No matter your company’s size, whether you have 20 employees or 2,000, all business owners face the same challenges. Streamlining communications and processes is essential to ensure everyone is on the same page. Many small companies today operate with remote teams and freelancers—some don’t even have physical offices—and having the right intranet means they may never have to.
Small business intranets provide a central network for all employees to connect, access the tools, content, and information needed to stay productive, and bridge communication gaps that would otherwise impede the work.
This guide will dive deep into the benefits of an intranet for small businesses, how intranets bring people together and support employees in doing their best work, and most importantly, how to choose the right intranet for your needs and tips for successful implementation.
But first things first: what is an intranet? And how can it help my small business? Read on to find out!
How an Intranet Can Help Small Businesses
Intranets are private internal networks companies use to house critical data, share applications and content, and communicate with employees and other company stakeholders. Conceptually, intranets have existed since the early 90s, but those early platforms bear little resemblance to modern intranets in 2024.
Today’s intranets are built on advanced cloud technology, making remote connections more secure and reliable than ever before. Better yet, subscription-based platforms make it easy and affordable for small businesses to get on board, putting enterprise features within reach at a fraction of what it would have cost in the past.
Affordability aside, here are a few ways intranets can help small businesses soar.
Bring People Together
Intranets provide a platform where all employees can come together. They integrate productivity apps like Microsoft Office, Teams, and Google Suite, project management apps like Asana and Trello, document storage, communication platforms, email, instant messaging, video conferencing, webinar hosting, CMS systems, and so much more.
The customization possibilities in a modern small business intranet are virtually endless, so you can configure your workspace to the way you work rather than conform to the platform’s limitations.
With all the tools you use in one place, it’s a way to streamline communication, remove barriers, and build a sense of community within the company.
Improve Employee Engagement
Small business intranets enable engagement tools like polls, surveys, forums, and social features your people will love to log on to. The central newsfeed allows you to share company news and updates, recognize achievements, and celebrate milestones, fostering a sense of pride and shared purpose.
Feedback can be gathered and shared, helping to strengthen the bond between managers and team members while keeping everyone in sync with each other and connected to the company’s mission. When employees are happy and connected, engagement soars, and so does productivity—and the bottom line.
Improve Collaboration
Intranets facilitate collaboration, providing a central space for employees and teams to come together, share ideas, share files, chat, work on documents in real time, and more.
Without the benefit of an intranet, employees would be using their own devices and computers and may face barriers to connectivity or access to apps or files. Intranets solve these issues as all essential tools are integrated into the platform.
Project management is more efficient and transparent, projects have better outcomes, and team members on the platform have the tools and content they need at their fingertips.
Optimize Onboarding
Talent retention is one of the biggest challenges a small business will face. Onboarding is perhaps the most critical aspect of the employee experience, as it sets the tone for all future interactions. Intranets support many HR functions, like providing access to training materials and essential documentation, job descriptions, employee contracts, company policies and procedures, and compliance support.
Small business owners wear many hats, and few have their own HR department. Your intranet can help ensure that nothing falls through the cracks and that your new hires get started on solid ground.
Scales with You
Business today moves quickly, so you need solutions and technology that can grow with you. In choosing the right intranet for your company, you need to think about what your business looks like now and where you hope it will be in the future.
Ideally, you don’t want to have to jump ship because you’ve outgrown the software—and you certainly don’t want to be paying for licenses or features you don’t need. In best practice, you should choose a platform that can scale up or down to accommodate all the ebbs and flows, even if they are unplanned.
You also want to ensure you can add new features when needed. When new apps and solutions emerge that can ease workflows and take your company to new heights, you should be able to take advantage of them and not have to compromise because of your intranet’s limitations.
Selecting the Right Intranet
Intranets can be massively beneficial to small businesses, but choosing the right one is key. With so many platforms on the market today, the research and selection process can be a little overwhelming, to say the least!
Here are a few tips to get you thinking along the right lines.
Understand Your Business Needs
Small businesses are unique and have needs that are vastly different from those of SMBs, SMEs, and the enterprise. While enterprise solutions might look exciting on the surface, they are complex, expensive, and often way more than you will ever need. Look for solutions specifically designed for small businesses, as these will be in your price range and will generally have the options and features you need.
Affordability is a critical concern. An intranet should help you improve efficiency and reduce costs—not increase complexity and tank your budget. So, think about what you can afford and use that as a baseline for your search.
Key Considerations
Most small business intranets offer similar features. At a fundamental level, the one you choose should include all of the following.
Modern small business intranets are built to facilitate connections. In addition to email, messaging, and conferencing integrations, they should include social features, like forums and groups for employee discussions, projects, and special interests, as well as a news feed to keep employees updated on company happenings.
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Helps People Get Work Done Faster
Access to content is essential in the workplace. A central knowledge management platform enables easy access to information and content and should offer role-based access control for sensitive or confidential data.
An organization chart helps employees find the right expertise within the company, connecting workers with the knowledge and insight they need to manage their tasks and perform their best.
A great user experience is vital, as a poor experience impedes adoption, preventing you from achieving value from your investment. Avoid large, complicated, cumbersome systems. Choose a platform that looks and feels like a great website or social platform, as this will ensure a smooth implementation and minimize downtime during deployment.
Accessibility is essential in 2024. Your solution should be accessible and look and perform the same on any device, including mobile devices.
One of the biggest benefits of a modern small business intranet, and a genuine must-have, is that it must support remote and on-the-go employees. As the shift to remote work and distributed teams takes root, this kind of support will help you seize more opportunities as you grow into your future.
The platform you choose shouldn’t force you to leave your best tools behind. Ideally, it should be compatible and capable of integrating with your existing apps. That way, you can hit the ground running and pick up speed as you go. Look for a solution that can adapt to new technologies to ensure a future-proof investment.
Implementation Tips
All winning initiatives start with a solid plan. Here are a few tips to help you prepare.
Planning and Strategy
Before you even begin looking at potential platforms, conduct a needs assessment to determine the features you need. Think about what your intranet will help you accomplish. Defining clear goals will help you identify solutions that will help you achieve them.
Choosing the Right Vendor
Every vendor is different. The one you choose should align with your values and how you work. Customer service, for example, can be challenging with some vendors. Many SaaS companies are hands-off after implementation, making it hard to get help and support when needed.
You need the right mix of features, functions, and customer service. Read reviews, ask colleagues for recommendations and feedback, and take advantage of demos and trials when possible. Ultimately, salespeople do a great job of selling, but sometimes, you’re left high and dry once they’ve closed the deal. Talk to their existing clients and find out what they like and dislike about the company so you’re walking in with your eyes wide open.
Deployment and Training
Once you’ve chosen your ideal small business intranet, it’s time to put it to work. The deployment and training phase is absolutely critical as it minimizes friction and accelerates time-to-value.
- Configure your system to user needs.
- Encourage employee input during deployment.
- Plan your launch.
- Allow yourself enough time to get it up and running. You may encounter issues along the way, so you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket.
- Train yourself and your power users first.
- Schedule training sessions for the rest of your team.
- Seek feedback and ideas from employees to maximize the platform’s value.
- Segue out of emails and off-platform apps.
- Review analytics to gauge success.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, small businesses can reap incredible benefits from an intranet—provided they choose one that fits their current and future needs, integrates with the apps they love, is accessible from any device, and provides an excellent user experience.
Intranets are a great way for small companies to access enterprise-grade features at a fraction of what the big guys pay. The right solution establishes a flexible, scalable, highly accessible foundation to build on, helping small businesses keep their employees engaged as they step into their potential.
If employee and business success is your goal, we encourage you to consider Jostle. Our user-friendly platform enables employee success, bringing people together to do their most meaningful work. So gather your thoughts and aspirations, browse our resources and case studies, and activate your trial today.
