5 Reasons Intranets are Still Relevant Today

With all the new communication and collaboration tools at our fingertips since the COVID 19 pandemic ushered in the age of remote and hybrid work, you might be left wondering where that leaves the original digital communication and collaboration platform: the intranet. When they first gained popularity in the 1990s, intranets served as a centralized space where employees could find and access resources such as documents, links to relevant applications, company news, HR info such as benefits and job listings, and an employee directory, all online. Now that we spend most of our workdays in touch with our coworkers via Microsoft Teams, Slack, or something similar, is an intranet still relevant?

Wondering if an intranet is still relevant? Watch our on-demand webinar to hear 3 internal comms experts discuss the role of an intranet in modern businesses. 

5 Reasons An Intranet is Still Relevant in 2023

Read on to see why an intranet is still relevant for businesses today.

Share Information Across the Company via the Intranet

The intranet was first developed to share information, and that’s still one of its main functions that has yet to be usurped by newer communication, collaboration, and file sharing platforms. Every employee has access to the intranet, so it’s the best place to share company updates, messages from leaderships, and any information that needs to be distributed across your organization.

Not only that, an intranet can work to eliminate departmental silos that tend to crop up (and do so even more when everyone works remotely). If each department keeps their subsection of the intranet up to date, other teams are able to keep an eye on what they’re working on and stay aligned.

Your Intranet Can Support Employee Productivity

A drop in productivity can be a concern when a company is transitioning to a remote or hybrid work model, but a well-designed intranet can help keep employee productivity where it needs to be. By improving information flow between individual employees and departments, an intranet can help reduce the need for emails and even meetings – both of which are often cited as a productivity (and time) black hole. This in turn leads to more efficient decision-making throughout the organization.

In addition, every employee having the resources and information they need, when they need it, is crucial for productivity. Instead of having to email or message various people to get an answer, an intranet gives employees easy access to important information and company policies.

An Intranet Means Secure Knowledge Management

An intranet is still relevant as a single source of truth for your organization. It is the one central repository for important company documentation that is always current and always accessible. Instead of worrying about managing files across different communication and document management platforms, you can rest assured that your information is all in one place, easily accessible to those who may need it. This means that no matter what happens with employees coming and going, you never have to worry about access to knowledge.

It’s also worth noting that an intranet is a closed network, making it relatively safe from external threats and cyber-attacks. This means you can be confident that any sensitive information stored on your intranet is secure. And, if you choose a SharePoint intranet, you can benefit from additional Microsoft security features.

Faster and Smoother Onboarding with an Intranet

An intranet also provides benefits during the onboarding process. Onboarding sets the tone for the entirety of their tenure there, and can have huge implications for their future job performance, engagement, and general attitude about the company. Because your intranet is a central library of information, new employees can easily find the important documents they need, keep up to date with company news, browse org-charts and see their peers’ bios, and much more without requiring a ton of paperwork. Especially when paired with some onboarding Power Apps, an intranet can help new employees start off on the right foot.

see why an intranet is still relevant when working remotelyYour Intranet is the new Home of Company Culture

Most of the an intranet is still relevant we noted above are rooted in the functions an intranet has always served, but the role that an intranet can play in setting, shaping, and promoting company culture has really taken off with growth of the digital workplace. This is probably the most important of all the points in this article.

Especially with many employees working remotely, your company culture is crucial for maintaining an engaged, happy, productive workforce. Internal communication via your intranet is the mechanism by which company culture is displayed, shared, and passed on to remote workers. This is how your company defines who you are as an organization, what you stand for, and what being a part of the team signifies. Without it, employee engagement with the organization is much less likely.

A “sense of belonging” is one of the top three reasons why people stay at a company. They want to feel a sense of purpose in their work, feel connections with their coworkers, and feel valued by their managers and organizations. Organizations that don’t grasp the importance of company culture to create shared purpose will struggle to attract and retain the talent they need. On the other hand, a strong company culture can lead to a more engaged workforce, which means a happier and more productive team. Make sure you consider this when designing your intranet, as the impact your intranet can have in maintaining and disseminating company culture is huge.

Intranets are powerful tools that have long been at the heart of businesses. While there are myriad new communication, collaboration, and filesharing platforms out there, none of them quite accomplishes what an intranet does. Your company intranet may have to evolve to keep up with how we work today, but in our opinion, it’s still a crucial part of internal communications today and into the foreseeable future. 

Need an Intranet Upgrade? Klarinet Solutions Can Help!

Modernizing your intranet is one of the best things you can do to improve employee experience and performance. When your employees understand their role and feel connected to the business, they work faster, communicate better and produce better work. Klarinet Solutions is here to help! We invest in customer relationships to understand and solve the digital workplace problems you face every day. Get in touch with our team of intranet experts today!