Real intranets, real results, and the lessons behind them
At Western State Bank and Bonvenu Bank, the intranet is much more than a place to store documents. It’s where employees find answers, celebrate each other, and even help shape company decisions.
Sarah Waller and Julie Ashbaugh share how their intranets lifted internal communication scores to an all-time high and drove a 65% jump in employee shout-outs.
Here are some of their practices that keep employees coming back.
- Involve the people closest to the work. Western State Bank invited supervisors to shape their own department pages, which turned them into advocates and kept content current
- Make access effortless. Single sign-on and setting the intranet as everyone’s homepage put it at the center of the workday
- Create one source of truth. Centralizing policies, procedures, and forms means employees can find the latest version in seconds
- Mix the useful with the fun. Bonvenu Bank’s weekly polls, seasonal themes, and photo posts draw 100 to 150 responses a week
- Celebrate each other. Value-aligned shout-outs earn Bonvenu employees swag store credits, with 2,195 shout-outs in 2025
- Measure what matters. Western State Bank’s internal communication score rose from 6.32 to 7.32, their highest ever, and Bonvenu estimates nearly 2,800 hours saved a year
