14 May
7 ways to Drive Employee Engagement with Modern Intranet
Intranets are very useful for endless communication within the organization. It is meant to enable communication and collaboration internally. Employees can use this as a virtual hub to access company-related information, news, announcements, and other relevant updates. Many businesses are realizing that intranets can be used for engaging employees.
Employee engagement is vital for an organization’s success. According to the Gallup study, organizations with higher engagement levels are not only productive, but they also achieve higher earnings per share growth. Employee engagement activities make employees connected with their colleagues and users from other departments, it develops a deeper connection with the distributed workforce. It not only has benefits on the human level but there are business advantages too. Engaged employees feel they are part of something big than themselves and their contributions are valued leading to innovation and higher productivity levels.
An intranet with modern features results in higher ROI and helps in transforming the company culture.
Ways to drive employee engagement at your workplace with a modern intranet
1. Improved communication
Upon onset of the remote culture, employees feel left out and disconnected from the organization. They do their part of the work and sign off at the end of the day. Poor communication can be a major cause for a lot of friction to the organization. According to a study, effective communication can have around 47% of higher returns for shareholders than those with poor communication. Managing remote workers requires more than the traditional methods of communication.
A modern intranet provides a platform for the employees to communicate and collaborate with their team members. Employees do not have to search the experts in the company directory rather modern intranets can easily search people, provide integrations with the common chat tools, and enables quick conversation. This platform is available 24*7 and makes it easy to connect with the distributed workforce across the world, thereby improving employee engagement and communication.
2. Personalized data
The company’s internal network has a lot of information covered. Usually, an employee searching for a particular piece of information will be lost and confused amidst the company’s data. The modern intranet with personalization can give a personal touch to the employees. It will show the relevant data based on user job profile, location, activities, and preference, etc. For instance, intranets will come up with the company’s structure and policies for the new hires. Sharing relevant content and resources will be a lot of use and benefit for the employees, which is another way to keep employee engagement levels high. Also, intranets should recommend SMEs based on the employee’s profile. This will allow users to connect and collaborate with the experts easily without wasting time on searching the right person having the right knowledge.
3. Customization
Businesses have their own set of KPIs to meet. An organization’s culture, values, goals, and ways of working are unique and evolving. The digital workplace should reflect your organization and its future, so crafting the intranet to the business needs and making it user-friendly will enhance employee engagement.
4. Discussion forums
Since this remote work culture has made the employees feel lonely and disconnected from their organization. It is highly important to make employees engaged and connected. There is always a void between employees from other departments. Modern intranets with discussion forums will allow all the employees to connect on a common platform and should enable employees to easily share their ideas and opinions in a way that they will be reached to a larger audience and are responded to. Discussion forums enable employees to interact, ask queries and discuss a common topic. This sort of employee engagement activities will help to cultivate and foster relationships among the individuals and the management.
5. Ideation platform
Human brains fertilize ideas at any instant of time. Businesses should use this as an opportunity as employees’ brightest ideas can be the next move to meet their objectives. Dispersed workforce need a common platform to foster their ideas and the modern intranets are the perfect solution anyone can opt for. It should have a forum where employees can seed their business ideas and track their status throughout. Also, others should get a chance to talk about the existing idea through discussions, comments, polling votes, etc. Employee engagement activities should include rewards and recognitions to encourage employees in submitting new ideas. There should be gamification features like scoreboards, achievement badges, levels with status, and other virtual meters. This nurtures employee engagement in driving innovation and business growth.
6. Virtual water cooler
A quick coffee or a short walk with colleagues is never a loss in productivity. Brainstorming leads to meaningful discussions, idea exchange, and stay updated on the trending topics. With the remote work culture and distributed workforce across many organizations, the advantage of the coffee break session is nearly unattainable.
Creating a virtual space in the intranet where employees can discuss non-work-related activities with their fellow workers over a cup of coffee can be achievable. Create and innovate with a virtual water cooler is more like a chat room for socialization. Fostering personal connections among employees is going to make them feel connected, give value to their jobs, and boosts employee engagement.
To know more about virtual water coolers for informal communication, click here
7. Listen to feedback
Conducting a survey is just not enough. Companies need to gather the workforce’s opinion and should find the best possible solution to perform better. Taking action on employee feedback shows how an organization listens and values their opinions. Keep it genuine by collecting feedback from the employees on whether the actions are working. Similarly, a short survey asking employees to rate the intranet will tell us about its utility and effectiveness. Allowing employees to raise their opinions can help measure the engagement and find out how the intranet service could be improved.
Similarly, intranet analytics tools can help us in measuring the engagement levels that measure the relevancy of the content, analyze the patterns to bring out the most engaging content. Changes implemented to the intranet based on the analysis will drive employee engagement.
Workers are more engaged, productive, and loyal when they are made feel that they are an integral part of something bigger than themselves. Employee engagement improves performance, job satisfaction, and develops a proactive approach towards their work. Engaged employees are committed to the organization and are less likely to leave the company. The modern intranet serves as the backbone of a functional and successful organization. With efficient usage, it will drive engagement and productivity your employers need.
Mesh 3.0, Acuvate’s Employee Experience Platform equipped with features like personalization and recommendation, Idea management tool, Cognitive search, and much more will help in increasing employee experience and engagement.
To know more about Mesh, feel free to contact one of our experts for a personalized consultation.
Poonam Chug is AVP - SaaS Strategy & Business. She has worked in various areas, right from designing and executing sales & account management strategies to reengineering digital workplace solutions. With her determined focus on our mission and progressive approach, she has achieved customer delight in the space of AI, Knowledge Mining, Content & Collaboration, Virtual Assistants, RPA and more. Backed with a deep understanding of customer needs and technology, she leads the SaaS business unit with an upshot of maximizing revenue while ensuring customer satisfaction.
Poonam Chug