A
lot of smaller businesses, even those experiencing rapid growth, are
sometimes reluctant to adopt new tech tools, especially tools geared
towards growing culture, increasing employee engagement, and improving
communication.
They generally think they don’t need to worry about that yet, that
things like company culture will manifest organically and scale with the
addition of new hires. For startups in particular, who are scrambling
to find funding in the early days, it’s hard to see beyond the next rent
payment let alone to a point when culture becomes a major factor.
But the truth is, what happens in the early growth stage of a small
business will impact your company for years to come. A toxic company
culture or low engagement are only going to get worse if they’re not
addressed right away. The same is true whether your company’s a tech
startup founded in a college dorm or a 75 year-old mom and pop hardware
store that’s about to open another location.
If your company has 20+ employees and you want to scale your culture,
keep your people engaged, and ensure everyone is connected, you’re
going to need new tools sooner rather than later.
You’re going to need an intranet.
3 reasons why your small business needs an intranet
1. An intranet helps new hires get acquainted with your company culture
Preparing for growth in your company’s culture is just as important
as planning for its financial growth. And your company culture at 20
employees can look a lot different when you hit 70 employees, so you’ll
need to think about how that change benefits your organization. You can hire for cultural fit,
sure, but you’ll also need to give new hires a tool that keeps them
engaged and helps them get acquainted with your company’s best skills
and values.
An intranet gives your new hires the following:
- A repository for important information. During
their first week, new hires will need to sign documents, complete
orientation checklists, provide contact information, watch training
videos, set up accounts, and learn about important policies and
procedures. Your intranet provides all of that in one place. It saves
your team time (and paper!) and it gives your new hire a sense of
autonomy right off the bat.
- A place to learn. Sometimes at a small business,
people aren’t around to answer questions, especially in a fast-paced
startup environment where your people simply don’t have the time to
train or teach new hires. An intranet gives your new hires a place to
ask questions, learn about events, and get involved with your company
culture from day one.
- A community. A new workplace can be overwhelming,
intimidating, and nerve-wracking, but an intranet can help. Your
intranet is a space for organization-wide introductions for new hires.
It gives them a way to say hello and find groups and discussion threads
that are work relevant and appeal to their interests. It gets them
acquainted with the different people at your organization, and provides
an opportunity to be welcomed by the team.
In other words, an intranet is good for your small business because
it helps you grow your culture quickly. New hires have everything they
need at their fingertips to learn about best practices, rituals, core
values, team events, and anything else they’ll need to know as they grow
with your company.
“Jostle underpins
our employee engagement strategy and is integral to at Pure (8
2. An intranet improves communication and creates a close-knit community
We’ve all seen the US version of The Office, right? The show in which
an incompetent but ultimately charming boss inflicts his
cringe-inducing antics on a loveable cast of characters, each with their
own quirks and hilarious, heartwarming storylines?
Okay, great. Well, imagine if the Scranton branch of Dunder-Mifflin
had an intranet that they could use to instantly connect with colleagues
at other branches. If Jim in Scranton would know right away what was
happening with his colleagues in Stamford. It probably wouldn’t make for
a very entertaining show, but it would make for one extremely
interconnected small business.
Forgive my shoddy Office spec script for a second (it will air one
day, mark my words) and think about the ways in which an intranet can
connect all of the disparate, distant satellite offices—or siloed teams
within a single office—of your small business.
Is your small business a paper company with 58 employees spread
across 6 branches throughout the midwest? An intranet offers a go-to
place that keeps people at those far-off branches informed about what’s
going on at every site and at HQ. It provides a simple way for them to
share news and events, important documents, and learn about upcoming
changes. It also helps them communicate with, compete with, collaborate
with, and possibly even pull hilarious hijinks on each other.
Whether your business has many branches or only one, your intranet
functions as a central digital workplace for all of your teams, which
means that distance and barriers between teams are no longer an
impediment to communication. With an intranet, everyone suddenly feels a
lot closer, which in turn helps create a more close-knit community.
Plus, an intranet would’ve salvaged the 7th season, that’s for sure.
3. An intranet gets your small business engaged and aligned with your company’s mission
I’ve written before
about how engaged employees are the key to getting teams aligned with
your company’s mission. Whether that mission is growth or something else
entirely, you want your best (if not all) employees championing it in a
way that spreads the message throughout the organization.
This is especially important if your small business is in the early, unprofitable stages when your company mission means everything.
Engagement can be gamified. It can be incentivized. But ultimately engagement is driven by your culture,
and as a leader of a small business, your voice is perhaps the most
influential. An intranet provides a space where you can actively
participate in and champion your company’s culture.
You can use your intranet to deliver internal communications, comment
on posts, share news and company success stories, give shout-outs to
publicly recognize employees who are going above and beyond, and more.
It’s another way to reiterate and demonstrate your company’s commitment
to its values and its people. And, if you’re doing it well, they’ll follow suit.
In other words, leaders, use your intranet all the time. The sooner you work it into your daily routine, the greater its effect on engagement as your small business grows.
Conclusion
Much like other tools, an intranet is an investment in your small
business. More importantly, though, it’s an investment in your people.
By putting culture, engagement, and communication at the forefront of
your small business from the start, you signal to your employees that
your company has their best interests in mind as you grow together.
SOURCE: jostle.me
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