How to Create an Employee Portal: A Complete Guide

We can all agree that the workplace is supposed to be a structured and organized space where everyone, especially employees, can relate with one another and get projects done. Not all employees in many businesses clock in on-site—some do so from remote locations.

For structure and organization to still find their places in these systems, there’s a need for some sort of communication and collaboration space that is not limited by location. This is where employee portals come into play.

An employee portal is a gated web space where your employees can access internal information and services crucial to the successful completion of projects.

Knowing how to create an employee portal that serves your teams and processes is critical to the growth of your brand. An employee portal brings together all your employees in one place and offers many other benefits.

A typical portal for employee interactions has a robust communication system. A messaging channel allows teams to share important updates in the workplace regarding project timelines and deliverables. 

A well-built staff portal also comes with features that facilitate collaboration on client jobs and internal processes. The overall result? Productivity. Employees can produce more with less effort.

Key Features of an Effective Employee Portal

Employee portals have specific modules designed to serve different functions. Let’s consider some essential features of employee portal solutions.

Employee Directory

An employee directory is a searchable section of the staff portal that stores and organizes information about every employee, including names, job roles, locations, and perhaps fun facts. It helps teams find important information about colleagues.

Especially in remote and hybrid working environments, a staff directory helps employees to know other people on the team and build social relationships. Additionally, having an activity stream linked to each employee profile allows team members to view recent tasks, project updates, and other work-related activities, promoting transparency and helping teams stay aligned on ongoing projects.

Company Announcements

Do you have a company-sponsored event coming up? No problem, just ask the administrative department to create and send alerts for invitations through the portal software. The staff portal is also a great medium to communicate information about business quarterly performance. You can also use it to send announcements for in-person or virtual social gatherings.

An employee portal solution does not necessarily need to have a dedicated module for company announcements; however, there should be functions for sending instant messages to every employee.

Task Management

Starting and completing tasks will constitute the bulk of your operations. Whether it's for clients’ projects or internal processes, your team needs to break down work into smaller, manageable chunks. This work breakdown is crucial to effective team collaborations and the successful completion of projects.

An employee portal should feature a separate module where you can add the todos of a project in an organized manner. Such modules will also have functionalities for audit trails, file uploads, notifications, and document management.

Document Management

Managing documents goes beyond just uploading, moving, and deleting files. A document management feature in a staff portal lets your team store and track changes in electronic documents. Version history helps you to be transparent with stakeholders and helps platform users know what file version they are working with.

Document management in your business could also include electronic signing. This is especially useful if signing agreements with customers is part of your operations. And if you think about it, many organizations, regardless of size, are moving away from signing on paper to electronic signing for the speed and compliance benefits.

Collaboration Tools

Collaboration tools or features allow team members to work together on tasks and files simultaneously. Depending on the needs of your team, collaboration functions include a video conferencing tool for face-to-face chats, a robust communication channel, and a collaborative document editing feature.

Regardless of what features are needed to facilitate the work on client projects, the bottom line is that collaboration tools help your employees work effectively and efficiently.

A portal solution not having a specific collaboration tool does not constitute grounds for disqualification. Many solutions have external integration capabilities that let you connect to external web services, providing the desired collaboration function.

Blog or Knowledge Base

Support for a blog or knowledge base feature is also important in staff portal software.

Your business or establishment can use the blog feature as a knowledge-sharing platform. 

Sharing company policies and procedures can help teams understand the inner workings of the business, leading to higher levels of productivity.

A knowledge base center can be useful when onboarding new employees. They can use 

information in the resource center to understand app usage, the company’s culture, and other information essential to integrating easily into the workplace.

HR Self-Service Options

Individual employees viewing and managing HR-related functions helps reduce administrative tasks done by your HR department. This self-help feature enables individual employees to update such personal information as address, apply for leave, and more.

It also provides benefits to teams in the HR department. The HR teams already have a lot on their plate, such as running open enrollment and reviewing performances. Giving employees the option to self-manage reduces the task burden on your HR team.

Choosing the Right Platform

After discussing perhaps with your team about incorporating an employee portal into your work tools, your next effort would likely be deciding on a platform where to host or build from scratch the staff portal.

Your business needs a solution that has the right features and is reliable, not something that will create a bottleneck in your operations. Below we check three different platforms through which you can create an employee portal.

1. Clinked

It lets you see in one place the companies (clients) your business handles projects for and a list of users or employees.

Clinked is built to be customizable, meaning new features and design configurations can be implemented.

• Scalability: Clinked infrastructure can be scaled to meet the demands of different businesses. Whether you have one hundred team members or more, the infrastructure can accommodate them all.
• Customization: Clinked can be customized with new features and functions the way you want it, or get existing ones tweaked to meet workflow requirements. The dashboard can be structured to show part-time metrics. This way, you know what’s going into every project in terms of time and resource allocation. Part of its customized customizations is the white label option, which allows you to use your branding elements everywhere on the platform.
• User Experience (UX): The portal solution has a clean UI interface that is intuitive to navigate, making for an excellent user experience. The dashboard is well structured and can be customized to show metrics most important to your workflow.
• Integration Capabilities: Clinked comes with native integrations. Expand the list of apps and web services you can connect to with Zapier.
• Security: Clinked employs Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2, controlled logins, single sign-on (SSO), complex passwords, and other robust security features to safeguard everything within the walls of the infrastructure.
• Cost: Clinked’s entry-level trier starts at $119/month, with cost savings on yearly subscriptions. Enterprises looking for custom-built solutions can get custom pricing.

2. Workvivo

Workvivo markets itself as an employee experience platform. The solution is an Employee Experience Platform (EXP) that helps simplify communication among employees and increase team engagement.

• Scalability: Workvivo comes in different packages and can grow with you as your business grows. Its Business Plan is perfect for companies with 250-2000 employees, while its Enterprise Plan can support those with over 2000 employees.
• Customization: The employee portal has considerable customization options for branding and styling. Workvivo provides a knowledge base with guides on how to add banners, customize login pages, and more.
• User Experience (UX): The platform is overall easy to navigate on both web and mobile. The mobile interface design can, however, be confusing, especially for new users. The dashboard contains quite a lot of sections, including featured news stories, though not overwhelming.
• Integration Capabilities: Slack, Workday, and Azure AD are some of the supported integrations. HR integration such as Workday lets your employees view important HR information in their Workvivo profile.
• Security: The platform says it maintains compliance with ISO 27001 and SOC 2 security certifications.
• Cost: There is no fixed pricing on the plans, but a ballpark figure of what each plan would likely cost based on features. You'll have to contact the sales team to get pricing.

3. Simpplr

Also an employee experience platform, Simpplr is AI-powered, bringing all aspects of workplace communication into one centralized platform. It comes with features such as home feeds, newsletters, surveys, and an AI assistant.

• Scalability: Just like many employee experience platforms, Simpplr is built to support organizations of different sizes. As your team grows, you can upgrade your plan with Simpplr.
• Customization: The platform allows you to make style and branding changes to reflect your company branding. Choose the color, font, logo, and other branding elements of your choice.
• User Experience (UX): Overall, the platform is easy to navigate. Part of what contributes to the user experience is the AI assistant. It provides various functionalities, including intuitive search, automated workflow assistance, and personalized content delivery.
• Integration Capabilities: Simpplr supports integrations with different types of services. It can connect with Google Analytics, Google or Microsoft Calendar, OneDrive, and Slack. HR integrations include BambooHR, OneLogin, and Okta.
• Security: Simpplr has SOC 2 attestation, is certified with ISO 27001, and is verified by TRUSTe.
• Cost: Simpplr does not come with fixed pricing, but you pay per need. So, you will have to contact the sales department for pricing. The intranet platform has a 14-day trial period to test features.

How to Create an Employee Portal in 6 Steps

Whether you go with an out-of-the-box or custom-made staff portal, you will have to set things up, organize content, decide on who gets to access what, and handle other requirements.

If you need some pointers on how to create an employee portal that serves your purpose and goals, then keep on reading for the six checklists discussed below.

1. Define purpose and outcomes.

The first step in creating an effective employee portal is identifying why you need it and what specific outcomes you want to achieve. Is the goal to enhance internal communication, improve team collaboration, streamline document sharing, or support HR functions like managing employee profiles and time-off requests? These initial considerations will shape the entire development process, whether you are building a custom solution or choosing a ready-made platform like Clinked.

For example, if internal communication is lagging, the portal should include tools like messaging systems, group announcements, or document-sharing features. If the focus is on employee productivity, consider integrating task management and progress tracking. Similarly, if compliance and training are important, the portal should have modules for policy access, mandatory updates, or employee feedback.

With a solution like Clinked, many of these features come pre-built. Clinked offers customizable collaboration tools that can help teams communicate, share files, and manage projects—all from one centralized hub. This makes it an ideal choice for businesses looking to improve collaboration and communication without starting from scratch. The platform can also be tailored to track employee activity and provide controlled access to specific resources, ensuring the portal aligns with your desired outcomes.

No matter the goals, having a clear vision of the purpose and desired results will help you structure the portal effectively and ensure it addresses the key issues your organization faces.

2. Plan and organize the content structure.

Once you’ve defined the purpose and outcomes, the next step is to plan how your portal’s content will be organized. A well-structured portal not only ensures smooth navigation but also helps users find information quickly, making the portal more effective and user-friendly.

Start by outlining the key modules you want to include based on the outcomes you defined in step one. For instance, you might have sections for Content Sharing, Task Management, Employee Profiles, HR Resources, and Analytics. The order of these modules can impact the user experience, so prioritize them according to their importance. For example, placing frequently used features like search and communication tools at the top can enhance usability.

In terms of content layout, focus on a clear hierarchy. Each module should contain features that serve the outcomes you’ve targeted. For example, the Content section could include document management and file sharing tools, while Employee Profiles might contain fields for managing personal details, roles, and permissions.

Design considerations should also include navigation and layout consistency. Whether you’re developing a custom portal or using a platform like Clinked, keeping the structure intuitive is essential.

With Clinked, you can easily organize content through customizable dashboards and folder structures, allowing employees to access files, tasks, and resources without unnecessary complexity. Its built-in project management and document-sharing features provide an efficient way to keep everything centralized and organized.

The flexibility of Clinked also allows you to integrate features like version control for documents, ensuring that employees always have access to the most up-to-date information. This can be especially useful for portals that need to accommodate frequent updates or collaborative work.

Carefully planning the content structure not only improves ease of use but also helps achieve the specific goals you’ve set for the employee portal.

3. Set access levels and permissions for different users

With the portal structure in place, it's crucial to define access levels for various users. This ensures that the right people have access to the right information, protecting sensitive data while promoting collaboration.

Begin by establishing roles: Administrators should have full control over the portal’s settings, while team leads or managers should have access specific to their departments, such as project updates or HR tasks. Employees should have access to features like task management and their profiles, but may not need to view broader company data. Some information, such as company policies or announcements, could be accessible to all.

If you’re using a solution like Clinked, setting access levels is easy through customizable permissions. Clinked allows you to create role-based access, ensuring users only see the content relevant to them. This is particularly useful for managing both internal staff and external clients, as you can tailor visibility accordingly. Keeping security and data privacy in mind, proper permission settings help maintain the integrity of your portal.

4. Design a user-friendly interface

A well-designed user interface (UI) is key to the success of your employee portal. Whether you’re building a custom portal or using a pre-built solution, a simple, intuitive interface will enhance user adoption and satisfaction.

If you're opting for a custom solution, work closely with your developer to ensure the interface aligns with your team's needs. A user-friendly portal should have clear navigation, minimalistic design, and responsive elements that work seamlessly across devices. Accessibility features, such as screen readers or high-contrast modes, are crucial for employees with disabilities.

Clinked’s interface is built with user experience in mind. It offers a clean, easy-to-navigate dashboard that allows employees to access files, manage tasks, and communicate with team members efficiently. With its mobile-friendly design, users can access the portal from any device, ensuring flexibility for remote or on-the-go employees. This ensures that even non-technical users can quickly get the hang of the portal.

5. Test the portal thoroughly before launch

Once the portal is developed, testing is a vital step before rolling it out to the whole team. Testing ensures that all features work as intended and helps uncover any potential bugs or issues that could hinder user experience.

Organize a group of testers or employees to explore every aspect of the portal. Have them check for glitches, slow loading times, or errors in integrations. Make sure the user-friendly elements mentioned earlier, like intuitive navigation and quick responsiveness, are functioning well. Testing realistic scenarios, such as uploading documents or completing tasks, can help pinpoint areas for improvement.

With Clinked, you can easily set up test environments and invite a small group of users to try out the platform before full deployment. Its built-in feedback and error reporting tools make it easy to gather insights from testers and make adjustments as needed.

6. Roll out the portal and onboard employees

After thorough testing, the final step is launching the portal and onboarding your employees. Effective onboarding ensures that users understand how to navigate the platform and take advantage of its full capabilities.

Begin with guided product tours and step-by-step walkthroughs to familiarize your team with the portal. You can also create how-to videos and resources within the platform to support ongoing learning. These materials are especially helpful for users who may not be as comfortable with new technology.

If you’re using Clinked, the onboarding process is smooth thanks to its intuitive design. You can set up video tutorials and in-app guides to help employees learn the system quickly. Additionally, Clinked offers customizable onboarding materials, so you can tailor the training to fit your organization’s needs. With all these tools in place, employees will be able to start using the portal with confidence and efficiency.

Best Practices for Employee Portal Design

There are some best practices to follow in the design stage of an employee portal. Let’s briefly discuss some key design considerations.

UX Design

Often confused with user interface design, user experience (UX) goes much deeper.

UI is about making the employee directory intuitive to navigate, while UX focuses on the overall platform experience. The features, navigation, structure, and should help your staff achieve the intended goals.

Keep in mind that a software app can be easy to navigate but does little to nothing to solve the problem for which it was built. With that distinction being made, we can say UI is a subset of UX.

Because user experience is not black and white, it doesn't mean the same thing for every solution. Sometimes adding bells and whistles to the core functionalities might elevate the user experience. Examples of such additional features are reward badges and leaderboards.

Navigation

Content should be organized in a logical structure, allowing users to find information like finding their favorite cafe in a familiar neighborhood. Use the right fonts, icons, colors, and layouts across all sections of the staff portal.

Using professional solutions like Clinked gets you access to an employee portal solution that is easy to navigate, enhancing employee engagement and access to information.

Always ask your employees—the constant users of the platform—the challenges they face when clicking or tapping around the interface. You might be surprised by what you uncover during regular user testing and feedback.

Mobile Optimization

Most of your team will be accessing the portal solution from their mobile devices. We live in a time where most people move around with smartphones and tablets, not desktop or laptop computers.

Ensuring the portal solution is well optimized for mobile provides ease of use and a level of convenience. If the design elements do not load properly on mobile or it takes time for content to load, this can dampen users’ enthusiasm to continue using the platform.

Even if the solution is well optimized for mobile devices, do periodic testing for broken elements or bugs. This is especially important as software updates may introduce some bugs leading to responsiveness issues.

Features Improvement

As your business evolves, the portal may need to incorporate new features that will help boost productivity and enhance overall operational efficiency. Possible feature enhancements might be real-time chat or video conferencing, if you don't have those before.

Your developers will typically make changes to the development codes of the infrastructure and roll out the updates to users. Beta testing by inviting a select few users to test new features is essential. This ensures compatibility and quality before making the update available to the rest of the organization.

Ensuring Security and Compliance

When developing a staff portal solution, security and compliance are important considerations.

Security means the portal is safeguarded against the activities of hackers and other actors with malicious intent. Compliance on the other hand is about the agreement of the activities happening in the staff portal with established industry or government regulations.

TLS 1.2 is one security measure to consider for secure data encryption. End-to-end encryption is another measure against attacks, as it helps secure data transferred between the users’ browsers and website servers.

Because hackers and malicious actors are always on the prowl looking for that unfortunate company to exploit, your development team should be on the lookout for security loopholes from which data breaches can occur and fix such issues without any delay.

Compliance could be for how you handle users’ privacy, data, and sensitive files within the platform. For document management, audit trail is an important compliance feature for transparency. Stakeholders get to see who makes changes to what, helping prevent disagreement amidst other benefits.

Well-known data collection regulations are GDPR and CCPA. In a nutshell, GDPR requires platforms that process personal individual data through such means as cookies to first get the consent of such individuals. CCPA is a California statewide law governing the collection, usage, sharing, and selling of personal information of California residents. Check what regulations and acts to comply with in your jurisdiction.

Integrating the Portal with Existing Systems

The truth is that the staff portal will be one of the many tools in your business toolbox. So, there must be a way for existing and future tools to “talk” to your staff portal. Integration helps with the seamless sync of data and information, reducing the need for manual, inefficient data transfer.

Essential integrations include HR software, payroll solutions, and communication tools. An out-of-the-box portal should be able to connect with popular HR and payroll software such as Workday, BambooHR, Paychex, and Gusto. The way it works for most portal solutions is to use external integrations, especially HR and payroll systems.

If you are building from scratch, ask the development team to feature the integration function.

On the side of communication tools, common ones that come native in many solutions include Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. Other tools can be connected using external integration.

Conclusion & Recommendations

The employee portal brings communication and collaboration into one place. It allows onsite, hybrid, and remote teams to work together efficiently and effectively. Seamless cooperation between teams impacts timely project completion while boosting the workplace's sense of community.

Whether you're building from scratch or going for a ready-made solution, a staff portal should contain essential features for your business operations and employee productivity. This way, you create an employee portal that serves its purpose and delivers intended outcomes.

Remember the six checklists for creating a well-thought-out staff portal, discussed best practices, and compliance considerations? And finally, it's crucial that the portal solution seamlessly integrates with existing business apps and possibly future tools.

Clinked is a leading portal infrastructure provider offering reliable client portal solutions to businesses of different sizes. Clinked’s features help improve employee communications and team collaboration.

The portal is also customizable when features geared toward an employee portal are required. Speak with us today for a product demonstration or consultation. We love to show you how Clinked can boost communications and productivity in your workplace.