Top 5 Components of an Intranet to Boost Employee Engagement

The major components of an Intranet that suits a particular organization highly differ based upon the specific expectations of their employees and work culture.

A SharePoint intranet basically needs to be the seamless interface between the various wings of an organization that makes sure that all the employees find it engaging and interactive enough. This makes it a connecting link between the employees of that organization. And here, the role of the components of an intranet is vital to promote employee engagement and collaboration in order to boost work culture. So, what is the critical part of an intranet? Also, Why is it so critical to monitor how it mirrors the interests of the users just as the organization as a whole, virtually creating an environment that can give a lift to the work culture. However, with such a large set of variety that the modern intranet has to offer, settling on the Basic Components of an intranet that caters specifically to your organization is quite an important decision. Your intranet may be capable of possessing 100s of features but what makes it most productive is to decide upon…what to keep and what to give up. This may seem troublesome but this step ensures that no unnecessary time is wasted on the intranet. Along these lines, here is a list, that can assist us out of this dilemma. 

Most Important Components of an Intranet

1. Choose the FEATURES that fits your Work Culture

It is very important to pick up only the features that suit your work culture rather than going for anything and everything. This will ensure effectively focussed collaboration and communication. 

Two-Way Communication

Professional communication needs to be 2-way always. Your intranet needs to have tools like chat boxes that encourage the one-to-one interactions of employees. In this way, peer-to-peer or inter-disciplinary communication will grow stronger. The leadership too can be included in this, which in turn leads to enhanced team spirit.

Integrated Search

The search feature has been an employee’s best friend for quite long. Be it the Sales and Marketing or the Techies, everyone outperforms if the right data is supplied to them at the right time. A Search need not give too little nor too much information. Also, it will be great if a single search can take integrate the data from all the platforms used by the organization in a single go. There needs to be a reasonable governance strategy set up alongside customary monitoring of analytics.

Well Organized and Connected Profiles

An Employee Directory App is one of the most basic components required in an intranet. Now that most organizations are operating remotely, it is important to ensure that each employee profile is properly updated, and their contact details are easily accessible by others. You should also have options such as teams or workgroups to collaborate effectively. Each of these profiles should have their roles well-defined as well as the different permission levels for each need to be taken care of. 

2. Uninterrupted ACCESSIBILITY

An Intranet should be the doorway to getting to the various parts of the organization virtually. Users with different needs accessing the different aspects of the organization using it, be it important information handling, official conversations or simply, peer-to-peer communication.  Therefore, an intranet needs to deliver quick and consistent access to tools and applications needed to complete every work without any glitch. 

Alt identification of images and other elements 

Alt texts are simply texts depicting or identifying some visual elements like images, diagrams, graphs and so on. Thus, it is extremely useful if a few individuals among the intranet users have visual impairments. It likewise has a supportive influence in deducing the picture content if the network is too weak to load them.

Color Combination  

The proper color combination in the foreground and background play a major role in determining the overall interest level in the intranet. The overall look of the intranet must be pleasant to everyone while every element being clearly accessible and easy to perceive by everyone’s eyes.   

Appropriate navigation and headings

Proper headings and sub-headings make the contents easy to access from a user’s perspective as well as an SEO perspective. Also, easy navigations must be set throughout the intranet to make it a smooth transition from one feature or content to another. 

3. DATA SECURITY 

Access Rights and Passwords

Each and every user account on the SharePoint intranet needs to be password protected. Apart from this, there ought to be various degrees of safety levels for accessing various types of data and content present in the intranet. For high-security information, enhanced security systems such as biometric passwords, two-step authentications or multi-user validations can be implemented.

Simple but Strong Security

The safety features of the intranet should be as simple, straightforward, and transparent as possible. Complexity not only leads to confusion but also leads to recklessness by the employees. Basic security measures such as one-click encryption, multi-device OTP verification, intermittent manual captcha test etc. can be very easy to use, yet ensure enough security.  

Encryption  

Encryption means, encoding data, message,s or information in such a way that only the approved and authorized parties can get access to it and those not authorized cannot. It is very much like Lock and Key. The information is encoded and locked away from any access and just the ones authorized with the decoding Key that is, the Encryption Access Code will be able to interpret it and utilize that information. Sensitive information within the intranet should be kept or conveyed in encrypted format only. This can forestall the tremendous crisis instances of data theft or information burglary.

4. User ENGAGEMENT 

Custom-Tailored Content 

Just like the content specifically designed or intended for the clients, the content intended for the in-house individuals is equally significant. The content on the intranet ought to be adequate in the work-related aspects as well as should cover the individual interests of employees too to the largest extent reasonably possible.

Engagement-Focus 

The content present on the intranet, regardless of whether in informative, enlightening, formal or just for fun, each one of them should be positioned by their engagement level. The extent to which the users are opening, liking, sharing or indulging in any kind of such engagement activity, must be the factor deciding how much visibility or which ranking that piece of content should enjoy. 

Dynamic Homepages 

The intranet must have an extraordinarily connecting landing page that changes with requirements and is custom-made according to the specific interests of the user using dynamic widgets. This means, the same homepage at precisely the same time for two different users will be different and unique. Alongside it, the significant notification and data that everybody should be aware of should also be refreshed on the landing page regularly.

5. Versatility

The intranet needs to be accessible from literally anywhere and anytime. Thus, multiple device responsiveness needs to be taken very good care of and is among the top most profoundly desired components of intranet. Likewise, it should be taken care that the speed and quality stay fair enough in each device. What according to you is the component most essential for your intranet? Have more features to add to the list? Feel something else too is important to build up an awesome Intranet? Let us know in the comments below.