20 social intranet features that boost employee engagement

The best social intranet features for employee engagement include tools like personalized news feeds, interactive org charts, user profiles, discussion forums, and built-in recognition features. These capabilities transform your intranet from a static file repository into a vibrant hub where employees connect, share, and contribute.

A truly engaging intranet is more than just a content management tool — it’s a collaborative space that motivates staff to participate. That’s why we designed ThoughtFarmer as a social intranet platform, packed with features that drive adoption and foster a culture of connection.

Explore the top 20 intranet features that help boost employee engagement.

1. Create a ‘workplace news feed’ to encourage social engagement

For organizations that have a large deskless workforce, have staff across multiple branches and locations, or don’t work in a centralized office, a workplace news feed is a great way to stay connected across distances and timezones (especially if you’ve built a mobile app version of your intranet!). 

ThoughtFarmer updates is an easy-to-use social intranet feature that provides a flexible platform for your staff to share whatever is on their minds. Akin to a social media news feed, your staff can post messages, news, achievements, or essential updates for other staff to see and interact with.  

ThoughtFarmer allows you to restrict it to different groups of staff, like a specific team or department, to get more granular with who can see it. 

Workplace news feed ideas:

• A feed for staff to share where/how they’re working that day, (e.g. in office, remotely, not available at a conference, out sick, etc.)
• A ‘life events’ section for personal news, like engagements, weddings, retirements, or growing family announcements
• A way to track team challenges, such as sharing progress towards a fundraising goal or screenshots of a Strava run for the team’s marathon training (Updates’ ability to add images or links is especially useful for this!)
• Changelog or engineering updates
  
  
  

2. Gather employee input with interactive polls

Polls are a great intranet feature for gathering employee input and encouraging engagement. 

Add a poll to your homepage or any other intranet page to gather feedback or input on:

• Date and venue for the next annual staff party or team building event
• Confidence in strategic organizational goals 
• Satisfaction with the intranet
• (Inspiration from ThoughtFarmer’s very own intranet, Sparky!) Ask fun team-building questions, like ‘February 29th only comes once every 4 years. If you had an extra day to do anything you wanted, how would you spend it?’ or ‘What pairs best with chocolate?’ 

To increase intranet traffic and awareness of your poll, encourage staff to participate through other channels as well — such as during meetings, on Slack or Teams, or via email.

3. Ask icebreaker questions on your intranet

One way we encourage engagement among our team is to ask icebreaker questions. It’s a great way to get staff discussing fun topics, discover common ground with fellow staff, and encourage bantering back and forth. 

At ThoughtFarmer, we love finding new and unexpected ways to use features on our own intranet, Sparky, like the Newsfeed feature. Check out some of our most recent icebreaker questions in the screenshot below.

4. Centralize and streamline processes on your intranet with online forms

The more reasons you give your staff to visit the intranet to perform core company processes, the more engagement you’ll see. ThoughtFarmer FormFlow is an intuitive, yet highly customizable, form builder designed to accommodate all your important processes.

Here are some common business processes you can streamline:

• Business cards orders
• Employee leave, like vacation requests or sick day tracking
• Staff information updates, like address changes or name changes
• Expense requests
• Lost and found items
• Equipment purchase request
• IT help tickets

5. Inspire conversation and collaboration with discussion forums

Forums are a versatile, social intranet feature for encouraging employee engagement. Forums are handy for both fun, culture-building conversation and important business discussion, allowing a topic to be started and your staff to make recommendations, provide feedback, or ask further questions. 

Increase intranet engagement and have fun with forums by:

• Sharing pet photos (a beloved classic!)
• Creating a local ‘buy and sell’ or ‘buy nothing’ 
• Providing local restaurant recommendations and reviews
• Hosting a virtual water cooler
• Running a virtual book club discussion forum
• Facilitating discussions during conventions or conferences for attendees to discuss pre-seeded topics.

Use forums to have important Q&A discussions like:

• Answering questions about company processes and workflows 
• Creating a dedicated intranet help forum
• Providing a space to clarify office policies 
• Gathering feedback on annual company objectives.

6. Encourage discussion and feedback with commenting

Allowing comments on certain pages of your intranet allows staff to collaborate, provide feedback, and ask questions on that page. 

Where appropriate, it’s good practice to encourage staff to comment directly on the page. It helps keep important engagements on the intranet and off of private, siloed channels, like email or workplace chat.

Plus, it’s likely if one person has a question about something, others do too! It’s valuable for staff to see leaders publicly acknowledge and respond to feedback and questions.

7. Keep employees informed with the Required Reading intranet feature

Assigning required reading makes it easy for staff to see a list of what they need to read. It also helps leaders and content owners quickly identify who has completed the task. This accountability can help set expectations that staff should be regularly checking and reviewing required reading content. 

ThoughtFarmer intranet’s Required Reading feature allows you to assign employees important content to review by a certain date. They can easily review all assigned readings from the required reading dashboard. 

8. Gamify engagement with social intranet features like badges and awards

Gamification is a fun and creative way to get staff excited to engage with your intranet by rewarding them for different types of interactions. With gamification, you create game-like competition, like earning points or placing on a leader board, around activities to incentivize a certain behaviour.

You can gamify actions, like editing your profile or commenting on a news post, and activities, like following, commenting, and searching for pages, and allot medals, badges, and points to the user. With ThoughtFarmer, you can then add a widget to a user’s profile to showcase what they’ve earned. 

Read more about Gamification in action: Find out how MedData created a winning gamification strategy.

9. Help staff overcome writer’s block and become content creators with AI tools 

Encouraging staff to write and post content is a great way to boost engagement. The benefits are twofold. It gets them familiar with the ins and outs of creating content on your intranet. And, fresh and interesting content helps attract staff to your intranet and keep them engaged. Democratizing content development and sharing the workload across your team is a great way to ensure a consistent stream of new, relevant content.

However, we know that getting staff comfortable posting to the intranet is sometimes easier said than done. Employees that don’t regularly write may feel nervous to put pen to paper – or fingers to keyboard.

ThoughtFarmer’s AI intranet feature can help with this challenge. Anyone can write great content in just a few prompts with AI Create. It also serves as a great starting point for anyone struggling with a bit of pesky writer’s block! 

For staff that can write a solid first draft, but need a little extra support with polishing the content, proofreading, and formatting, AI Enhance is another powerful tool that can take content from good to great.

10. Connect employees to the right subject matter experts with search-friendly profiles and org charts

A centralized employee directory with customizable profiles lets staff showcase their personality and expertise, and makes it easy to find subject-matter experts and connect across locations. 

Using search filters, colleagues can discover one another quickly, strengthening workplace engagement across distances or branches. Plus, with an interactive org chart automatically generated from the directory, employees benefit from a clear view of your organizational and leadership structure.

The more valuable your intranet, the more staff will engage with it. You can easily create a well-organized employee directory with ThoughtFarmer to encourage staff to log on and interact more frequently. 

11. Deliver priority communications to the right employees with targeted Broadcasts

Targeted Broadcasts are a great way to get critical and time-sensitive information out to groups of people in your organization. However, remember that you should use broadcasts sparingly, because too many can create fatigue and result in your staff tuning you out and that’ll do the opposite of increasing engagement!

ThoughtFarmer’s Broadcasts feature is specifically designed for scenarios where you need to capture staff’s attention and even nudge them towards a certain behavior, like reviewing a key document, participating in a poll, or filling out a form.

12. Celebrate holidays and changing seasons with theming

Keep staff coming back to your intranet throughout the year by switching up your theming. Seasonal or event-based themes are a simple way to keep things fresh and recognize festive occasions with your team.

ThoughtFarmer allows you to create unlimited themes, like classic, holiday, seasonal, or event-based themes. You can easily preview and test while you build to ensure your design looks great before launching. Then when the season changes, easily switch back to your main theme or choose another theme. 

13. Bring your intranet to life with branding and mascots

Generic intranets are no fun! To increase engagement,  use thoughtful branding, like custom headers, sign-in pages, and design elements. These elements help reflect your organization’s unique identity and feel welcoming to staff.

On ThoughtFarmer’s own company intranet, Sparky, we use branding features and our mascot, Jack, to guide, engage, and delight employees. Jack helps call attention to interactive experiences, asks playful questions, and brings some light-hearted fun to Sparky.

14. Keep deskless staff connected with a mobile intranet app

Ensuring your intranet is available as a mobile app is important for ensuring deskless staff, like field workers, have equal opportunity to engage. 

An app puts your organization in the pocket of every staff member, allowing them to participate in all the key functions of your intranet, including accessing company news, completing business-critical forms, participating in forums and discussions, and connecting with other colleagues.

15. Use intranet analytics to see what works and do more of it

Analytics are a powerful modern intranet feature that can reveal important insights about what’s engaging your staff and what’s being overlooked.

In ThoughtFarmer Analytics, you can view specific engagement metrics, including likes, comments, and bookmarks, to see what content is getting the most interactions from your staff. Using these insights, you can decide what optimizations to perform on your intranet.

For example, if news articles tend to get a lot of comments, consider surfacing more information through this channel. Or, if employee spotlights are receiving a lot of likes, you could consider increasing the frequency of spotlights or showcasing them in your monthly newsletter.

16. Give staff a platform to share what’s close to their heart with photo galleries

Photo galleries are a fun way for staff to share the special moments that matter to them and celebrate life both inside and outside the workplace. 

Here are some popular photo gallery themes to get everyone contributing:

Use ThoughtFarmer to create photo galleries of:

• Pet and family snapshots
• Vacation highlights (a great way to also support your staff taking PTO!)
• Food pictures with reviews and local restaurant recommendations
• Team photos around the office, at team bonding activities, or company events
• Conferences, on-sites, and work trips.

17. Never miss anything important with in-app notifications 

Even with all the best engagement intranet features in place, sometimes staff need a little nudge. Timely notifications keep staff connected to updates, conversations, and important tasks, making your intranet a go-to resource. 

ThoughtFarmer in-app notifications are conveniently accessible through the bell icon in the toolbar, allowing staff to see notifications from pages they follow, @ mentions, form assignments, broadcasts, and more. Admins can customize notification settings for new users to help them stay informed and engaged from day one.

18. Get staff excited to participate with personalized employee profile pages

Customized employee profile pages are a great engagement tool. They help staff express themselves, showcase their interests, and make the intranet feel like their own. When staff complete and personalize their profiles, it encourages interaction across teams and departments. Employees can discover common interests, celebrate achievements, and engage with one another’s contributions.

WIth ThoughtFarmer’s intranet software, you can add fun custom fields to your employee profile pages. Hobbies and favorite foods are great light-hearted ice breakers. 

Custom fields to add to staff profiles to streamline employee collaboration:

• Best way to contact during business hours
• Preferred collaboration style 
• Myers Briggs personality type
• Strengths/weaknesses

19. Generate excitement around events with calendar pages and customized events

Events naturally bring people together, so use your intranet’s calendar feature to turn that interest into ongoing engagement. By centralizing meetings, events, celebrations, and social activities on your intranet calendar, you give your staff a great reason to log on and see what’s scheduled. You can also feature upcoming events by feeding calendar items into your news feed in ThoughtFarmer. 

20. Work together on content with collaborative drafts 

Two heads are better than one, so encourage staff to work together to create great content for your intranet. Instead of relying on emails, shared drives, or external documentation tools to co-create content, ThoughtFarmer’s collaborative drafts feature lets multiple people contribute, review, and refine pages in one place.

By allowing multiple people to work together, you encourage more participation and engagement directly on your intranet.

Final words on social intranet features to grow engagement

A modern social intranet has the potential to be so much more than just a collection of documents. With the right intranet features, it can become the heartbeat of your organization’s culture and communication. 

The features above show how simple tools like polls, forums, and social feeds can spark meaningful connection, empowering your staff to feel heard, informed, and part of your mission. When engagement and adoption grows, so does the value and ROI of your intranet.

FAQs

Why does intranet engagement matter?

Intranet engagement matters because employees need to actively interact with your intranet to benefit from its full value. When staff consistently use it, the intranet becomes a true hub instead of serving as an outdated static file repository. 

For company leaders, intranet engagement matters because it proves meaningful ROI and supports the company in achieving high-level goals and objectives. 

Strong engagement leads to better knowledge sharing, a more connected culture, quicker access to information, and improved process compliance. Ultimately, a well-used intranet strengthens your entire organization by boosting productivity and helping employees feel included, supported, and aligned with your mission no matter where they work.

What is the meaning of a social intranet?

Social intranet means a modern, interactive internal website that helps employees connect, communicate, and collaborate. 

Historically, intranets simply stored documents. However, social intranets mean so much more than that. With features like news feeds, polls, forums, comments, org charts, and user profiles, social intranets are designed to nurture conversation and encourage participation. Modern intranets are designed to facilitate two-way communication, helping companies communicate important information and encouraging employees to participate in the conversation.

These social features make the intranet a dynamic hub where employees can share updates, ask questions, find experts, and contribute content, ultimately strengthening engagement and building a more connected workplace.

What are the benefits of social intranet software?

Here’s how a social intranet can benefit your organization:

• Increased engagement rate, encouraging staff to join in on discussion
• Faster time to intranet ROI, helping project leaders demonstrate the value in investing in a social intranet platform
• Vibrant cultural hub, providing a center point for staff to come together and celebrate a company’s mission and values
• Enhanced collaboration with tools tailor-made to help employees work better together
• Improved staff visibility, ensuring employees can identify reporting structures and find subject matter experts
• Streamlined processes by keeping all core business processes, such as time off requests and IT requests, housed in one central location
• Organized knowledge and information sharing, offering a one-stop shop for all key organization documentation

How does a social intranet improve employee engagement?

A social intranet platform is specifically designed to drive employee engagement. Here’s how:

• Remains current and relevant, stays continuously updated through staff contributions and collaborative input
• Encourages connection and engagement, supporting two-way interaction across teams, departments, or even branch locations
• Moves staff in a unified direction, making organizational structure, objectives and priorities, and decisions visible across the company
• Scales as needs change, growing with the organization and allowing for integrations with new tools or workflows as needed
• Ensures knowledge retention, preserving institutional knowledge lost by staff turnover and reducing reliance on siloed information

What are the challenges with having a social intranet platform?

If you’re considering a social intranet platform for your organization instead of a legacy intranet like SharePoint, there are a few challenges to consider, such as:

• Low engagement limits potential impact, so staff and employees must commit to putting in effort to keep the intranet a thriving and valuable resource
• Content management must be a focus, because without proper governance, content can become cluttered or outdated
• Leadership buy in is required as success depends on consistent promotion, visible participation, and administrative oversight

However, with the right intranet adoption strategy and solid content management practices in place, you can overcome these challenges and grow engagement.

What are some social intranet examples?

Get inspired by these best-in-class examples of beautiful social intranets. 

Discover our visual guide to stunning intranet examples to discover what’s possible when you use your intranet to its fullest potential.