Top 25 ideas to create the best company intranet

You had a great launch day, and your team is educated on the value their new intranet brings to your whole company. To keep the momentum going, you’re going to want a long term post-launch strategy for your company intranet to keep employees coming back for more.

Using company intranet software makes it easy to build and maintain an interactive network where people can share news and collaborate through a centralized knowledge hub. Here are some of the best ideas to turn your intranet into a thriving dynamic digital workplace.  

Idea #1: Encourage shout-outs

Employee recognition plays a huge role in employee satisfaction; especially when it’s sincere and spontaneous. Consider including a shout-outs section that lets any employee contribute new posts (and comment on others), and make it visible in the global navigation. This empowers team members on both the giving and receiving side of the acknowledgements.

Idea #2: Make remote accessibility a priority

In today’s hybrid work environment, it’s essential that your intranet is available for remote workers. This includes full mobile accessibility for deskless employees and frontline workers, so they can freely access the information, resources, and contacts they require to be successful on the job.

Idea #3: Motivate employees to upload photos and expand their intranet profiles

If you allow your employees to edit their profiles, as well as choose their own profile photos, they’ll feel more invested in your intranet network. You’ll see people’s personality start to come through too. You can even bring in an actual photo booth to take employee photos. This can help make your business’ intranet feel a little like the best parts of a social network.

Idea #4: Promote employee-centered news

What’s typically the most popular type of news on intranets? News about employees! Employees flock to stories about other team members, regardless of company size, because it’s relatable, human, and most importantly, interesting. These are also a fantastic way to share your company’s brand narrative.

Idea #5: Host a photo-of-the-day contest

One of our clients has a large backlog of photos to post, because so many employees love the photo-of-the-day feature. It puts employees in the spotlight, as well as highlights their individual creativity. Everyone wants their moment in the sun, and it’s a phenomenal way to drive engagement.

Idea #6: Integrate timesheet software

Plan to launch your intranet alongside a new online timesheet system. This will make the timesheet system easily accessible from your intranet, which will be especially helpful for remote team members.

Idea #7: Add a name pronunciation feature

Name pronunciation isn’t just a courtesy, it’s an important part of creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. Stikeman Elliott, a Canadian Law Firm, is one of the many organizations to integrate ThoughtFarmer’s intranet features that makes name pronunciation easy. 

Idea #8: Celebrate new hires

Announcing new team members on your intranet is not only a great way to showcase new people to your whole team at once, but it gets new staff involved in your intranet from day one. You can even use this to host a short Q&A on your intranet, so new people can introduce themselves and talk a bit about their previous work experience.

Idea #9: Post a quiz-of-the-week

Creative quizzes have gained a lot of popularity in the last few years, thanks to publications like BuzzFeed. Why not feature one on your intranet? They are a fun way to build camaraderie between coworkers. Whether it’s figuring out which TV show character they’re most like, or discovering which color best represents their personality, there’s lots of fun (and engagement) to be had. 

Idea #10: Create employee avatars

Instead of using boring old pictures, why not add some life and color to your intranet with artistic sketches and avatars of your employees? Thanks to freelance services like UpWork, it’s quick, easy, and affordable to get these types of illustrations made for your team.

Idea #11: Feature an employee-of-the-week

Dedicate space on your intranet to showcase not only an employee’s role within the company, but also to highlight their interests and achievements. Being acknowledged for success is a fantastic motivator, as well as a great way to build an emotional connection between featured employees and your intranet.

Idea #12: Publicize your intranet goals

Your intranet should have attainable goals and metrics, and your whole team needs to be aware of this information. When employees can see the metrics for themselves, they’ll be more invested in the overall success of your intranet. 

Idea #13: Keep your headers fresh

Keeping your intranet content fresh and dynamic is a great way to encourage employees to come back for more. Try taking advantage of customization opportunities, like regularly swapping out the header on your intranet homepage. It’s worked for years for Google, why shouldn’t it work for yours?

Idea #14: Send email newsletters

Once your new intranet is up and running, you’ll have plenty of news; especially if you’ve enabled news authors throughout the organization. Weekly emails, including links to popular news, allows you to reach employees directly in their inboxes. People can easily scan the news digests and follow links to stories that interest them. ThoughtFarmer has this feature built in—you just need to turn it on.

Idea #15: Gauge employee interests with an intranet poll

The secret to sustained intranet adoption is to populate it with content that employees want. An interactive way to learn what employees want to see on your intranet is through a poll. ThoughtFarmer makes it easy to add a poll card to a news post. The result? Instant feedback. Plus, people love to see what others think too!  

Idea #16: Circulate a survey

As mentioned above, polling is a great way to immediately gauge interest. However, if you want more in-depth data, it’s worth sending out a survey. Surveys provide deeper insight into questions relating to the findability of content, navigation, or general satisfaction with a new intranet. You can learn how to improve the data you’re gathering by exploring How to Create an Intranet Evaluation Survey, as well as Designing, Launching, and Analyzing an Intranet Survey.

Idea: 17: Incorporate gamification

A few of our customers have incorporated gamification elements to keep employees coming back for more. Our Customer, MedData, set up a system that awarded badges for intranet related tasks, such as: commenting on discussions, completing their profile, and finishing relevant learning modules. This led to immediate adoption after launch and sustained engagement. 

Idea #18: Enable audio notifications

We’re always amazed at the lengths some of our customers will go to, in order to achieve maximum intranet adoption. Healthcare company MedData, configured a gobbling turkey auditory notification to engage intranet users around Thanksgiving. Creating auditory notifications is a great way to alert employees (especially new users), when they receive a notification.

Idea #19: Get leadership involved

Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline wanted their intranet launch to be fun and exciting, so they created a very imaginative and funny launch video. Featuring the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, the video highlights all their previous intranet’s shortcomings.

The video served as a good teaser for all the new and engaging features they were about to enjoy, and even more importantly, it sent a strong message that leadership supported the transition.

Idea #20: Play intranet bingo

It’s important for employees to become familiar with your intranet’s features and functionality as soon as possible, and in fun, creative ways. Intranet bingo can help. To play, distribute bingo cards that list things like employee titles, departments, or group names in a bingo format. Then instruct participants to look it up on the intranet. The first person to successfully complete the activities and get five-in-a-row wins a prize.

Idea #21: Get your intranet up on the big screen

Display your new intranet wherever possible, including any big TV screens. The TV in reception, the kitchen, or even the small screen in the elevator — show off your intranet everywhere. This is great for both adoption, as well as keeping your intranet front-of-mind for your employees.

Idea #22: Host an intranet drop-in lounge (with snacks!)

Informal get-to-know-you sessions can help employees ask questions and learn about your new intranet in a more relaxed, unintimidating environment. Just don’t forget the cookies and pizza. A few snacks for the session can create a surprising amount of excitement.

Idea #23: Arrange for a no-meeting day

A No-Meeting Day is a perfect opportunity for all employees to spend more time exploring the intranet. Be sure to post some engaging content on these days using any of the other ideas in this article.

Idea #24: Personalize the intranet home banner

Your intranet home page banner is likely the very first thing your intranet users will see when visiting your new intranet site, so it is important that it is welcoming. It also needs to reflect your culture and brand. ThoughtFarmer makes it easy to have multiple themes on your site at once.  

Idea #25: Curate a pet photo gallery

While employee-centric stories and photos attract a lot of attention, pet galleries often get the most return visits. If you haven’t already set up a pet photo gallery, now is the time to launch one. You can check out our blog for more reasons why every intranet needs a pet gallery.

This is only the beginning

These are just some of the virtually limitless number of intranet engagement ideas that you can incorporate into your post-launch plans, and continue building engagement and excitement, so your employees will always want to come back for more.

Still prepping for launch? Need some more ideas to help get your team excited leading up to and including launch day? Check out these 25 creative intranet launch ideas.

We hope that these post-launch ideas got the wheels turning in your mind for some of your own unique ways that you can build excitement and maintain engagement with your intranet post-launch. With a bit of effort, you can make your intranet an invaluable resource for every member of your team.