Tempting as it may be, you shouldn’t be leaving the newest trends in technology to your IT team. No matter who you are in an organization, from the business owner to the HR manager, understanding innovative technology can have a beneficial effect on every aspect of a company. To keep a company afloat, it’s essential to keep people happy and to act capably when recruiting and maintaining staff – so the HR department is absolutely key to any organization. But by making use of an effectively designed company intranet, you can make these goals far more attainable. Let’s have a look!
Improving Morale
High morale is at the heart of any successful company. Without it, staff will perform poorly, and be disheartened by the work they are doing. The American Psychological Association notes that “It’s critical for organizations to find a way to give employees a voice.”
When a company grows too large, it can be extremely difficult for an employee’s voice not to be drowned out amongst the storm. Widespread use of a company intranet solves the issue. Whether it’s simply providing a platform for them to speak on, or making use of intranet based polls to gauge staff opinion, making use of an Intranet drastically improves the ability to keeping morale high.
Recognizing Top Performance
It also can provide a platform for recognition: including employee awards in a news feed helps increase their significance, and the impact it has on the morale of the employee in question. Or use it as a means for the company president to mention their “Employee of the Month” in a weekly blog.
Furthermore, using your intranet as a means of distributing customer reactions can help a great deal as well. Many employees may not be aware of positive customer feedback posted on the company website, or in other areas, so posting those through the intranet can help build pride in the company’s success. 
By working with your marketing department – and more on them specifically below – you can ensure that employees receive the same loyal supporting messaging that the customers are receiving.
Reducing Turnover – Customers and Staff Alike
By improving employee satisfaction in this way, it makes it far easier for HR to reduce customer turnover. Of the ten factors Forbes identified as contributing to employee happiness, many were affected by the use of an effective social intranet. And good relations with colleagues and superiors as well as the enjoyment of work are all directly related to the use of an effective intranet. Communication is always key.
It can also make work easier on employees by opening up avenues of telecommuting, allowing for more flexible work schedules. This drastically reduces employee turnover, as employees who don’t need to stress about their work schedule interfering with the rest of their life, or the difficulties of transport, are far less inclined to seek other work.
Helping The Hunt For Talent
An effective intranet can help find new talent for the company. As Forbes found in one of their studies, the most effective way to find new talent is within your own company. Despite a higher rate of pay, those hired externally performed significantly more poorly within their first two years of employment, as opposed to someone promoted from within.
They also found that external hires were 61% more likely to end up needing to be fired. By using your intranet to advertise internal job openings on message boards or news feeds, you can drastically improve your chances of appealing to existing staff to apply for an improved position in the company.
Plus, by using your organization’s intranet to observe the comments and feedback made by employees, you can identify potential leaders and those who have a high chance of succeeding at a higher level of employment.
Getting Staff Settled
You can also use your intranet to ease new hires into their role with the company; they can examine the directory to learn all the new faces and keep them on track with company events and orientation. Even simple educational videos can show them what to expect from the company. This means you can provide new employees a means to get to know the company at their own pace, making them far more likely to stay on and become a valuable part of your team.
The Company Intranet Wider Picture
Of course, there’s more to every organization than just the HR department. If there are pain points in your company that you know could be dealt with in a more effective manner, talk to us to see how our company intranet solution can benefit your whole company, from department to department.
