The workplace looks different these days and so does the employee experience. Since 2019, we’ve seen remote work grow. In fact, between 2019 and 2021 the number of remote workers tripled. With workers at home, in the office, and on the road companies need to have targeted communication options that accommodate these diverse engagement needs.
Technology is supposed to enhance communications, but sometimes it becomes its own monster. Companies often use multiple apps that employees must switch between throughout the day to find get things done. This is cumbersome, time consuming and often, confusing. Frustration ensues, and this impacts the overall employee experience––and contributes to high turnover rates.
Having a unified intranet can eliminate these extra steps employees have to take to find what they need. The right intranet platform consolidates your technology, adapts to the individual needs of employees, and keeps colleagues connected, even from the road.
Streamlining your intranet tech stack gives employees with what they really crave––a better work experience.
A better intranet leads to better EX
When we talk about creating a better employee experience, we are really talking about what workers want from their workplace. And better communication is on that list.
Employees want to open communication with management, because it makes them feel appreciated when they’re heard. And they want clear direction from management as well, as employees’ lives are much less stressful when everyone is on the same page.
They also want to feel better connected with their co-workers. And this one is huge, as better connections means enhanced productivity. McKinsey found that well-connected teams see a productivity increase of 20–25%.
Perhaps surprisingly, physical proximity really has little to do with it. In fact, in a study by RingCentral, respondents that self-reported being productive were asked about their relationship with colleagues and “71% reported feeling more connected to their colleagues than before the pandemic.”
Employees are also frustrated with data gathering. Harvard Business Review cited, “Psychology and neuroscience have shown that jumping between tasks—also called ‘context switching’—is cognitively taxing.” This searching can feel like a job itself and is mentally draining. HBR also uncovered that “Excessive toggling increases the brain’s production of cortisol (the primary stress hormone), slows us down, and makes it harder to focus.”
And then, after all of that searching, many times intranets fail because the search engine doesn’t work properly, or doesn’t filter out all the noise. And this brings us to our next point . . .
Valuing your tech team’s time
Not all intranet technology will lighten your intranet tech stack load––and some make finding what you need even harder, and placing additional demands on your tech team’s time. Having everything in one place is not the ‘be all and end all’ of intelligence management, not if it means just adding another piece of software onto the already substantial technology pile.
As it stands, the group of employees that are typically overwhelmed to a far greater extent than any other department is your tech team. As Compuvision notes, “Many IT teams don’t have the capacity, the technology, the resources, or the personnel to handle the heaviest workloads and often just weren’t designed to handle the level of demand that the modern workplace has brought to bear.”
The right intranet streamlines all of this, providing your employees with exactly what they need, when they need it, and without all the hair pulling. This results in a better employee experience and frees your tech department to focus on more critical tasks, like cyber security and privacy protocols.
Let’s break down what an optimal intranet does, and how it supports a better EX by lightening your tech stack.
No more knowledge silos
In a report from software company Qatalog we revisit the ills of disorganization: “Software in the workplace is making it hard to focus and align across teams on creative projects. 43% of people report spending too much time switching between different online tools.” Integrating these sign-ons in one place certainly helps.
And we see wasted time compounded when adding the knowledge silos that exist in different departments. Having unified capabilities means there are fewer places to search––and fewer pieces of software to contend with. There’s just one place in fact, and it offers a single source of truth. It also offers an immediate decrease in employee stress levels!
Your intranet should be where newsletters live, as well as every bit of important intel that’s accessible company wide. It also houses the most up to date information on everything a worker could search for – or it links clearly and intuitively to it. And it should anticipate these searches, by individual user, making ‘smart searches’ the norm and freeing IT from repeat information requests that should be automated in our technologically advanced workplace!
Having an information-rich organization is useless if employees can’t find the intel they need. And this applies to the most basic elements as well, such as company procedures.
Onboarding and continued education made simple
So many intranet users overlook critical data because of too many applications or the volume of information. And when it comes to new employees, this can be extra frustrating as they are already overwhelmed with new information and finding their way in the company.
With onboarding, you need an intranet that is going to simplify the process yet deliver everything that is needed to support your employees’ training. You want their first weeks to be exciting and informative, not making them second guess joining your team. This period can set the tone for months to come, and you want to hit a high note.
This also applies to continued education. New skills training, files, articles, how-to guides, and any other critical information should be housed in a way that encourages continuous learning. If a learning hub requires mental gymnastics to navigate, employees won’t be returning willingly. And this becomes an unfortunate––and avoidable––part of company culture.
But providing specialized intel to every employee can feel impossible, particularly when employees are so diverse. That’s why having an intranet powered by AI, offering adaptive personalization, is so important.
Discover Simpplr New Hire Onboarding solutions
AI driven intranet
An AI driven intranet in today’s work environment is necessary, especially if you hope to keep your employees happy. Sixteen percent of Gen Z and Millennial employees have quit their job because they felt the technology provided wasn’t up-to-par. This proves that the digital employee experience (DEX) is intertwined with your employee’s happiness. The competition out there is fierce, and more companies are switching to modern intranets that adapt and learn, as they know making a better employee experience is mission critical.
An AI-powered intranet makes the most of your intranet tech stack by:
- Surfacing personalized content to employees. Because AI learns and adapts, it gets to know your employees, as diverse as they are––and provides the right content within the right context every time.
- Providing employee insights. With an AI-driven intranet, you get prescriptive analytics and real-time insights that help you understand your employees better. This enables you to provide the best content for their needs, but also to connect with them personally. And this enhances EX when employees feel seen.
- Reducing administrative tasks. Lighten your load with the intelligence AI offers. The right intranet platform eliminates clutter by deleting files that are no longer relevant and suggesting topics for your content creation.
With AI integrated, the technology grows along with your employees keeping everyone optimally engaged. And your employees reap the benefits of a streamlined work experience that positively impacts productivity and ultimately, an overall better employee experience.
Productivity and engagement activated!
McKinsey suggests that “by fully implementing social technologies, companies have an opportunity to raise the productivity of interaction workers—[those] high-skill knowledge workers, including managers and professionals—by 20 to 25 percent.” And Garner found that after a positive experience with an application, 41% of users spent more time delving further into its features. It sounds like a win-win once you get the technology right.
It’s all connected––or at least, it should be. If your employees can access what they need, when they need it without having to dig, they’re happier. If communications are clear and accurate, they’re happier. This results in a better employee experience, which in turn, significantly improves productivity and is great ROI. And all of this happens with fewer demands on your tech team’s time. Amazing.
If this sounds like something you need in your workplace, reach out for a demo and let us help you create a better employee experience and lighten your intranet tech stack!
