Collaboration among employees is a key pillar of an organisation’s success; bringing teams together sparks creativity and drives innovation. So if you’re finding that your intranet has become a never-ending game of ‘Marco Polo’, then learning new ways to attract users and improve collaboration in your intranet can help you turn create a better company culture in your online space.
In this article, we’re going to dive deep into what makes an inviting collaborative intranet that encourages employee engagement. We’ll share some practical tips to encourage your workers to use the intranet, with a special focus on SharePoint’s wide range of features (which is widely regarded as the pinnacle of modern intranet platforms). You’ll discover the key to creating a vibrant and collaborative digital workspace that successful organisations use to enhance the intranet experience for employees.
Picture this: all of your current employees engaging with your company intranet, taking advantage of it as a welcoming collaboration platform that fosters employee communication and new ideas. If that’s happening, amazing job! You’ve clearly developed a culture of collaboration that is facilitated by this well-designed central location.
But if your intranet feels more like a ghost town, it’s time to implement more effective communication options. Leveraging the social features and integrated social networks, such as discussion forums and employee profiles, can encourage internal communication and active participation. This is particularly desirable for remote teams who may not interact in person with their colleagues. SharePoint intranets boast an impressive range of features for this. Gaining confidence in the platform and how they can use it contributes to employee satisfaction and effective collaboration.
A recommendation we often give our clients as an essential feature is an accurate employee directory. This serves as a single source of employee information and contact details. By integrating an employee directory into your intranet, you create a platform for employees to easily connect via email or instant messaging, regardless of their remote locations. This not only enhances internal communication but also fosters a sense of belonging and community among remote teams, making them feel more connected to the company’s private network and internal network and knowing where to reach out to for help or expertise.
Subpar intranet engagement can often be attributed to inefficient communication and information sharing. If your employees can’t find the files they need there, why would they stop by? Modern intranet solutions like SharePoint provide a robust platform for document management and knowledge sharing with integrated communication tools. By leveraging the power of secure portals and document management systems, employees can easily access files and ensure that the right information is available to the right people at the right time. You may need to provide training materials on the correct way to share files and navigate the system.
Collaboration is the ultimate team sport, and SharePoint brings an impressive toolkit to the game with features for robust task management. The perfect tool for content management, users easily can assign tasks and track the progress of projects. Users will receive a notification when a job has been assigned to them, and you can flag the task with a priority level and other relevant tags for more detail. When integrated with Power Automate, you can create workflows to automate the journey of a task (e.g. if a task has multiple stages, you can create a workflow that sends it on to the next person once a stage has been completed).
To build a collaborative culture for employees, adopt user-friendly interfaces and intuitive navigation. These ensure that employees can easily navigate the intranet platform and access the tools and resources they need. A platform designed with the employee experience in mind increases engagement and satisfaction, ultimately leading to more effective collaboration and improved business outcomes.
Leadership support and cultural alignment are the secret ingredients to a collaborative intranet masterpiece. SharePoint empowers business leaders to lead by example: Engage with the entire team, respond to discussions, and share valuable insights on company news, events and announcements through the social features of your intranet. The interactive features in SharePoint for Social Intranets like comments and feedback encourage people to get involved and interact.
Incorporating these solutions into your corporate intranet will result in a range of benefits, chief of which is improved productivity and collaboration. By following the steps, you can easily create a centralized platform that empowers employees to connect and contribute effectively. Embracing the tools and features SharePoint offers not only boosts employee productivity but also drives innovation and success within your organisation. So, it’s time to take your intranet to the next level and unlock the full potential of the powerful Tools to deliver collaboration in SharePoint.
And Propelle can get you started – our SharePoint and SharePoint intranet experts are here to guide you through the various types of intranets, their key features, and advise you on your perfect solution.
