials and Gen Z-ers entering the workforce. As those who grew up as digital natives with technology infused in their environment, they expect the same digital conveniences of their workplaces.
Anyone building a modern intranet needs a plan for the most important project phases to ensure its long-term success. When buying intranet software, take your time, understand your needs, and trust the process. This market overview is a great place to start. There are spaces and capabilities for team, group, departmental and cross-functional collaboration, as well as for work with external agencies and contractors. Each space brings together all the people, information, content and resources needed to get work done.
An interactive intranet also pulls in information from external collaboration and communication tools, bringing formerly siloed content and conversations into one centralized, searchable and organized environment. Instead of further fragmenting processes and creating more silos by providing yet another limited-purpose tool, interactive intranets centralize and simplify work, providing an integrated, cohesive collaboration experience across systems and devices.
An interactive intranet acts as a living library and institutional memory, capturing and preserving ideas, discoveries, insights and innovations that would otherwise be lost.
HR and IT teams spend a lot of time supporting users and answering their questions via email or phone. Users may have to wait a day or more for an answer, and then more hours or days if they have follow-up questions. The whole process is costly, time consuming and frustrating. Think of all those help desk people answering the same question from different users, over and over again.
An interactive intranet eliminates much of the inefficiency and headaches, providing ready access to self-service resources how-to-docs and videos, FAQs, etc. Jive even comes with pre-built HR and IT support spaces for this purpose. An intranet makes communications between management and staff more effective. Managers can ensure their employees have access to the latest company, customer and competitor information how and when they want it, while staff can pass upwards any issues or comments they may have.
According to financial site The Balance , making sure employees know what is expected of them and allowing them to speak their mind to management are key for employee retention and relations.
A next-generation intranet can be so much more than a place for news and information. Learn about how you can turn your digital workplace into a bustling hub of communication and collaboration.
Learn more. An intranet can help in this by enabling employees to work effectively from home. Using an internet connection and log in details, staff should be able to get on to their work intranet from wherever they happen to be, giving them access to all the tools and people they need to do their job. An intranet can also make office workers more efficient during the day, so that they can log off on time if they want to.
0コメント