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Employees creating an inclusive work environment

More and more companies are introducing an intranet to their list of employee resources, but some aren’t quite clear on its purpose. Does it serve as a document repository? Is it a communication hub? Can it help a company embrace diverse ideas and people?

According to Simpplr’s State of the Intranet research report, only 23% of employees thought that their intranet had a clearly defined purpose. A whopping 51% said that there are no clearly articulated goals for their intranet.

To remedy this situation, start by aligning your intranet with your company’s goals and values. Encouraging a compassionate culture that supports diversity initiatives should be at the top of your list of intranet priorities. Otherwise, you’ll miss out on the 76% of job seekers who say they’re looking for a diverse workforce.

When implemented correctly, your intranet can serve as a centralized community for your employees to learn, problem solve, and engage with your company culture. To help you get started on enriching your intranet, we’ve compiled a list of 12 ways your intranet can create an inclusive workplace culture.

What is an intranet?

An intranet is a central destination for your employees to find the information they need to succeed in their jobs. This includes everything from technical documentation, access to subject experts, team collaboration, and details about HR and company policies.

Today’s intranet solutions have come a long way from the server-based portals of the 1990s. Make use of newer social features like @ mentions, commenting, and document sharing. These tools make it much easier to bring in experts to help solve a problem without having to leave the portal entirely. It also means that everyone can be alerted when new content, processes, or rules are implemented.

When your intranet is aligned with your company values, strategies, and processes, it gives your business a competitive advantage through increased knowledge sharing, reduced new hire onboarding time, and enhanced employee collaboration.

12 ways your intranet can foster an inclusive work environment

1. Bringing employees together

If you have a distributed workforce, your employees might be scattered across regional offices or work entirely remotely. Perhaps you even have international employees. This environment makes it hard for employees to connect with each other and ask for help.

Intranets provide a one-stop shop where people can collaborate asynchronously on projects. They can build professional relationships and learn to rely on each other – even when working across time zones. For remote employees, the access to community and camaraderie can improve their connection and feeling of belonging to the larger team.

2. Spotlight lighting achievements

Intranets are also a great place to spotlight employee achievements. More visible roles, like sales or marketing, get the most attention. For example, sales reps who hit their sales targets are celebrated in quarterly announcements.

But there’s less attention for employees who work on projects that are harder to quantify, like software engineers building out a new product. Their individual achievements usually don’t make it into all-hands meetings.

Managers can use the company intranet to announce employee success stories and milestones plus post a public thank you that lives on your intranet home page. All employees want to be recognized for their hard work, and frequent acknowledgement and praise improves morale.

3. Providing employee profiles and bios

Have you ever worked with a colleague in another office only to realize, months later, that you don’t actually know what they look like or anything about their professional background?

Intranets can put a face to a name with employee profiles and bios. Let your employees get creative about what they include in their profiles. They can share their professional background, their personal hobbies, what types of volunteer events they’re interested in, or even their dog’s Instagram handle.

Tie these profiles into a company org chart to help new hires navigate their way towards subject experts by showing who rolls up to each manager, and how they fit into the team’s workflow. In urgent situations, like when someone is unexpectedly out of the office, people can identify who else can help them resolve a problem.

4. Providing an equal playing field

Companies are always making announcements about product launches, changes to benefits packages, interview opportunities, or new learning programs. Without a central place to inform all employees, you risk leaving people out of the loop.

Remote employees might not hear about a promotion or a chance to move to a new team. Managers can accidentally neglect to communicate important changes in processes. Your management team may have good intentions, but without a central news board, some employees will feel excluded and left behind.

5. Reducing distracting emails

Email is incredibly distracting. A report from Atlassian shows that an average employee receives around 304 business emails every week. Each time they stop what they’re doing to read a new email, they lose focus on the task at hand.

Email communication should be reserved for external conversations with customers, prospects, vendors, and partners. Centralizing all messaging into an intranet team page makes it easy for employees to see big announcements and policy changes. It also reduces the chance of someone being left off an important email thread.

6. Accessing resources and tools

Most people don’t want to send an email to their colleague with a quick question – then wait 4 hours to get a reply which, hopefully, answers their question. Instead, store answers to most questions on your intranet. If you allow employees to add documents or comment on posts, your resources will be even more contextual and up to date.

Resources and tools you should have in your intranet include:

  • Company strategy overview and initiatives 
  • Sales decks, presentation templates, and pricing matrices
  • Volunteer portal with a list of opportunities for employees to give back
  • Brand messaging, logos, and marketing templates 
  • Technical documentation for better client support
  • Org charts, employee profiles, and bios
  • Company-wide event and holiday calendars 
  • Employee survey tools and polls 
  • Registration portal for company events
  • Access to career development information
  • Access to learning management systems
  • In-house technical support for employees

7. Helping onboard and upskill employees

Every employee needs to be onboarded to their new role, no matter which department or how senior they are. Remote employees are at a disadvantage when they can’t meet with colleagues face to face to ask for help.

Instead your intranet should direct employees to guides on HR and IT tasks, like setting up accounts and installing programs on to their computers. You can also add interactive learning tutorials about the company’s products and services. If you assign mentors to new hires, provide them with video and collaboration tools within your intranet.

8. Increasing open communication and trust

Your company culture should be built on trust. Intranets make it easy for employees to find the right person to answer their questions, and to share their own content without worrying about stepping on the wrong toes or other ramifications.

When a business has siloed departments and teams, in-crowds and out-crowds can form. Instead of working together, people become frustrated because they don’t understand what other departments are doing, how they are measured, or how it impacts their own job. Reduce the blame game and misunderstandings through opening up communication across the company.

9. Centralizing human resources

Every single employee should be aware of their legal and ethical obligations to the company. That includes knowing how to work with customers, how to avoid unfair business practices, and how to report any serious breaches of policy or relevant laws.

An intranet can house all of these documents and make it easier to approach HR with concerns. Create a safe environment by enabling anonymous reporting to HR. Everyone deserves to feel safe speaking up in their place of work.

If your company has more than one office, include location-based information like floor plans, locations of restrooms and services for disabilities, safety information, designated safety reps, and information on public transportation or parking. Everyone should feel welcome in any of your offices.

10. Improving internal recruiting

An employee may be interested in changing departments or applying for a promotion, but they don’t know how to go about it or who to talk to. Help your recruitment team identify internal candidates through an internal job board in your intranet. Employees should see information about the hiring manager and what they’re looking for on their team.

If an employee identifies a skill they don’t have yet, your intranet can guide them to learning programs that are designed to help them upskill. Unlike the company’s external facing website, recruiters can instantly update and modify an intranet job board with real-time information.

11. Encouraging employees to create content

Every single employee should be aware of their legal and ethical obligations to the company. That includes knowing how to work with customers, how to avoid unfair business practices, and how to report any serious breaches of policy or relevant laws.

An intranet can house all of these documents and make it easier to approach HR with concerns. Create a safe environment by enabling anonymous reporting to HR. Everyone deserves to feel safe speaking up in their place of work.

If your company has more than one office, include location-based information like floor plans, locations of restrooms and services for disabilities, safety information, designated safety reps, and information on public transportation or parking. Everyone should feel welcome in any of your offices.

12. Creating safe spaces for all groups

Employee resource groups (ERGs) are official channels in your intranet or communication tool. People can join these groups and feel safe discussing problems that they’re dealing with, sharing stories, and talking about problems in the company that they’d like to solve.

For example, an ERG for people with disabilities brings together individuals who can answer questions about how to access medical forms. Employees can also read personal stories from their colleagues who overcame challenges at work.

You’ll see ERGs for groups of people like:

  • People of color (POC)
  • Women
  • LGBTQIA+
  • People who volunteer 
  • Parents and caregivers 
  • Veterans 
  • People with mental health disabilities
  • People with physical disabilities 
  • Young professionals 

Build your inclusive intranet culture

When your intranet is set up for communication, support, and access, you reduce employee feelings of isolation, encourage collaboration, and improve your bottom line. For more information on what to do if your company has negative vibes, check out our article on how to create a culture of positivity.