Our team has partnered with many companies to implement their SharePoint/Microsoft 365 based intranets over the years. Here are four ideas that have proven successful in enhancing the employee experience and improving intranet engagement. We welcome you to implement these ideas with your intranet!
Help Employees Get to Know Each Other
Publishing a welcome message for new employees is a wonderful way to announce they are joining the team. The welcome message can also help others get to know the new employee, a bit about their background, and what role they will be fulfilling at the company. That is great for new employees, but why not extend that to existing employees? Consider publishing an employee spotlight to share more knowledge and build awareness – whether it is a “day in the life of” type of interview, sharing one’s career path, or an AMA (ask me anything) interview with the CEO or a new hire – they are all great ways to connect your people and share knowledge.
Set Content Publishing Expectations for Employees
Getting content published on a regular basis is tough but this one thing can dramatically improve sustained intranet engagement and adoption. Being transparent and making your content publishing schedule available for everyone to see can be scary, but it will positively affect readership if you are able to stick with it. You do not have to publish content every day or even every week (although the more frequently you can, the better); just letting your audience know the cadence of new content (and sticking with it) goes a long way in building that trust relationship. And if you are ever running out of ideas for content, crowdsource the ideas! Ask your audience what they want to see on the intranet – what type of articles and information and resources will they think of?
Get A Little Personal
Knowing what other employees do at work is great, but to add more fun and some levity, consider a quick weekly (or bi-weekly) survey or poll to build everyone’s “fun profile.” What is your favorite Star Wars character? What is your favorite meal? Who is your favorite comedian? Best book you have read in the last year? Having trouble with getting people to answer? Lead by example (be one of the first to respond) and consider sweetening the deal by offering random prizes.
Help Users Find What They Want
One of the main reasons for your intranet is to allow users to find information quickly and easily. Some may have a great experience and find what they need in short order while others may struggle and must scroll through pages of results. This is where periodically reviewing the various search reports and understanding the different scenarios can help you make big improvements to the search experience. These 9 reports are available in the SharePoint Admin Center:
- Number of Queries
- Top Queries by Day
- Top Queries by Month
- Abandoned Queries by Day
- Abandoned Queries by Month
- No Result Queries by Day
- No Result Queries by Month
- Query Rule Usage by Day
- Query Rule Usage by Month
Report #1 can be used to identify periods of high/low search activity. Perhaps searches increase during open enrollment? You will need to look at other reports to confirm, but this is a great place to start to begin to understand usage.
Reports #2 & 3 should be reviewed to understand popular searches to see if any particular result should be placed more prominently on the intranet directly. This could also provide ideas for content topics.
Reports #4-7 can be used to identify searches that are not providing good/any results.
And the last two reports can provide more information around query rules, dictionary terms, and promoted results – helping identify opportunities for further improvement.
We hope you have found something useful you can incorporate into your own intranet. We would love to hear about any ideas you have executed and what your experience has been!
Need assistance with your intranet?
Let the experts at Compass365 help you create a modern, dynamic SharePoint intranet to communicate with your employees. Help is an email away – please reach out to Steve Hong, shong@compass365.com at any time.
Compass365, a Microsoft Gold Partner, delivers SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Power Platform solutions that help IT and Business leaders improve the way their organizations operate and how their employees work.
