How an internal comms platform can transform your charity (and how to build one that works)

The fact is that an effective internal communications platform is vital for creating and maintaining a successful working environment within a charity.

This makes a custom designed intranet an indispensable facility for enabling staff and volunteers to come together on one platform to communicate, collaborate and share resources.

As a highly efficient internal digital platform, an intranet can provide you with a powerful tool for connecting up people on all the various levels of your organisation.

Two-way communication between the organisation and volunteers, and among volunteers themselves, helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page, and working towards the same goals.

By doing that, an intranet system can improve staff morale, making them feel valued and informed so they’re more likely to be engaged and motivated.

Streamlined, effective communication reduces confusion and delays, increases efficiency and productivity, besides building trust and strengthening relationships within your organisation.

The overall effect of information sharing is in how it enables staff to make informed decisions and contribute more effectively.

So, an intranet can be the core of an effective internal comms strategy. But how do you build one that works?

Choose the right tools. Begin by deciding what you want to achieve through internal communication, who you’ll be communicating with, and what their specific needs and interests are.

For example, is your goal to increase staff engagement? To improve project collaboration between them? To enhance general understanding of new initiatives?

One benefit of a properly designed intranet is that it allows you to target specific groups within your organisation: staff, volunteers, board members, other stakeholders.

Establish clear communication channels.

An effective intranet platform allows you to utilise various channels to reach different audiences. These can include email, social media, regular meetings, and face-to-face communication.

Develop a structured communication plan for your intranet.

Clearly define the key messages you want to convey, together with how and when they should be presented.

By creating a calendar within your intranet, you’re able to schedule regular communication updates and a consistent flow of targeted information.

Encourage two-way communication to involve people and get regular feedback. Foster a culture of transparency and open communication so staff and volunteers can share their thoughts or concerns.

An internal comms platform with an intranet that works?
Say hello to Y-Hub.

At Harrison Carloss we worked with the team at YMCA England and Wales to create Y-Hub, a bespoke digital platform featuring a complete directory, news, events, chat, and even a daily quiz.

Y-Hub allows over 10,000 staff, volunteers and trustees to come together on one platform to communicate, collaborate and share resources.

Custom designed and built on Laravel and Vue as a progressive web app, the platform allowed us to create a version of Y-Hub accessible through a browser, as a desktop, tablet or mobile app along with native push notifications.

Users can search for a colleague in a local YMCA using the directory, start chatting with them, share resources or even create a group chat of colleagues with similar job roles interests to help one another.

There’s no question that a charity’s internal comms can benefit in so many ways from an intuitive internal platform.

If you’d like to hear more about our team of skilled intranet developers can craft a bespoke platform to help improve internal communications for your company, please get in touch.