Calculating Intranet ROI
Most organizations need an intranet once they get large enough, but making a business case can be challenging without a way to show an expected bottom-line impact.
Intranet pricing varies between vendors, so calculating an intranet’s potential Return on Investment (ROI) is a crucial step toward making a compelling case. We built this savings calculator to give you a head start!
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Intranets offer numerous benefits, but some of the most meaningful employee impacts can be felt in three core categories: productivity, onboarding, and retention.
The results above represent the total cumulative impact of savings in all three categories over a period of three years. In the following sections, we’ll address each category in detail.
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Inefficient information access presents a major barrier to workplace productivity. A McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) analysis recently found that modern workers spend as much as 20 percent of their work time looking for internal information or tracking down colleagues who can help with specific tasks. The same MGI analysis found that effective implementation of social technologies could improve high-skill knowledge workers by 20 to 25 percent.
How can intranets like Haystack help boost productivity?
Haystack boosts employee productivity by making your organization’s information, resources, and people easily accessible with intuitive dashboards and smart search.
Integrations with tools apps like Slack, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace bring the best of your productivity and collaboration flows together seamlessly.
How did we reach this number?
Hourly Rate
Yearly Salary
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Working Hours Per Year
Saved Hours
Given the efficiency gains suggested by McKinsey research, we chose a conservative time savings of 3%.
Working Hours Per Year
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3%
Captured Saved Hours
Of those saved working hours, we believe it's reasonable to expect about 15% to be captured as business productivity.
Saved Hours
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15%
Total Saved Hours
Number of Employees
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Adjusted Captured Saved hours
Total Yearly Savings
Total Saved Hours
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Hourly Rate
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Onboarding a new hire is challenging, especially for remote teams—but it’s a critical step that can make or break a new hire’s experience. Providing a structured onboarding process for new employees can improve retention by as much as 25 percent, according to analysis by the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton.
According to Gallup "new employees typically take around 12 months to reach peak performance potential. New hires need time to shadow colleagues, master workflows and collaborate with key players."
Effective onboarding sets new hires up for success and decreases the time it takes for them to become comfortable and productive in their new roles.
Without structure, the onboarding process can be frustrating for employees and costly for employers, both in terms of the cost of administrative tasks and low productivity.
How can intranets like Haystack support onboarding?
Haystack helps build outstanding employee experiences while fostering a culture of clear communication and team collaboration. An intuitive and interactive company directory helps new hires to build personal connections in a rapidly scaling organization, whether they’re working remotely or in-office.
Haystack’s knowledge base helps new hires quickly learn about the people and teams they’ll work with the most, locate the documentation necessary for their roles, and build the knowledge and skills they need to boost early productivity and achieve long-term success at the organization.
How did we reach this number?
3-Month New Hire Productivity Level: 60%
Every employee is different, but most ramp at an accelerated pace for the first few months. Estimates vary, but we chose 60% as a reasonable expectation.
3-Month New Hire Productivity Gains: 5%
We estimate that at minimum, having a modern intranet like Haystack can increase new hire productivity by 5% by connecting them with the people and resources they need to thrive, instantly.
Saved New Hire Hours
This is the amount of new hire hours we believe an organization can save through productivity gains.
3-Months of Working Hours
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3-month New Hire Productivity Level
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Improvement of 3-Month New Hire Productivity
Adjusted Saved New Hire Hours
We chose to account for unforeseen business circumstances in our calculations, at a rate of 70%.
70%
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Saved New Hire Hours
Total Onboarding Savings
Total New Hires
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Adjusted Saved New Hire Hours
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Hourly Rate
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Replacing an employee can be devastatingly expensive—especially for employees with unique skills and organizational knowledge—and that cost only begins with recruiting, training, onboarding and productivity loss.
A higher than average churn rate can also lead to degraded morale for the rest of the team, leaving employees feeling disengaged and more likely to quit. In 2021, Gallup found 74% of actively disengaged workers were either actively looking for new employment or watching for openings.
How can intranets like Haystack support employee retention?
Employee experience and engagement play central roles in improving employee retention.
Haystack helps organizations engage employees by promoting communication transparency, organizing internal engagement events, and connecting employees with mentorship opportunities, employee resource groups, and more.
Whether it is an all-hands meeting or a team building workshop, Haystack makes it quick and simple to create and share within teams, departments, or groups. Online event tools purpose-built for remote workers make organizing irresistible remote company events simple. Participating in an event with colleagues across the world feels like they’re right across the hall.
How did we reach this number?
Cost of Replacing Employees
The costs of replacing employees vary wildly from role to role, and from organization to organization, but we chose a conservative 25% of annual salary.
Yearly Salary
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25%
Reduced Cost of Replacing Employees
By fostering employee connections, providing instant access to onboarding resources, and promoting strong organizational culture, we believe a tool like Haystack can reduce turnover costs by at least 3%.
3%
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Cost of Replacing Employees
Adjusted Reduced Cost of Replacing Employees
For each of our calculations, we add a 70% adjustment to adjust for unforeseen events.
70%
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Reduced Cost of Replacing Employees
Total Savings from Reduced Turnover
Total Number of Employees
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Expected Turnover Rate
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Adjusted Reduced Cost of Replacing Employees
Legal Disclaimer
Haystack Team Inc. provides this ROI calculator in good faith to help in the analysis of potential cost savings when purchasing and utilizing intranet software. Data provided for the calculation is the user's responsibility. We do not make any representations or warranties of any kind on the information provided. We also disclaim any liability or responsibility for the accuracy, correctness, or completeness of any information provided. Your results may vary from those provided by the ROI calculator.
The model above reveals the calculations for both desktop and frontline workers over a three-year period, with a combined total. A modern intranet can have a small but still significant impact on churn. Inevitably, the impact percentage is higher for desktop employees than for frontline counterparts as desktop workers utilize intranet software more regularly. Finally, as with the other models, there will always be uncontrollable macroeconomic factors that reduce the saving further.