Uncover the Benefits of Inspiring SharePoint Homepages


Do you ever question how your company could benefit from a central internal communication and collaboration platform that engages employees, improves business processes, and cultivates culture? Every organization has a unique personality with different backgrounds, values, services, people, and purposes. Similar to organizations, modern intranets are made to be exclusive and tailored. They could consist of advanced SharePoint intranet homepages, social apps, specific capabilities, features, tools, and so on. With this in mind, old intranets have been pushed out of the picture; meanwhile, standard intranet solutions do not cut it anymore.

“That ubiquitous webpage that opens whenever you launch your browser at work: it’s under-appreciated yet over-utilized, built for the masses yet not personalized enough, essential to the day-to-day while taken for granted by management.”

– Matt Wade, Microsoft MVP

Organizations are now looking to have an intranet that reflects who they are, supports their work, and empowers their vision. They are looking for an intranet that they can call their home or their best friend. Nonetheless, the decision to invest in your organization’s intranet can be an exciting but overwhelming process. If you are an individual who is looking to establish a new system for your organization, you have undertaken an enormous responsibility to deliver a company-wide, highly valued, trustworthy, and financially plausible digital workplace platform. However, it would be best if you didn’t approach this all by yourself. Major plans like this are best executed when you involve:

  1. Relevant internal stakeholders who can provide help, insight, or support the process. (HR, Internal Communications, and C-Suite executives)
  2. Technical guidance (SharePoint Admin and IT specialists)
  3. Expert knowledge, development, and support (Digital workplace consultants)

Intranet Homepage: The First Step

In the early phases of creating a digital workplace platform, you will soon learn that your intranet homepage is the most critical catalyst for employee engagement, management changes, and high-level collaborations. Ultimately, an intranet homepage decides whether your employees will engage with one another and find reassurance in their company culture and community.

“The intranet homepage can be the place many feel most comfortable. That first double-click in the morning for many is their browser, which usually opens that homepage. It quickly becomes a personal blankie at work that provides needed information, whose layout is so well known that many can mouse to their most important links with their eyes closed.”

– Matt Wade, Microsoft MVP

3 SharePoint Intranet Homepages

As your homepage is the most critical aspect of your digital workplace, let’s dive into three powerful, captivating, and informative homepages that you can build for your intranet.

1. Company-Wide Homepage

This community homepage is like your city’s town square. There is no better way to unite everyone than to provide them with valuable content, social platforms, events news, reports, and an informative directory. It can become very easy to live in your cubicle and, more so, stay restricted in your department. This engaging company-wide homepage keeps everyone in the loop with day-to-day and general information, no matter their department, team, or role at the company.  This cohesive platform is influential in creating a meaningful community, emphasizing important content, and having everyone on the same page. Key features of a company-wide homepage are as follows:

    1. Global News
    2. Local News
    3. Our People
    4. Relevant Blogs
    5. Social Media
    6. Future and Past Events
    7. Relevant Information and Services
    8. Internal Employee Tool Pack

Company-Wide SharePoint Intranet Homepage

2. People First Homepage

This individual-based homepage is an all-in-one personal planner, diary, news source, work-centric, and event-specific platform. As an employee in big organizations, it can be hard to get an understanding of how much you matter as well as find your own space. An individual homepage gives your employees that beautiful experience of having their own space, while at the same time, being able to engage with your entire community when they would like. As shown, everything is tailored specifically for the individual to match their work style, preferences, necessary information, recent activity, and so on. Furthermore, this homepage is unique in the sense that it emphasizes personal structure, connectivity, and goals. Some of the unique tools this individual homepage offers are:

    1. Community Feed
    2. My Tools
    3. My Events
    4. From the Blog
    5. Upcoming Meetings
    6. Recent Documents
    7. Recent Sites
    8. Social Media

Individual-SharePoint Intranet Homepage

3. Interactive Homepage

This interactive homepage is like a modern corporate Facebook that promotes professionalism, work efficacy, and a cordial environment. For decades now, people have viewed the corporate environment to be a lifeless, disconnected, and lonely setting. This SharePoint Intranet homepage looks to resolve this stereotype by innovating collaboration tools to meet modern communication standards. Some of the features displayed are:

    1. Social Hub
    2. Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) Open Dialogue
    3. Employee Recognition Chat
    4. Photo of the Day Submission and Display
    5. Our People Highlight Reel
    6. Social Media
    7. Relevant Information and Services
    8. Company Directory

  Interactive - SharePoint Intranet Homepage Implement A Tailored SharePoint Intranet Homepage

Ultimately, a homepage is an excellent corporate style guide that helps end-users engage with up-to-date & tailored content, information, and media. By providing your organization with an intranet homepage that is highly intuitive, valuable, accessible, efficient, and, most of all, personal, you begin to leverage strategy, technology, and communication for fellow employees and your organization as a whole. Intranet homepage branding and design play a huge role in building a corporate identity, improving company culture, and telling your story. Your industry, company, vision, mission, and people should have a unique homepage that brings them to life and helps everyone move forward.

Getting everyone on the same page doesn’t have to be so difficult for organizations. Klarinet Solutions can help you elevate your digital workplace by implementing a robust intranet that streamlines collaboration and communication. Feel free to contact us and get advice from one of our digital workplace experts.