The Top 4 Features that a Successful Intranet Platform Needs

Countless companies have invested time and resources into developing or adopting their own internal intranet platforms, and for good reason. As the workforce continues to evolve, and technology becomes more and more advanced, many businesses are struggling to keep up with the expectations of their employees.

The issue, however, is that many large organizations develop their own company intranets without prioritizing the needs, expectations, and preferences of their employees. As our workforce continues to become younger, even inexperienced employees coming into the organization are tech savvy and well-versed with the nuances of the internet and all social platforms. Employees want to be engaged with their colleagues, and the organization as a whole.

But how do you make this happen? What intranet features do you need, to ensure that your organization will adopt the new platform, and most importantly, experience a positive ROI?

Employers often make the mistake of making the company intranet about their own preferences and use it as a tool to push the company initiatives. They fill the platform with corporate information and expect users to know where to look for the particular information they require. They use it as a speaking tool, rather than the engagement tool it was meant for. They expect employees to use the platform, even though it’s cumbersome and isn’t providing the social engagement opportunities it was meant to.

If you want your employees to use your new platform, there are certain intranet features you’ll want to include. We’ll get to the top 4 in a moment, but here are some other things that you should always factor in.

Your company intranet should have easy, intuitive and fast search functions. The information should be updated regularly, and always current. Publishing, sharing and communicating must be easy and flawless. The pages shouldn’t be overcrowded with unessential information that would not be valuable to the employees. And it needs to be interesting! If your employees are bored with it, they won’t use it.

So, what do we think the 4 most important company intranet features are?

1. Collaboration is Key

A major benefit, and perhaps one of the main reasons any company wants their own intranet is because of the team collaboration opportunities. With remote work and contract employees on the rise, it’s more important than ever that teams have the ability to collaborate and work together, even when they can’t physically be together. When you factor traveling, time zones, vacation and managing multiple commitments, it becomes obvious that your company isn’t operating at full efficiency when team members can’t easily collaborate on projects.

2. Intranet Features Let Make it Social

 Social media has exploded for a reason. With the majority of North Americans now active on social media, it demonstrates our desire to be social beings.

Use this to your advantage and give your employees a way to connect, be social, and become a cohesive team that is engaged and working together towards the same goals. Use the social networks for inspiration when considering the functions your company intranet will have.

3. Make it Personal

Allowing your employees to personalize their feed and information is essential. If you want them to use the platform, you need to give them access to the information they want. Having a fast and easy search function is also an important part here, as you need to make it easy for people to find the information they are looking for.

4. Intranet Feature: Analytics

Lastly, you’ve got to make sure you’re paying attention to what your employees are doing, and how it’s affecting the organization as a whole. You need to monitor which intranet features work, and which don’t.

If you’re not measuring anything, you won’t be able to determine the ROI provided by your company intranet, nor will you be able to ensure you’re optimizing your intranet features for maximum efficiency and engagement.

Here is intranet ROI reading stuff if you like to know more about the subject.

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