Intranet – part of the digital workplace

When it comes to modern intranets, there is some confusion – what is the difference between an intranet, a social intranet and a digital workplace? Sometimes the terms are used interchangeably and sometimes to indicate a difference. I thought we would clarify the terms a bit and then focus on what's important – how we can do and think to make the user experience more relevant and rewarding.

A digital workplace responds to user needs

I see a shift from talking about time-saving and productivity to talking about what we users – we humans – need. A digital workplace is so much more than an intranet. It is a place where we meet the different needs of different people with information, tools and processes. We are not productivity robots put on earth to optimise. We are humans who, hopefully, enjoy our work and our colleagues and try to do the best job possible. Our tools and ways of working need to accommodate and take this into account. We need to surround ourselves with colleagues and collaborate in working groups, be guided in our work, share knowledge, news and tools.

With the intranet as a hub of the digital workplace, we can meet the needs of users and the organisation: editors should get powerful and easily accessible content features and users should get the right information tools for their work. When in place, the intranet can contribute to a digital workplace where the organisation can maintain and develop its work and culture.

Getting a handle on your intranet

But let's go back to the intranet. For the intranet to become that obvious hub, it needs to be completely relevant to users, otherwise it will be overlooked and eventually neglected. In addition to bringing together different tools, functions and custom modules, the tool must also be able to bring together different systems.

It's easy to get too many different tools that we don't really get the most out of. It gets very messy. An organisation has a responsibility to offer a uniform digital environment where no distinction is made between different tools. It is important to offer the user one user experience and not several. Which tool is used should be a non-issue.

When working with the intranet, you also need to clearly identify and then maintain your target audiences. This changes over time and involves not only different departments, but also different roles.

Then think one step further – what does the user want to do after reading a particular news item? Serve them with what you think they want to do next, for example, showing related content based on topic or calendar events related to the topic.

Also try to give users the power. Users themselves can decide which tools are relevant to them. As usual, it's a matter of testing and measuring and making any necessary adjustments and adaptations.

Digitalisation requires change management

It can be said that the digital workplace has gone from being the tool of editors to being the tool of users. The digital workplace should help decision-makers make better decisions, help the service unit provide better service and help salespeople sell more or better.

For a workplace to be fully digital and help us in the way we want it to, it requires changes that go beyond the purely technical. It's about a change management that takes responsibility and goes in depth with the working methods and mindset required to bring the change to port. Do you want a change? Then you must be willing to change.