Using Intranet for Effective Internal Communications: Advantages, Best Practices and Top Tools to Get Started

Getting updates out to staff, maintaining a single source of truth for information, and creating a community – all while trying to foster a culture of open communication and keep employees engaged – is a tough gig.

From remote organizations to large conglomerates, the common denominator is that everyone needs a central hub for employees to come together.

But the current situation often looks like this:

• You suffer knowledge management issues: Staff don’t know where documents are stored and you end up duplicating information in different systems.
• Employees feel disconnected: They feel there’s a lack of public recognition and no lower-level team motivation.
• Overcommunication: Employees don’t feel their messages are getting read in one channel so they send them to multiple, taking up unnecessary time.

So, what’s the remedy?

Enter the intranet: the place for internal communication.

If you crave the sense of connection an intranet can bring to your organization, read on to find out what you’re missing, how you can get started, and the key tools you need in your arsenal.

What is an intranet and how does it impact internal communication?

An intranet is a private network reserved for internal use. It functions like a website, or a collection of websites, that authorized users (usually employees) get access to.

Think of it like Facebook for your business, but without the friend you used to go to school with and your aunt who only posts photos of her salads.

You get a dedicated space reserved for internal business matters like:

• Company updates: Earnings, sales targets, employee satisfaction surveys, etc.
• Company documents: A central repository for the most up-to-date handbooks, policies, holiday forms, etc.
• Employee directory: Helps dispersed teams find experts in matters they need help with.
• Social network: Not exactly like Facebook or Twitter, but you can post real-time and asynchronous updates about social matters like softball tryouts and fundraisers. 

When you start using an intranet, expect to see these positive impacts on your internal communication:

• Centralized information sharing: You have a central location for storing and accessing important company information. This can include things like manuals, employee handbooks, department wikis, and news announcements. Employees no longer lose time hunting through emails or file folders for what they need.
  Improved communication flow: Create forums, discussion boards, and instant messaging services. This allows employees to communicate with each other, regardless of their location, department, or chat tool.
• Enhanced collaboration: Create collaborative workspaces where employees can share information, work on projects, and track progress. This streamlines projects and tasks when multiple stakeholders and teams are involved.
• Increased transparency: Share company news and information to keep employees informed about what's happening within the company. Everyone knows where to find the latest updates.
• Streamlined onboarding: Provide new hires with easy access to all the information they need to get up to speed quickly.

If you're seeking to boost any of these in your organization, an intranet is just what you need for internal communications.

Advantages of using company intranets to improve internal communication

An intranet can improve employee communication by addressing these common roadblocks.

1. Centralized information

When you adopt and communicate your intranet as the place for information to be stored, you remove the pain of finding outdated documents, sifting through emails, and making assumptions about policies and procedures. 

Ensuring a consistent source of up-to-date information means everyone is on the same page when it comes to accessing the same policies, announcements, resources, and anything else you choose to host or post on your intranet. 

The ultimate win? Less confusion, no duplication, and better communication.

2. Breaking down silos

When team members work on projects and documents that don’t cross departments, divides (or silos) form. 

While there is a need for certain information to stay within specific teams, there’s also a huge amount of cross-department information sharing needed in many businesses. 

The larger the business, the more departments. The more departments, the more information that gets mistakenly hidden from other teams. 
Intranets can bridge these gaps by providing platforms for cross-departmental communication. 

Discussion forums between individuals, project management tools for intracompany collaboration, and company-wide wikis for knowledge sharing ensure your different departments make org-wide information accessible to everyone who needs it.

3. Accessibility and flexibility

When remote workers, field employees, or those who work different shifts need access to vital information, intranets are accessible from anywhere, anytime, on any device with an internet connection. 

You can get access to major incident forms, grab sales material after hours, and find the on-call escalation contact through a simple search and discover facility. 

Every employee, regardless of their location or shift pattern, stays informed and connected.

4. Real-time communication

Some intranets offer features like instant messaging and video conferencing, enabling real-time discussions as well as asynchronous updates. 

While the reality is that you likely have a number of internal communication tools to do this already, many businesses suffer from collaboration sprawl.

Collaboration tool sprawl is the result of using an abundance of communications platforms to the point where there are too many to keep track of, confusing users

Blair Pleasant, President and Principal Analyst, COMMfusion

In a large business that uses apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom for chat and video, it’s near impossible to know who’s using which app.

Enabling real-time messaging, calling, and video in your intranet can be crucial for quick decision-making, brainstorming sessions, or resolving urgent issues. 

There’s no time wasted messaging on every app. Once staff know the intranet is the place to stay connected, it can become your genuine hub for internal communications.

5. Encouraging open dialogue

When senior management presents face-to-face, it can be daunting for junior staff members to respond or take part.

While the same might still apply when sharing a social media-style update on an intranet (sharing company news, leadership updates, etc.), younger generations are more likely to engage with online activities than in person.

I’m more comfortable responding with a comment on an announcement than questioning a senior exec in front of a room of colleagues

Chris Sanders, Business Change Analyst at University of Oxford

You can even start to use surveys or feedback mechanisms to encourage participation, with the option for users to respond anonymously. 

Gathering feedback is important for businesses of any size. Finding a vehicle to facilitate this is the crucial component. Interactive features encourage open dialogue and a sense of appreciation within your organization.

6. Reduced information overload

When you make documents, files, and updates searchable and easy to access, there’s less time lost scanning different systems and a higher chance of finding the correct information the first time.

Rather than staff becoming consumed by documentation and fearing they’re using the wrong form, rest assued that at any given moment,  everyone has access to the right data, project updates, and documents.

Modern intranet features to support your internal communications strategy

As intranets have become pivotal in company infrastructure, the demand for more features has been climbing.

Users and admins want their intranet to check all the boxes so that they don’t need to look elsewhere to find an easier way of completing their tasks.

As such, we see these modern intranet features as standard in top-level intranets.

Content management and accessibility

• Simple and intuitive interface: While once clunky and bit-part, superior intranets are now user-friendly with clear navigation. This makes them both easy for user adoption and productive for employees to find the information they need. 
• Search functionality: Get exactly what you’re looking for with Google-esq search capabilities. No more hunting for documents with custom parameters.
• Content management system (CMS): A built-in CMS allows staff to create, update, and maintain content, ensuring information accuracy and relevance.
• Personalization: Each department or role can choose a personalized view, reducing information overload from other teams.

Communication and collaboration

• Company news feed: A dedicated space for company news, leadership updates, and important announcements keeps everyone informed and up to date.
• Discussion forums and blog posts: Encourages open discussions, knowledge sharing, and brainstorming that can improve collaboration and engagement.
• Document sharing and collaboration tools: Allow employees to share documents and work on projects together both in real-time and asynchronously. 
• Instant messaging and video conferencing: Facilitate quick discussions, brainstorming sessions, and addressing urgent issues when teams can’t get together in person.

Employee engagement and feedback

• Social networking: Create employee profiles, internal groups, and discussion boards. Enable liking and commenting on posts to create a sense of community and encourage interaction.
• Internal surveys and polls: Gather employee feedback on various aspects of the organization or the intranet itself. Anonymize or make public depending on the situation to generate employee satisfaction scores and get a general feeling when company announcements are made.
• Idea management systems: Capturing employee ideas in a single hub for use on future projects and initiatives.
• Employee recognition tools: From recognition badges and awards to leaderboards and contests, enable both peer and executive levels of employee recognition.

Enterprise features

• Multilingual support: Ensure everyone has access to information in their preferred language and that all locations are supported.
• Security measures: Protect sensitive company data and prevent unauthorized access. Turn on regular security updates and enable multi-factor authorization.
• Performance management: Understand how your intranet is being used and what’s being left behind. Measure user activity, content engagement, and search analytics for a holistic view of how and what’s being used the most/least.

How to use intranet software to improve your internal communication: 4 best practices

1. Push out important information to your entire team

You can do this by sending all-company updates, but that’s not always the best medium for engagement. Instead, make a call on when to send-to-all and when to change it up.

Intranets, like Workvivo, make it easy to add variety when pushing out updates:

• Targeted communication: Embrace features like role-based groups to deliver targeted messages to the most relevant audience.
• Multiple formats: Grab attention and make your updates easy to consume by combining text-based announcements with eye-catching visuals like infographics, videos, or polls.
• Urgency levels: Use ‘Urgent’ sparingly. Turn on push notifications or email alerts for urgent information – but only for genuinely urgent announcements!

2. Create dedicated channels for team-specific communications

• Team wikis: Create team-specific wikis where members can collaborate on documents, share best practices, and maintain a central hub for team knowledge.
• Discussion forums: Each team or common interest can have a forum to discuss ongoing projects, troubleshoot problems, or brainstorm ideas.
• Instant messaging groups: Built-in chat enables real-time communication between custom groups based on department or commonalities.

3. Create a knowledge base of internal communication procedures

• Standardized information: Dedicate a central location for documenting internal communication procedures, including style guides, approval workflows, and best practices so staff know exactly where to get what they need.
• Easy search and navigation: Use categories and company-wide naming conventions to make the most of your search function.
• Employee contributions: Embrace a culture of shared learning by encouraging employees to contribute to the knowledge bases and user posts.

4. Gather feedback

• Regular surveys and polls: Conduct surveys and polls to gauge employee satisfaction with the intranet, internal communication practices, and any company announcements.
• Comment sections and forums: Choose which types of posts to enable comments and discussions on to encourage an open dialogue.
• Digital suggestion boxes: Allow employees to anonymously submit suggestions through a designated forum.

9 best intranet platforms to consider

Now we know the benefits of rolling out an intranet platform, it’s time to figure out which one is right for you!

We’ve rounded up the best intranet platforms on the market and highlighted who should pick each one. Look out for exclusive features and use cases that match your business.

Let’s get started with the best in the market for employee experience. (Clearly, we’re not biased at all.)

1. Workvivo

Known for its focus on employee experience, Workvivo, now part of Zoom, goes beyond traditional intranet functionalities to create a more engaging and interactive intranet platform. 

You get traditional features we’ve come to expect from intranet software like:

• News feeds
• Discussion forums
• Targeted announcements
• Analytics and performance measurement
• Social networking functionalities like popular social media platforms  
• But you also get employee-first features like:
• Employee recognition tools
• Pulse surveys
• Support for mobile devices to keep field and remote employees connected

What’s more, there’s a host of interactive features that make checking and using your intranet a more enjoyable experience. After all, if it’s hard or annoying to use, adoption figures are going to plummet.

Key features

Workvivo introduces a modern intranet that can truly become the digital heart of your company.

Standout features include:

• Live streaming: Enable your CEO to broadcast the next all-hands with live Q&A, in-meeting polls, and interactive comments and likes.
• Newsletter: Provide regular easy-to-read text-based updates while benefiting from embedded videos, infographics, and polls.
• Podcast: Cater to all consumption preferences by hosting your own internal podcasts; featuring guests from different departments and job types.
• Digital signage: Physical boards and screens that allow on-the-go workers to view the latest company updates.
• Chat: Instantly reach and engage your entire workforce, wherever they are – at the office, at home, or on the frontline.
• Activity feed: A curated timeline of department, company-wide, or personal posts shared by peers, managers, and executives.

Best for

Organizations looking to boost employee engagement, improve internal communication, and build a strong company culture. 

Workvivo is particularly a winner with companies that have a younger or more tech-savvy workforce.

2. Guru

Guru takes a unique approach to intranet solutions, merging the core functionalities of an intranet with advanced knowledge management features. 

By making information accessible through its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search engine and robust wiki capabilities, Guru makes the hour-long search for the right document a thing of the past.

Employees can create, edit, and collaborate on knowledge-base articles, ensuring everyone has access to the latest information and best practices.  

Key features

While Guru’s party trick is its AI search, it still comes with stock intranet features you’ve come to expect:

• Central calendar
• Content version control
• Company announcements
• Employee usage metrics
• Centralized document repository
• Discussion threads attached to articles
• Integrations with popular business tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Asana

You can even expand the internal search capabilities to look up documents and information from the apps you integrate with, making Guru a search engine as well as an intranet.

Best for

• Ideal for organizations where capturing and sharing institutional knowledge is critical. 
• Professional service firms and research institutions will love the speed they can recall important documentation through the AI-powered search.

3. Simpplr

Simpplr leverages AI to personalize the intranet experience and prioritize employee engagement. Its goal is to provide a simpler (get it?) intranet experience that doesn’t overwhelm employees with information and updates that may not be relevant to them.

Its AI engine analyzes user preferences to deliver targeted content. This means employees only see information relevant to their roles or interests.

By personalizing the intranet experience and providing data-driven insights, Simpplr is a good choice for organizations seeking an intelligent approach to intranet communication and content management. 

Key features

Alongside a personalized news feed, Simpplr users can expect:

• Employee onboarding tools
• Automated issue resolution
• Templated, no-code configuration
• Employee rewards and recognition
• Analytics to measure the effectiveness of communication efforts
• Integrations with apps like SharePoint, Google Drive, and Dropbox

Best for

• Simpplr is valuable for companies with a large and diverse workforce. The personalized news feed takes the hassle out of manual filtering to find what’s relevant and important.
• If there's a fear of negativity in your business, take advantage of sentiment analysis to gauge the perception of your business.

4. Jive

Jive emphasizes interactive features and social networking capabilities to create a community-driven intranet.  There’s less of a one-way communication feel and more of a social network appeal.

Rather than stopping at static announcements and traditional forums, Jive offers features like:

• Social profiles
• Activity streams
• Gamification tactics like points and badges
• Rather than focusing on forcing engagement, Jive aims to encourage user participation, knowledge sharing, and collaboration across departments by rewarding users for adoption. The more you use your intranet, the more rewards you can earn.

Key features

As well as acting as a business social media platform, Jive comes with the following task and project management features:

• Built-in search
• Cloud storage
• File management
• Internal messaging
• Integrated calendar
• Document management

You also get a mobile app and integration with project management apps like SharePoint, Lucidchart, and SmarterPath.

Best for

• With its focus on user interaction and social engagement, Jive is a good fit for organizations looking to create a more collaborative work environment. 
• If getting people to take part in company social networking is a major issue, Jive’s social intranet experience may be a good fit.

5. Happeo

Happeo positions itself as a next-generation intranet platform, designed for the modern digital workplace, powered by advanced AI functionality.

Its strength is its tight integration with Google Workspace, with over 400 customers using the combination. You can use Happeo as your central hub for pulling documents from all parts of the Google stack (Docs, Sheets, Drive, etc.) and present them in an intranet-style interface.

On top of this, you get a customizable dashboard, task management tools, and real-time communication channels.

Key features

You might view Happeo as an overlay window into the comings and goings of your Google Drive estate. But Happeo also comes with a host of other features:

• Employee communities
• Mobile app
• Find like-minded people
• Automated organization chart
• Pages, channels, and posts
• Measurement analytics
• Integration with other lines of business apps like Jira, Confluence, and Zendesk

Best for

Organizations that are invested in Google’s suite of productivity apps and rely on storing files in Google’s cloud without categories, labeling, and proper naming conventions.

6. LumApps

LumApps caters to enterprises with complex needs by offering a large suite of features for content management. 

It comes into its own when businesses want a customizable platform that they can tailor to fit specific requirements. By configuring LumApps from the ground up, you can grow your intranet for internal comms as you see fit. 

Key features

The customization for admins and supervisors is the biggest sell. You get customizable dashboards, role-based access control, and a composable intranet experience.

Larger businesses can also benefit from:

• Multilingual support (30+ languages)
• Advanced security features like continual backups and API penetration testing
• Integration with enterprise apps like Workday, Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams

Best for

• The level of customization and scalability available with LumApps make it a good fit for large organizations with geographically dispersed teams or those with strict security and compliance requirements.  
• There is a flip side to this, however. The complexity of the platform that suits large enterprises might not be ideal for smaller businesses with simpler needs.

7. Blink

Blink is a cost-effective yet powerful tool for small businesses seeking a basic intranet setup.

Even when coming in at a lesser price point than its competitors, Blink provides common intranet features like:

• News feeds
• Discussion forums
• Document management tools
• Employee profiles
• Mobile app

Blink doesn’t offer the advanced features or customization options as some of the other platforms. So, if you’re a large business looking to roll out across departments and integrate into many enterprise apps, it lacks in that area. 

That said, if these aren’t your needs, it's a good value proposition for SMBs looking for a user-friendly intranet solution.

Key features

Blink enables small businesses access to raft of features not available in other collaboration tools:

• Single content hub 
• Employee surveys
• Secure internal chat
• Blink Kudos for personalized recognition
• Single sign-on
• Staff motivation journeys

Best for

• Companies with frontline workers who would otherwise be overconsumed with too much information.
• Blink’s lack of enterprise adaptability plays into the hands of smaller businesses that need to present a smaller amount of information and updates to key workers who often feel disconnected.

8. Igloo

Igloo is a well-rounded solution for businesses seeking to improve knowledge sharing. Another platform with a focus on connecting desk-based and deskless workers, Igloo is designed as a single platform but with many possibilities for access and consumption.

You get all the standard features, like:

• News feeds
• Discussion forums,
• Document management tools
• Employee recognition tools

And they’re all accessible via laptop, desktop, or mobile app.

Key features

While also including employee profiles and project management options, Igloo comes with:

• User controls for admins
• Content recommendation engine
• Targeted content per department
• Digital reminders for key tasks and notifications
• Extended access to users without a business email address

Best for

• If you’re new to intranets, Igloo is a good starting point if you don’t have any complex requirements and need a catch-all platform.
• Its blend of intranet and social features makes Igloo a good choice for businesses that favor ease of use.

9. SharePoint

SharePoint is Microsoft’s flagship document storage and collaboration tool that can also act as an intranet. Within SharePoint, you can choose to create any number of “sites” from templates or custom builds. These make up the foundation of what users will see as their intranet.

You have obvious integrations with other Microsoft apps like Word and Excel. But you can also include attachments from emails in Outlook and generic notes from OneNote. If you store any files in a Microsoft tool, SharePoint allows you to surface these in a central view.

Aside from its document storage capabilities, you get version control and search as standard.

Key features

While some businesses use SharePoint only for document storage, it’s a genuine intranet solution as well.

Features include:

• Workflow automation
• Automated content management
• Co-author documents in real time
• External access permissions for contractors and clients

Best for

• Microsoft houses who are going all in on Microsoft. If you create documents in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. and use Teams as your collaboration platform, using SharePoint as the backbone is a no-brainer.
• You may already be using SharePoint without knowing it. When you create a file folder or channel in Teams, it’s creating an underlying SharePoint site.

Take your internal communication to the next level with Workvivo

If you need to reduce internal information overload, you need an intranet. 

Opting to keep going through the motions and hoping staff change their habits – or some productivity magic happens – is no longer an option.

But the good news is that Workvivo’s here to help.

Workvivo isn't any old intranet solution. There are plenty of those. 

Instead, Workvivo is an employee experience platform designed to connect, empower, and retain your talent. 

Sure, you get social posting, all-company updates, and team wikis. But it’s so much more too. 

Take Kent, for example, a global leader in energy services, who boasts figures of 40,000 and 0.

That’s 40,000 likes on company posts and 0 posts removed after publishing. This speaks volumes not only of engagement, but also culture.

Workvivo was not only a tool for us, but it completely represented what we were all about. And the output was that we defined our entire core belief system, which is now four core beliefs that were decided by those 10,000-plus people, which I think is pretty cool

Mandy McDermott, Director of Internal Communications at Kent

Imagine a workplace where building relationships and celebrating successes are effortless. 

Workvivo creates this sought-after environment through its social features, intuitive interface, and seamless integration with your favorite tools.

Are you tired of fragmented communication and a disconnected workforce? 

Schedule a demo with Workvivo today!