The most important benefits of an intranet

An intranet brings a multitude of advantages to an organization. First of all, an intranet will make it considerably easier for the employees to find, access, and share information. Secondly, it improves collaboration and feedback. But it also boosts culture, knowledge-sharing, process efficiency, productivity, and more. This blog post will focus on the most vital intranet benefits.

The need to consolidate information and processes and make it all more accessible and easier to find and collaborate on is probably the most prioritized intranet purpose for most organizations. In an organization where employees and teams are often remote and/or spread out in several time zones, it’s important to have a tool keeping your company connected. For such an organization the unifying advantages of an intranet might be even more important.

Top six benefits of an intranet

Irrespective of an organization’s size and operations the top benefits of an intranet are usually:

1. Improved internal communications and collaborations. With an intranet every item of information will be distributed to all employees in a consistent and uniform manner, bearing identical messages to everyone. It also allows you to consolidate tools, meeting applications, files, notes, and other resources necessary for collaborations in just one place, making it so much easier to start and manage collaborations in a consistent and efficient manner.
   
   
2. Increased productivity and findability. Many companies and organizations today aim to have accessible on the intranet every single item of information, digital tool, document, and process necessary for employees to carry out their work tasks and for the optimization of employee self-service. In doing so, the intranet is made the hub of the digital workplace. Having everything accessible via a single platform reduces the time and effort required to find anything, thereby boosting employees’ productivity.
   
   
3. Enhanced knowledge development and innovation. One of the greatest benefits of having a shared communications platform and a single source of information is that the organization’s collective knowledge can be cultivated, harvested, and distributed in a well-structured manner. The organization’s tribal knowledge, or wisdom of the crowd, can then efficiently be captured and shared by using knowledge-sharing intranet communities. In doing so you will ensure that critical information and knowledge don’t stay locked inside employees’ heads or in organizational silos. Instead, it will be made available to the entire organization and put in use where and when it’s needed. A knowledge-sharing platform will also make it easier for employees to further develop their know-how within relevant areas and in the long run, it will boost innovation.
   
   
4. A close-knit, engaged, and efficient organization. When a company’s group-wide communications are fully transparent, open, and uniform, employees experience a sense of inclusion, which lifts their engagement. And if the entire organization, or a major part of it, feels included in discussions about the development of the business, the group will most likely work better together.
   
   
5. United drive towards common goals. To get people moving in the same direction, they must want the same things. And to make that happen, everyone needs to feel included in discussions about the company’s future plans, which brings us back to benefit number 4. Transparent, open, inclusive, and uniform group-wide communications will help you unite the organization and make everyone dance, in perfect sync, to the same tune.
   
   
6. Faster onboarding for new recruits. An intranet can provide new employees with guidelines, corporate values, training videos, policies, checklists, contact lists, important documents to sign, and other resources that can help them quickly get on board. This will also save time for the whole team, as newbies can find answers to most of their questions online.

 

 

Learn more

To learn more about the benefits of having an intranet, knowledge-sharing, and how to best build a successful intranet we recommend the following content:

Blog posts:

• The ultimate intranet for companies and organizations,
• Building a successful digital workplace,
• Using your intranet for knowledge management.

Case Studies:

• Knowledge sharing helps driving growth at INTEC,
• Omnia-based intranet “The Hive” unifies Catalyst Housing,
• Insurance Leader, RSA uses Omnia to boost employee knowledge, improve communications.

Document: How to succeed with your digital workplace initiative.

On-demand webinars:

• How to implement a successful intranet in Office 365 and SharePoint,
• Boost your intranet with structured knowledge sharing,
• Improve employee experience – the practical guide to a successful intranet.

Best practice videos:

• Drive productivity with a digital workplace built on Omnia and Microsoft 365,
• Knowledge sharing communities.