Beyond the intranet: Build a thriving digital community your employees will actually use

“Outdated intranets have failed. They got too complex. And now that we need to adapt to a hybrid workplace, they need a rethink. The solution is to create a thriving digital workplace that builds authentic connections – one that uses AI to help, so we can create great cultures that have a sense of belonging, empower collaboration, and boost productivity.”

– David Fleck, Senior Director, Product & Partner Marketing, Appspace.

Traditional intranets struggle to keep up with the modern, hybrid workforce. Today, your colleagues might turn up for work across remote locations, offices, and the frontlines, often in different time zones, speaking different languages.

It’s clear that company culture needs to reach beyond the physical office space, communication needs to be multi-directional and social – and outdated intranets need a radical overhaul.

In this recent webinar, we looked at the challenge of improving the workplace experience, the characteristics of a successful modern digital workplace, and what you need to build into your strategy for success.

The challenge

If your intranet is struggling to get traction, you’re not alone. The traditional intranet, built on a top-down communication approach, has little space for employee voice or engagement. It often serves as an uninviting static repository of information. The content tends to be overwhelming, outdated, and irrelevant – while poor mobile optimization makes it inaccessible for today’s mobile-first workforce.

Trying to do too much within a single platform – from getting work done to social engagement – is likely to mean a poor user experience.

As David Fleck, Appspace’s Senior Director, Product & Partner Marketing, points out, “In the end, it’s about being intentional in building a community. The challenge is to be intentional about fostering connections and a sense of belonging from the outset.”

So, what does that look like?

The characteristics of the modern digital workplace

To create a digital community that employees will actually use, the focus should be on four key characteristics which are the foundations of a thriving digital community:

• Two-way communication: Encouraging dialogue and feedback fosters a sense of inclusion and gives employees a voice.
• Personalized experiences: Tailoring content to individual roles and interests makes the platform more relevant and engaging.
• Dynamic, interactive content: Offering multimedia and interactive elements keeps content fresh and engaging.
• Community-building focus: Fostering connection and belonging helps break down silos and build a cohesive company culture.

Nail all four characteristics in building your modern intranet and you’ll see increased employee engagement, improved collaboration, and a stronger sense of belonging.

Strategies for success

1. Authentic connections and driving collaboration

“Driving connections is important no matter what, but doing it in a digital environment is a whole new beast,” says Lauren Patton, Director of Internal Communications & Engagement at Appspace. The physical distance and isolation inherent in remote and hybrid work environments can lead to feelings of disconnect and loneliness. Without the luxury of spontaneous office interactions, Patton argues that fostering authentic connections requires intentional effort.

Why are authentic connections so important?

• Increased engagement: Connected employees are more engaged in their work.
• Improved collaboration: Stronger relationships lead to better teamwork and problem-solving.
• Higher productivity and innovation: Engaged employees are more motivated, efficient, and creative.
• Stronger company culture: A sense of community fosters loyalty and retention.

Building a culture of connection starts with leadership. As Patton notes, “Leaders have to lead. They need to have their face in the comments.”

For your digital workplace to thrive, leaders should model open communication and actively participate in digital interactions. Creating channels for feedback, celebrating wins, and promoting employee-generated content right across the organization are also essential to creating – and maintaining – authentic connections.

2. Empowering employees

In a thriving digital community, employees are empowered by being active participants and having a voice. Patton believes that employee-generated content plays an important role here.

“Employees have knowledge that really shouldn’t be gate-kept. We need to give them the tools to share their know-how and insights. Not only does that open them up to leadership opportunities, but it also frees comms leaders up to focus on the strategic things that they would probably rather spend their time doing.”

Appspace can empower employees by providing them with the tools to work smarter in a friction-free environment. That means having access to shared calendars, project management platforms, and document collaboration tools; personalized recommendations and tailored content; more free time from the use of automation to perform routine tasks; and streamlined content creation and distribution.

3. AI-powered communication for a smarter workplace

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing how we work, adding sentiment analysis, generative content creation, and conversational AI to our toolkit.

Appspace uses AI to help streamline content creation with auto-generated text and visuals. It enhances engagement through auto-translation and narration and gives you data-driven insights to feed into your publishing strategies.

With Appspace, you can use conversational AI to act as your personal assistant for everyday tasks like room booking or content search, making coming in to the office a breeze.

Over to you: Building a thriving digital community

Creating a thriving digital community is not a one-time effort – it’s an ongoing commitment but one that offers huge rewards. Regularly measuring success through employee engagement surveys, content interaction, and tool adoption rates should act as fuel for continuous improvement.

A modern employee comms solution like Appspace should do all of the above to connect and empower your workforce, wherever they are. This thriving community will be the foundation of a strong company culture where employees feel valued and engaged – no matter where they are.

See it in action

If you want to see the digital workplace in action, come along to WOW24, our workplace experience conference, 23-25 September, in Scottsdale, Arizona.