The internal brand is one of the most important parts of establishing an organization’s identity among its workforce. It’s a marketing tool that can help increase trust and confidence, encouraging employees to feel a connection to the business they work for. But in an increasingly virtual world, how can you successfully achieve a strong internal brand through your digital workplace?
Aligning intranet software with an internal brand strengthens overall engagement. Not only that, but it can create building blocks towards corporate goals and even support customer attraction. Employees are more committed to the brand because they understand what the culture represents to them and the impact it has on their daily work life.
How can intranet software help?
Intranet software is a powerful tool for driving communication and collaboration. It promotes the management of information and content across an internal environment and within the organization’s network. This supports a business’s internal branding efforts by raising awareness and increasing employee engagement. By combining internal systems, it allows improved communications to be distributed to employees with ease.
Using intranet software in the right way is unifies the employee experience. There’s an emphasis on brand culture, customizable to meet the specific business requirements and the needs of internal teams. New policies and changes to procedures are easily communicated. Content that encourages innovation and transparency can be filtered and tailored, to avoid overloading employees with information.
Here are ten top ways that intranet software can support any internal brand:
1. Establish an intranet that reflects the brand’s identity
What’s in a name? When it comes to internal branding, quite a lot. Choosing the perfect name for the company intranet emphasizes and promotes the internal brand. It’s wise to pick something that fits in with the cultural theme. Ideally, the intranet will be integral to the structure of employee internal communications, so give it a catchy title.
Internal branding helps to connect employees to the brand’s persona, ensuring they understand the values and company mission. The name, logo, and tone of voice all feed into this identity and should be reflected through the intranet software.
Need help naming your organization’s digital home? Check out our comprehensive list of intranet naming ideas.
For all direct and external communications, most companies have a tone of voice that needs to be followed. However, for interdepartmental activities, staff should be encouraged to write in a more casual language. If it is not public-facing, using a conversational style is acceptable. This writing technique helps to make the content accessible to all, and it will often get better engagement as it comes across as more personable. Brand guidelines can be more relaxed for internal communications amongst colleagues than if posting on the company website or on professional social media.
2. Reinforce company values
A company with solid values distinguishes itself from competitors and others operating in the space. Intranet software will cement and drive the values across all aspects of the business, distributing strategic content effectively to the relevant employees.
Company values and internal branding naturally work together, and intranet software is the glue that holds it all together.
A strong communication strategy unites colleagues. This establishes and reinforces the organization’s culture. It enriches employee’s daily work lives by representing the business’s unique characteristics and promoting them through an internal platform.
Tasked with improving your internal comms?
Company values and internal branding naturally work together, and intranet software is the glue that holds it all together. Sharing content that reflects these important values strengthens the messaging business-wide. It creates a hive of employee-centric activity that demonstrates the brand messaging in real-time.
Internal branding reinforces an organization’s messaging around the values by encouraging staff to embody the unique aspects of the business. Communicating this and rewarding them for said behavior transforms how they interact with people internally and externally.
3. Boost recognition and reward employees
Peer-to-peer recognition is an essential step to successfully encouraging employee engagement and defining the employee experience. Having that interaction amongst teammates serves many purposes; it makes employees feel appreciated and motivated in their daily role and increases job satisfaction, reducing staff attrition.
Asking employees to identify and reward hard work emphasizes the benefits and replicates it throughout all levels of the company.
Intranet software makes it easy to promote and elevate significant moments amongst colleagues. Creating a social environment that publicly commends hard work is empowering. Asking employees to identify and reward hard work emphasizes the benefits and replicates it throughout all levels of the company. It encourages repeated behavior and the recognition of it in others.
Employees feel acknowledged, and it creates a culture of respect that seeps from the senior management team down to every level.
4. Encourage and develop expert talent
Identifying and developing thought leaders and subject experts within a business is beneficial for all involved. Organizations can determine top talent within the business and connect them with staff that may need their assistance.
Those with particular skill sets are highlighted simply by the content they post on the intranet. If there are any business challenges or concerns within teams, those who have the vital knowledge or the necessary experience can be contacted quickly and easily. Sharing in this way ensures that knowledge and unique abilities are retained within a business.
Top talent can become an extension of the brand itself, with speaking slots and external content that promotes the organization
Promoting the creation of employee-centric and employee-generated content on an intranet increases communications and shows how individuals contribute to a company’s overall objectives. When employees are emotionally invested in an organization, productivity and loyalty increase. They are more likely to represent the brand professionally, become an ambassador, interact with internal and external content, and promote their workplace on social media.
Tasked with improving your internal comms?
The next step for a brand ambassador would be for the chosen employee to build up their personal brand and align themselves professionally with a business. This way, top talent can become an extension of the brand itself, with speaking slots and external content that promotes the organization, a living embodiment of those essential cultural values.
5. Create transparency and build trust
Transparency with employees breeds trust, an important part of every successful business model. Across multiple sectors and regardless of company size, being open with workers has proven to be essential. In Slack’s 2018 ‘Future of Work’ study, 87% of workers said they valued transparency from their employer, as it helps them adapt to the full picture and gives them trusted guidance through the professional work environment.
Transparency with employees breeds trust, an important part of every successful business model.
Intranet software provides a method of openness about company performance and decisions. It communicates accurate information about business practices and status, on a global scale. The free sharing of information within an organization is proven to support organizational success.
Preferable to many employees as an honest approach, transparency avoids speculation and giving a false impression of the organization’s current state. Employees can possibly change the outcome of a bad situation or savor the results of a good one. Perhaps most importantly, they will support each other as a highly engaged workforce.
6. Communicate effectively
Consistency is vital within any internal communication strategy. Staying connected, and encouraging human interaction, is how employees learn new things and get to know colleagues. If a brand doesn’t communicate, limiting it to when it is absolutely necessary or only reaching out for employee support, the intention is obvious, and culture will take a hit. Why expect employees to communicate when an organization won’t?
Cut through the noise and only send the information to those that need it with intranet personas and dynamic groups.
On that same token, it’s also easy to overdo the content interactions and bombard employees, causing information overload. This strategy ends up putting people off and they may avoid ever checking the company intranet. Cut through the noise and only send the information to those that need it with intranet personas and dynamic groups.
Using this method means that only the relevant people see the content, and others don’t have to spend time reading through a notice that is simply not relevant for their role.
7. Make it fun
Make it easy to share content in all forms. Each employee will respond better to different mediums, so variety is important. Creating engaging training videos or conducting and recording interactive webinars allows in-house and remote employees to access all training materials and documents anytime and anywhere.
Don’t make it too difficult to access content in its various forms. Simplicity is key to creating a buzz around the intranet and finding the right engagement strategy to ensure employees are hooked.
Tasked with improving your internal comms?
No one wants to collaborate when internal communications feel like a chore. It’s important to incorporate a fun and social element. Otherwise, an organization will never get the interaction and engagement it wants and needs. Much like how an external brand tries to stand out from the crowd, the internal brand must also be memorable and unique.
8. Evaluate what’s working
Evaluating engagement helps establish objectives within intranet software from day one. That way, internal communicators can see what’s working and what isn’t, and possibly find context within the data.
With analytics and statistics, it’s plain to see what content is popular and has positively impacted the workforce.
Getting employees to connect isn’t always easy, and keeping the engagement consistent takes planning and precision. With analytics and statistics, it’s plain to see what content is popular and has positively influenced the workforce. It’s a valuable tool for measuring the impact of an intranet on the internal brand and evaluate which types of content are resonating most with the audience.
Once data is collected, and strategies are aligned, it’s easier for employees to embrace the culture and for employers to understand the bigger picture. Active communication is the key to unlocking internal branding, such as company values. This strengthens internal activities as employees embody their day-to-day roles.
9. Make critical information accessible
Whether a business is operating a remote or office-based environment, safety is of great importance. Correctly communicating a newly developed policy is critical. It could lead to a big issue for an organization if there is a security breach or a health and safety issue, so having this content easily accessible is essential to the wellbeing of employees and the integrity of the internal brand.
Broadcasting important documentation and making policies a mandatory read are two significant ways of ensuring that the message gets across. Whether it is updated security procedures or new fire regulations, making everyone aware and confirming that the content has actually been read is vital.
10. Keep track of training
As a business evolves, so do the training requirements. But tracking training along with employee progress isn’t a simple task, especially in a large organization. Intranet software provides a universal way to stay up-to-date with development and announce improvements, so everyone is on the same page about the latest features and products.
Keeping it simple and on task, rather than a long drawn out process, allows employees to fit training in around other work tasks in their day. If making training mandatory for all, perhaps accompany it with a blog or some form of communication to explain why this step is necessary and the excellent opportunity on offer.
Intranet software provides a universal way to stay up-to-date with development and announce improvements, so everyone is on the same page about the latest features and products
Managing the onboarding and enrolment of new starters is a fantastic introduction to the business, particularly when it is steeped with organizational culture. Avoid overburdening new employees with content pertaining to the internal brand or company values; rather, let them experience it first hand from communications and their colleagues.
Ultimately, any business goal is to provide employees with the necessary tools to do their role effectively and use this to establish an innovative and unique business environment. Intranet software is a powerful tool with a plethora of uses, from keeping employees engaged to streamlining internal workflows. All of these benefits combine to form a strong basis for every internal brand.
