How to Optimise Communication on a SharePoint Intranet

To optimise communication on a SharePoint intranet, publish news that is targeted at the people it affects, make it easy for staff to reply and give feedback, and put the information and tools they need most within one or two clicks of the home page. Getting the site live is only the start, and the communication improves when every section has an owner, news goes out on a regular rhythm and you measure what people read.

Why does intranet communication matter to a business?

For a lot of employees the intranet is their main window onto company news and the tools they use every day. It is where announcements, policies, recognition and practical information like HR and IT support should all come together, for a team in one office or for thousands of colleagues across several countries.

When it works, people know what is going on without having to ask, managers spend less time repeating the same message, and staff who work remotely or on the frontline are not left out. When it does not, people go back to email chains and word of mouth, and the intranet becomes somewhere they visit only when they have to.

How do you target news on a SharePoint intranet?

SharePoint news posts are the main way to get information in front of people. They appear on the intranet home page, in the SharePoint app on mobile and in Microsoft Teams through Viva Connections, so one post can reach people wherever they work.

The things that make news land are:

• audience targeting, so news and navigation links are shown to the groups they are relevant to rather than to everyone
• a home page that pulls in news from departmental and regional sites as well as corporate communications
• a regular schedule, so people come to expect new content on certain days
• short posts with a clear headline and a photo of your own people rather than stock imagery
• a news digest by email for staff who live in Outlook more than the intranet

Use the page analytics in SharePoint to see which posts get read and which do not, and adjust what you publish based on that rather than guessing.

How can you encourage two-way communication and feedback?

Communication that only goes top-down tells people what is happening but does not give them a say. Two-way communication shows staff that their views are wanted and gives leaders an early sense of how a change is being received.

On a modern SharePoint intranet you can:

• allow comments and likes on news posts and pages, so people can respond to announcements where they read them
• add a Microsoft Forms web part for quick polls and short surveys
• bring Viva Engage conversations onto intranet pages, so community discussion sits alongside the news it relates to
• use a form with anonymous responses where people need to raise sensitive matters without being identified

The tools are the easy part. Somebody has to read the comments and reply to them, and if feedback disappears without a response people stop giving it.

How does an intranet help build team culture?

If staff feel supported, confident about asking questions and recognised for good work, you have a healthy team culture, and the intranet is one of the few places the whole organisation sees the same thing. Welcome posts for new starters, shout-outs for teams that have delivered something and stories about individual contributions all help people feel valued as people rather than as job titles.

Recognition works best when it comes from colleagues as well as from leadership, so make it easy for anyone to nominate someone or suggest a story, and keep the tone personal rather than corporate.

How do you make critical information easy to find?

A lot of internal communication is people asking where something is. If policies, forms, HR and IT support and the main business systems are easy to reach from the intranet, a good share of those questions never need to be asked, which saves time for the people answering them as well.

• put a short set of quick links on the home page for the things people use every day
• organise navigation around what people are trying to do, not around the org chart
• keep policies and key documents in one place with a named owner and a review date, so search returns the current version
• use Microsoft Lists or Planner for tracking work and deadlines, and link to them from the relevant team pages

Search only works if the content behind it is tidy. If your documents are spread across file shares, an old SharePoint server and several team sites, a SharePoint migration that consolidates and cleans up that content will do more for findability than any change to the home page. Tidy content also matters if you are planning to use Microsoft 365 Copilot, because Copilot answers from whatever people have access to.

Should you build on SharePoint or use an intranet product?

SharePoint on its own gives you news, pages, targeting and search, and it suits organisations that want to keep things simple. Intranet products that run on SharePoint add more control for communications teams, such as richer personalisation, structured page templates and better tools for managing content at scale. We work with Omnia and Involv for organisations that need that extra layer.

If you want a SharePoint intranet that is ready to go, our intranet in a box starts from £12,500 for up to 100 users and £17,500 for up to 500, with the home page, news and navigation already set up.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best way to share news on a SharePoint intranet?

Use SharePoint news posts, target them at the audiences they are relevant to, and roll them up to the home page. They also appear in the SharePoint mobile app and in Teams through Viva Connections, so staff see them wherever they work.

Can staff give anonymous feedback through SharePoint?

Yes. A Microsoft Forms survey set up to accept anonymous responses can be added to an intranet page, which works well for sensitive topics where people would not otherwise speak up.

How do you know if intranet communication is working?

Look at page and news analytics in SharePoint to see what is being read, track comments and survey responses, and ask staff directly every few months. If key announcements are getting low readership, change the targeting, timing or format.

If you would like help improving communication on your SharePoint intranet, get in touch with us.