How Starbucks created an intranet employees love

For fans of Starbucks, simply entering the coffee shop is all you need to get a warm and fuzzy feeling.

That’s intentional. Starbucks’ mission is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit — one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” Everything the brand does — from decorating to customer service — reflects that mission.

But that mission goes beyond the way Starbucks tries to make its customers feel. It’s the way the brand wants its employees to feel, too.

To make employees — or partners, as Starbucks calls them — feel more connected to the company and each other, Starbucks built a new intranet, The Partner Hub. It took the intranet from a website employees only used to book conference rooms to a hub where employees could connect, learn, and work smarter.

“My key thing was The Partner Hub isn’t just another portal,” Vida Killian, director of the partner digital experience for Starbucks, says. “It’s different. It’s a new way to work and a new way to connect with people.”

At Ragan’s 2013 Intranet Summit, Killian explained how her team pulled it off.

How to create an intranet people will use