Intranet, the digital workplace and digital employee experience – Johan clarifies the concepts

The Intranet – a look back

Since its inception, the intranet has struggled uphill. It is constantly being challenged and has always needed to justify its existence while welcoming the players of the digital workplace and digital employee experience with open arms.

We also see that management has historically had a lack of interest in the intranet as only a few activities report to management. Only 18% inform management on an ongoing basis about how they are doing against the set targets according to the trend report "How is Sweden's intranet doing in 2022?" (in Swedish).

The intranet, the digital workplace and digital employee experience – a blissful mess?

How do all the concepts relate, really? Let's take a closer look at them:

Intranet

The intranet has always been a digital home for organisations' internal communications – for both content and channels. Even though we've moved away from different types of intranets such as top-down intranets and social intranets, nothing has really changed: the intranet continues to play an important role in today's modern organisations.

In recent years, the intranet has increasingly taken on the role of a digital doorway to other sources of information and tools within organisations. Never before has the intranet had a stronger link to various business systems and collaboration tools.

"Do we really need an intranet?". Our daily work is not just about digital collaboration – to maintain high quality we need to rely on information that lives in processes, policies and governance documents. It's information you can't ask a colleague for the answer to – you need to be able to find it on the intranet. That's why the intranet is a mission-critical system that should serve you with the answers to the 500 most frequently asked questions. And you don't want to find this information in a file structure in Sharepoint or in OneDrive – no, this should be done through a user-friendly experience on an intranet.

Many of today's intranets also have the vision of being a one-stop shop – that is, the platform from which all employees start their daily work.

The digital workplace

Actually, the digital workplace is older than the intranet because it consists of an organisation's collective digital tools. The intranet is one of those tools – just like Office 365, Google Workspace and Salesforce, for example.

We often talk about the digital workplace from a holistic perspective. It consists of a set of tools, platforms and work environments that are delivered together and thus increase efficiency.

The digital workplace also wants to be a one-stop-shop, which is a good option if you work a lot in Office 365 or Google Workspace, for example.

Digital employee experience (DEX)

Digital employee experience is about the employee's digital journey through the working day – i.e. where they get information and how they perform their tasks. It's also about the interaction between employees and the digital opportunities and conditions that the organisation offers.

The focus of the digital employee experience is to create a shared digital experience. That design and content stick together so that the experience is the same no matter where the employee is. It is also based on a holistic perspective in which HR is an important part, as the work also involves interaction between employees.

How does it all fit together?

First of all, all these tools and perspectives should coexist and not compete with each other. Digital employee experience is a concept that looks to create harmony in the employee's digital everyday life and provides a context for different tools and tasks.

Organisations are often adept at acquiring new digital tools and this can lead to complex digital workplaces. The tools themselves can be great, but the overall complexity can have a devastating effect. That's why it's super important to integrate and align all tools to the digital workplace.

Also, avoid "silo visions" for the intranet and the digital workplace as both vendors and product owners often strive to be the platform that brings all tools and information together – the one-stop-shop.

So, anyone who wants to equip for a modern organisation in 2023 needs to make the concepts of intranet, digital workplace and digital employee experience coexist.