We’ve referenced in Simpplr Research: 10 Reasons Intranets Fail that a top reason for intranet failure is due to irrelevant intranet content.
An intranet’s value proposition
Let’s take a step back and talk about an intranet’s value proposition. An intranet should curate content, focusing users’ attention on the most important aspects of a company so that critical information doesn’t get lost. Unlike email or other platforms where information gets buried, intranets surface critical and relevant news to employees so your organization stays aligned. Because intranets are designed to cut through the noise, they should be viewed as the employees’ definitive source of truth.
Unfortunately, this perspective is lost without the ability to effectively personalize and customize employee information. Think about it: if your intranet lacks the capability to deliver relevant content, the information becomes noise and clutter. It’s no better than your crowded email inbox. According to a recent Simpplr Research survey, only 34% of companies have the ability to personalize content based on role, location, or some other category. That means much of the intranet content surfaced to employees is simply not relevant and they are forced to cut through the noise.
Irrelevant content leads to intranet failure
To reiterate, another reason why intranets fail is that intranets become content dumping grounds. This is important to reference because content relevance is highly associated with how organizations curate information and keep it up-to-date. Intranet personalization has the ability to connect, align, and engage your employees if done strategically and with the right capabilities.
When considering an intranet, make sure it can provide configuration flexibility for end users to tailor their environments and dashboards to their specific interest. Simpplr is not only designed to personalize content for employees, but it is also built to increase employees’ productivity and make them feel connected.
Here are ways an intranet can personalize information for your employees:
Tailor content for user roles
Intranet content should be curated to user roles. The Sales team does not need to learn how to use a new applicant tracking system for the Human Resources department. When irrelevant information is surfaced to employees, the information becomes clutter, devaluing the intranet as the primary source of truth.
Curate top-down communications for segments
Informing your organization from the top-down is crucial to aligning your organization, but even top-down communications should be targeted to the right group of people. This is especially important for larger organizations with multiple locations or regions, portfolio companies, or a business segment. When you deliver critical messaging at the executive level to your employees, you foster your company’s culture making employees feel informed and like they’re a part of the company.
Subscribe employees to site-specific content
In Simpplr, a “site” refers to the way information is structured or organized. You can think of this as a group or a space that employees are either self or mandatorily subscribed to. Mandatory sites are set by the administrator that is relevant to all employees depending on their location, department, or segment. On the other hand, self-subscribed sites can be interest groups or other sites that employees find interest in, such as philanthropy initiatives or employee job boards. Subscribing to sites allow employees to personalize their dashboard while still seeing critical information from mandatory sites.
Return search results based on subscriptions and role
Intranet personalization should even extend to a user’s search results in order to curate the best intranet experience for employees. Just as your intranet dashboard should surface relevant content, your search results should as well. Curated search results improve your employees’ productivity by surfacing only the most relevant search results based on their subscriptions and role. It allows employees to stay focused and makes it easier for employees to find the information they need right on the spot.
Display local languages upon user preference
In today’s workforce, there are more distributed offices around the globe than ever before. An intranet should accommodate the nature of a global workforce, offering language localization. Language localization not only addresses cultural preferences but it also builds cohesion among offices. With localized content, you’re more likely to keep your employees aligned and engaged.
Intranets need to be personalized to avoid failure
Intranet managers need to understand who should receive and consume what information. Content should take into account an employee’s tenure, role, location, business unit, and other factors before publishers share information. Simpplr strives to understand how employees use the intranet on a daily basis. We focus heavily on research to back up how our intranet is designed to keep employees engaged and avoid intranet failure.
