Getting employees to finally read your HR policies

Why HR policies and employee intranets often collect dust

Before we dive into our tips, a quick look at what tends to go wrong with employee intranets and HR policies:

• Too much jargon or legal-speak
• Documents are long and dense
• Resource hubs aren’t searchable
• Poor visibility or poor signposting
• No opportunity to ask questions
• No feedback loop or measurement

Practical tips to improve your employee intranet and HR policies

Here are methods that tend to work – some small, some bigger, but all actionable!

Use plain language and structure documents well

• Write in clear, simple terms.
• Use bullet points, headings, subheadings.
• Break big policies into smaller parts – maybe have short summaries or “key points” at the top.
• Include FAQs to anticipate questions – e.g. “What happens if I need to take leave at short notice?”

Make content formats varied

• Infographics or one-pagers for fact-sheet style documents.
• Use real examples or case studies – e.g. “Here’s how this policy applies in practice”
• Short videos or animated clips can be helpful – a 2-minute explainer video is often much easier to consume than reading 5 pages.

Clear signposting and easy access

• Use announcements or notifications when a policy changes.
• Put links in places people already visit – e.g. onboarding materials, internal newsletters.
• Group documents logically (e.g. leave, benefits, safety, conduct), so people can find relevant sections fast.

Encourage interaction & feedback

• Let employees ask questions (via Q&A, discussion boards, anonymous feedback options).
• Consider short quizzes or “check your understanding” after big or important policies.
• Always use employee feedback to clarify and adjust resources.

Track what’s working (and what isn’t)

• See which docs people visit, how much time they spend, what they search for.
• Identify gaps – Are there “empty searches” (people looking for something and not finding it)?
• Use this data to promote or improve under-used items.

How Stribe’s employee intranet helps make this happen

Putting everything in one place

No more hunting through old emails or folder chaos. Stribe lets you upload and organise all important policy and procedure documents in one central, well-structured hub.

Making documents attractive and easy to navigate

You can edit files at any time – add color schemes, images and PDFs, and use Sections to group related resources.

This helps break up content and makes browsing more intuitive.

Announcing changes

Stribe allows admin announcements and notifications when new uploads or updates go live.

Built-in analytics for spotting gaps

Built-in analytics let admins track:

• Total articles accessed
• Total searches made
• Most popular articles
• Average time spent reading
• Top searches
• Top empty searches

Supporting different formats and learner preferences

Because you can upload multiple formats and organise content in digestible chunks, you can offer variety of resources, helping people absorb what they need in the way that’s best for them.

At the end of the day writing policies isn’t enough.

Making them accessible, noticeable, easy to digest, and measuring how they’re used – that’s what leads to real understanding.

Using an employee intranet tool like Stribe means you have the infrastructure to make all that smoother.

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About the author

Jade Madeley

Starting out her early career as a journalist, Jade Madeley is an accomplished content writer with 8+ years’ experience across business, personal finance, SaaS, human resources and employee engagement. Working with Stribe, she crafts insightful content that brings complex HR topics to life and drives meaningful action.