8 Tips to Boost Collaboration Using an Intranet

8 tips to boost collaboration using an intranet

Jonathan Davies

7 mins read

Table of Contents

How does an intranet work?

What is collaboration after all?

When we talk about collaboration, we mean the cooperative way of working together. In other words: It's the term to describe working together among various teams and departments while following one shared goal or objective. This actually may sound easier than it is. In current times, where teams don't really sit together in one office or generally during times, in which remote work and working from home is getting more and more popular, working together with different teams and on different levels can be a challenge.

How to increase collaboration at work?

In order to improve collaboration at work, you need to make sure that your teams are connected and, above all, willing to collaborate. Make sure that an open and transparent way of working is the way to go at your enterprise as this fosters employee engagement and, thus, will to collaborate to the maximum. A Gallup study found that 85% of the American employees are not engaged in their work. A good way to increase engagement and company collaboration is by implementing a company intranet software that works as the centre of everything: communication, sharing and saving files, project planning, meetings and collaboration.

Intranets are a great way to connect everyone – no matter where they are. In the following, we'll give you eight good ways on how to use an intranet to increase collaboration at work and, above all, eight tips for collaboration in the workplace.

8 tips how intranets can boost collaboration at work

Intranets help with open communication
Whether it's a significant announcement that you are about to make, an open thank you to a group of employees for their achievements or just the next town hall meeting that is about to happen – open communication is the key to employee collaboration.

Through intranets, you can easily communicate with all your employees. Doing so, you can either use specific communication channels, direct messaging, event announcements that will be linked to everyone's calendar or files that can easily be shared with your entire team. Intranets are the basis of seamless communication – whether it's from a top-down or a bottom-up approach.

Intranets foster transparency through file-sharing and open documentations
The more transparent you, as an entire company, a manager, or a team-lead, are, the more every other person in the company will feel included and, thus, increase their desire to interact and collaborate.
Fewer silos, more clarity
When we talk about silos in terms of communication and information, we mean communication that happens within teams only – and not outside their bubble. Now, to increase company collaboration – especially among different teams – communication needs to break down its silos and be accessible to everyone.
Intranets are like your best and social friend
Especially when working from home, people often get the feeling to basically be on their own. An intranet can help improve collaboration at work by implementing social features.
Intranets help to celebrate success
Don't worry, there are plenty of ways to celebrate success and achievement. You could create a channel of employee recognition, project celebrations and to share other amazing news that happen because your employees collaborated on a highly motivated and engaged level.
Intranets offer training opportunities for everyone
Through a well-organised intranet, you can easily offer training opportunities. Simply publish them in a channel, upload needed documents and files in your drive and give dedicated employees the right access.
Connect your entire company with each other
An intranet can help you to connect everyone with everyone and, thus, making it easier to improve collaboration at work on various levels.
With intranets everyone can have a voice
… you'll just need to give them this voice. Once you involve your employees already in the implementation of an intranet, you've created the best base for collaboration. Employees can give their advice on how to best use the intranet, put in their suggestions and will later see that some of their views have actually been implemented.

Let's get the collaboration at work going

Now, with all our tips for collaboration in the workplace and insights about how an intranet can help to increase collaboration at work, you may question yourself: How do I start? Well, the steps are easy:

Start by implementing an intranet.
Talk to your employees about the usage and benefits of an intranet.
Implement first channels.

Once the intranet has been adopted by your employees and team members, there should be no more barriers to collaborate within different teams and departments. Simply remember to stay as transparent as possible and keep your communication as open as possible to increase employee engagement and finally the collaboration at work.