Wondering what are the benefits of an intranet within an organization? We have chosen to reveal 20 of them to you. Saving time, productivity, cost reduction, companies have everything to gain by developing an intranet. But did you know that this solution is also beneficial for employees?
What is a modern intranet?
This is an internal company intranet portal which, once set up, improves communication and promotes collaboration by centralizing information. This computer network is private and accessible only to company employees, although it is still possible to open doors to other people.
The intranet is now cloud-based and integrated with leading collaborative suites. This gives companies the opportunity to benefit from a complete, collaborative and mobile tool and workspace. The intranet has many advantages and very few disadvantages.
Interest and functionalities of an intranet
The advantages of the intranet seem obvious when we look at the functionalities of this online tool. Based on the cloud, it promotes the sharing of information via centralization of data accessible anywhere and at any time by employees. But that's not all, far from it. With an intranet, companies have an innovative tool to plan and manage projects, organize meetings, implement both horizontal and vertical communication, etc. This solution is aimed at all levels of the company, from the manager to the HR department, including the administrative center and the workers.
What are the benefits of an intranet for businesses?
- Make employees more productive
When you offer the best working conditions to an employee, they are naturally more productive. This is one of the benefits of an intranet . By promoting better organization of work with high-performance tools, your teams manage their missions better and gain in efficiency. No need to connect to various applications and search for information, you offer them a turnkey tool.
- Manage user access
With the intranet, you have the option of managing access to information individually. This offers two significant advantages: on the one hand, everyone, depending on their role and position in the company, can access or not access more or less sensitive data. It also helps manage specific permissions and intervention levels for posting, editing, commenting, etc. On the other hand, it gives the possibility to create groups with specific accesses . It is possible to create a group according to the services of the company, for the management of projects, etc.
- Better understand employee expectations
With integrated analysis tools, the advantage of the intranet also lies in the fact that it promotes interactions. By creating a corporate social network for example, when management publishes content, employees can comment, react, share. Today, you have a precise notion of the involvement of your teams, of what they expect based on the interactions on this or that post, etc. If your employees feel listened to and understood, it's a safe bet that their level of involvement in carrying out the missions entrusted to them will be higher.
- Benefit from a solution accessible everywhere
The intranet is cloud-based . This is a tremendous advantage insofar as it responds to new problems. For many years, employees have been increasingly mobile, whether they are field employees or employees working from home, for example. Today, since the start of the health crisis, they have been forced to work remotely. What could be better than a solution accessible anywhere in the world and 24 hours a day to improve communication in a company and document management?
- Integrate your intranet with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365
The possibilities are always more numerous for companies, innovation is definitely at the service of their success. The intranet has evolved a lot and is now supplemented by other solutions such as Google Workspace Where Microsoft 365. Both offer many features with tools as diverse as Gmail, Google Meet, Calendar or Google Sites for Workspace, or Teams or Outlook for Microsoft 365.
- Centralize information
No more searching for folders all over your computer and scrolling through your e-mails for hours to find a communication. This is certainly one of the main advantages of the intranet for a company : the centralization of data. Everything is stored in one place so that everyone can access it at any time. You will save valuable time. It also means you can look forward to significant savings.
- Benefit from a secure intranet
The intranet is a private and secure network. It is no longer a local network , but a cloud-based solution accessible online. You can store and manage your documents securely, but also communicate serenely.
- Save time
For all businesses, saving time is the holy grail to strive for. The intranet offers you this precious opportunity to optimize your time to devote it to truly important tasks. Better communicate, better share documents , you simplify the daily life of your teams and thus allow them to no longer waste time looking for information. You make them more productive to boost the performance of your business.
- Create a corporate culture
The intranet offers advantages for internal communication . This online solution makes it possible to better communicate vertically. Also, as an employer, you can send messages via a corporate social network , mailings, etc. The objective: to involve your teams by sharing with them your values, your objectives and your results. Create a real corporate culture and invite your employees to integrate better and, ultimately, to identify themselves.
- Integrate new employees
With a community space, it is now easier to integrate a new employee. Thanks to a corporate intranet portal, it is possible to present a new employee in a space dedicated to new arrivals or departures. But the intranet goes further by reducing the integration time of a new employee since it makes accessible all the data he needs to immerse himself in the culture of the company and know how it works.
- Manage projects
Project management is naturally improved by this digital solution . The centralization of data allows everyone to learn about the progress of the project and to better share documents and information. Managing teams around a project also facilitates communication , which remains essential to complete a task successfully. Finally, this makes it possible to speed up the resolution of problems encountered during a mission.
- Organize meetings and events
Thanks to the integration of Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook in your intranet , you are able to better manage everyone's schedules and thus facilitate meetings and other event organizations. No need to send an e-mail to everyone to find out if they are available: here again, the centralization of information plays in favor of the company. And for remote meetings, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams support you, ideal in an increasingly mobile world.
- Make communication more attractive
With the implementation of an intranet, corporate social networks and chat tools, communication becomes more attractive. It is possible to communicate in different ways and on several levels. Anyone can create engaging content through blog posts, newsletters, videos, images, and more. Effective communication promotes social ties between the various stakeholders of a company to improve well-being in the company and increase productivity.
- Involve employees
Forget the old suggestion box placed in the entrance of the company that no employee sees anymore. Here we find once again the advantage of an intranet for internal communication . Everyone can intervene in their own way by reacting to publications. The HR department can perfectly set up surveys to involve employees and get their feelings on a project, a development of the company, etc. Everyone can come up with new ideas and share their knowledge. We can never say enough how much the involvement and consideration of the opinion of each individual are favorable to the development of the company.
- Develop team cohesion
The intranet makes it possible to develop a social link in the workplace, even remotely, which is essential at a time when teleworking is sometimes becoming the norm. To work better together, employees need to get to know each other and share in order to move in the same direction. We often talk about solutions like team building to unite teams . Of course, this should be considered. However, the intranet is a solution that meets a real daily need for exchange.
What are the benefits of an intranet for employees?
- Feel involved
The level of involvement of an employee in a company impacts its performance. Why? Simply because an involved employee is a valued employee. The intranet makes it possible to create a feeling of belonging to a real corporate culture , the employee recognizes himself in the values of the company that employs him. It is also a solution to offer him all the tools he needs and thus help him improve his daily life at work.
- Be Recognized
Another advantage of an intranet for employees: it allows you to set up a recognition system at different levels . It is possible to communicate on the performance of each and to highlight those who have carried out a mission successfully. If you share the success of your employees, they will feel valued and will be all the more eager to perform in the future. We can also imagine a reward system to stimulate the teams.
- Save time
Employees need to benefit from the best tools to work in good conditions. Wasting time looking for documents, asking if a project has progressed, sorting through emails to find information, all these time-consuming actions are not in your company's favor. Your employees have deadlines: saving time thanks to innovative solutions and real-time information reduces stress and thus improves working conditions.
- Improve collaboration with colleagues
Well-being at work is also naturally linked to social interactions, in a personal or project context. Also, with communication tools such as internal social networks , Workspace's Google Meet or Microsoft's Teams, your employees can better communicate and create a human relationship. This will necessarily have an impact on their performance and that of your company. By sharing information, the intranet also improves collaboration.
- Better manage projects as a team
Carrying out a project successfully once again requires having the right tools. If your teams are working on the same project remotely or face-to-face, it remains essential to allow them to share all the information related to their mission. Create a project-specific group to facilitate discussion and sharing. Everyone is fully involved with a global knowledge of the project and its evolution.