6 Business Benefits From Implementing An Interactive Intranet

With benefits such as employee retention, streamlined collaboration, and the ease of sharing critical information, an interactive Intranet can be the ideal solution for connecting employees together.

We all know that employee productivity will impact companies in many ways. The measurement of engagement and burnout which surveyed more than 7,939 business units and 198,514 people, both employee satisfaction and engagement are related to meaningful business outcomes. But an Intranet can serve your business beyond just productivity benefits.

A modern interactive Intranet can serve as a convenient place to locate critical documents, eLearning materials, project information, image and historical assets, and data from employee activity. So, what are some of the business benefits from implementing an interactive Intranet?

1. Improve Employee Engagement

For some, employee engagement is the latest “buzzword” in HR. But employee engagement has been backed by multiple studies which show that there is a correlation with customer satisfaction - loyalty, profitability, and productivity. Not only that, but an interactive Intranet can serve as a place to in still your company mission within your workforce. It can be a place to motivate individuals and commend people for their efforts. Considering that 69% of employees say they would work harder if they were better appreciated (Globoforce), a simple public acknowledgement can be your most powerful tool.

2. Streamline Collaboration and Increase Employee Interaction

As previously mentioned, connecting your employees is a simple way to increase productivity. This will prevent isolation and the growth of a “silo mentality”. But your Intranet is not only a communication tool. It can help you organize project details, critical assets, and other important materials, making it the perfect place to manage projects and their progress.

Organizations need to also consider the power of implementing an Extranet. Unlike the Intranet, an Extranet is a place to serve customers and is specifically devoted to customer support and feedback. We all know how important customer feedback is when deciding on product changes, upgrades, and marketing decisions. Imagine making this resource available for your whole entire workforce.

3. Easy Access for Different Levels of Authoring

At some point or another, employees need something from other employees. It could be an image resource, an important document, or just their expertise. Following are just some examples.

A content creator needs image resources and product details to create an article. This content creator can take up the valuable time of somebody’s day, or they can access the Intranet to find all the resources they need through the Intranet’s built-in search functionality. For those organizations who are wanting to invest in a content marketing strategy, the sharing capability of resources and documents can give your writers the freedom to create without the need to get through red-tape and barriers.

A C-Level executive needs access to the quarterly financial report. At this level of responsibility, you want to spend as much time possible being productive and not wondering where is the financial report! An Intranet can serve as an effective place to consistently receive vital company information. On that note, you can set up different levels of access to protect critical documents like financial reports.

A project manager is seeking an update on their team’s progress. Instead of asking everyone about project progress or asking someone to put together a time-sucking progress report, you can use your Intranet to track progress and milestones in real-time.

4. Remove the burden from the IT Department

One of the biggest pain points in IT is managing disconnected systems. IT departments find themselves at the mercy of executive and department-level decisions as new tools and services are being purchased without their full consent. This leads to a buildup of different systems, different tools, and different protocols.

With an interactive Intranet, you can converge all of your disconnected systems into one place. This means less headache for your IT department, and less investment in more tools and short-measure technology.

5. Measure Activity Company-Wide

Remember when we talked about project managers? Depending on the level of oversight you are given, you could be managing more than 10+ projects and even whole departments. The Intranet can be a simple place to assign tasks and track project progress.

Among project tracking benefits, you can also measure productivity at a deep level. For example, a study on multi-tasking shows that knowledge workers check email up to 74 times a day, or 11 times per hour. Combined with a 2015 study by Microsoft that shows how checking email increases employee anxiety, small factors like this can have a large impact on important business outcomes.

In short, an Intranet is an important tool to track variables which provide insight into employee wellness, measurable work practices, and overall productivity.

6. Use eLearning to Teach Critical Skills

In the United States alone, the shortage of skilled workers is expected to grow to 14 million by 2020. Combined with the fact that HR professionals are obsessing over finding a way to improve employee retention rates, companies are worried about not finding enough skilled workers.

Here’s the good news. The Intranet can be used as an eLearning platform to teach critical skills. This serves three benefits: (1) employees find career growth and development important which means you will improve employee retention rates, (2) companies can establish protocols at different organizational levels more cost effectively, and (3) education improves employee confidence and combats the loss of skills that organizations are facing.

Conclusion

If your organization does not have an Intranet, then you might be missing out on some incredible benefits. We just outlined how the Intranet can serve as a powerful tool throughout all levels of the organization.

Whether you’re in HR and want to spread wellness initiatives to decrease levels of stress, or an executive who needs to streamline access to information — an Intranet can serve you and everyone within your work environment.

To repeat this sentiment, what if you could improve employee productivity by 20-25%? Would you? Your company can improve productivity, employee retention, measure activity company-wide, and combat the growing skills shortage facing the modern workplace.