Many organisations launch a new Microsoft 365 digital workplace with great fanfare, only to see engagement plateau within months. Without a long-term digital workplace strategy, the initial excitement fades, and content grows stale – the ‘missing middle’ where a once-promising platform becomes just another forgotten link. For IT Directors and Communications leaders, the key to an engaging digital workplace is to evolve the intranet from a one-off project into a continuously evolving environment that delivers real, ongoing value to employees.  

Plan Beyond Day One

Right after the digital workplace launch buzz, usage often hits a plateau or even declines by the second quarter. Common causes include change fatigue (employees reverting to old habits), lack of fresh content, and the ‘intranet project’ mindset – treating it as finished once it’s launched.  

The antidote is to plan for continuous improvement from day one. Build post-launch activity and ownership into your project plan.  

Before go-live, decide: 

• Who will monitor analytics to optimise journeys 

• Who will keep content fresh on a per site basis 

• How and who will gather feedback 

• Who should attend a cross-functional steering group (with IT, internal communications, HR and business leads) that meets regularly to review intranet performance and drive enhancements based on business outcomes the digital workplace should support 

Measure, Learn, and Adapt

Analytics and user feedback are critical after launch. Go beyond basic page views – see how people actually engage with content (how long they spend, likes, comments). If a page gets no traffic, optimise its value or remove it. Likewise, monitor search queries: repeated searches with no results reveal content gaps you need to fill. Make it a habit to review these insights regularly with your team and adjust the intranet accordingly. This data-driven approach not only makes the intranet more useful over time, but it also proves its ongoing value.  

Keeping content fresh 

Microsoft’s new AI capabilities now make this ongoing management much easier for comms teams. 

Copilot’s Knowledge Agent detects dead links, flagging or archiving old content, and prompting owners to review pages. 

SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) introduces automated site attestation, or periodic site reviews. Platform owners can schedule messages where site or group owners must confirm that access and sharing settings are still correct.  

Together, these capabilities can help to keep content fresh. 

Gathering feedback  

Annual surveys are a common way to get feedback on the intranet, however, these are high level and often fail to pick up the high value in-the-moment feedback that can deliver great optimisations. Consider embedding feedback forms within sites about the specific content being provided to identify what is missing and where content might be unclear. Looking at feedback alongside the analytics delivers brilliant insight into how a site can be developed.  

Steering groups

Your organisation’s objectives will evolve and a steering group will help to bring new objectives to the fore for prioritisation and discussion on where the digital workplace can help to meet these goals. 

A big advantage of a Microsoft 365 digital workplace is Microsoft’s evergreen innovation – the platform constantly delivers new features and improvements. Instead of letting your intranet stagnate, Comms and IT should work together to plan to pilot new capabilities as they arrive – where they meet a business goal. For example, Microsoft recently announced Copilot CoWork, an AI-driven collaboration tool. With an evergreen mindset, you can trial Copilot CoWork for teams that will benefit from it. If it is useful to employees, this can then be integrated into your digital workplace to boost productivity. 

Ready to refresh your Microsoft 365 digital workplace? 

Sustaining an engaging Microsoft 365 digital workplace isn’t a one‑off task, and you don’t have to do it alone. Our digital workplace experts can review your current intranet, highlight areas where it may be drifting or stagnating, and give IT and Comms teams practical tips you can put into practice right away. If your digital workplace needs a refresh, we’ll guide you step‑by‑step to get it performing at its best again.