Ten years ago, internal communication in companies was limited to forums, general mailing lists and scattered folders with documents. Everything worked, but it was cumbersome and inefficient. Today, these tools have been replaced by corporate portals, a single digital space for employees. We talked with Svetlana Bormatova, CEO of JSC Grinatom Simple Solutions, Alla Kiseleva, Head of HR Department at JSC Grinatom Simple Solutions, and Tatiana Sideleva, a coach working with business teams, about how they influenced the work of HR departments.
In fact, the corporate portal is a web interface where all the key information and services of the company are collected. For employees, this is a kind of source of truth. In terms of functionality, it can resemble a social network: everyone has their own profile, you can exchange messages, leave comments, and find quickly the necessary documents and services.
For businesses, such a portal becomes not just a data warehouse, but a working tool that builds hierarchy, facilitates communication, speeds up processes, and helps build a corporate culture. It is especially valuable for large companies, distributed teams, and organizations where employees work remotely from around the world.
“The corporate portal gets rid, first of all, of the chaos that is very common in messengers and mail,” Svetlana Bormatova believes. — Information can be conveniently structured here. Plus, the portal allows to automate HR processes.”
The larger the company, the more difficult it is to manage processes and communication. If in a small team of up to 20 people all the news can be discussed over tea in the kitchen, then with 100-150 employees it is impossible to do it just as quickly and easily. This is how a corporate portal becomes a necessity.
Today, portals are full-fledged digital offices, especially if the team is distributed across regions or operates in a hybrid format. Through them, it is convenient to manage HR processes from vacations to training, find the needed services quickly, bring together people from different departments and keep everyone “in sight”.
According to Tatiana Sideleva (a coach who works with teams in business), the corporate portal also works as an engagement tool. When a company shares strategic goals, results, and news, employees feel involved in a common cause. Transparency of information creates trust: a person understands where a business is going and what role it plays in the overall system. This increases awareness and motivation — from “just working” to a real emotional attachment to the company.
Aon Hewitt’s international research has proven a direct link between engagement and business results: the higher the level of engagement, the more stable the company’s performance and the higher the employee productivity. Russian corporations participating in these surveys showed the same patterns as Western ones.
“The practice of my work confirms that the years when employee engagement was at its peak were the years of peak growth for companies,” Tatiana Sideleva says.
A source of intrinsic motivation
There is a direct link between engagement and motivation. The more an employee shares the values and mission of the company, the more internal rather than external motivation is activated. He ceases to perceive himself as a “cog in the system” and feels the importance of his contribution. Even in the simplest positions — a courier, a call center operator or a janitor – a person understands that his work is critically important for the overall result.
“When an employee sees that his daily tasks — whether it’s preparing a report, cleaning the office, or shipping goods — affect the company’s results, his work becomes meaningful, — coach Tatiana Sideleva explains. — Even the simplest actions become part of a big project that changes the market or people’s lives. In pharmaceuticals, this is health, in housing and communal services, it is the comfort of residents, and in retail, it is the convenience of customers. The problem is that businesses don’t always emphasize this. Meanwhile, it is the line staff that most often provides the basic processes without which a company cannot exist. If you imagine an organization in the form of a pyramid, then its stability rests precisely on the “base” — ordinary employees. Therefore, engagement should be formed at all levels, not just among top managers.”
And the corporate portal is an important tool that helps to build this system. It works not only as a channel for transmitting information from top to bottom, but also as a platform for recognizing merit. Virtual “honor boards”, publications about achievements, an internal system of thanks and bonuses — all this becomes a strong intangible motivator. Recognition and respect satisfy the basic human need for importance, which means they encourage employees to repeat successful actions.
“Of course, wages and social guarantees remain the foundation,” Svetlana Bormatova emphasizes. — But when the material base is closed, it is respect, recognition and a sense of one’s own role in the system that raise motivation to a new level. As a result, the employee does not just follow instructions, but consciously strives to do more and better, seeing a direct link between his work and the company’s results.”
On the corporate portal, you can implement different ways to involve employees. One of the tools is to demonstrate the scale of the company. When an employee sees not only his tasks, but also the overall result, he begins to realize that his contribution is important. A corporate portal can become such a showcase for a company.
Posting news, case studies, project information, announcements, and even video presentations by executives on industry forums all immerse employees in the processes and make them involved. It is important that the portal is not reduced to a formal database: it should be a platform for dialogue. Therefore, many companies add social network functions there: chats, reactions, the ability to comment on publications, invite colleagues to events, share photos or participate in charity events.
“The portal can be an excellent assistant in HR processes such as onboarding, training, surveys, testing, 360 assessment, and career tracking,” Tatiana Sideleva explains. — An employee can fill out a profile, see the results of his projects, or understand what growth opportunities are open within the company. This transparency makes businesses more open and employees more engaged.”
Another important tool is gamification. This is one of the most popular ways to increase staff interest and motivation. In a playful way, routine tasks are perceived easier: employees collect points, departments compete with each other and receive awards — from symbolic prizes to joint trips or training from top experts.
Gamification works for all generations, from young professionals to older employees. It brings people together and helps them feel the team spirit, and at the same time reminds them that even everyday work can be enjoyable and appreciated by management.
The next important point that can be effectively organized using a corporate portal is onboarding. Proper adaptation of a new employee is one of the key factors of engagement. The faster and more gently a person enters the team, the higher his motivation to work and develop in the company.
Through the portal, the employee gets access to all the information: the welcome address of the management, the adaptation plan, corporate rules, schedules, knowledge bases. This centralized approach allows a beginner to understand immediately how the company works and where to look for answers to his questions.
In addition, the portal helps to build career paths. It allows to track training, the results of annual assessments, readiness for business trips or rotation. If the system has grades and individual development plans, the employee sees what skills he needs to move to a new position, and the management sees who is ready for growth.
“In fact, the portal is turning into the “heart” of the company’s HR system,” Alla Kiseleva, Head of HR Department at Greenatom Simple Solutions JSC says. — It helps to integrate new people into business processes faster, retain them, develop them and show prospects. This means that it affects directly the effectiveness of the business itself.”
An effective communication tool
The corporate portal is an assembly point for cross-team projects. It becomes a platform for interactions when people from different departments work on the same project.
Inside the portal, you can create projects, assign tasks, and form teams. The system tightens the profiles of employees, which allows to see immediately their competencies and area of responsibility. Even if colleagues are located in different cities and do not meet offline, they can communicate, share files and work together on a project.
“This is an internal ecosystem that unites specialists of various profiles — from IT to procurement and commerce,” Svetlana Bormatova believes. — Due to this, the quality of projects is growing, and employee engagement and motivation are increasing.”
Through the portal, you can report important events, from colleagues’ birthdays and company anniversaries to corporate events and special events, such as health day or donor day.
The portal allows to broadcast news both of a global, strategic nature and within departments. Each employee sees what colleagues from other teams are doing: IT helps automate HR processes, accounting works on reports, lawyers ensure compliance with standards — all this is transparent.
This openness strengthens mutual respect between departments. When employees see the contribution of colleagues to the overall result, they begin to understand better the importance of their own and their colleagues’ work. Internal contests, acknowledgements, awards, and public recognition enhance corporate spirit and motivation.
How to work effectively with a corporate portal
It is important to understand that the portal is a living tool that helps the company stay in touch and involve employees. To make it work effectively, it is important to keep the information up-to-date and update the content regularly.
“Everything can be arranged in different ways in different companies,” Svetlana Bormatova explains. — There is often a central coordinator or portal administrator, sometimes an internal PR person handles the content. He keeps track of the structure, design, and relevance of the sections. Content management is usually divided between departments: marketing is responsible for external news, IT is responsible for technical updates, HR is responsible for processes and employee training. This approach allows each department to share its work and maintain transparency within the company.”
It is important to choose a portal whose interface will meet the needs of your business. Most are customized to the needs of the company: new sections, knowledge bases, and search functions are added so that information is easily accessible. Technical specialists help to adapt the portal to the changes in the company, and the administration monitors that everything works smoothly.
Thus, a corporate portal is not a one-time solution, but an ongoing live process. It brings employees together, helps them interact between departments, engages them in projects, and supports motivation. And the better the roles of content coordinators and owners are distributed, the more effective the portal is and the higher the employee engagement.