Intranet-Feature Trends for 2023
Winners came up with many new and unique features to help employees with their evolved needs and expectations. Noteworthy features and outcomes for 2023 include:

Supporting back-to-office and hybrid work
Driving connection and collaboration
Doing everything from the intranet
AI-powered chatbots
Career-growth and -development hubs
Supporting Back-to-Office and Hybrid Work
Towards the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations and their intranets began helping employees safely transition back to in-office work and hybrid-working models. Several teams created new tools and workflows, such as desk- and locker-booking tools for employees coming into the office and mobile features to update their vaccination status.

For example, OCBC's intranet supported hybrid work with features like a desk-booking tool for fair and efficient desk usage. In advance, employees could book a desk through the intranet, MyWorld, and the mobile app HR in Your Pocket. Upon arrival, employees had to check in to the office by scanning the desk's QR code to avoid desk hogging. Desks that were reserved but not used were released for other bookers by 10 am each day. Employees could also book lockers to store personal belongings in OCBC Bank offices to conveniently change desks between meetings.

Employees at other organizations used mobile apps to reserve parking spots and check office occupancy before deciding whether to work in the office. Some apps also allowed employees to send meeting-time voting requests to meeting invitees and set their workplace status (working from home, at the office, on vacation).

Winning organizations also provided access to updated policies, guidelines, schedules, training materials, communication channels, and other relevant information to help employees understand and adjust to changes in their work environment.

For example, iRobot's intranet, creatively named, HomeBase (after its robot vacuums that return back to their home bases after cleaning), was initially created to support employees during the pandemic and is now an essential part of company life. It helped employees in their working lives and has become a staple of hybrid work.

Driving Connection and Collaboration
In 2023, employees sought increased connection and collaboration in the workplace due to changing dynamics like remote work, virtual teams, and flexible work arrangements. As evidenced by this year's winners, using the intranet to connect employees can improve productivity, creativity, innovation, and teamwork while addressing intrinsic needs for social interaction and culture that employees may have missed during the pandemic years. Winning organizations recognized these needs and framed their intranets around fostering connection, collaboration, and authentic employee engagement.

For example, AbbVie aimed to connect employees to news, information, people, and systems and created communities for sharing knowledge and ideas.

To redesign its intranet, Infosys operated on a strategic intranet framework of 5Cs: Connect, Collaborate, Celebrate, Care, and Culture.

ServiceNow used three guiding principles — Connect, Work, Grow — to prioritize the creation of major intranet sections that accommodate content, programs, and features within these overarching themes.

Overall, the focus on connection and collaboration in 2023 was an opportunity to use the intranet to enhance productivity, satisfy social needs, foster professional growth, and contribute to a positive organizational culture.

Doing Everything from the Intranet
App integrations that display information directly on the intranet have become more common among recent winners. In 2023, most winners demonstrated that an intranet is no longer just a place for getting news; it’s a place to get work tasks done without switching to separate tools. Many intranets provided well-timed reminders to encourage busy employees to return back to the intranet to complete tasks.

Winners showcased lots of to-do list features and the ability to request, submit, track, and approve tasks on the intranet, thanks to API integrations with digital-workplace tools (HR platforms, expense tools, travel booking, IT ticketing, email, calendars, messaging apps, etc.). Gone are the days when intranets provided lists of links or app libraries. There's been a shift to tighter, seamless integrations, so employees can get all their work done from the intranet instead of using many different external tools and applications.

AI-Powered Chatbots
AI-powered chatbots provided innovative ways for employees to access information and services. With the ability to understand and respond to natural-language questions, these chatbots offered an intuitive and user-friendly interface to the organizations’ intranets. From answering frequently asked questions to providing personalized assistance, AI-powered chatbots enhanced employee self-service and reduced support requests.

For example, MetLife's intranet featured two chatbots for distinct purposes. The first was the Future Work chatbot, providing employees with guidance and resources on topics such as COVID-19 and MetLife’s hybrid-working model. It has been one of the most used resources on their intranet for the past three years. The second chatbot was the Collaboration Tools Wizard, helping employees find the right collaboration tool based on who they’re collaborating with and the work-scenario. Employees can choose from common scenarios with descriptions and recommendations provided for each selection.

Infosys utilized a virtual assistant, the InfyMe chatbot, to answer questions on hardware and software support and business processes. From January 2021 to September 2022, it was used by 305,867 unique users and has handled 919,075 questions with an average accuracy of 88%.

Career-Growth and -Development Hubs
To retain employees amid the great resignation and help talent grow, several 2023 winners included career hubs on their intranets. These hubs provided a centralized space for employees to access resources, tools, and guidance for ongoing learning, skill development, and career planning.

For example, MetLife's My Path program leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) to match employees with relevant people, projects, and organizational positions based on their skills, experiences, and career ambitions.

ServiceNow's manager hub and employee goal-setting feature enabled employees to manage their career development and access learning resources in a centralized hub. The manager-success center guided managers in supporting their team's growth, while the employee goal-setting feature allowed employees to set and manage their yearly goals and development plans. Additionally, the career-growth section provided transparent information on career paths and competencies, with related learning resources available for exploration and advancement.

Intranet Process Trends for 2023
In 2023, winners made early research and continuous optimization top priorities in their intranet-development processes. Noteworthy process trends for 2023 include:

Stakeholder management and buy-in
Discovery and user research in practice
Transparency for metrics and tracking
Prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion
Micro-feedback tools for optimization
Stakeholder Management and Buy-In
Effective intranet teams prioritized stakeholder engagement by involving them early, often, and in ways that respected their time. This year's winners used many different techniques to open communication with stakeholders and manage the relationships to build buy-in.

At AbbVie, stakeholder engagement started before kicking off the intranet redesign with surveys to gather feedback on pain points and requirements. A stakeholder-management plan was then implemented; it included regular crossfunctional meetings for sharing feedback and updates. This stakeholder engagement attracted attention to intranet efforts and contributed to increased intranet adoption.

Discovery and User Research in Practice
In 2023, winners utilized various discovery and user research methods to understand employee behaviors, preferences, and organizational pain points, all of which informed designs and features.

Lifespan's intranet redesign involved various discovery activities, including:

Discovery sessions
User surveys
Site audits
Card sorts and tree tests
Stakeholder and employee interviews
Wireframes and user testing
Technical discovery
Data from stakeholders and employees informed goals, clarified pain points, opportunities, personas, and jobs to be done. Referencing the collected data during wireframe creation prevented teams from making design decisions based solely on aesthetics or opinions.

Humana also used a variety of research activities to guide its intranet redesign, including:

Interviews with essential stakeholders from different disciplines to determine the project direction and balance user preferences with the business structure
Surveys gathering insights from a large set of employees and focusing on the needs of the main user groups
Card sorting to inform site-structure decisions.
Metrics Transparency
Measuring the success of an intranet can be challenging as it requires identifying the right metrics to track and benchmark against. Many of this year's winners shared concrete numbers to show progress and evidence of what worked well. Most winners tracked a combination of metrics every month, including:

Active users (defined as someone who has used the intranet at least once in a month –-in some cases, by office locations)
Daily unique visitors
Page views and number of sessions
Story/event/video clicks and views
Social comments, reactions, and shares
Total search sessions and percentage successful
Top search terms
Desktop vs. mobile usage
Form starts vs. submissions
Issue resolution through chat
These metrics were paired with ongoing qualitative user feedback to gauge the overall health and effectiveness of the intranet. For example, the CDPQ team tracked several key performance indicators (KPIs) for their intranet, including the numbers of:

Users (employees)
Visits
Searches
They also monitored the types of information that employees searched for and the keywords used. Approximately 55% of users accessed their intranet, Digital Desktop, at least once per day and 100% at least once per week. Around 14% of users visited from mobile devices or tablets and up to 6% clicked on mobile push notifications; both metrics have exceeded their expectations.

Prioritizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
We're proud to report that all winners in 2023 promoted a positive and inclusive work culture on their intranets. This culture made employees feel valued, respected, and included. Sharing information, resources, and initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion helped raise awareness, educate employees, and foster belonging.

ServiceNow's intranet promoted inclusivity by encouraging employees to add their preferred pronouns to their intranet profile and recommending communities or groups based on roles and interests. It also encouraged participation in the company's diversity, equity, and inclusion communities, aiming to unify voices and opinions to nurture important culture change.

Micro-Feedback Tools for Optimization
Micro-feedback features were designed to gather small, specific, and immediate employee feedback on various aspects of the intranet. These features enabled employees to provide quick feedback, such as ratings, comments, or reactions, on content, features, or search results. Micro-feedback features are valuable tools for continuously improving the intranet, enhancing employee satisfaction, and promptly addressing any issues or areas of improvement.

For example, Żabka Polska's intranet had integrated feedback features, including multiple channels for employees to:

Report bugs
Flag outdated content
Ask for support
Share opinions and sentiment feedback
Provide feedback on search results
Submit ideas through an idea hub
Rate content
Participate in embedded surveys
Technologies and Platforms Used in 2023
Winners in 2023 used a variety of technologies and intranet platforms, including:

Unily
Akumina and MindBreeze
SharePoint Online
Drupal
React, SwiftUI, Kotlin
ServiceNow
Workai
Intranets Not Selected: Common Issues
Designing useful, engaging, and usable intranets is a difficult task, as demonstrated by the issues observed in the nonwinning entries this year. Common issues (grouped around major themes) included:

Navigation and Search
Lack of or confusing navigation
Menu labels that were organizationally focused (instead of employee-focused)
Redundant links in the secondary and tertiary levels of the information architecture
Lazy link or button labels: See More, Read More, Learn More, Click Here, View All
Invisible and inconsistently placed search fields
Meaningless metadata on search-results pages
Content
Autorotating banners on the homepage and on key category pages
Poor content structuring and formatting
Lack of or obscure headings and subheadings
Random news articles with no purposeful context (i.e., no dates, topics, or authors)
Truncated descriptions on card-based content features
No way to contact the intranet team or provide feedback
Overly branded or inauthentic names for features and programs
Design:
Vastly inconsistent visual and interaction designs across pages
Poor contrast between text and backgrounds
Low-quality graphics, images, and overuse of stock photography
Illegible text and typefaces