When it comes to internal communications, charities face a unique set of challenges. Despite having limited resources, both human and financial, they also rely on large numbers of volunteers who need effective communication and co-ordination.
Charity sector employees are often geographically dispersed between head offices and local teams or branches (not to mention hybrid working). Charities also have wide-ranging stakeholders.
We’ve spoken to our charity sector customers to find out how they’re using their intranets to mitigate some of these challenges.
Here’s what we found out:
Central comms hub
With a highly distributed workforce, charities can use their intranets to provide a centralised comms hub, allowing employees, volunteers, and other stakeholders to collaborate, share information, and exchange ideas more efficiently.
With staff often working in challenging circumstances, being able to celebrate successes with other colleagues, via the intranet, can help boost staff morale and build a positive culture within the organisation.
Having this information available centrally also means staff are much more likely to see it, especially if using ‘mandatory read’ functions. This, is turn, reduces reliance on emails, which often get ‘lost’ in employees’ inboxes.
Document management
As well as accessing the organisation’s news centrally, charities can use their intranets to effectively manage documents, policies, procedures and other important resources.
This ensures that employees have easy access to the information they need to perform their roles effectively. Document versioning, search capabilities, and categorisation can further streamline the management and retrieval of relevant information.
Social features
Using social features such a Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) facilitates two-way communications via the intranet.
Distributed colleagues can feel isolated, so having a way of commenting, liking or sharing news items encourages engagement and helps build a sense of belonging and camaraderie amongst staff who might otherwise not have the opportunity to communicate with each other.
Mobile intranet
For non-desk-based, or frontline workers, a mobile intranet is a key component in the internal comms toolkit.
A mobile intranet gives employees access to company news, documents, people directory, meetings and email wherever they are, keeping them connected and included.
In addition, push notifications can be used to alert staff to important updates on the move.
Events management
Fundraisers and awareness campaigns are an essential part of the charity sector’s calendar and intranets can play a key role in managing these events.
Charities can use their intranet ‘events’ feature to schedule and manage events, including event planning, registration, coordination, and communication.
By streamlining event management processes, intranets help charities save time and resources while ensuring smooth execution of their initiatives.
Digital signage
An intranet with a digital signage feature can be a useful resource for charities to communicate with volunteers, users of the charity’s services or the wider community who don’t have access to the staff intranet.
Sharing news, events and other information about the charity’s work on screens around the office, branches or even the charity’s fundraising shops can help to keep volunteers connected as well as spreading news about the organisation’s good work to the public.
Read our case study to find out how social care organisation Blue Triangle is using Involv Intranet to create connections between distributed colleagues and provide centralised access to digital workplace tools.
Want to know how to use your intranet to improve your internal comms?
Book a demo with one of our friendly experts today for tips and advice.