An intranet homepage is the main page of your internal platform. It's where employees land first to find updates, tools, and important information they need for their day.
When someone opens the intranet, this is the page they see.
It shapes how easy or hard everything else feels. If it's clear, people get what they need fast. If it's messy, they start hunting, clicking around, or giving up and asking someone instead.
A lot of homepages end up overloaded. Too many links. Too many updates. No clear place to start. It happens when every team wants space and nothing gets removed.
A good intranet homepage feels simple straight away. You can scan it in a few seconds and know exactly where to go. The right tools are easy to reach. Updates are readable. You don't have to think too hard.
This guide covers what belongs on an intranet homepage, how to organise it, and how to make it genuinely useful for daily work.
What is the purpose of an intranet homepage?
The purpose of an intranet homepage is to help employees find what they need quickly. It brings together updates, tools, and key information in one place so people can get on with their work without wasting time searching.
At its core, the homepage is there to make the workday easier.
People should be able to open it and move straight into what they need to do. That might be checking an update, opening a system, or finding a document. If they have to think too hard or click too much, the homepage isn't doing its job.
It also plays a big role in how information flows across the organisation. Important updates need to be seen, not buried in emails or lost in chat threads. The homepage gives those updates a clear place where people already go.
There's a balance to get right. Too much focus on news, and people struggle to find tools. Too many links, and updates get ignored. The homepage needs to support both without becoming crowded.
When it works well, you start to notice small changes. People ask fewer questions. They rely less on email. They get to the right place faster. Over time, that saves real hours across the business.
According to McKinsey, employees spend an average of 1.8 hours every day searching for and gathering information. A well-structured intranet homepage directly reduces that wasted time. Source: McKinsey Global Institute
Key functions of an intranet homepage
An intranet homepage serves several distinct functions, and understanding each one helps you decide what belongs on the page and what should be moved elsewhere.
How does the intranet homepage support news and communication?
The homepage shows important updates so employees can see what's happening across the organisation without digging through emails or messages.
News is usually the first thing people notice. But more is not better here. If everything is marked as important, nothing stands out. Keep it focused on updates that matter to most people or are time-sensitive.
Targeted news also helps. Not everyone needs to see everything. Showing relevant updates by role or team keeps the page useful instead of noisy.
What to include in your news section
- Company-wide announcements from leadership.
- Time-sensitive updates such as system outages or office changes.
- Project or business updates that affect multiple teams.
- Event announcements and reminders.
- Targeted news for specific departments or locations.
Watch out for too many updates competing for attention, old or outdated news still showing, and every team posting "important" content with no filter.
How should navigation and quick access be structured?
Navigation should help employees reach their most-used tools and pages in one or two clicks, without needing to search.
This is where many homepages fall down. They try to include every link, which makes it harder to find the few that matter. Start with what people use every day. Systems, forms, and key pages should be easy to spot straight away.
Quick links work well when they're limited and relevant. Large menus are fine, but they should support the homepage, not replace it.
Navigation essentials for your homepage
- Quick links to systems like HR, payroll, CRM, or IT support.
- Shortcuts to commonly used forms such as leave requests or expense claims.
- Links to team or department spaces.
- A clear menu for less frequently used pages.
- Recently accessed or pinned items where the platform supports it.
Avoid long lists of links with no prioritisation, duplicate links in multiple places, and important tools buried in menus.
Why is the homepage an information hub?
The homepage brings together important documents and resources so employees know where to go instead of searching across different systems.
Think of this as surfacing what people ask for often. Policies, forms, and guides should be easy to reach, but not all dumped in one spot. Grouping and prioritising matters. When everything is visible, nothing stands out.
The goal is to guide people, not overwhelm them.
What role does personalisation play?
Personalisation shows employees content and links that match their role, team, or location so they only see what's relevant to them.
Without personalisation, homepages get crowded fast. Different teams need different things. HR content, IT tools, and frontline updates all compete for space. Personalisation cuts through that by showing the right content to the right people.
This is also where platform choice starts to matter. If your intranet can't handle this easily, the homepage becomes harder to manage over time.
The Vita Pulse intranet by Vita Group delivers news across 5 brands to 1,600 team members and found that frontline staff could access critical information quickly after deploying a platform built around targeted, role-based content delivery.
How does the homepage support collaboration and culture?
The homepage can highlight people, teams, and activity across the organisation to help employees feel connected and informed.
This might include things like staff directories, recognition posts, or team updates. It works best when it feels natural. If it's forced or overdone, people ignore it. Keep it light and relevant so it adds value without getting in the way of daily tasks.
Why is search critical on an intranet homepage?
Search gives employees a quick way to find information when navigation doesn't help, especially across large or complex intranets.
Even with a well-structured homepage, people will still search. That's normal. What matters is that search is easy to find and works properly. If search is hidden or unreliable, people lose trust in the intranet and go back to old habits.
For many organisations, search is the safety net that keeps everything usable. A prominent search bar at the top, results that span documents and people, and integration with tools like Microsoft 365 all make a meaningful difference.
Going back to the Vita Pulse example, the team took the opportunity to implement live search, enabling team members to check their search as they go, rather than needing to navigate forward and back to refine their search. The team also created a custom solution via Code Blocks to surface the top four articles viewed by team members in the same roles over a rolling 14 day period. These top four articles are presented as four buttons under the search bar, which updates in real-time – very similar to how Chrome and Firefox present most visited sites under a search bar when opening a new window, resulting in fewer searches.
What should and shouldn't be on an intranet homepage?
An intranet homepage should focus on what employees use often and need quickly. Anything rarely used, outdated, or unclear should be removed or pushed deeper into the site.
A common problem is trying to fit everything on the homepage. It usually happens slowly. One team adds a link, another adds an update, and over time the page becomes crowded. When that happens, people stop using it properly.
A useful homepage is selective. It shows less, but it shows the right things.
What should be prioritised?
Start with what people rely on every day: tools and systems, high-demand tasks like submitting leave or accessing payslips, important or time-sensitive updates, frequently accessed documents, and shortcuts to key team or department spaces.
These are the things that save time when they're easy to find.
Wellways' intranet homepage is designed around quick access, with prominent quick links, a clear search bar, and an alerts function for critical business updates.
What should be removed or deprioritised?
Not everything deserves a spot on the homepage. Rarely used links, outdated announcements, duplicate links appearing in multiple places, large document libraries, and content that only applies to a small group should all be moved elsewhere or removed entirely.
If something is rarely clicked, it shouldn't take up space.
How do you decide what belongs on the homepage?
Use real data and feedback to decide what to include. Focus on what employees actually use, not what different teams want to promote.
This is where many organisations get stuck. Decisions are often based on internal opinions instead of behaviour. The result is a homepage shaped by stakeholders, not users.
How to decide what belongs on your homepage
- Look at usage data and analytics to identify the most accessed tools and pages.
- Ask employees what they struggle to find day to day.
- Review support requests and common questions to find patterns.
- Run a simple usability test: ask someone to complete a common task and watch what happens.
- Review content regularly and remove anything that's rarely used.
This turns the homepage into something practical instead of political.
| Content Type |
Include on Homepage |
Avoid or Move Elsewhere |
Why It Matters |
Example |
| Tools and systems |
Daily-use tools
High-demand systems
Quick access links |
Rarely used systems
Duplicate links
Deep system pages |
Employees should reach key tools in one click. Extra links slow them down. |
Include: Payroll, HR system
Avoid: Admin settings pages |
| News and updates |
Important announcements
Time-sensitive updates
Targeted news |
Old announcements
Low-impact updates
Too many news items |
Clear, relevant updates keep people informed without overwhelming them. |
Include: Office closure notice
Avoid: Old campaign recap |
| Documents and resources |
Frequently accessed documents
Key policies
Essential templates |
Full document libraries
Outdated files
Duplicate documents |
The homepage should guide people, not act as a storage space. |
Include: Leave policy
Avoid: Entire policy library |
| Navigation |
Clear primary menu
Simple quick links
Logical groupings |
Overloaded menus
Too many categories
Repeated links |
Good navigation reduces reliance on search and saves time. |
Include: "HR", "IT Support"
Avoid: 15+ menu items |
| Social and culture |
Recognition posts
Team highlights
Employee directory |
Low engagement features
Forced social tools
Too many social widgets |
Culture should support work, not distract from it. |
Include: Employee shoutout
Avoid: Empty discussion boards |
How should an intranet homepage be structured?
An intranet homepage should be structured so employees can scan it quickly, find key tools fast, and move through content without confusion. The layout should prioritise what people need most and guide them from top to bottom.
A lot of homepages fail at the layout level. Even with the right content, poor structure makes everything harder to use. People miss important updates, struggle to find tools, and fall back on search as a workaround instead.
A simple structure fixes most of this.
A simple homepage layout model
Think of the homepage in three parts. Each has a clear role.
Top section: fast access
This is the first thing people see. It should help them act quickly. Include a search bar, quick links to key systems and tools, any important alerts or urgent updates, and a personal greeting or summary if the platform supports it. Keep it clean. Avoid clutter. Focus on speed.
Middle section: updates and activity
This is where people scan what's happening. Company news, team or department updates, events and reminders, and featured content all sit here. Make it easy to scan. Prioritise the most important updates. Avoid long lists.
Bottom section: deeper resources
This is for less frequent needs. Links to policies and documentation, learning resources or training, secondary tools, and additional navigation options. Keep it organised and don't overload it. It should support the sections above, not compete with them.
| Homepage Section |
Purpose |
What to Include |
What to Watch Out For |
Why It Matters |
| Top section |
Help employees act quickly and find key tools |
Search bar
Quick links to systems and tools
Alerts or urgent updates
Personal greeting or summary |
Too many links
Cluttered layout
Hiding search or key tools |
This is where employees decide if the intranet is easy to use. Fast access here saves time every day. |
| Middle section |
Show updates and keep employees informed |
Company news
Team or department updates
Events and reminders
Featured content |
Too many updates
Old or irrelevant news
Poor prioritisation |
Keeps employees aligned and aware without relying on email or chat. |
| Bottom section |
Support access to less frequent resources |
Policies and documentation
Learning resources
Secondary tools
Additional navigation |
Dumping too much content
Poor organisation
Competing with key tasks above |
Gives access to deeper content without overwhelming the main experience. |
Port Waratah's intranet, The Channel, is built around the three-section model:
- Top section (fast access): Need-to-know information and high frequency links are front and centre on the homepage in a visually engaging and user-friendly way, which maps directly to the "fast access" purpose of the top section.
- Middle section (updates and activity): The new custom design received strong engagement with news articles and people search sitting as a distinct content layer below the quick access area.
Bottom/site-specific section (deeper resources): There are dedicated pages for employees and contractors working on specific sites, providing one-click access to essential alerts, notifications and key functions, plus overarching business metrics and operational statistics.
Glance content vs action content
Glance content is information employees scan quickly, while action content helps them complete tasks. A good homepage separates the two so people don't have to think about where to go.
Mixing these together creates confusion. If news sits next to task links with no structure, people slow down. They have to figure out what to click instead of just moving.
Glance content includes news updates, announcements, events, and recognition posts. Action content includes things like submitting leave, logging an IT request, accessing payroll, or opening key systems. Keep these visually and structurally separate.
Balancing competing priorities across teams
The homepage should reflect employee needs first, not internal team priorities. Clear rules help prevent overcrowding and keep the page usable.
Different teams want visibility. HR, IT, Comms, and leadership all have content to share. Without structure, the homepage becomes a compromise that works for no one. Set clear rules for what gets homepage space, limit how many items each section can hold, use personalisation to reduce competition, and assign clear ownership for homepage governance.
See also:
intranet governance best practices
Intranet homepage design best practices
Good design is not about making the homepage look nice. It's about making it easy to use. People should be able to scan the page, find what they need, and move on without thinking too much.
What does user-centric design actually mean?
User-centric design means structuring the homepage around what employees actually do, not what different teams want to promote.
This sounds simple, but it's where most homepages go wrong. Decisions are often driven by internal requests instead of real usage. In practice, that means prioritising the most-used tools over the most vocal stakeholders, placing common tasks where they're easy to reach, using clear labels that make sense to employees, and reducing the number of choices on screen. Testing with real users and adjusting over time rounds it out.
How do you balance communication and task completion?
A good homepage supports both communication and task completion without letting one take over the page.
This is a constant tension. Too much focus on news and updates, and people struggle to get work done. Too many tools, and important messages get missed. Separate updates from task-based content, limit how many news items are visible, keep key tools in a consistent location, and use layout to guide attention from top to bottom.
Why branding and visual design matter
Clear and consistent design helps employees trust the intranet and makes it easier to use.
If the homepage looks messy or outdated, people assume the content is too. Design also helps people move faster. Visual structure guides the eye and reduces effort. Consistent colours and fonts, clear headings and spacing, visual hierarchy that highlights key actions, and enough white space all contribute to a page that feels intuitive.
Why mobile responsiveness is no longer optional
A mobile-friendly homepage ensures employees can access tools and information from any device, especially in hybrid or frontline roles.
Not everyone is sitting at a desk. If the homepage only works well on desktop, a large part of the workforce is left out. GJK Facility Services, with over 2,500 field staff who don't use corporate email, needed a platform that worked on mobile without technical barriers. A responsive homepage was central to making self-service work for their team.
What does a good intranet homepage look like?
A good intranet homepage is easy to scan, quick to use, and focused on what employees need most. It shows the right content in the right place without feeling crowded or confusing.
You can usually tell within a few seconds if a homepage works. People don't read every section. They scan. They look for familiar things. They click what they need and move on. Good homepages support that behaviour.
Forty Winks delivers personalised homepage views to 7 different user groups, from board members to in-store sales staff, with usage increasing 285% after launch.
Signs of a homepage that works
Search is easy to find and key tools are visible straight away. Content is grouped logically, sections are easy to tell apart, and the page flows naturally from top to bottom. Only important updates are shown. Common actions take one or two clicks, and links are labelled clearly. Content feels tailored, not generic, with different teams seeing what matters to them.
Signs of a homepage that doesn't work
Too many links with no clear priority. Large blocks of text that are hard to scan. Old news still sitting on the page. Important tools buried in menus. No clear structure or visual flow to guide the eye.
A quick way to assess your homepage
Ask someone to complete a common task. Find a policy or open a system. Watch how long it takes, whether they hesitate, if they use search straight away, and if they get lost or click around. These small signals tell you a lot about how usable the homepage really is.
What makes an intranet homepage effective long term?
An intranet homepage works well when it's easy to manage, keeps content relevant, and adapts to different employee needs without becoming hard to maintain.
A lot of teams get the design right at the start. Then things drift. More content gets added. Different teams request space. Updates slow down. Over time, the homepage becomes harder to manage and less useful.
What matters is not just how it looks at launch, but how it holds up over time.
What actually makes it work long term
Teams should be able to add and remove content without relying on IT. Updates shouldn't require complex processes. Content can be targeted by role, team, or location without duplicating pages for each group. The platform connects with tools employees already use, like Microsoft 365, and reduces the need to switch between systems. Someone owns the homepage, there are clear rules for what gets published, and old or unused content is reviewed and removed on a regular cycle.
Port Waratah for example, makes it easy for non-technical users to publish various content including alerts, notifications and events from the frontend interface. This means they don't need to go into the backend admin interface and can quickly publish important information from a user-friendly frontend interface.
Where many organisations run into problems
Even with a good design, the platform underneath can limit what's possible. Personalisation that's difficult or manual. Too many separate tools to manage. Updates that require technical support. Limited integration with other systems. A homepage that becomes time-consuming to maintain.
This is where platform choice starts to matter more than design.
A platform that makes it easier
Organisations are moving towards a single platform that brings everything together. That includes the intranet, internal communications, employee tools and resources, and integrations with systems like Microsoft 365.
This reduces admin, keeps things consistent, and makes the homepage easier to manage. Elcom is built around this approach. Teams can manage content, personalise experiences, and connect tools in one place, without adding complexity or needing IT involved in every update. With unlimited user licensing and Australian data hosting, it's a practical fit for organisations of all sizes across Australia.
Building strong intranet homepages
If your current homepage feels cluttered or hard to use, it's worth stepping back and reviewing what's there. Small changes to structure, content, and prioritisation can make a meaningful difference. If those changes are hard to implement, it may point to a deeper issue with the platform itself.
Explore intranet best practices, see how Australian organisations have approached this in our intranet examples guide, or review our intranet trends for 2026.
Ready to talk through your homepage?
See Elcom's intranet packages or get in touch for a demo.