According to Gallup research, only “7% of U.S. workers strongly agree that communication is accurate, timely and open where they work.” A business without communication is highly unsuccessful, considering it’s the glue that holds a team and operation together. 

Seamless communication is important within a department and on a company-wide level. Technology, specifically a company intranet, can play a huge role in achieving good interdepartmental communication. Before we discuss this role, let’s explore the importance of a unified workforce in more detail. 

The Importance of a Unified Workforce 

A fractured workforce is bad for business. Employees don’t communicate and that leads to a lack of collaboration. And when there’s no teamwork between employees, tasks don’t get done, projects aren’t completed, and results don’t come. 

Conversely, the importance of interdepartmental communication cannot be denied – in fact, companies with great communication across departments are 3.5x more likely to outperform competitors. This is because when companies encourage multiple departments to work towards the same goals, and celebrate team wins, it fosters a sense of collaboration and cooperation on a company-wide level. This in turn can incite productivity on an individual employee level. 

It also leads to a better customer experience. This is because a customer can interact with multiple departments in one engagement with a business. 

For example, a customer could start a conversation about an issue they’re having with a product under a social media post. That conversation could then be transferred to a private channel where the customer service department gets involved. The interaction could result in the initiation of a refund, and the customer is transferred to the finance department to finish up. 

Ultimately, a business’s success rides on communication and collaboration flowing freely between departments. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through a company intranet. 

Your Company Intranet’s Role in Creating a Harmonious Team

A company intranet is a private network a business develops to share knowledge and data, internal news, updates, and documents. It’s a place everyone in a business can go to get the information and support they need to work well individually and as a team. 

A web application like this facilitates high levels of communication across departments, leading to better business outcomes. It also contributes to improved employee health and well-being. 

For example, let’s look at workplace culture. One that’s disorganized, inherently negative, and lacking communication will lead to stressed, burned-out employees. Stress and burnout can worsen mental health conditions, like anxiety and depression, or bring them on in people. 

A positive company culture can improve employee morale because workers know that they can lean on one another and receive help from management. Signs of this type of culture include great leadership, the right skills for the job, and regular communication and collaboration among all employees. One person isn’t doing more than another, keeping stress levels down and morale up. 

An effective company intranet helps facilitate the communication and collaboration a business needs to create a positive company culture. And in creating that workplace environment through interdepartmental communication, employee health improves. And that, in turn, leads to better customer outcomes and business results. 

Here’s a bit more on some specific functionalities of a company intranet that contribute to seamless interdepartmental communication. 

Project Management Tools 

In some businesses, employees do not interact much with anyone other than those in their particular department, whether it’s because time doesn’t permit it or employees don’t feel the need to do it.

This can make getting projects done that require cross-department collaboration a difficult task. However, a company intranet with project management tools embedded in it can ease this process. 

Employees don’t have to be in the physical presence of one another to work on tasks together. They can rely on the project management platform to facilitate end-to-end project completion. 

Knowledge-Sharing Repositories 

Often, employees have to go to another employee to get the information they need. This can take up a lot of time, especially if the employee can’t be found. This just doesn’t work for timely projects and tasks. 

Company intranets can have knowledge-sharing repositories on them. Team members can go to these knowledge warehouses on-demand and get the documents or data they need to continue working. 

Chat Features 

One of the best functions a company intranet can have is chat. As mentioned above, often, employees need to get information quickly to continue working. Knowledge-sharing repositories are helpful in this regard. But what happens when what an employee needs isn’t in them?

That’s where chat features come into play. An employee can find the person they need to speak to within the chat feature and message them for instant communication. 

Shared Calendars 

Every employee has their own schedule. They have meetings, reminders, and deadlines specific to them. Many of which they don’t share with the team. This can lead to scheduling conflicts that affect interdepartmental communication and collaboration. 

Integrating a shared calendar feature on the company intranet gives everyone access to each other’s calendars. Employees can see what their coworkers and managers have planned for each day and can work around it effectively.  

Using Your Company’s Intranet to Facilitate Interdepartmental Communication and Collaboration

Interdepartmental communication helps build a unified workforce. Companies are much more organized and productive when there’s teamwork across departments. A company intranet also offers a level of transparency that’s critical in departments working effectively together. 

To facilitate interdepartmental communication, consider developing a company intranet. It has the tools to fuel communication and collaboration, such as project management tools, knowledge-sharing repositories, chat features, and shared calendars.