Improve Internal Communication and Improve Collaboration

As noted in “The Cost of Poor Internal Communications 2014”, when divided and not understanding the company vision, only 23% of employees will work effectively, as opposed to 91% when your employees are unified and informed. Failing to get your employees on-side will not only harm business growth, but may also result in a lack of accountability, poor collaboration, lack of care towards customers, a lack of innovation and overall resentment amongst employees.

But a good Intranet design can help with all of this. It’s more than just relaying information from the top to the bottom. A well-built intranet can provide an engaging social environment that encourages your peers at all levels of employment to communicate openly with one another. Your website is probably your key marketing tool – equally, your intranet should be your key internal marketing tool. Taglines, company mottos, and all kinds of visuals can make sure that your employees are constantly reminded of what the company’s visions and values are.

You could also create a senior management blog, or a discussion forum, to provide employees with a safe place to voice concerns, discuss success, or even just express themselves. You can use news feeds to remind employees of current common goals, and to recognise team and individual milestones. Your intranet should send a message that your company will advocate for their staff. With an effective intranet, you can encourage your employees to care.

Capturing Young Talent

Adapting your workplace communications to reach the next generation of talent is vital. One in three workers in the U.S is a millennialafter all, so it only makes sense to encourage them to really engage in your company – not only are they already the largest group in the workforce, but that percentage are only going to grow from there!

Statistics gathered by the American Press Institute demonstrate just how much the digital age is affecting the behaviour of millennials, which needs to be taken into account. For example, 88% of millennials are receiving their news from Facebook: 57% checking Facebook for news at least once per day, and 44% checking several times per day.

These statistics also reveal that 70% of Facebook users regularly read news stories posted by others, and that 76% of users say the main reason they use the social network is to see what their friends are discussing.

So what do these trends have to do with your intranet? For one thing, they provide insight into the way millennials are communicating. Mobile access is key. They want to know what their peers are engaged in. They prefer social mediums. By using this to your advantage you can build an intranet that is engaging to your millennial employees. Instead of top-down distribution, an environment of sharing, discussion, and feedback can be valuable.

The study also revealed that the great draw of social media to millennials is the variety of opinions and points of view expressed – so by creating an environment where they are free to discuss company policy and so on, you can create an environment where millennials will thrive.

Making Change Happen

For your company to be formidable, you need a strong collaborative work force. Employees who are engaged and are eager to work not simply for, but with the company, will be of great value to you. Just like tug-of-war, it’s not only about which team has the strongest individual members, but the team thatcan work best as a group. Your intranet ties your employees together, providing a uniting force that creates successful internal communication and in turn leading to all the benefits that effective internal communication can provide.

 

 

Mike McMinn is currently General Manager of Technology for MyHub Intranet Solutions covering CTO and CMO duties. MyHub is a cloud-based intranet software solution that provides companies with a simple and easy to manage CMS that provides a range of powerful business communication and collaboration tools.

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