In this article, we’ll explore how a modern intranet can transform common HR challenges into opportunities for organizational growth and enhanced employee experience.
HR challenges by the numbers
The monumental shift to remote work, coupled with a tightening economy, has produced the perfect storm of HR challenges that require strategic thinking and innovative solutions.
Employee engagement: Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report finds that only 15% of employees worldwide are engaged in their jobs. And employee engagement impacts the organization on myriad levels — from productivity to profitability and retention. A striking 92% of business executives firmly believe that engaged employees significantly enhance performance, leading to greater team accomplishment and superior organizational outcomes.
Employee feedback. The ongoing struggle to keep employees engaged makes it more critical than ever before to collect the timely employee feedback needed to improve and/or launch programs that nurture engagement and improve job satisfaction. Organizations that prioritize feedback see 1.4 times higher employee engagement rates.
Employee retention: Creating experiences for employees characterized by connection and engagement is key to retaining your people. A recent report from Gallup stresses the critical role that strategic employee recognition — defined as “fulfilling, authentic, equitable, embedded in company culture, and personalized to the individual” — plays on retention. The report states that large organizations that make strategic employee recognition an important part of their culture can save up to $16.1 million annually due to reduced employee turnover.
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How can a modern intranet help solve these HR challenges?
The modern intranet is much more than a communication tool — it’s a strategic asset that HR leaders can leverage to address the challenges of employee engagement, feedback and retention head-on.
HR leaders can:
- Utilize it as a central hub for communication, collaboration and engagement. For example, to maximize enrollment in benefits programs.
- Use it to deliver meaningful, personalized employee recognition quickly and easily.
- Harness real-time, data-driven insights through AI, unveiling hidden employee sentiments that traditional surveys overlook, empowering HR leaders to make more informed decisions.
Leveraging the intranet to solve the employee engagement challenge
A modern intranet enables HR leaders to build a world-class culture — connecting, informing and inspiring employees, wherever they are. With access via desktop or mobile, employees gain easy access to transparent communication, personalized information, and ways to celebrate accomplishments together.
They can interact and align on company goals as one collaborative team. Plus, HR can surface the right information to the right people at the right time. For example, with Simpplr, HRs and hiring managers can easily flag onboarding content across sites without having to organize them manually. They can create an easy-to-follow path for new hires to obtain the information they need to successfully onboard.
The right intranet also empowers employees to connect in special communities set up for shared interests (e.g., associate resource groups), business units, locations and more.
Intranet engagement example: Foodies of Simpplr site
And the right intranet puts the power of recognition — a major engagement driver — front and center. When surveyed, employees consistently emphasize the importance of recognition from their leaders. Studies reveal that the most memorable recognition often originates from an employee’s immediate manager (28%), followed by high-level leaders or CEOs (24%).
Intranet engagement example: Recognition form on Simpplr’s intranet, Backyard
Other elements of Simpplr’s platform that boost engagement include:
- My teams dashboard: Supports people managers in providing insights and guiding them to engage with and check in on their direct reports.
- Smart Feed: Create a culture of conversion and promote two-way employee communication, collaboration, feedback and knowledge sharing.
- Built-in employee network: Help employees find and connect with one another using a visual and automatically updated org chart and data-rich employee profiles.
- Multi-channel communications: Ensure broad reach and resonance using targeted messages delivered through multiple channels — including Slack, Teams, email, push notifications and SMS.
- “Must-reads” and Awareness Check: Verify that employees are reading and absorbing critical company information using Awareness Check for measurement and reporting.
These functionalities of the modern intranet add up to a more engaged workforce.
Explore 51 employee engagement ideas
Using the intranet for employee feedback and listening
A culture in which employees feel heard is a culture that fosters job satisfaction, higher productivity and engagement, and lower employee turnover. In fact, a recent listening study conducted by The Work Project found:
- 72% of people who don’t feel listened to are looking for a new job
- 80% of people who do feel listened to have more good days at work
- 43% of part-time workers and 34% of full-time workers don’t feel listened to
- 45% of respondents said their “dream boss” would be a good listener — the top leadership quality of the five ranked
A modern intranet like Simpplr integrates employee listening tools that analyze sentiment and identify trends from employee feedback.
Simpplr’s Employee Listening combines survey responses with AI-powered passive listening to detect underlying sentiments and emotions, helping HR leaders identify pain points. You get insights into a broad range of sentiment data gathered throughout the Simpplr platform, incorporating polls, pulse and traditional surveys, Sentiment check, Awareness check, and everyday interactions, like comments.
This powerful listening suite helps HR quickly understand and respond to changing trends and employee attitudes before they become bigger issues that could impact a broader base of employees. And you can give executives unbiased insights to identify areas that require attention, respond effectively, and nurture an environment of safe and continuous support to strengthen your culture.
Learn more about the importance of an employee listening strategy
Using the intranet to help with employee retention
In the wake of the Great Resignation, employee retention remains a top HR challenge. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the attrition rate jumped from 25.7% to 32.7% between 2017 and 2022. And 4.3 million people quit their jobs voluntarily, in contrast to 1.4 million who were laid off or discharged. And a study by the Work Institute reveals that 46% of employees leave their jobs within the first year of employment.
How can a modern intranet like Simpplr help HR leaders combat attrition? By providing AI-powered insights (as noted above), enabling connection and transparent communication, and boosting employee engagement — especially through the use of recognition.
HR leaders can use the intranet to communicate about organizational changes, track employee sentiment, and respond appropriately. In addition, the modern intranet’s social features enable employees to connect with each other — reinforcing the feeling of being part of a larger community and reducing feelings of isolation that can lead to turnover.
Notably, Simpplr’s Employee Recognition empowers peers and managers to publicly acknowledge each other’s contributions. This positive reinforcement not only enhances engagement but also aligns with research that found that organizations with a strong culture of recognition have 31% lower voluntary turnover rates.
With Simpplr’s Employee Recognition, HR leaders can:
- Configure, view, track and manage recognition and awards in the recognition hub, simplifying your employee engagement tools.
- Foster a sense of belonging by empowering remote, in-person or hybrid employees to give shout-outs, receive recognition, and celebrate wins together through desktop and mobile.
- Customize awards and badges to align with company values, continuously cultivating organizational culture and brand.
Download the free ebook, Your intranet: The secret to employee retention?
Case study: NEI Investments achieves world-class employee retention with Simpplr
After growing and becoming more geographically dispersed — with offices across Canada and many remote employees — Toronto-based NEI Investments knew they had to do something to connect their workforce or risk attrition.
Users were getting burned out on email. Important news was easy to ignore and delete. Communications seemed unilateral, with little two-way dialogue. Relying on shared network drives was a challenge for salespeople trying to find content on the road. Version control was difficult when many people relied on their email archive to find content. And with no platform for collaboration and communication, HR, marketing, finance and many other teams were answering the same questions over and over.
The status quo had employees feeling increasingly disconnected from NEI’s mission and vision. The firm could not afford to let this challenge affect the culture and ultimately its ability to attract and retain talent.
Ultimately, NEI chose the Simpplr platform because it had all the capabilities they required, was the easiest option to deploy (without heavy overhead), and proved to be the best approach toward fixing communication and content management challenges.
Within months of deploying, NEI Connect’s daily adoption rate exceeded world-class standards, with more than 70% of employees logging in daily. Other big wins include:
- The distributed administrative approach has helped lighten the load of the central HR and marketing project leads, with oversight and maintenance taking less than five hours per week.
- NEI cut the number of company aliases by a staggering 40%, fostering a greater sense of transparency across the organization.
- Survey scores related to communication and feeling connected to the business have dramatically increased.
“With Simpplr, our employees feel more connected to NEI’s purpose and strategy,” said Steve Wylie, Director of Sales and Digital Enablement. “All of our content is easy to access and easy to keep up to date. This has not only improved employee productivity but has also dramatically increased employee engagement and overall satisfaction scores.”
Overcome HR challenges with a modern intranet
In the complex landscape of HR challenges, a modern intranet like Simpplr acts as a strategic ally for HR leaders. Simpplr’s intranet features provide a holistic solution to the pressing issues of employee retention, engagement and feedback.
By fostering transparent communication, facilitating recognition, and leveraging AI-powered insights, HR professionals can transform challenges into opportunities for growth. As organizations embrace these solutions, they’re not only addressing current challenges but also paving the way for a future workforce that’s engaged, connected, and empowered to thrive. Request a demo to learn more.
