Effective Internal Communication

Short on Time Summary

A centralised location for news and updates will help you reconnect with your people and develop a communicative culture. Modern intranets can be accessed wherever your people work whether that’s from home, the office or the frontline. Bring knowledge, conversation and key documents together with an intranet tailored to your specific needs.

The home of your employee experience

Employee engagement levels are worryingly low. The disconnect between employees and their organisation is growing – Gallup’s Workplace Report found that only 21% of employees are engaged at work. This has a negative impact across all business functions, from low productivity to high turnover.

50% of employees feel their relationships in the wider company are weaker now than ever. Utilise your intranet to build a community supporting interaction at all levels of the organisation. For example, include ‘get to know the team’ style content to help employees connect and find common ground to build new relationships.

Your intranet will become a single source of trusted and reputable information. Key documents can be featured and important policies held in an easily accessed platform. Meeting your employees where and when they work should be a priority to digitally connect a dispersed workforce on flexible schedules.

Reach everyone where they work

Branded intranet products like Omnia or Involv build on top of your SharePoint intranet with a beautiful design, fully customised to your corporate branding and colours. With enhanced features like a people directory, ‘my links’ to save regular content and mobile apps, you can make your intranet a place employees want to visit.

Centralised source of knowledge

Internal communication should be intentional and personalised to help your people thrive. Showcase relevant information and target different preferences for consuming content with shortform text, blogs and videos.

Prevent knowledge silos by keeping your key resources in one place and implementing user friendly navigation. Reduce search time by surfacing important policies, ensure employees work in alignment with brand guidelines and create clarity around business processes.

Multichannel intranets make information accessible to the people that need it. For example, health and safety communications may be most relevant for your deskless site workers. Share emergency updates and be confident they can read it on the mobile app. Mandatory read functions also allow you to track who has seen the message.

Engage with two-way conversations

An intranet isn’t just a news platform. Utilise the interactive features so people can contribute their ideas and develop relationships. Centre the intranet on the employee experience.

Encourage reward and recognition

Celebrating achievements, at the organisational, team and individual levels is essential for motivation and happiness. People want to feel like their efforts are appreciated. Regular recognition influences employees’ intention to stay with the business. You can help your employees feel valued by showcasing outstanding contributions on your intranet homepage.

Peer recognition can be just as rewarding as from management, and help people see the importance of their role in a team or project. Use @mentions to shout out your colleagues or award badges to publicly praise contributions. Embed feedback in the everyday to celebrate small successes as well as the bigger achievements.

Build trust through leadership visibility

Intranets provide a space for leaders to strengthen relationships and be candid with their teams. Leadership presence is key to building a positive inclusive culture. Embody the company’s values and vision in all communications. Lead by example to show the value of the intranet.

Increase transparency by hosting Q&A and AMA sessions on the future direction of the business, key events, best practice and personal topics. This is also a chance to naturally obtain feedback.

Collect feedback

Two in three employees feel silenced by management, and 34% would rather leave than address it with them. This highlights the importance of opening a line of communication to give your people a voice and encourage honesty.