You created an Intranet in the hopes that employees would use it. You wanted people to produce more and work together better. For some reason, employees ignore the Intranet. Instead, they’re using Facebook pages or other social media to work together on projects. You did training with webinars and answered any questions that came up. Still, the Intranet is costing you money and no one uses it.

Why is a Corporate Intranet Important?

An Intranet is important to a corporation because it allows employees to work together on projects to make things happen. It can be used as an information hub and a way for everyone to be able to communicate on different projects.  The Intranet can be a way for your employees, stakeholders, and others who work with you to collaborate efficiently. With an Intranet, there are lots of ways for people to connect.

An Intranet should engage employees in several ways. It can be interesting and have content that employees want to know. An Intranet can be used to bring people together across departments to share ideas and knowledge.

New Rules of Engagement

A report by the World Economic Forum and Korn Ferry defined new rules of engagement that also apply to Intranet engagement. One new rule is that leaders have to model the behavior they want. For example, leaders who use the Intranet in ways that show they care about employees will see more Intranet use. Why? Because 55% of employees who see employers engaged in an activity will be more engaged themselves.

Engagement and Output

Gary Short, Director of Executive Development at Kimberly-Clarke, stated that he has achieved response rates of up to 95% in intranet engagement.  How is that possible? You already know that the Intranet has the ability to increase employee engagement. You also know that keeping up with the trends in the field will help to move your business forward. Intranet engagement needs to be done in a way that keeps employees wanting to use internal communication to get things done. A 2017 Deloitte study about global human trends found that 80% of executives saw employee experience as very important.

How to Increase Intranet Engagement in Your Company

If you are a company struggling with Intranet engagement, here are 5 ways to boost employee engagement:

1. Create an employee engagement strategy

After the Intranet is built, bring employees together from the start to talk about how they want to use it. Think about the process and what you want to happen and ask employees to help. Do you want it for collaboration, to build camaraderie, or to allow groups to talk across departments? Plan ahead with employees always involved.

2. Make the Intranet user-friendly and easy to use

Like any social networking, the Intranet should be easy to use for all employees, not just the tech-savvy ones. Create more than one way to use the system. For example, you can use blogs, chat, and private messages so that employees can talk to each other in different ways. It’s important to make sure that the system creates a feeling of individuality so that employees do not feel crushed by all the information.

3. Keep your Intranet updated

Make sure that you don’t produce a static program but one that is always changing. People enjoy reading new information and want information that they can use. When you present new information, make it engaging and interesting instead of dry and boring. Create an atmosphere where learning is fun! Remember that you have many different age groups and diverse employees so the information should be up-to-date, entertaining, and enjoyable to read.

4. Make learning fun

Gone are the days when training inside the corporation was just about lectures and sharing documents. Instead, learning should be fun and engaging. Provide hands-on ways for employees to use the Intranet from the beginning so they will continue to use the Intranet after training. For example, ThoughtFarmer provides several fun ways to encourage Intranet use. Some ideas are to spotlight employees, show pictures of corporate events, and create a dictionary of terms and acronyms.  Get employees used to the Intranet from the beginning, so they continue to use it after training.

5. Ask for and listen to feedback

Keeping Intranet engagement high means making sure that employees have a say in what you’re doing. Use surveys to understand how employees are using the Intranet, what they like, and what can be improved.  Focus on different parts of the Intranet in each survey so that you understand how employees use it. You can make up your own survey questions or find examples on the Internet.

The key to strengthening Intranet engagement is to help employees learn to use the tools. Give them a reason to use it and they will add this tool.   Your employees will enjoy working with their Intranet and overall productivity will increase.