Your employees want to be able to share and access information as easily and pain-free as possible, as well as stay connected with colleagues. A successful Intranet is the heart of your healthcare organization and the number one resource for your employees. It’s clean, intuitive, up-to-date, and a place your employees will go to over-and-over again to stay on top of everything they need. From sharing team updates to working on cross-functional projects to doing day-to-day work, an Intranet is a key tool in creating a successful and transparent culture.
In the day and age of having anything we want to know just a click or google search away, it’s important to have a tool in your organization that mimics the digital environment your employees are used to and keeps them connected and productive. Here are 5 benefits to having and using an Intranet in the workplace.
Clear Up the Clutter
It’s easy to see why email is the primary method for communicating important information about your organization but did you ever stop to think how many times employees interrupt their workflow to check their email each day? By sending important information through an organization-wide Intranet, you’ll save your employees from additional distractions. On the homepage of your Intranet, for example, you can allow your employees to access a system-wide blog that can include all the trending information for your organization. Instead of one-way communication (via email) from one individual to the rest of your organization, you can create a space for dialogue by allowing your employees to comment and share thus instilling the values of open communication and trust among your employees. Opening up communication like this also prompts discussion and aids in the discovery of experts within your organization who feel comfortable sharing their views and expertise.
One-Stop Shop
Many organizations have a ton of information spread across multiple platforms like various shared drives, email, private folders and the like – which can make finding specific information difficult. Instead – use your Intranet as a one-stop-shop for all information across your organization. With a strong search function, your employees will be able to easily find what they’re looking for and quickly free up time for other tasks. From HR onboarding materials to employee benefits, to guidelines and legal policies, your employees can be a click away from instant access to what they need.
Collaboration
We’re all familiar with the “likes”, comments and sharing of various social media sites, but why not take advantage of that familiarity inside your own organization? Many Intranet platforms have social features which can be invaluable in the workplace. From the instant dialogue, to document sharing to notifications you can pull your employees together instantly to collaborate, contribute, and get feedback.
Eye-Catching
Have you ever received an email 500 words long and read the first few lines but skipped the rest? Of course. It happens all the time. Your employees have many tasks to accomplish each day so why not make your communications bite-size, easy to read, and graphics? It can be difficult to do in email but with a strong Intranet, creating engaging content of any type – whether it be an announcement from the CEO, meeting notes, a marketing campaign plan, or updates on building renovations – it’s easy with templates and a rich feature editor. When the content looks good – your employees will more than likely want to read it.
Transparency
The number one key to employee engagement is a transparent culture. According to a 2017 worldwide Gallop poll, 87% of employees are not engaged. It’s easy to see why the culture of your organization can be a huge influencer on engagement if you think about it from a consumer perspective: would you by a product you didn’t trust? Same goes for the trust of your employees.
With the help of an Intranet, you can build a company culture on the principles of transparency and an open workspace, where anyone can contribute, like, and comment. From an announcement about a promotion, to comment on an important internal structure change, to a featured blog of the week, your Intranet can empower your employees. Using your Intranet like this will help foster deeper understanding, lead to higher levels of trust, and help your employees feel like their contributions add value to your organization.
For more information on how to use your Intranet for employee engagement and collaboration, please schedule a demo. Please also enjoy our ebooks and blogs for additional tips and insight into creating a connected culture using your Intranet.