As a business owner, chances are you’re always looking for new ways to keep your employees engaged and motivated. Interestingly, one of the best tools for improving employee engagement is an intranet.
For those who don’t know, an intranet is a private, internal network that allows employees to access information about the company, and collaborate with one another. What many people don’t realize is that when it comes to an intranet, features matter.
In this article, we’ll be going over some essential intranet features that could help improve employee engagement. You’ll probably be surprised how big of a difference these features can make!
Let’s get started.
Personalized Dashboards
A personalized dashboard could be very effective when it comes to boosting employee engagement because it’ll allow them to see the information that matters most to them as soon as they log in. The easier it is to check their unread messages, team announcements, tasks, etc., the more motivated they’ll be to complete said tasks.
Personalization makes it much easier for employees to find what they need. It’ll save your employees a whole lot of time and should help to reduce their frustration, too. If your employees feel like the company’s intranet has been designed with their needs in mind, they’ll be a lot more likely to engage with it and use it regularly.
If your organization is thinking about setting up a company intranet, you should consider the changing landscape of intranet technology and how intranet features like personalized dashboards can help motivate your employees.
Remember, in the long run, it’s all about building a more cohesive, connected team.
Collaboration Tools
An employee intranet should make it very easy for your team members to work together (no matter where they are). These days, more people are working remotely, and advances in intranet technology have taken this into account.
This is why effective collaboration tools are so important. With features like video conferencing, chat functions, and collaborative document editing, your employees will be able to work together on projects and presentations in real time, even if they’re in different places physically.
Search Functionality
If your employee intranet doesn’t have a good search function, your employees might get frustrated – which could cause employee engagement to plummet. Your employees should be able to find the information they need easily.
By setting up your intranet with a search feature that’s easy to use, you’ll be able to save your employees a lot of time and frustration (since they’ll literally spend less time looking for information, and more time focusing on their work).
Learning and Development Resources
Another way to keep your employees engaged is by offering them plenty of opportunities for learning and growth. Your employee intranet could include a section for online training courses or webinars that employees can access any time they want.
To give you an example, an employee who wants to improve their presentation skills might find it helpful if there’s a course on public speaking available on the intranet.
By providing your employees with access to these resources, you’ll be able to encourage continuous growth – which should help boost employee engagement.
Analytics and Feedback
Your intranet should also have analytics and feedback features. This will allow you to understand how the intranet is being used. For example, you’ll be able to see what features your employees are using the most.
You’ll also be able to collect feedback directly from your employees. This should provide you with some insight into what’s working and what’s not in terms of things like customer service and marketing methods.
Social Features
Your employee intranet should be a place where your employees can connect on a professional and personal level. By including features like discussion boards or forums, you’ll be helping to improve employee engagement and build a sense of community within your organization.
Integration with Other Tools
Chances are, your employees use several different tools and apps throughout their workday. This is why your employee intranet should integrate with these tools. This integration will basically eliminate the need to switch between different platforms.
For example, if your intranet can sync with a calendar app, your employees will easily be able to check their schedules without even leaving the platform. This is a great way to make your intranet more useful (meaning your employees will be more likely to use it regularly).
Conclusion
Intranets have certainly come a long way in terms of technology and features, which is great news for business owners who are struggling to improve employee engagement. You may want to ask your employees which intranet features they would be interested in exploring – they’ll appreciate you taking their opinions into account.
Remember, these intranet features aren’t just meant to help your team members connect. They should also motivate your employees, and, ultimately, create a more positive work environment.
