In my Intranets book I talk a lot about making an Intranet that adds value to a persons day. If someone visits your Intranet, it shouldn’t be just to click a button that takes you somewhere else, we can do that with bookmarks.

Adding information and resources for employees is a good place to start. Think about the sorts of things that are good to know. I great way to get some inspiration for the sorts of information to show is to ask people who have started recently what sorts of things they find useful.

Here are a few things I’ve seen on employee toolkit or resource sites:

• Induction information for new starters
• A welcome video from the organisation
• Links to common resources – timesheets, employee assistance
• How to apply for leave
• Learning and development information and resources
• The Org Chart
• Profiles of key people
• Social club information
• Places in our neighbourhood – where to find coffee, parking, public transport, gyms, etc
• Summary of important Microsoft Teams or Slack Channels

As well as developing new content, you can link to existing content and resources. This gives the employee one place to guide them to the things they may need.

I am sure you can think of other things to include. Think about the people who work in your organisation. Different groups may have different needs. New employees vs long serving, mature employees vs young, remote workers, factory, office and field bases employees.

If you are time constrained, start small and use what is easily available to you. There will be time later to refine and improve. Don’t let perfection get in the way of delivering something useful. Content can be continually developed and refined.

But didn’t we cover all this stuff during induction? Yes you probably did, but have you considered people in your organisation who have been there since forever? We often assume they will know everything and don’t need to be told again. What if our assumption is wrong?

The SharePoint Lookbook contains a number of site templates to show what is possible and help get you started.

One last thought, make it bright and fresh. Use nice images and keep the lengthy paragraphs to a minimum. Quick and easy to consume content that helps a person is far more effective than something that requires a Law Degree to understand.