Migrating from Company Newsletter to Intranet: Tips and Tricks

Many of companies we work with are migrating away from the company newsletter to a company Intranet. On average, knowledge workers spend 7 hours per week reading, sorting and reply to email. This equates to 54 days per year and indirect costs of $8,000 per employee. With inboxes flooded, important information included in corporate newsletters may get overlooked. Moving away from the newsletter also means one less email your employees have to attend to.

Benefits of Abolishing the Newsletter

Rather than push communication tactics, company news can be shared via your Intranet. As a centralized digital workplace, employees can consume content that was once shared in your newsletter, at their own leisure. With built-in social mechanisms, your talent also has the ability to like and share content. Instead of the pesky reply-all, employees can engage in discussion around company-wide announcements. This will help to bring to light anything that needs to be clarified, or possibly inform you of an issue you would have not discovered otherwise.

In the scenario that news only applies to certain groups or departments, targeting technology ensures that your content reaches the right people. Additionally, being mobile optimized, content disseminated via your Intranet can be viewed on any device with full-fledge desktop functionality

While I 100% recommend moving your organization from the newsletter to an Intranet, I caution you to do it in manageable steps as opposed to cutting the newsletter out cold-turkey. What follows are Intranet tips on how companies migrated from the company newsletter to Bonzai Intranet.

Tip 1: Announce Your Intranet Launch via the Newsletter

It is important to formally announce the coming implementation of your corporate Intranet. Keep this post focused on the goals and objectives of your intranet and the date it will go live. In the next section of the announcement you will want to clearly outline how an Intranet will benefit users on the day to day.

Live Video | The Business Value of an Intranet

Tip 2: Educate Employees About Your Intranet via the Newsletter

Now that your workforce knows that the Intranet is coming, it’s time to educate them on the features and functionality that will be of most use to them. It is also a good time to walk them through the general structure of your Intranet. Done in tandem, include an article in one of your newsletters that does just this. Provide login details so the employee can access your Intranet, and within the article, provide a step-by-step guided tour of your new Intranet.

Tip 3: Share Intranet Content in Newsletter

Following the guided tour, your knowledge workers will know how to access your Intranet and navigate through the site. Having introduced them to the social features, they will be comfortable liking and commenting on articles published via the Intranet. In the final newsletter before it goes extinct, publish all content from the Internet and link to it in the newsletter. Challenge employees by writing content that asks for their input so they become accustom to engaging with your content. Finally, be sure to highlight that this is the last ever newsletter and moving forward, all company announcements will be shared via the Intranet.