Employees spend nearly 20% of their workweek looking for internal information or tracking down the colleague who has it, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. A good intranet should fix exactly that. Yet many organisations launch a new intranet with high hopes, only to see a handful of people log in after the first month.
The technology is rarely the problem. Intranet adoption is. In this article, I share 10 practical tips to increase intranet adoption, based on what we see across the 300+ organisations that run their intranet on Involv.
What is intranet adoption?
Intranet adoption is the degree to which employees use the intranet as part of their daily work: to read news, find documents, look up colleagues and get tasks done. High intranet adoption means people open the intranet because it saves them time, not because they were told to. Low adoption means the intranet exists, but work happens elsewhere.
Why do intranets fail to get adopted?
Most intranets don’t fail at launch. They fade afterwards, when content goes stale and employees fall back on old habits.
Employees can’t find what they need, frontline workers can’t reach the platform on their phone, and managers keep sending updates by email. Little by little, the intranet becomes a place nobody visits.
Engagement is under pressure anyway: global employee engagement dropped from 23% to 21% in 2024, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025. An intranet that people ignore is one more channel that doesn’t reach them.
How do you increase intranet adoption? 10 tips
Increasing intranet adoption starts before launch and continues long after it. These 10 tips tackle the most common causes of low adoption, from the planning stage to daily use.
Involve employees from the start
People like surprises, but not when it comes to the tools they use every day. Tell employees early that a new intranet is coming, why it is coming and what it will change for them.
During the planning stage, ask teams about their daily frustrations: which information is hard to find, which processes cost too much time, which updates never reach them. Those answers give you the requirements for a user-centric intranet. They also make employees feel heard, which means they are more likely to use what you build.
This is change management, and it pays off. Projects with excellent change management are about seven times more likely to meet their objectives than projects with poor change management, according to Prosci’s benchmark research.
Design an intuitive intranet
Everyone, regardless of their tech skills, should be able to use the intranet without a manual. A clear homepage, logical navigation and a search that actually finds things make the difference between an intranet people open daily and one they avoid.
If your team has little UX experience, you don’t have to start from a blank page. A ready-to-go intranet like Involv comes with the most requested intranet features and proven page layouts. For inspiration, browse these intranet homepage design ideas or the Intranet Lookbook.
Take it mobile with an intranet app
Look around your organisation. Is everyone sitting behind a desk? Nurses, construction workers, store staff and drivers rarely have a computer at hand, but almost all of them carry a smartphone.
If your intranet only works well on a desktop, you exclude a large part of your workforce by design. A mobile intranet app brings news, documents and colleagues to every employee, wherever they work. Your frontline teams get the same information at the same time as head office.
Get leaders to set the example
People follow their leaders. If management keeps sending important updates by email, employees learn that the intranet is optional.
Make the intranet the main channel for leadership communication: strategy updates, vision, results and recognition. Ask managers to share intranet posts in their team meetings and to react to employee posts. That visible participation shows the platform matters, more convincingly than any launch campaign.
Keep content fresh and engaging
Imagine your social media feed showed one new post a week. Would you keep checking it? Neither will your employees. Fresh, relevant content is the main reason people come back to an intranet.
That takes a plan, not good intentions. Build an internal communication plan with a publishing rhythm, appoint content owners per department and mix formats: news, short videos, people stories, practical updates. Need inspiration? Here are intranet content ideas you can use straight away.
Deliver personalised and relevant content
Some news is for everyone. Most news is not. A change in tax regulations matters to finance, but means nothing to IT. An intranet full of irrelevant messages feels noisy, and people stop reading.
Make sure the right information reaches the right people. In Involv, you choose the target audience for every news item, so employees see what is relevant to their department, location or role. Less noise means more attention for the messages that matter. Read more on why relevance is the cornerstone of intranet adoption.
Make the intranet essential for daily work
Employees use what saves them time. Make the intranet the starting point of the workday: one place to read the news, find documents, open the tools they use and find the right colleague.
Connect the intranet to the Microsoft 365 tools people already use, such as Teams, Outlook and SharePoint, so they don’t have to switch between platforms. The more daily tasks start on the intranet, the faster it becomes a habit. A strong intranet also works as a knowledge source everyone uses, which cuts down the time spent searching.
Provide training and how-to guidance
I drink a lot of coffee, but for months I never touched the fancy coffee machine at our office, simply because nobody showed me how it worked. Missing guidance is one of the biggest adoption killers.
One generic training session at intranet launch is not enough. Tailor training to different groups, based on their role and digital skills. Add a short intranet introduction to the onboarding of new employees, and appoint intranet champions in each department: colleagues who answer questions and show others the shortcuts. When new features arrive, announce them and offer a short session or video on how to use them.
Make it social
Liking, commenting, sharing, tagging: employees know these interactions from the apps they use every day. An intranet without them feels like a notice board. An intranet with them feels like a conversation.
Social features give employees a voice, make leadership communication two-way and turn the intranet into a place where people contribute, not just consume. As a bonus, reactions and comments show you which content resonates.
Measure, listen and keep improving
Intranet adoption is not a one-off project. Track usage, ask employees for feedback regularly and act on it. Which pages do people visit? Where do searches come up empty? Which teams barely log in?
Fix bugs and technical issues quickly, because one frustrating experience can undo weeks of promotion. Involv customers get a Software Assurance package, so their intranet is maintained and regularly updated with new features. You can follow what’s coming in the Involv roadmap.
How do you measure intranet adoption?
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. These are the intranet adoption metrics that tell you the most:
| Metric | What it tells you | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Active users (daily/monthly) | How many employees use the intranet at all | A growing share of the workforce, also outside head office |
| Return visits | Whether the intranet has become a habit | Employees coming back several times a week |
| Usage per department or location | Which groups you are not reaching yet | Gaps between office and frontline teams |
| Mobile vs desktop usage | Whether deskless workers are connected | Mobile usage among frontline staff |
| Searches without results | Content gaps and findability issues | A shrinking list of failed searches |
| Reactions and comments | Engagement with content | Two-way conversation, not only views |
| Employee feedback | Why people do or don’t use the intranet | Recurring frustrations you can fix |
Which intranet adoption mistakes should you avoid?
Most adoption problems come from the same five mistakes.
- Treating launch day as the finish line. Adoption is built in the months after go-live, not on launch day.
- Launching an empty intranet. If there is nothing useful to find on day one, people won’t come back on day two.
- Forgetting deskless workers. Without a mobile app, a large part of your workforce never sees the intranet.
- Keeping email as the main channel. If important news still arrives by email, the intranet stays optional.
- No content owners. When everyone is responsible for content, nobody is. Assign owners per department.
Want to avoid the most common pitfalls? Download our free guide on 5 common intranet mistakes.
Intranet adoption tips at a glance
Who does what, and when:
| Tip | When | Who owns it |
|---|---|---|
| Involve employees from the start | Planning | Project team, internal comms |
| Design an intuitive intranet | Build | Internal comms, IT |
| Take it mobile with an app | Build | IT |
| Get leaders to set the example | Launch and after | Management |
| Keep content fresh | Ongoing | Content owners |
| Personalise content | Ongoing | Internal comms |
| Make it essential for daily work | Build and ongoing | IT, internal comms |
| Provide training and guidance | Launch and onboarding | HR, intranet champions |
| Make it social | Ongoing | Everyone |
| Measure and keep improving | Ongoing | Intranet owner |
Conclusion: intranet adoption is about habits
Having a great intranet doesn’t mean employees will use it.
Employees already have their own way of working, built over years. The real challenge is replacing old habits with new ones, and people don’t change habits because a new tool exists. They change when the new way is clearly easier.
Build an intranet that helps employees do their job faster, keep it relevant and keep listening. Apply these 10 tips and intranet adoption will follow.
Want an intranet your employees actually use? See how Involv helps organisations launch a Microsoft 365 intranet that people open every day.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good intranet adoption rate?
There is no universal benchmark, because it depends on your organisation and how much of the workforce works at a desk. A healthy intranet is used by a growing share of employees every week, including frontline workers, and people return to it without being reminded.
How long does it take to increase intranet adoption?
The first months after launch are decisive. That is when employees decide whether the intranet is worth their time. Keep content fresh, train people and act on feedback during that period, then keep measuring every quarter.
How do you get frontline workers to use the intranet?
Give them a mobile intranet app, keep login simple and show content that matters to their work: schedules, safety updates, team news. Ask their managers to share intranet posts in team briefings so the habit starts on the work floor.
Who is responsible for intranet adoption?
Internal communication usually owns the intranet, but adoption is a shared job. IT keeps the platform reliable, management sets the example, HR builds it into onboarding and content owners keep their sections up to date.
Does a SharePoint intranet need extra work to get adopted?
A standard SharePoint intranet can be built quickly, but it needs a content plan, governance and a mobile experience to stay alive. Read more about SharePoint intranet adoption.
Related articles
- Intranet rollout strategy: 6 steps for a smooth launch
- Tips for a successful intranet launch: 8 examples from Involv customers
- Relevance as the cornerstone of a successful intranet adoption
- SharePoint intranet adoption: you can build it in 10 minutes, it’s empty within 4 months
- How to introduce an AI tool to your employees
Sources
- Gallup (2025). State of the Global Workplace 2025. Global employee engagement fell from 23% to 21% in 2024.
- McKinsey Global Institute (July 2012). The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies. Interaction workers spend nearly 20% of the workweek looking for internal information or tracking down colleagues.
- Prosci. The correlation between change management and project success. Projects with excellent change management are about seven times more likely to meet objectives than projects with poor change management.
