5 advantages of an employee app [with examples]

Does your official company news reach employees without a PC, such as frontline workers? Without measurability, the principle of hope reigns in many companies. And as we all know, hope dies last. But it does die - as soon as you consider the perspective of your workforce.

The main reason is two frustrating factors for operational employees: they have to constantly check noticeboards, info screens, or terminal PCs to see if there is any news (which is often not the case). And if there is, the information is often only relevant for certain teams.

The solution lies in segmenting the information: In an employee app, groups ensure that information only reaches the relevant audience - categorized, for example, by country, location, team, or shift.

Like a digital and personalized bulletin board, a newsfeed bundles all the news from these groups, just like on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media feeds. On top, it does so securely, meaning that data protection is also guaranteed in the employee app.

The blackboard or noticeboard lives up to its name in one respect: for internal communicators, it's a black box. Whether and how frontline workers actually read the information usually remains unknown.

What is evident, however, is the great effort involved. Communicating urgent information by posting it in all the employees' native languages? In a multi-shift business with several locations, it's almost impossible. It's also a disproportionate effort when there's no guarantee the information will even be read.

With an employee app for internal communication, those responsible save themselves this potentially wasted effort. Here are the features of an employee app that solve these business pain points:

• Information reaches precisely those relevant to it with two clicks and in real-time

• Translation into the preferred language is automatic

• Content can be planned in advance and automatically published at a selected time

• Staff scheduling becomes mobile: duty rotas, time recording, etc. are always accessible via smartphone

• Responsibility is spread over many people via rights and roles

Again and again, we hear doubts about whether frontline workers on the assembly line, in the warehouse, or at the checkout really want to get involved. In our experience - they want to, as long as they're given an easy opportunity and can make a difference. This is one reason why employee surveys are so popular with many Flip customers. What makes an even bigger difference, however, is daily employee participation.

An example from a Flip client shows how quickly feedback pays off. Employees in a retail chain branch struggle with liquid soap leaking from the packet when they unpack it. The employees ask for a solution via the app.

Now everything happens quickly. Employees from one branch after the other confirm the experience. The cause was faulty packaging, which was reported to the supplier and rectified. Without the app, the employees would have struggled with the fault until the problem reached the head office.

If an employee resigns, it's often not only because of salary. Employees who want to quit do not feel sufficiently valued (76 percent), experience poor internal communication (70 percent), and identify deficiencies in the corporate culture (43 percent), according to a survey by the consulting company Harbinger.

An employee app cannot solve these problems alone but offers the right environment. Two successes that would not have been possible without the app:

• Transferring responsibility: The wine consultants at the Prechtl fresh food markets communicate across branches via their own team. And solve problems together. "The employees no longer just execute but take responsibility. Without going through the head office. This raises them to a new level," says Simon Mareth, member of the management board.

• Generating ideas: 150 suggestions for improvement were submitted by Europart employees via the employee app in 12 months. Their identification with their employer increased by 25 percent.

Frontline workers receive relevant information in snippets. At the same time, their office colleagues are drowned in a flood of emails. Those responsible for internal communication tell us that up to 80 percent of their emails come from within the company.

The situation isn't much better for meetings - after all, they are indispensable for distributing important information to employees without a PC or email address.

• An employee app comes very close to face-to-face communication: information reaches the relevant audience quickly, directly, and precisely. The emojis familiar from private messengers compensate for anything lost in facial expressions and gestures. Long emails and appointments become a thing of the past.

A study conducted by DHBW Stuttgart shows how employee apps improve internal communication. The respondents provided the following information - both before and after introducing the employee app.