Offering value to employees

Employees are sometimes forgotten about when building a website. Especially new and small businesses. Large employers usually have an employee-only Intranet for sharing internal company information. As a small business owner, you might not be thinking about how to leverage the site for your employees benefit.

Here are a few ideas:
- Recognize employee achievements on your website
- Offer access to common forms (PTO requests, Insurance claim forms, holiday schedules)
- Build a logged-in area to allow your employees to work remotely. The ability to work from home, on the road, or from a client site offers convenience and greater productivity.

These types of initiatives will benefit everyone. Customers who visit you site will be able to congratulate their sales person or account manager if they are listed as winning an award, promoted or earned an advanced certification. There is never anything bad about being praised in public.

If an employee is calling-in sick, wouldn't it be easier for them to complete the sick-time form from their home PC at 6:00AM, when they decided they were never going to make it into the office that day. And having access to get some work done from home rather than drive into the office to gather some files is a nice perk too.

The ability to offer employees convenience and recognition are easily enabled using the web. Make sure you keep them in mind as you develop your required features list.