Gone are the days when people worked from 9 am – 5 pm, in the office, at a designated desk/cubicle, gossiped at the water cooler and took lunch breaks together. These days employees have flexible work hours and weekly schedules, they may not come into the office daily, may telecommute, and some may even be spread out across countries. A lot of the times this flexibility works against the need for connectedness and makes it difficult for employees to share ideas and collaborate, and because information doesn’t flow easily, it creates knowledge siloes. An intranet portal on Microsoft 365 can be compared to a Swiss army knife – one tool, many applications/solutions. It gives you the ability to manage documents, projects, employees and time; it helps improve collaboration, communication which directly affect the productivity of your employees. If you are looking for ways to enhance collaboration and gain the collective intelligence of your workforce, then this article can help you get started and know the future intranet trends.
The need for an Intranet Portal
There have been many innovative and meaningful improvements in the intranet technology space which help make employees’ jobs easier and boost intranet productivity. The social communications and other engagement features of a modern intranet have become key contributors to the success of businesses. It helps in improving the way employees collaborate, communicate, work on projects, manage knowledge and make important business decisions. A highly intuitive and modern intranet acts as a gateway to achieve positive work culture, better productivity, and has an extremely positive impact on the workplace.
Let’s talk about boosting productivity
In August 2018, intranet trends by Gallup reported that only 34% U.S. employees were engaged, with 16% being actively disengaged.
Every organization faces productivity challenges because of these low rates of employee engagement. Be it the manufacturing, finance, retail or IT industry, the concerns of productivity remain one of the topmost priorities for the organization because it ultimately affects the bottom-line.
Productivity at the workplace (or the lack of) also reflects on the business’ ability to bring people and content together, which can be greatly improved by Microsoft 365 intranet. Everyone needs easy access to their work, documents, colleagues, experts, help and applications; and if all of these are available on an integrated environment, it gives a tremendous boost to engagement and efficiency. With an intranet you can provide a unified portal to your employees, so they are able to find everything they need and work without obstacles.
Adapt an intranet portal and allow your business to achieve new heights of productivity and success. Most organizations have been already exploring the potential of intranet portals but at the same time, it is important to keep abreast of the current changes in the market and adopt the newest trends to gain positive business outcomes. Here are some key trends that you can follow in order to prepare a robust intranet benchmarking strategy.
Let’s Explore the Future Intranet Portal Trends.
Intranet Trend #1 – Driving Personalisation
Personalization does not always mean just a customized user interface, but it is more about delivering meaningful content to the users of the intranet. This intranet trend is gaining popularity because most of the organizations have complex intranet web portals, with a lot of news and information incoming daily, and employees are feeling overwhelmed with all the information.
Personalization allows users to tailor the experience according to their needs and find what they need with the fewest clicks possible. The integration of various technologies and enterprise solutions; although advantageous; leads to chaos and triggers the need for personalization. So, this trend has gained importance because the users can select what they want to see on an intranet portal – their documents, tasks, forms, approvals, etc. – and they are more likely to enjoy the experience. The personalization strategy of an intranet does not only provide value to the users but also benefits the overall productivity of the organization.
Intranet Trend #2 – Advanced Employee Engagement
The enterprise world is buzzing with new technologies every day and is influencing the experiences of employees in the workplace. The modernization of employee culture is necessary to attain maximum productivity and engagement of employees. And most technologies are in some way trying to enhance the overall satisfaction of employees.
If the employees are unwilling to adopt the change or use the advanced technologies, the organization will more likely to see a dip in productivity levels. This trend promotes embracing the latest technologies at the workplace and also encourages employees to leverage digitization by taking advantage of employee portals. It is vital for organizations to balance the expectations of employees with the business needs to gain sustainable profits.
Intranet Trend #3 – Integration of Mobile Devices
With the growing number of employees traveling for business or working from remote locations, it is important to have a mobile-friendly intranet portal and therefore, it is one of the focus to optimize intranet access and features on mobile devices.
A mobile integrated platform can be highly useful for team members who are telecommuting and need to work while considering their time and productivity management. The use of an intranet portal on mobile also allows users to experience fast implementation, touchscreen performance, easy accessibility, smart innovation and much more. In the era of digital workplace, it is almost impossible to miss out on the benefits of a mobile intranet portal as it adds a lot to the productivity, morale of the employees and success of the business.
Intranet Trend #4 – Social Collaboration
Social collaboration features of an intranet portal should not be compared with the commonly used social media tools because the former refers to the encouragement of positive and social behavior within the company.
The primary features of an intranet are to offer work-relevant tools and help employees get their jobs done. The inclusion of social features promotes better employee engagement through intranet tools like chatting, blogging, sharing, following, liking, commenting, conferencing, team workspaces, etc. The trend of social collaboration plays an important role because it engages the users and promotes two-way communication through feedback for overall optimization of intranet strategy. Many companies are still not sure about the relevance of a social intranet, but the matter of the fact is that it incredibly improves communication and collaboration while providing tangible organizational behavior benefits.
Intranet Trend #5 – AI Powered Chatbots
Artificial Intelligence has great potential to help users complete their tasks quickly, correctly and streamline business processes. According to Gartner, it is estimated that one in five workers currently engaged in non-routine tasks will rely on AI by 2022. The AI-powered chatbots help in automating repetitive tasks and deliver an excellent user experience with a minimum learning curve. Moreover, the advanced analytical abilities of AI help management make better decisions related to production, sales, expenses, employees, customers and much more. This trend is certainly a jewel in the crown for intranet portals as it makes the ecosystem more interactive, boosts productivity, saves time from mundane tasks, and improves the user experience while delivering more intelligent and tailored solutions.
Get started today!
Certainly, intranet portals have improved drastically to boost productivity and company culture in recent years and the latest trends will further enable organizations to be future-ready. The modern intranet portal with next-generation features and applications have the capabilities to revolutionize the way business is done, drive enhanced productivity and business profitability. Contact us or email us at bizinfo@bizportals.com to let us know your business requirements or to discuss your digital workplace strategy.
Get Free Product Tour