How do you build an intranet people actually open? Use a slider, galleries, an events calendar, the meal menu and campaigns to make the portal a daily habit.
Plenty of organisations have an intranet; far fewer have one that employees open of their own accord. A few months after launch the content stops being updated, last year’s holiday message is still on the home page, and the portal turns into an archive that exists so someone can say “it’s on the intranet”. The problem is rarely the technology. It’s the design: if there is no reason to look every day, people won’t.
This article looks at how to put the intranet at the centre of employee experience: what belongs on the home page, why visual content matters, how small daily information builds a habit, and how to include people who are not at a desk.
Why employee experience starts with the intranet
Employee experience is the sum of every touchpoint a person has with the organisation, from their first day to their last. Many of those touchpoints are about access to information: What’s happening this week? Which events are coming up? What’s for lunch today? Is there a staff offer? How do I get something done?
When the answers are scattered, people have to ask someone every time. When they live in one place, current and easy to reach, the organisation comes across as one that shares information rather than one that hoards it. The intranet is the most visible tool for that.
What a good intranet home page contains
The home page is the portal’s shop window. The first screen people see when they sign in tells them whether the portal is alive. An effective home page usually has these layers:
Slider: the key messages of the moment
A slider at the top carries the topics the organisation most wants to highlight right now: a new practice, an upcoming event, a success story. Keeping only a few items and refreshing them regularly stops people from tuning the area out.
Latest announcements
People should see the most recent announcements on the home page. Details can live on a separate page, but a short list answers “is there anything new?” at a glance.
Upcoming events
When trainings, celebrations, meetings and social events are published in an events calendar, showing the upcoming ones on the home page makes it easier to take part — and cuts down on “nobody told me” for events too.
Today’s menu
It looks trivial, but the daily menu is one of the most common reasons people check the intranet every day. While they look at the menu, they also see the new announcement and the upcoming event. Don’t underestimate everyday information; it carries the portal’s traffic.
Galleries
Photo and video galleries add movement and warmth. Showing the latest galleries on the home page lets people who missed an event still see it.
Visual content and company memory
Written announcements inform; visual content builds belonging. Photos from a year-end meeting, a video of an award ceremony or images from a new branch opening are part of the company’s shared story. Left on personal phones and chat groups, they scatter, and new starters never see them.
A few simple rules keep galleries useful:
- One gallery per event: a title and date make it findable years later.
- Be selective: a handful of good shots gets more views than hundreds of near-duplicates.
- Add a short caption: one or two sentences on what the event was and why it mattered.
- Mind consent: publishing photos of employees internally is processing personal data; review your privacy notices and, where needed, consent processes with your legal team.
Campaigns and help content: small but valuable
Staff offers, partner discounts and information about benefits tend to disappear in email. Publishing them in a dedicated area of the portal means people can come back to them when they actually need them.
Help content is the self-service side of the portal. Publishing answers to recurring questions — “How do I create a request?”, “How do I sign in to the mobile app?” — saves employees from waiting and saves support teams from answering the same question again and again.
Don’t forget people who aren’t at a desk
For production, field, logistics, retail and shift staff, a desktop intranet is often out of reach. When they are left out, internal communication splits into two speeds: the office knows everything, the frontline hears later.
That’s why the intranet has to work on mobile with the same content. When new announcements and content arrive as push notifications, frontline staff are informed as quickly as the office. Letting each user choose which channel notifications come through helps avoid notification fatigue.
Rules for keeping the portal alive
| Area | Suggested frequency | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Meal menu | Daily, or weekly in one go | Facilities |
| Slider | Periodically, removing old items | Internal communications |
| Events calendar | As soon as an event is planned | The organising team |
| Galleries | Shortly after the event | Internal communications |
| Campaigns | When a new offer arrives; remove expired ones | HR |
| Help content | Whenever the process changes | Process owner |
The frequencies are suggestions; what really matters is that every area has an owner. Content without an owner goes stale, and stale content erodes trust in the portal.
Common mistakes
- Treating the portal as a one-off project: the intranet doesn’t end on launch day; that’s when it starts.
- Publishing only official content: without social and everyday content, nobody visits.
- Leaving expired content up: a finished campaign or past event signals that nobody is looking after the portal.
- Postponing mobile: frontline staff should be included from day one.
- Not listening: if the portal is purely top-down, employees feel like spectators.
Employee experience with HibritİK Corporate Portal
HibritİK Corporate Communication Portal is built around a single home page employees open every day. The slider, latest announcements, galleries, today’s menu and upcoming events appear together. Photo and video galleries, the events calendar, staff campaigns and help content are all published through the same portal. Announcements come with read tracking, and important ones can appear as a pop-up when people sign in.
The portal isn’t only for broadcasting: surveys and the idea box let employees be heard in the same place. We cover that in our article on employee surveys and suggestion systems. For writing announcements and read tracking, see our announcement management guide.
Content goes live on the web and in the iOS and Android apps at the same time, and employees are notified of new content by push notification. To try it in your own organisation, start your 14-day free trial.