TiER1 Performance In today’s fast-paced, distributed work environments, the role of a modern intranet is more crucial than ever. It’s no longer just a space for sharing policies or company news—it can serve as a powerful tool for shaping and reinforcing your organization’s culture. It’s one of the first ways new employees experience a company’s culture during onboarding and remains a key connection point for a growing virtual workforce.
When built thoughtfully, it helps communicate core values, encourages open dialogue, and fosters a sense of belonging, all key elements in driving mindsets and behavior. Whether you’re transforming to a new cultural direction, or doubling-down on the great culture you already have, your digital ecosystem should be a core part of your strategy.
Your intranet should reflect your organization’s identity and values. It’s more than just a functional platform; it should visually and practically integrate the behaviors and principles you want to encourage.
Consider dedicating sections of your homepage to highlighting your organization’s values. For example, visually appealing banners or callout boxes can remind employees of the values the organization celebrates, recognizes, and strives to live by. Go a step further by featuring stories of “values in action”—real-life examples of employees who demonstrate these values in meaningful ways. Not only does this make your values tangible, but also shows your team that living the values is recognized and appreciated.
Leaders play a critical role in shaping and communicating an organization’s cultural vision. An intranet designed to promote leadership visibility and transparency can be a powerful tool in driving culture transformation.
By creating a dedicated leadership communication hub, you can offer employees direct access to leaders’ thoughts, plans, and visions. This might include regular blog posts, video or podcast updates, or even live Q&A sessions to support sharing ideas and asking questions.
And it’s not just for the CEO—it’s important to provide spaces for leaders across business units and departments to deliver their own messaging that reinforces strategic perspective and makes it tangible for their teams. The key here is transparency and accessibility. When employees feel they have a direct line to leadership, it builds trust and helps align the entire organization around a shared vision.
These communications should be authentic, relatable, and align with the organization’s values. Whether it’s a heartfelt video about the company’s future or a blog post reflecting on recent successes, these touchpoints help to reinforce the cultural direction in a human and approachable way.
A thriving organizational culture is one where employees feel connected—not just to leadership, but to each other. The intranet can be a powerful tool for fostering that sense of community and collaboration.
Interactive features, such as discussion forums, virtual team spaces, or recognition walls, allow employees to engage with one another beyond their immediate teams. These features encourage cross-departmental collaboration and provide a space for employees to share their thoughts, challenges, and successes in real time. Doing so create moments where culture can flourish organically.
Recognition walls, for instance, can act as a social center where employees highlight their peers for outstanding contributions or living the company’s values. This not only boosts morale but also reinforces a sense of belonging—critical components of a strong organizational culture.
At TiER1, we take these lessons to heart to ensure that our own culture speaks loudly and clearly throughout our Microsoft365 digital ecosystem.
Our main intranet home on SharePoint has highlighted pages that articulate our core values and our aspirations as an organization.
Our TiER1 Matters Weekly newsletter includes insights from our President and is published via SharePoint News so it’s automatically archived and searchable.
We use Forms to capture peer-to-peer nominations for our VIA (Values in Action) Awards, which trigger automated posts to our Viva Engage community.
Our Pulsecast Power App provides a mechanism for leaders to publish podcasts around quarterly priorities, personal growth reflections, and “whole-self stories” to create an inclusive environment.
We regularly publish key metrics around our business and employee experience leveraging Power BI to reinforce transparency and accountability.
To truly be a driver of culture transformation, your intranet must be designed with employees at the center. The best intranets are built through a process that considers the needs, behaviors, and pain points of the people who will use it every day. A human-centered design approach ensures that the intranet is intuitive, easy to use, and genuinely helpful.
The design process starts with understanding user needs through discover, define, design, develop, and improve phases. By collecting feedback from employees, conducting usability tests, and refining features based on real-world use, the intranet becomes more than just a static tool—it evolves into a living platform that adapts to the needs of its users.
Continuous improvement is key. As your organization grows and changes, so will your employees’ needs. Regular updates based on user feedback help ensure that your intranet remains relevant and engaging. Focusing on ongoing refinement creates a dynamic space that reflects the pulse of the organization, evolving alongside your company’s culture.
Intranets can be powerful drivers of transformation when they are intentionally designed and continuously improved. After all, culture lives in the interactions between employees, their leaders, and the tools they use to connect with one another. When your digital ecosystem becomes a space where values, communication, and community thrive, you’re not just building a platform—you’re building a culture.
Whether you’re looking to refresh your intranet or build a digital space that truly reflects your organization’s values, we can help. At TiER1, we design people-centered solutions that foster connection, communication, and collaboration—bringing your culture to life. Fill out the form below and someone from TiER1 will get back to you!