Article 3 of Series: Haiilo Information Architecture
- Article 1: "Understanding the structure of Haiilo"
- Article 2: "Principles for structuring your intranet"
- Article 3: "Ensuring content relevancy and access" (You are here)
A clear structure helps employees find their way around the platform. But structure alone doesn't determine whether people actually use it. That comes down to two pillars: whether the content is RELEVANT to them, and whether they can ACCESS it without effort.
Relevancy
The first pillar is Relevancy. It comes down to a simple question: Does the content on the platform help employees do their job or make their daily work easier?
If the answer is yes, people will come back. If the answer is no, no amount of promotion, structural improvements, or engagement campaigns will change that. Everyone is busy, and people gravitate toward tools that make their lives easier, not harder.
Relevancy isn't something you achieve once. It requires ongoing attention to what your employees need, and a willingness to retire or update content that no longer serves them. A platform full of outdated information feels unreliable, even if the structure behind it is solid.
Ownership plays a big role here. Content without a clear owner doesn't get updated. When someone is responsible for a page or an app, there's always a person who can answer, "Is this still accurate?" If nobody can answer that question, the content is already at risk.
Duplication is the other side of the same coin. When the same information lives on three different pages, employees don't know which version to trust, and content owners don't know which one to maintain. One topic, one home. If multiple areas need to reference the same information, link to it rather than duplicating it.
📌 Picture this
Think of an employee in the logistics team whose homepage is filled with marketing updates because their page subscriptions were never adjusted. The platform has plenty of useful content for them, but they never see it. On the bright side, they know the brand guidelines got an update. "Cool, thanks 😵💫"
Access
The second pillar is Access. It's about being able to reach the right information without unnecessary effort. Even highly relevant content loses its value if employees can't find it or have to dig through layers of navigation to get there.
Most employees have limited motivation to search through a corporate platform. If they don't find what they need quickly, they'll look elsewhere or ask a colleague instead. That's why access and structure are closely connected: a logical, consistent information architecture is the foundation that makes content easy to reach.
Access also means thinking about how content is surfaced, not just where it's stored. In Haiilo, employees are served content on their homepage based on the pages they're subscribed to and the communities they're members of. If those subscriptions don't match what someone actually needs for their role, the right content never shows up, no matter how well it's organized. Clear page structures and well-maintained subscriptions all work together to bring content to employees rather than waiting for them to come looking for it.
For organizations with frontline workers who don't sit at a desk all day, the mobile app is an important part of access too. If a large portion of your workforce can only reach the platform from their phone, that's worth considering when you decide how content is structured and presented.
📌 Picture this
Think of an employee organizing a business trip for the first time. They need the travel policy, the expense report template, and the booking tool. If all three are easy to find without asking anyone, access is working. If they end up sending a message in a group chat asking "Where do I find the travel stuff?", it's not. And now five other people are also wondering 🫣
How relevancy and access work together
Structure, relevancy, and access are not separate projects. They reinforce each other. A clear structure makes content easier to find. Well-maintained content makes the platform worth coming back to. And when the right content reaches the right people without effort, employees start to trust the platform as a reliable source of truth.
If you want to go further and build a platform that employees open every day, not just when they need something specific, a consistent flow of news, updates, and integration to other tools helps. But that kind of engagement is an outcome, not a starting point. It follows naturally when the basics are already in place: content that's worth reading, and a platform that makes it easy to find.