Once upon a time, long ago, masses of business owners put down their vote next to the intranet as internal communication’s only channel. Intranet platforms more or less satisfied organizational needs until mobile and smartphones rolled around. That was about 30 years ago (the first official smartphone models are dated to around 1992-94), but inside company walls, it feels like not even a year has passed.
Most company’s today that don’t want to fall behind would do well to reassess their company communication practices and channels, and look for a more modern solution that fits the digital world better. Why? Let’s take a look!
The workforce market and employment preferences are totally different than they were in the early 2000s. In addition to many other factors, the biggest changes can be found in the workplace. While before, home office or the opportunity of remote work was a rarity, today more than half of all employees take advantage of these terms, if not full-time, at least part-time.
The result is a blurred line between work and life, many people take their work home, both in their heads and in the laptop jammed beneath their shoulder, or the phone tucked into their pocket.
For these employees, using different collaborative devices that help everyday project management and communication are indispensable. And now we’re just talking about typical white-collar workers. A sizeable portion of the workforce is made up of physical workers and on-site employees. If we start counting with people whose careers steer them well clear of setting foot into an office building, there’s no more doubt that intranet’s local geographic needs are completely out of the question.
Intranet is only useful if it’s accessible for employees. The kicker, is that intranet access is usually tied to the office, even though that’s not the only place where work happens (see the previous point!). How can we expect our people to be in touch with the company’s news, if we don’t even give them the opportunity to access the intranet from home, the street, or a cafe? Not to mention that accessing the intranet requires a business email. And most businesses employ a large number of people who don’t even have a company laptop, let alone a company email address. This is the point where we can understand, that intranet is a bit of a failure.
A modern, mobile-optimized intranet solution like Hungarian-developed
Blue Colibri App gives information access to anyone, anywhere, without the need for a computer.
After all, smartphones can do anything that most computers can these days.
It makes sense to develop products based on feedback and insight analysis from live use. It makes even more sense to adjust to new needs with applications and software, based on continuous feedback. Your average intranet platform usually only shows administrators how many people received the document — without any clue as to who they were. These platforms weren’t planned to analyse specific information sharing and trend analysis.
And we can’t manage what’s not measured.
Most people understand that something isn’t right with intranet, but they’re patting around in the dark to find a new direction for development. Most intranet platforms don’t tell you if the information has reached who it’s supposed to. Which makes it hard to measure engagement. Engagement is a continuous process. A communication and engagement platform needs to develop with and serve the needs of an organization.
People appreciate information written in a personal tone and relevant to them. This is the best way to make them feel seen and included. To make this happen, one HR colleague isn’t enough — it needs to be supported from a content management side as well.
Sharing and targeting is at least as important as content creation.
Company communications need to be individually relevant, this is the only way to achieve your employee’s maximum inclusion, and when sharing you need to segment appropriately to target people for whom this is true.
In light of all this, it’s clear that the days of intranet platforms are over. A modern and mobile-optimized solution can solve the issues of intranet. We can send clear and understandable information, and store confidential information in a secure way. It’s time to focus on commitment and satisfaction, and think of communication as a direct tool to achieve this.
