Social technologies are becoming increasingly popular in the business world. According to research from McKinsey, nearly three in four companies (72%) use it in some way within their organization.
And one of the most effective tools in the “social technologies” category that you can implement in your organization? The intranet.
The intranet offers a host of benefits to individual employees, teams, and companies. But what, exactly, are the advantages of the intranet—and how can you use the intranet to drive major improvements across your organization?
Improved internal communication
One of the biggest advantages of the intranet is how it can influence internal communication.
Intranets create more streamlined internal communication by creating a space for all communication to be housed, shared, and organized—whether that’s leadership sharing exciting company news with the entire organization, teams managing project-related communications, or individual employees chatting throughout the day. This creates more transparent, organized, and effective internal communication across the board.
For example, let’s say company leadership wants to share exciting news with the entire organization. Instead of sharing that news individually (for example, through email), leaders can post it on the company intranet—where employees can publicly comment on the news, ask questions, or facilitate conversations about how the news impacts them and their teams. This can empower more employees to share their opinions and thoughts, encourage deeper questions, and create a sense of community and connection across the organization.
Bottom line? Intranets empower better internal communication—and that’s a major advantage.
Better knowledge management and knowledge sharing
In order for teams to do their best work, they need to be able to quickly, easily, and effectively find, manage and share information—especially when they’re working in different locations.
And another major advantage of the intranet is that it allows remote and hybrid teams to quickly, easily, and effectively find, manage, and store information.
Intranets have a host of features that empower better knowledge management and sharing. For example, intranets allow employees to organize project-related files and communication, which allows them to find (and share!) the information they need, when they need it—instead of having to search through multiple mediums (like email or a local file management system) to find what they’re looking for.
Or let’s say you have a host of new hires. Instead of training each new hire individually, you can store all of the relevant information and knowledge (like policies and procedures and training videos) on the intranet—which makes the onboarding process easier for both the organization and the new employees.
In fact, intranets improve knowledge management and sharing so much, many businesses consider it the intranet’s biggest advantage. (In one study, a whopping 85 percent of businesses said that faster access to information was a significant intranet benefit.)
Higher employee engagement
So, intranets facilitate better internal communication and improve knowledge management and knowledge sharing across organizations. And the byproduct of those improvements is one of the biggest advantages of the intranet—and that’s increased employee engagement.
Research shows that intranets improve employee engagement and experience. For example, according to research from Deloitte, when organizations implement social technologies like intranets, they see a 20 percent increase in employee satisfaction.
And when employees are happier and more engaged with their work, it leads to a host of positive effects for the business. According to the State of the American Workplace Report from Gallup, engaged employees have 41 percent lower absenteeism and 10 percent higher customer satisfaction metrics than their less engaged colleagues. And according to Deloitte’s research, when employee engagement increases, employee retention increases along with it—by up to an astounding 87 percent.
So, if you want to improve employee engagement—and improve results in the process? Implementing an intranet in your organization should definitely be on your to-do list.
Increased productivity
All of the advantages of the intranet—from improving internal communication to enabling better knowledge management and sharing to increasing employee engagement—all boil down to one thing: a more productive workforce.
For example, when employees have an intranet, their internal communications are more streamlined—which means, instead of trying to manage communications across multiple platforms and apps, they can spend their time and energy doing focused work. Or let’s say your team is working on wrapping up a project. Because intranets make it easy for employees to find the information they need, when they need it, they won’t waste time trying to track down the file or document they need to wrap things up—which will help the project get done faster and more efficiently. And because intranets increase employee engagement? They also directly impact productivity. (According to Gallup’s research, engaged employees are also 17 percent more productive than their more disengaged counterparts.)
The point is, intranets help employees get work down—making improved productivity one of the major advantages of the intranet.
Experience the advantages of the intranet with Talkspirit
Clearly, intranets have a variety of features that can benefit your organization—benefits you can experience with Talkspirit.
Also read: Create Your Intranet Easily with Talkspirit
Talkspirit is an all-in-one intranet solution that gives teams and employees the tools they need to do their next work—and gives organizations the framework they need to take their company to the next level, including internal communication functionalities (including a chat platform and a newsfeed feature, which curates information for employees), and an internal drive, project management and collaboration features. It’s everything you could want in a company intranet—and more.
Want to learn more about how Talkspirit can help you enjoy all the advantages of the intranet?
Schedule a demo today!
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Author : Deanna deBara
