The pace of change in today’s digital workplace is fast and furious. And the world of intranet software is no exception. Keeping on top of new trends and technological advances is challenging when your daily work is so full-on. The good news is that we’ve done all the research on the more exciting intranet trends, so you don’t have to. We’ve drawn on the 30 Best Intranet Software For Employees in 2024 and the 10 best intranets identified by Nielsen Norman Group.
The modern intranet is the nerve center for internal communication, collaboration, information sharing, and employee engagement. And that makes intranets a must-have for today’s distributed workplace. The right modern intranet enables your people to work together effectively, whether office-based or remote employees. To ensure your employee intranet is a valuable and future-proofed asset, you need to follow the latest intranet trends and choose the best platform for your needs.
So, let’s dive in and explore the top 11 intranet trends for 2024. Use these to inform your intranet strategy and ensure you stay competitive and innovative.
1. Digital Employee Experience
There’s no doubt that the pandemic and wholescale switch to remote work have transformed the modern workplace. Likewise, the employee experience has undergone a radical transformation. Nowadays, the employee experience increasingly takes place online.
Employee intranets have long had digital tools for onboarding and offboarding. However, there’s now a focus on the middle part of the employee journey. After all, that’s where the real productivity and organizational success take place.
Intranet features that promote employee engagement, recognition, and professional development improve employee satisfaction. And there’s also a renewed focus on ensuring employees have everything they need to get work done, from internal communications and multi-channel integrations to collaboration tools.
A crucial aspect of the online employee experience is usability and an engaging UI. Cloud-based intranets are moving towards a more streamlined, visual look that’s easy for staff to navigate. Intranet designs incorporating personalized links, integrated newsfeeds, and more use of video are definite trends for 2024.
Get the digital employee experience right, and you’ll motivate employees and simultaneously enhance productivity.
2. Multi-Channel Integrated Intranet Technology
When it comes to intranet trends, multi-channel integration is one of the hottest. Most digital workplaces also rely on a variety of external tools. The modern company intranet recognizes this and offers seamless integration.
The use of APIs and single sign-on connects your intranet to all the enterprise apps your organization already uses. Think HR or payroll systems, CRM platforms like Salesforce, and, of course, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
No more switching between apps and logins. Instead, your employee intranet is a central hub offering seamless access to multiple channels. Drive intranet adoption in your organization by ensuring the software offers integrations. And as you’ll see below, modern intranets now also offer mobile integration.
3. Mobile Digital Workplace
The modern intranet needs to reach all employees, including on-the-go, deskless employees, and remote workers. More than ever, your people access the employee intranet from their mobile devices.
Mobile intranets are not a new thing. However, there’s a big difference between a mobile-friendly intranet and a dedicated mobile app.
Mobile features like touchscreen optimization, responsive software, and smart innovation support employees in completing tasks from any location. A specialist app means that a sales rep on the road can easily access all intranet features and business processes directly from their mobile device. In short, your people can fully participate in the digital workplace from anywhere and anytime.
4. Personalized Intranet Experience
Personalization is hardly a new intranet trend. However, it’s now gone up a level. In 2024, intranet content will increasingly be tailored to user needs and employee’s interests. Targeted content helps your people cut through all the noise and focus on what’s really important.
Recent research from Gartner found that personalized intranet experiences can potentially increase employee engagement by as much as 34 percent. And we all know the impact an engaged workforce has on productivity and organizational success.
5. Focus On Inclusive Knowledge Sharing
Knowledge sharing is essential for fostering innovation and growth among employees. One of this year’s significant intranet trends is an increased focus on knowledge sharing and management.
Intranets make it easy to share internal know-how and expertise, unlocking the hidden potential of the workforce. Employee profiles, content creation, automated updates, and integrated newsfeeds support more inclusive knowledge sharing. Inclusive knowledge sharing ensures that everyone in the organization benefits from the insights and expertise of others, regardless of their position.
6. Enhanced Search Functionality
As your organization’s knowledge base grows, a robust search function becomes even more critical. Employees need to find content and recall information super-fast. However, workers still spend far too much time searching for information, making it a productivity drain. Enhanced search functionality is one of this year’s most important intranet trends.
Content tagging, results filtering, quick previews, and links to related pages are valuable tricks of the trade. Check out our dedicated post on intranet search engines for more tips on how to optimize search results.
7. Social Intranets
Demand for social intranet features has grown with the shift to remote work. The social intranet brings people together, boosting company culture. And it drives intranet adoption by keeping employees coming back for more.
Instant messaging, # channels, and interactive blogs have been around for a while. However, employee profiles that mimic social media are now commonplace. They’ve gone beyond the static employee directories of old to become vibrant hubs for sharing information and insights and connecting with colleagues. User-generated content and activity walls have added to their appeal.
Remote work can be isolating and is well-documented. There’s a tendency for the remote employee to retreat into their own bubble, disconnected from colleagues and the organization. A social intranet bridges the gap, and keeps open the lines of communication and sense of connection. And it’s also one of the best collaboration tools out there.
8. Gamification
From leaderboards and badges to # water cooler chats, gamification features introduce a fun element to employee intranets. You can use gamification to drive intranet adoption by recognizing and rewarding super users. Or you can give employees an outlet to chill and chat about interests and hobbies.
Far from being a time-waster, gamification, and time-out channels help build a positive work environment and company culture. And it’s one of the top intranet trends to watch.
9. Keeping Intranet Content Relevant
Content relevancy is one of the more interesting intranet trends. The days of publishing every piece of company information on the employee intranet are long gone. Targeted content, whether relevant to a particular department, job role, or location, is the way to go in 2024.
Many organizations are now embracing storytelling techniques to improve the relevancy of intranet content. Storytelling is not only helpful in providing context and meaning, but it also resonates more with employees.
Content curation will also take on a new meaning this year. Having systems in place to ensure content is relevant and up to date is more critical than ever.
10. User-Focused Intranet Design
In 2024, the name of the game is user-centric intranet designs. The best intranets will blend the top features of social media with business-focused tasks and processes. The result? A user-friendly and intuitive experience for both new and veteran users of modern intranets.
For starters, ensure your menu labels focus on the employee rather than the organization. Features like quick links and my favorites help users to set their own agendas. Fast access to the tools and information they need means employees can efficiently and effectively complete tasks.
With user-centric intranets, things should just “work” without requiring too much intervention or training. It’s all about being flexible and having the most appealing user interface possible.
11. Modern Intranets Are Not Just For Businesses
We wind up our selection of intranet trends by recognizing that intranets are not just about businesses. These days, intranet adoption is being driven by a much broader range of organizations.
Not-for-profits, educational institutions, sports clubs, and community groups of all shapes and sizes also understand that an intranet system is crucial for internal communication. Intranet software is no longer about companies. These versatile, cloud-based platforms can help any group of individuals work together and communicate more easily.
New Features For MyHub’s Intranet Software
Here at MyHub, we design intranets that stay ahead of the curve. We keep a regular eye on intranet trends and ensure our software meets the highest standards for today’s digital workplace.
We’re introducing a ton of new features and enhancements. You can find out more in our latest Product Roadmap Update. Here are the headlines:
More Integrations
MyHub will soon be offering over 100 integrations to seamlessly connect with other tools, including payroll providers, HR management systems, benefits providers, and much more.
MyHub’s intranets synchronize user information and data from across these platforms into one central hub.
Improved Social Intranet
A new social updates feed pulls together all the updates from across the intranet system, including news, events, module updates, alerts, and notifications. Even better, the updates feed is personalized to each user.
Enhanced Mobile Features
The new updates feed is also a feature of our dedicated mobile app. We’ve also added quick links and a favorites feature, so on-the-go workers have easy access to everything they need on their mobile phones.
Enriched Intranet Design
MyHub regularly updates our modern intranet software to reflect the latest best practices. We’ll soon be releasing new versions of the calendar, text image video, banner, and expanding text and heading modules. These exciting new features simplify the intranet design process.
Furthermore, a new video module means you can display and play videos saved to your MyHub intranet. And the addition of a new Canva module allows you to select any Canva template, customize it and then publish it back on your MyHub site.
Next Steps
You can reassess your current intranet and consider whether you can incorporate these new trends. Or you can opt for MyHub’s intranet solution that already ticks all the boxes.
Our cutting-edge intranets are packed full of the communication and collaboration tools you need to improve productivity and engage employees. Super-easy to set up and manage, our intranets are used by organizations of all sizes worldwide, including not-for-profits, educational institutions, and community groups.
Ready to take the next step? Sign up for a free demo or 14-day trial.
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