Your corporate intranet does a lot for your organization, but are you using it to your best advantage? Underutilization of corporate infrastructure is a big obstacle for many companies. But you’ve taken infinite care to select the right software, and you’ve spent timeless hours training your team on how to use it properly, so why not take advantage of ALL the opportunities it provides? If you’re having engagement issues between your employees and their intranet, use the tips listed here to make the whole process a bit less scary and more user-friendly.

Instruct Staff on How to Individualize Their Homepages

The best intranet software offers the ability to personalize individual homepages per employee, so that when someone logs on, they see the information that’s most pertinent to them. This may include feeds into which they’ve opted, projects on which they’re collaborating, company news and global updates. It’s often possible to change out the theme, look and feel of individual pages as well.

Encourage employees to customize their homepages in as much detail as possible, not only so coworkers can find them, but also to make peers aware of which projects they’re working on and in what areas they’re considered experts. It’s all about the networking, after all.

Update the Directory

Having one central location where staff and employees can go to find important company contact information is vital. This makes it super-easy to connect with coworkers, superiors and executives around the globe without wasting precious time looking up names, telephone numbers and email addresses.

Post Engaging Content

Once employees have chosen the feeds they want to follow, ensure that information is updated regularly. Fresh, new content is one of the strongest ways to keep visitors engaged. Post images, celebrate milestones, add community events, use strong subheadings and intriguing captions to draw visitors in, and then offer articles and announcements that impact them.

Post Meaningful Content

Fun content goes hand-in-hand with the more meaningful posts, such as company updates and expectations. This is where you can outline your corporate strategy and emphasize your organization’s mission statement. Post information here that’s vital to the day-to-day operations of your corporate headquarters as well as branch offices. Executives have to be involved in the intranet to make it a meaningful communications channel!

Make Navigation Easy

Nothing discourages employee engagement more than creating an obscure, hard-to-navigate intranet and then requiring employees to learn and use it. Put thought into how you organize your intranet, and give it a logical flow. Add a search function so employees can find the information they need quickly.

A recent survey by Prescient Digital Media revealed that only 13 percent of employees in the United States regularly engage with their internal communications, and while various factors may be at work in this startling statistic, there’s a good possibility that a fickle, non-intuitive intranet is to blame. Focus as much as possible on one-click navigation, and refrain from making users click through endless links to get to their intended destination. This makes the intranet much more accessible to employees who have even the most basic of digital skills.

Encourage the Mobile App

Nearly everyone has a cell phone or tablet these days, which should make it even easier for employees to stay up-to-date with corporate happenings even on the go. Make sure the link to your intranet’s mobile app is available to everyone who should be using it, and then make it the job of individual managers to encourage people to download and use it.

Encourage Employee Participation

Add a space for employee blogs, and allow time for updates. Keeping abreast of what’s happening in the lives of coworkers and friends is a basic human need. It’s a sound tool for measuring personal success, encouraging growth and sharing opportunities. Allow your workforce to collaborate and inspire one another, and do it right from the comfort and convenience of your company intranet.

Use these easy strategies to keep your workforce engaged and logging in to your corporate intranet day after day without laying down miles of stifling rules. If you’re careful to post fresh, interesting content, allow employees to share information, and encourage participation through intriguing blogs, up-to-the-minute information and more, you’ll see your engagement levels fix themselves.

[Original post on Simpplr.]