Although everyone has one, the smartphone is still underused
within organizations, but that’s starting to change as mobile apps gain a
reputation as a great way to communicate with employees.
Apps are easy to use, help reduce the clutter of internal
emails and limit the need to rely on underused intranet sites.
Jennifer Whitlow, (at right in photo) principal and practice leader, and Norine
Cannon, director of communications, with Buck Consultants of St. Louis, shared
their insights, along with a demo app, with the KC IABC Masters group at a
recent meeting.
The advantages of mobile apps are many, Jennifer and Norine said:
- Reach on-the-move as well as geographically dispersed employees
- Provide ongoing communication channel with newsfeeds
- Notifications are pushed out to employees, rather than requiring them to log on
- Help meet employees’ expectations for timely, relevant and customized communication in easy-to-comprehend chunks
- Can be designed to connect to the employee intranet or a portal, for an integrated experience
- Deliver concise information
- More visual than a website
- Information delivered in a conversational tone
- Actionable – tell employees what you want them to do
Apps are the platform of choice for 85 percent of employees,
Jennifer said, as they prefer the convenience of an app over a mobile website.
Email is definitely losing popularity, with employees reporting that they
receive on average, 121 emails a day, requiring them to spend 28 percent of
their time at work managing their inbox, with little benefit to the business. Email
clutter is reduced greatly when organizations switch to mobile apps.
If you aren’t yet using apps to communicate with employees,
could it work in your organization or for your clients? Consider these factors,
Jennifer advises:
- Workplace culture – are employees open to new ways to communicate?
- Budget
- The role of the IT department – limited to certification set up
- Distribution channel (enterprise-wide, vs. app store)
- Resources for promotion at launch and for ongoing support
- Resources for content creation – have a plan in place
- How to stop access for employees who leave the organization
- Integration with existing portals
- Security options to ensure sensitive information is safeguarded
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