In many organizations, news appears daily on the intranet. A colleague celebrating an anniversary, a new director within a division, a security update or an important internal announcement. Especially in larger organizations, the amount of information can add up quickly. The intranet plays a central role in this. It is the place where news, updates, guidelines and practical information come together. At the same time, this requires conscious choices. Not everything is relevant to everyone, and not every message has the same urgency.
When it comes to field staff, people often look to an app as a means of reaching them better. Yet practice shows that an additional channel does not automatically mean that communication also arrives better. The difference is not in the means, but in the relevance and focus of the communication. In this blog, you will read how, with the right approach, you can actually reach field staff using Fresh Intranet.
The fact that field employees do not always take to intranet content is rarely due to unwillingness or lack of commitment. In many cases, the communication simply does not align well with their day-to-day practices.
Field staff often work on location, are on the road or have full schedules. They don’t have time to scroll extensively through news items or keep up with everything on a daily basis. If communication is too general, comes along too often or does not sufficiently clarify what is relevant to them, it quickly fades into the background.
Often an intranet is set up organization-wide. Messages are shared with everyone, while in reality the content is only relevant to a subset of employees. Information for the office also reaches the field staff, while updates intended specifically for field staff get lost in the flow of other communications. Without a clear focus, it becomes difficult to determine what is prioritized and what is not.
In practice, we see that field staff mainly need overview and relevance. Not by more communication, but by making better choices in what to share, for whom and when. Below we give some examples of what does work in practice and show how Fresh Intranet supports this.
Not all intranet content is relevant to everyone. Especially for field employees, it is important that they only see information directly related to their work.
How does Fresh Intranet help?
Fresh Intranet allows you to display news, alerts, documents and events in a targeted way based on role, department, location or other user characteristics. Content is tagged and visible only to employees within that specific target audience.
Why this works.
Because field employees see only relevant content, there is less noise on the intranet. Messages are more quickly recognized as intended for them, which increases the likelihood that they will actually be opened and read.
Field employees especially benefit from information that directly relates to their own work environment. General or organization-wide information quickly feels far removed from their daily practice.
How does Fresh Intranet help?
Fresh Intranet can display content based on context, such as location, team or project. As a result, field employees automatically see updates, contacts and information specific to their area.
Why this works.
The information feels instantly recognizable and applicable. Field staff do not have to search for what is relevant to them; they are presented with it automatically.
Not every employee uses the intranet the same way. What someone needs to do their job well varies by role.
How does Fresh Intranet help?
Fresh Intranet allows you to create a personalized dashboard that adapts to the user. For example, for field staff, the focus is on notifications, practical information and frequently used tools.
Why this works.
Field employees see at a glance what is important to their work. The intranet supports their workday, rather than taking extra time to search for information.
Notifications are effective only if they are relevant and limited. Too many notifications cause important information to be ignored.
How does Fresh Intranet help?
Fresh Intranet makes it possible to send notifications targeted to specific audiences, for example, via the intranet or Microsoft Teams. Only employees for whom the information is relevant receive the notification.
Why this works.
Field employees receive notifications only when there is an important message for them and therefore know they should read it. This increases the attention value and prevents notification fatigue.
Field employees do not always log onto the intranet on a daily basis. Still, it is important that they keep track of relevant updates.
How does Fresh Intranet help?
Fresh Intranet allows you to compile newsletters by target group. Only relevant messages are bundled and sent periodically to the right employees.
Why this works.
Field employees get an overview without having to search for themselves. In a single moment, they are updated on what is important to them.
Effective communication requires an understanding of behavior. What works for one audience does not automatically work for another.
How does Fresh Intranet help?
Fresh Intranet offers analytics that allow you to see what content is being read, when employees are active and what time of day works best for posting news.
Why this works.
You tailor communications to the working rhythm of field staff. As a result, content comes to their attention at the right time and is read faster.
For field staff, quick and easy access to information is essential. At the same time, you want to prevent the intranet from becoming just another channel or separate app.
How does Fresh Intranet help?
Fresh Intranet can be used directly from the Microsoft Teams app. Field employees open the intranet in the same place they chat and collaborate, without additional apps or detours. The content there is structured just as it is on the desktop version of the intranet.
Why this works.
Field employees don’t have to remember where information is or open additional tools. The intranet sits in a logical place in their existing workflow, lowering the barrier to use it and allowing important information to be seen more quickly.
You don’t reach field employees by communicating more, but by communicating in a more targeted way. By tailoring intranet content to role, location and work context, information becomes clearer and more relevant to the people who really need to do something with it.
With Fresh Intranet, you build on SharePoint as a central platform, but add the layer that is often missing in practice: targeted content, smart personalization and insight into what works. In this way, SharePoint becomes not just a place where information is stored, but an intranet that actually supports field staff in their work.
