Benefits of an Effective Intranet Content Management Strategy in the Workplace

As small to midsize business (SMB) communications leaders and intranet content creators begin optimizing intranet performance, it’s crucial to align content management with company culture and employee resources. This requires a strategy based on the need to fill knowledge and communication gaps unique to your company. Otherwise, you may face challenges such as ending up with an intranet that employees don’t use or setting up an additional expensive information management solution.

In this article, we show you how to enhance your intranet content management strategy by centering it on the unique value-adds for your organization. We also dive into how to get your business ready to implement an intranet content management system.

What is effective social intranet content management?

Effective social intranet content management involves establishing your intranet as your company’s primary information-sharing hub. As you form your strategy, keep these factors in mind:

• Implement simple and secure connectivity. This requires strict security governance around who can connect and how, as well as when to revoke connectivity privileges, often using a virtual private network (VPN) or multi-factor authentication.

• Establish a content quality assurance (QA) system. You must establish standards regarding what makes content worthy of publication on your intranet. For example, you should test instructions for how to fill out HR forms.

• Create content that supports company culture. High-quality, user-generated content breeds a culture of trust and can strengthen your organization's social fabric.

• Enable a content review system. You have to systematically and periodically review published content to make sure it’s still accurate and helpful.

• Enlist user- or department-owned content. Instead of having a single team that produces content for the entire company, individual users or departments should take ownership of creating helpful content.

• Design a calendar-based publishing system. By leveraging a content calendar, those associated with publishing on your intranet know which obligations are coming up and can plan them into their workflows.

Following these guidelines ensures that you have a strategy in place for your content management campaign—at all levels. In addition, you can maintain higher-quality intranet content that’s worth your company’s investment, which may be significant. This is especially true considering the trajectory of social and collaboration software. Worldwide, general social, collaboration, and intranet software spending is expected to grow at a rate of 13.4% through 2027. [1]

This increase underscores the importance of effective intranet content. As more money pours into intranet information systems, the higher the expectations for the quality and accessibility of the content will be.

Business problems you can solve with effective intranet content

Establishing and maintaining an effective intranet content management strategy solves multiple business problems that often reduce productivity and employee satisfaction. For example, instead of forcing employees to wait for responses to emails and voice messages after they’ve asked how to do something, your intranet can empower them to self-serve, getting right back to work.

Further, you free up time for departments that tend to get a lot of questions—many of which have to be answered several times a day. For instance, the IT team can include instructions regarding how to set up a user account in a customer relationship management (CRM) system. In this way, they no longer have to go to people’s desks or conduct time-consuming remote desktop sessions to get employees set up.

An effective intranet content management system can also make it easier for employees to stay updated on important company policies or departmental procedures. For example, you can establish instructions regarding what to do if someone suspects they’ve fallen for a phishing attack. In addition, you can use your intranet to enable people to reach out for help if the content doesn’t fully answer their questions.

What are the benefits of effective intranet content management?

When you effectively manage your intranet content, your operations and company culture can benefit in the following ways:

Promotes and enhances internal engagement and collaboration

A well-managed intranet supports a positive company culture, highlighted by informed, communicative employees. Those who interact with your intranet feel connected to each other and to the company as a whole. The intranet becomes a reliable hub of trusted information—one they feel comfortable contributing to as well.

Your intranet also becomes a centralized space for sharing information. For instance, employees no longer have to keep great ideas or best practices to themselves. They can follow your publishing protocols and make them available to the rest of your company’s community.

Fosters a sense of community through transparent communication and knowledge management

Your intranet can make sure everyone knows important details regarding:

• Global company policies, including a range of environmental, social, and government (ESG)-related issues.

• Departmental best practices.

• Employee support such as requesting time off, setting up new software, or handling cybersecurity threats.

You can also eliminate misunderstandings by using your intranet. For instance, suppose your company is trending in the news or on social media in connection with a current event. You can use your intranet to create an announcement on what employees should say if they get interviewed by someone in the media.

In addition, your intranet can give you a forum to express the company’s official position on important issues. For example, suppose there’s a social movement that stakeholders feel is important to address. Using your intranet, you can state your company’s official statement. In this way, everyone can align their professional decisions around the organization’s position.

Enhances productivity and streamlines workflows

An effective management intranet can shave precious hours off the time it takes to get questions answered. Instead of digging through the internet or stopping busy coworkers to figure out what to do, employees can quickly pull up a page or two on your intranet.

Similarly, you can have your workforce use the intranet to pose questions to other departments, streamlining the communication process and saving everyone time. Whether you use it for an IT ticketing system, a forum for asking questions, or to establish chat rooms for multiple teams, your intranet pulls down communication silos that sometimes hamper productivity.

Delivers immediate updates in real-time

If a storm is looming, there’s a power outage that impacts your customer base, a cyber attack, or some other unexpected event, you can use your intranet to provide real-time updates that clear up potential confusion.

For example, suppose a ransomware attacker encrypts a database that holds customer information. Some are affected, others aren’t. A quick message on your intranet’s homepage can let people know whether their workflows are impacted, what to do, the apps they shouldn’t open, and how much downtime to expect.

Increases employee retention

Employees often leave companies because they’re frustrated by cumbersome workflows or don’t have the information they need to excel at their jobs. You can drastically reduce these concerns with an effective intranet content management strategy.

An effective intranet content management system can also boost employee morale. For example, as people contribute content, they get their ideas recognized and feel like they’re contributing to the rest of the team. You also have the option of including helpful content contributions in employee reviews, providing some confidence-boosting kudos that make them feel valued and appreciated.

Prepare your business for effective intranet content management

Getting your business ready for effective intranet content management involves a combination of setting up content standards with the right infrastructure. Here are some tips to get you started:

Start benefiting from a more effective intranet now

Using the information above, you can make sure you have intranet content that employees are eager to use and that contributes to a cohesive, positive company culture. Use these tips to make sure your content is accessible, well-organized, relevant, and supports effective workflows.