10 ways intranets can increase productivity at work

Let's be honest: in times of intense working from home, new work structures and an ever-increasing within our daily lives, we all lack work productivity from time to time.

How often have you caught yourself browsing through Instagram instead of finishing the email you started typing ten minutes ago? How often have you done the dishes instead of finally putting together your project plan? Don't worry – we're in this before together. 

What is employee productivity?

When we talk about employee productivity, we mean the number of tasks that are done within a period of time. Companies often structure their goals by using KPIs (key performance indicators). They are a great way of checking whether certain goals have been reached and tasks are done. The scope of tasks highly depends on the profile of the company you are working for. Productivity at work is not only something that needs to be accomplished to perform well for your employer, but is also vital for your well-being and mindset.

How to increase productivity?

Productivity comes and goes, but how to keep it constant? Here are our tips to make sure you get the most out of your workday.

• Have a clear structure
  
  In times of working from home, distractions are high and motivation is low. Create a list of tasks you want to finish by the end of the week and leave some time for easier tasks to use as distractions.
  
  
•  Be proactive
  
  Being proactive means doing the things you need to do before you actually need to do them. It’s anticipating what might happen and planning in advance instead of reacting to circumstances. Proactive employees don’t try to guarantee that nothing goes wrong – they minimize risks by being more strategic.
  
  
•  Eliminate distractions

This one may seem obvious, but distance yourself from things that are causing          distractions:

• Turn off notifications from your mobile phone and desktop applications 
  
  
• Consider checking emails only twice per day
  
  
• Work in another room if you are distracted by other people

4. Prioritize your tasks

Focus on only doing 2-3 tasks a day and list them in order of importance. This helps you finish the most important tasks.

5. Do tasks in batches

Task batching is a planning process that groups similar activities and projects together. Sorting projects by similarity and working on them until they’re complete improves your focus.

6. Exercise

Exercises give you more energy and reduce stress, however, employees find it hard to find time for doing them. Luckily, exercises during work can be replaced with a power walk at lunchtime. 

7. Implement an intranet solution

An intranet can help you increase productivity by assisting your team in overcoming communication gaps and IT barriers. Intranet solutions enhance internal processes and can be a central hub for communication and collaboration, where employees can connect, engage, and share insights.

At Happeo, we know that the lack of productivity does not only come from every single team member personally, but rather from the surroundings that you find within the company you are working for. We all need structures – starting within our personal life and leading to work structures within the company. This is why we started developing an intranet for remote work to help boost your productivity. 

In this article, we'll show you how an intranet can actually help you to increase your productivity at work and assist your entire team in improving not only Internal Communication channels but also large and time-consuming projects, HR processes, IT barriers and the casual lunch conversations that you're missing while working from home. 

10 ways intranets can increase productivity at work

1. They give you a mothership you can hang on to

In times when everyone is working from a different place, country, and maybe even within a different time zone, one thing becomes more and more inevitable: having one central hub for communication, file storage, planning, monitoring, and tracking is needed. In other words: one source of knowledge and a place where everyone in your company meets, interacts, and, above all, collaborates.

We call it the mothership. Others call it intranet software.

2. They keep the communication simple 

How often have you asked yourself who to contact when you need a quick translation, feedback, or just another opinion? The lack of communication is often viewed as one of the barriers to productivity at work.

The Washington Post has revealed that in 2020 employees spent an average of 4.1 hours per day checking the inbox of their emails. Crazy, right? And all they asked for was a tool that enables us to communicate efficiently.

3. They help you store your files in a clever way

Have you ever found yourself lost in Google Docs? Whereas the digitized way of working brings many advantages, it can also lead to pure chaos and to a point where you spend most of your workday clicking through endless folders of documents in virtual clouds, on your very own desktop, on old external hard drives or any other sort of storage. Let's stop that because it is hindering you massively from leading a productive day at work. To work in a structured way, you need to get your file storage in place, and this is where an intranet is only one of the many ideas to improve office productivity – without a doubt. Read more about Intranet CMS.

4. They manage your knowledge

Whether your company has 5 or 500 employees there is a wealth of knowledge that can be quickly accessed in seconds. How? Through a database which grants you access to a well-organized employee directory where the expertise and knowledge of members, teams,  and offices can be easily accessed. Here, the names and contact information for employees across the enterprise can be accessed through simple search. You don’t need an encyclopaedia to learn new things, the knowledge is already around you.

5. They keep the search time as low as possible

"Let me quickly search for the photo from our last team event”. How often have you said that? And how often did 'quickly' turn into three hours? Well, for a less time-consuming search struggle, use an intranet. A well-structured intranet will give you the ability to quickly search and find documents, people, channels and photos in an organized manner through clever search bars. By utilizing Happeo’s Universal Search things like keyword search, auto-suggest-functions and automated search are integrated to help you get the best out of your search.

6. They overcome barriers

What do we mean by barriers? Imagine this, you shifted your remote office to Bali and your laptop can't handle the local weather of 35 °C. You need a tool to urgently get in touch with the right people at your office to access important files because your tight deadline is nearing. In that case, the entire company needs to be reachable, what's next? Mobile intranet apps. 

2021 has brought new possibilities and developments in remote working. Mobile intranet apps grant you access to contacts, data and documents from the palm of your hand. No need to be restricted to a laptop or desktop, conveniently work remotely on your tablet or mobile phone at any possible time. This is not a year for creating barriers, but instead encouraging flexibility when working.

7. They connect your workforce

One of the major pitfalls of working remotely from anywhere in the world is that at some point you may feel lonely or isolated. Day in and out you're sitting at your desk at home – all alone, working your way through tasks that seem to be the same from month to month. Loneliness can quickly lead to boredom and, well, boredom leads to a huge lack of productivity in the workplace.

A clever way to mitigate against boredom from anyone in your company is by connecting people. You can do so through collaborative channels that can effortlessly be implemented in an intranet. Channels don't always have to be work-related, but can (and should!) be fun and boost morale – especially in times when people struggle with new challenges. Give your team members the chance to interact within informal channels, to set up virtual lunch-breaks, coffee meetings and many more fun things that will help them to feel connected, motivated and above all, productive.

8. They help you know your people

Sometimes you don't need to use Google Search to learn about something new as there is so much untapped knowledge around you. An intranet with a people directory can help you understand your colleagues skills and expertise.

Within Happeo's employee directory all employees have their very own virtual card with their personal information, expertise, department and manager. Hence, if you need to find someone to complete a  particular task you can simply use the search tool within the employee directory to find the perfect member within seconds. A task that required countless hours of browsing through expert articles is over – let's just collaborate and exchange information with our colleagues who, in-turn, can be helpful and inspirational sources of information.

9. They keep all departments happy

An intranet is able to boost productivity for entire teams. Most departments can get bombarded with repetitive, monotonous or difficult tasks, leaving staff feeling unsatisfied and simply fed up. Here, an intranet can provide a common area to encourage co-workers to support each other by offering their know-how, assistance, resources, experiences and advice to each other to solve common problems or tasks. Spaces like this can alleviate an individual's work overflow, management and pressure, resulting in better work quality and performance.

Marketing, HR and sales teams are encouraged to use intranets as they are a great way of connecting people, creating knowledge hubs and fostering collaboration from all over the world.

10. They are your very own virtual assistant 

How many reminder lists have you written today already? Let's stop that. Intranets are working as your 24/7 virtual assistant. They help you keep track of your tasks through organized task management tools, remind you of upcoming calendar entries, push notify task updates and deadlines, connect you to the right people, encourage collaboration, and help you to feel integrated no matter where you are.

How do you implement this in your business?

Is it always easier in theory? We don’t think so. When deciding how to increase the productivity of your employees in the workplace the options are endless. As remote working becomes cost-effective and normalized, team-members are likely to remain working from home, that’s why you need to think about digital innovations that will boost staff productivity.

A modern intranet is a great foundation to build a structured way of communicating, collaborating and working for remote operating businesses. Your workforce’s drive, spirit and productivity levels will be enhanced with an intranet platform. Happeo’s platform provides an increasing amount of tools, abilities and features – all customizable to what your company needs to best perform. Doesn’t sound too complicated, right?

Would you like to learn more about intranet software? Watch a video about intranets or schedule a call with one of our intranet experts.