What is an intranet and why do you need it?

Bringing a global workforce together is no easy feat. Keeping them on the same page and ensuring they're happy with their work is crucial to sustaining your business. Facilitating this sort of connection can easily be achieved with help from an intranet. To understand how this can be done, let's first look at what intranets are and why they're important.

What is an intranet? 

An intranet is a private network that an organization uses to securely communicate as well as to share information, files, and other resources among its members.  

What makes intranets relevant today? 

Intranets rose to the forefront in the 1990s as simple ways to convey information to employees. Early intranets were only single pages that contained basic content, but they didn't see a lot of takers among the working population. With the advent of the internet, they slowly evolved as a means to send and receive messages, share documents, and access a variety of content.

Today, intranets can do a lot more: they are instrumental in the propagation of a company's culture. Additionally, a modern intranet can function as a file repository, knowledge archive, internal communication hub, and employee engagement software solution through the modules they provide as well as their interoperability and integration with existing applications. In today's global and digital workplaces, and with the rise of remote working, having an intranet to provide employees a dedicated space to communicate, network with peers and management, and access all the information they need guarantees a better digital experience and a culture of engagement.

Why is a modern intranet vital for your organization? 

The most important asset of any organization is the people who are part of it. Companies need to invest in their employees to ensure their well-being and to create an environment that promotes individual as well as collective growth. Intranets form an essential part of this ecosystem. Here are some avenues where they play a key role:

Internal communication

One of the best ways to unify your organization is by facilitating multi-directional communication. Intranets leverage the power of familiar social media features such as news feeds, posts, hashtags, and comments, among others, by providing your organization with a secure private network where employees can share ideas and feedback and remain connected, regardless of where they work from. Meanwhile, management can conduct regular Q&A sessions and AMAs or town halls to keep everyone updated with the latest company and industry news.

Knowledge sharing

The biggest advantage of having all your employees on an intranet is that it allows you to tap into their collective knowledge. With its document-storage capabilities and built-in knowledge base, an intranet lets you save all the information, from company policies to APIs or best practice guides. Furthermore, teams and in-house subject matter experts can curate and compile information on areas they specialize in, making the intranet an online library of sorts for any member to draw on when needed.

Employee engagement

A study by Gallup found that highly engaged teams show 21% higher profitability, making employee engagement pivotal to the success of a business. Intranets promote engagement by encouraging initiatives and communication from employees. By adding elements like gamification, employee participation is recognized and rewarded. Discussion forums and groups united around common interests such as sports, literature, travel, or art create a water cooler environment that engages and brings people together. When employees feel engaged, their relationship with the company and co-workers strengthens, resulting in better collaboration and productivity.

A healthy work culture

A study discovered that organizations that used internal social media tools like intranets saw a median 20% increase in employee satisfaction, correspondingly leading to an improvement in employee retention up to 87%. This tells us that intranets are crucial to bringing the best out of employees while ensuring their well-being. Platforms like our own Zoho Connect come with a built-in survey module that allows management to gauge the pulse of the organization and shape their culture into a positive and nurturing one. When employees feel heard and seen, they feel empowered. Intranets, with their social capabilities and other modules, are perfectly built for this.

Getting your entire organization on an intranet can help them forge a deeper connection with their work, their co-workers, and the organization's values. With mobile apps and collaboration features, all members, regardless of their work location, have the necessary flexibility to engage as they wish.