The Intranet: The Unsung Hero Amongst PR Channels

The intranet is the unsung hero amongst PR channels.

In digit­al PR, where flashy social media plat­forms and soph­ist­ic­ated extern­al com­mu­nic­a­tion tools often steal the spot­light, the humble intranet remains an essen­tial organ­isa­tion­al platform. 

In oth­er words: The intranet is the organisation’s cent­ral nervous system.

Here we go:

The 3‑by‑3 Intranet Model

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The 3‑by‑3 Intranet Model

The 3 Intranet Pillars

When eval­u­at­ing or set­ting up an intranet, it’s cru­cial to focus on its core functionalities: 

• Messaging. Messaging is the core com­mu­nic­a­tion func­tion of an intranet, encom­passing all forms of digit­al mes­saging, includ­ing emails, instant mes­saging, and chat rooms. It’s the primary tool for day-to-day com­mu­nic­a­tion with­in the organisation.
• Meeting. This aspect of the intranet involves schedul­ing, man­aging, and facil­it­at­ing meet­ings with­in the organ­isa­tion. It includes cal­en­dar man­age­ment, video con­fer­en­cing tools, and resources for vir­tu­al collaboration.
• Filing. Filing refers to stor­ing, organ­ising, and retriev­ing doc­u­ments and oth­er digit­al assets on the intranet. This includes doc­u­ment man­age­ment sys­tems, digit­al lib­rar­ies, and databases

This tri­ad forms the back­bone of any effect­ive intranet, cater­ing to the most fun­da­ment­al needs of an organ­iz­a­tion. Each of these com­pon­ents plays a vital role in the func­tion­al­ity and effect­ive­ness of an intranet. When well-executed, they work togeth­er seam­lessly to sup­port the organ­isa­tion’s com­mu­nic­a­tion, col­lab­or­a­tion, and inform­a­tion man­age­ment needs.

The 3 Intranet Dimensions

In the con­text of an intranet, com­mu­nic­a­tion typ­ic­ally occurs in three primary dimen­sions: top-down, bot­tom-up, and horizontal. 

• Top-down. This dimen­sion refers to the flow of inform­a­tion from the high­er levels of the organ­isa­tion’s hier­archy to the lower levels. It typ­ic­ally includes offi­cial announce­ments, policy changes, organ­isa­tion­al updates, and stra­tegic directions.
• Bottom-up. This is the upward flow of inform­a­tion from lower-level employ­ees to the man­age­ment and lead­er­ship teams. It encom­passes feed­back, sug­ges­tions, con­cerns, and insights from the staff.
• Horizontal. This type of com­mu­nic­a­tion occurs among employ­ees at the same level with­in the organ­isa­tion­al hier­archy. It involves exchan­ging inform­a­tion, col­lab­or­at­ing, and shar­ing know­ledge among peers.

By effect­ively lever­aging these three dimen­sions of com­mu­nic­a­tion, an intranet can become a power­ful tool for enhan­cing trans­par­ency, col­lab­or­a­tion, and over­all organ­isa­tion­al effi­ciency. Each dimen­sion com­ple­ments the oth­ers, cre­at­ing a com­pre­hens­ive com­mu­nic­a­tion eco­sys­tem that bene­fits the entire organisation.

Learn more: The Intranet: The Unsung Hero Amongst PR Channels

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Why the Intranet Matters

The intranet extends far bey­ond just a repos­it­ory of doc­u­ments or a cor­por­ate bul­let­in board. Intranets are often essen­tial in fos­ter­ing organ­isa­tion­al learn­ing, enhan­cing social net­work­ing, and facil­it­at­ing seam­less intern­al communication.

“Intranets as know­ledge man­age­ment tools with­in organ­iz­a­tions can enhance organ­iz­a­tion­al learn­ing by fos­ter­ing social net­work­ing and facil­it­at­ing com­mu­nic­a­tion among employ­ees.”
Source: Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management ¹Boersma, F., & Kingma, S. (2011). Organizational Learning Facilitation with Intranet (2.0): A Socio-Cultural Approach. Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management, … Continue read­ing

A well-struc­tured intranet can stream­line pro­cesses, encour­age col­lab­or­a­tion, and pro­mote a shared sense of pur­pose. It acts as the cent­ral nervous sys­tem of an organ­iz­a­tion, effi­ciently con­nect­ing vari­ous parts to func­tion as a cohes­ive whole.

The intranet is an indis­pens­able tool in the intern­al digit­al arsen­al of organ­iz­a­tions. Its poten­tial to facil­it­ate com­mu­nic­a­tion, stream­line pro­cesses, and foster a col­lab­or­at­ive envir­on­ment is immense. As we nav­ig­ate the com­plex­it­ies of the digit­al work­place, let’s not over­look the intranet — the unsung hero that keeps our organ­iz­a­tions con­nec­ted and func­tion­ing effectively.

The 3 Pillars of an Intranet

Pillar 1: Messaging

Messaging is the core com­mu­nic­a­tion func­tion of an intranet, encom­passing all forms of digit­al mes­saging, includ­ing emails, instant mes­saging, and chat rooms. It’s the primary tool for day-to-day com­mu­nic­a­tion with­in the organisation.

The mes­saging func­tion ensures quick, effect­ive, and effi­cient com­mu­nic­a­tion among employ­ees. It allows for imme­di­ate inform­a­tion shar­ing and feed­back, ensur­ing every­one stays con­nec­ted and informed.

Messaging can be imple­men­ted through integ­rated email sys­tems, chat applic­a­tions, and instant mes­saging tools. These plat­forms should sup­port one-on-one con­ver­sa­tions, group dis­cus­sions, and broad­cast mes­sages. Ideally, they should be eas­ily access­ible, secure, and cap­able of hand­ling vari­ous media types (text, images, videos).

Pillar 2: Meetings

The intranet’s meet­ing func­tion­al­ity involves schedul­ing, man­aging, and facil­it­at­ing meet­ings with­in the organ­isa­tion. It includes cal­en­dar man­age­ment, video con­fer­en­cing tools, and resources for vir­tu­al collaboration.

The meet­ings com­pon­ent is designed to stream­line the pro­cess of organ­ising and con­duct­ing meet­ings, thereby improv­ing col­lab­or­a­tion and decision-mak­ing. It ensures that meet­ings are pro­duct­ive and that rel­ev­ant resources are read­ily accessible.

Effective imple­ment­a­tion includes integ­rated cal­en­dars for schedul­ing, fea­tures for send­ing meet­ing invites and remind­ers, and tools for vir­tu­al meet­ings such as video con­fer­en­cing. It may also provide access to shared doc­u­ments and col­lab­or­at­ive work­spaces where meet­ing agen­das, minutes, and fol­low-up actions can be stored and accessed.

Pillar 3: Filing

Filing refers to stor­ing, organ­ising, and retriev­ing doc­u­ments and oth­er digit­al assets on the intranet. This includes doc­u­ment man­age­ment sys­tems, digit­al lib­rar­ies, and databases.

The fil­ing sys­tem is essen­tial for man­aging an organ­isa­tion’s vast amount of inform­a­tion. It enables employ­ees to effi­ciently store, loc­ate, and col­lab­or­ate on doc­u­ments, ensur­ing that import­ant inform­a­tion is secure yet access­ible when needed.

A well-organ­ised fil­ing sys­tem on an intranet includes fea­tures for doc­u­ment upload and down­load, ver­sion con­trol, access per­mis­sions, and search func­tion­al­ity. It should sup­port vari­ous file formats and provide a logic­al, user-friendly struc­ture for organ­ising doc­u­ments into folders and categories.

The 3 Dimensions of an Intranet

Dimension 1: Top-Down Communication

This dimen­sion refers to the flow of inform­a­tion from the high­er levels of the organ­isa­tion’s hier­archy to the lower levels. It typ­ic­ally includes offi­cial announce­ments, policy changes, organ­isa­tion­al updates, and stra­tegic directions.

The main aim is to inform all employ­ees about the com­pany’s goals, achieve­ments, and changes. It ensures that every­one is aligned with the organ­isa­tion’s vis­ion and objectives.

On an intranet, top-down com­mu­nic­a­tion is facil­it­ated through offi­cial news chan­nels, broad­cast emails, lead­er­ship blogs, and ded­ic­ated sec­tions for cor­por­ate announce­ments. It’s import­ant that this con­tent is eas­ily access­ible and prom­in­ently displayed.

Dimension 2: Bottom-Up Communication

This is the upward flow of inform­a­tion from lower-level employ­ees to the man­age­ment and lead­er­ship teams. It encom­passes feed­back, sug­ges­tions, con­cerns, and insights from the staff.

Bottom-up com­mu­nic­a­tion is cru­cial for fos­ter­ing a sense of inclu­sion and empower­ment among employ­ees. It allows the man­age­ment to gath­er ground-level insights and address issues that may not be vis­ible at the top.

Tools such as sur­veys, feed­back forms, and for­ums on the intranet enable bot­tom-up com­mu­nic­a­tion. Encouraging employ­ees to share their ideas and feed­back through these chan­nels can lead to a more engaged and pro­duct­ive workforce.

Dimension 3: Horizontal Communication

This type of com­mu­nic­a­tion occurs among employ­ees at the same level with­in the organ­isa­tion­al hier­archy. It involves exchan­ging inform­a­tion, col­lab­or­at­ing, and shar­ing know­ledge among peers.

Horizontal com­mu­nic­a­tion is key to break­ing down silos, fos­ter­ing team­work, and encour­aging cross-depart­ment­al col­lab­or­a­tion. It facil­it­ates know­ledge-shar­ing and prob­lem-solv­ing among employ­ees who may not inter­act fre­quently in their reg­u­lar work routines.

The intranet can sup­port hori­zont­al com­mu­nic­a­tion through social net­work­ing fea­tures, team col­lab­or­a­tion spaces, shared doc­u­ment lib­rar­ies, and intern­al chat sys­tems. These tools help cre­ate a more con­nec­ted and col­lab­or­at­ive work environment.

Intranet Best Practices

Here are 10 best prac­tice tips on how to max­im­ize the effect­ive­ness of your intranet for cor­por­ate and/​or intern­al communications:

Implementing these best prac­tices can sig­ni­fic­antly enhance the intranet’s role in intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tions, turn­ing it into a dynam­ic, enga­ging, and indis­pens­able resource with­in your organization.

Beware the Law of Diminishing Returns

While it’s tempt­ing to keep adding fea­tures to an intranet, it’s cru­cial to be wary of the law of dimin­ish­ing returns. The bene­fits of a more com­plex sys­tem must be weighed against the addi­tion­al costs and poten­tial for decreased user-friend­li­ness. The syn­ergy prom­ised by integ­rat­ing vari­ous com­pon­ents into a single sys­tem is often exag­ger­ated com­pared to the addi­tion­al cost and com­plex­ity involved.

PR Resource: Pavlov’s Inbox

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Pavlov’s Inbox

Most email pro­ductiv­ity sys­tems (e.g. Inbox Zero and sim­il­ar sys­tems) focus on struc­ture and effi­ciency. Such sys­tems run the risk of reward­ing unfa­vour­able sender behaviours.

• If you allow, your inbox can eas­ily become oth­er people’s agenda for your time.

Pavlov’s Inbox is a sys­tem built around the psy­cho­lo­gic­al idea that your inbox prob­lems aren’t email prob­lems — they’re sender problems. 

Pavlov’s Inbox assumes that you can influ­ence the beha­viours of those send­ing you emails — via conditioning.

• Reward favour­able email senders. Reward senders by reply­ing swiftly and doing as much work as possible.
• Punish unfa­vour­able email senders. Punish senders by politely push­ing work back to where it came from.

The typ­ic­al res­ult of Pavel’s Inbox is that you quickly get more and more good emails from favour­able senders and few­er and few­er bad emails from unfa­vour­able senders.

• The basic rule of beha­vi­our­al psy­cho­logy is that you get more of what you reinforce.

How To Reward Favourable Senders

• Reply swiftly and thoughtfully.
• Eliminate their work by put­ting in work yourself.
• Include praise or oth­er pos­it­ive reinforcement.
• Express an interest in their work.

How To Punish Unfavourable Senders

• De-pri­or­it­ise their emails (let them wait).
• Instead of doing work, push work back.
• Ask them to qual­i­fy their requests.
• Question the valid­ity of their reasoning.

Please note that the pun­ish­ing aspect should be executed in a socially viable man­ner (since being con­front­a­tion­al or aggress­ive as “pun­ish­ment” is likely det­ri­ment­al to your pro­fes­sion­al repu­ta­tion).

Learn more: Pavlov’s Inbox

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