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5 Tips For Creating a Mobile Workplace App That You Can’t Ignore!

John Bertoli / John@bertolimarketing.com
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For Enterprise organizations with thousands of employees distributed across multiple regions, divisions, campuses, and timezones keeping employees connected to one another and shared resources is a challenge. Today’s employees expect instant, always-on access to information across all device types—challenging companies to meet employees’ demands by providing meaningful mobile experiences that exceed their expectations.

Many organizations recognize that a workplace mobile app can serve as a powerful platform for centralized information management and employee communication. Yet, the idea of developing a workplace mobile app may be dismissed due to budgetary or resource constraints. Luckily, due to new low or no code mobile app platforms that enable any business or content owner to quickly and easily create engaging mobile solutions for employees that improve communication and productivity—with little to no dependency on IT resources.

The following is a list of tips that can help guide your mobile app development process:

1. Provide Real-Time Facility and Location Information

Keep employees informed with relevant and up-to-date information by integrating with various back-end corporate data systems. 

  • Real-time shuttle tracking
  • Dining with menus, daily specials, and nutrition information. 
  • Parking availability and lot locations. 
  • Outdoor maps that use GPS data to help employees move between buildings or office locations. Wayfinding also allows administrators to create custom directions. 
  • Indoor maps that show floor plans in various buildings, and allow employees to search for key spaces and amenities such as kitchens, bathrooms, conference rooms, printers and more. 
  • Facility-issue reporting that enables employees to quickly submit issue reports from within the app, and even attach a photo.

2. Establish a Central Information Hub for Employees on-the-go

When a company has many employees on-the-go in locations around the country, a mobile app can be an important central hub for everyone to instantly access all company-wide information including, but not limited to:

  • Human resources information, like policies, procedures, and benefit details 
  • Training materials 
  • Company-wide calendars and events 
  • Collateral and marketing literature 
  • News and announcements 
  • Social media feeds, videos, and photos 

A mobile app makes it easy for the organization to communicate a consistent unified message creating a connected workplace where employees are kept informed with real-time access to the most important company information.

3. Create Personalized User Experiences

Mobile apps in the workplace can dramatically improve efficiency when they allow users to quickly and easily find the information they need.

  • Establish Personas for different roles based on their varying needs, for example:
    • Field Sales: need sales decks, marketing collateral, and product specs 
    • Human Resources: need policies, procedures, and benefits information 
    • Office Staff: need access to location services information and building updates.
  • Create Location versions of the app to provide information specific to each office, such as:
    • Shuttle Schedules
    • Appropriate Indoor Maps
    • Dining Options
    • Local Amenities

Until recently it was difficult to create a distinct mobile experience for different users of an app, such as employees spanning various roles, responsibilities and physical locations. Today, with minimal IT resources, companies can quickly and easily create one app, with centralized data and branding, that seamlessly provides the specific information that each user requires.

4. Use Push Notifications and Banner Messages to Keep Employees Informed

Push Notifications provide an immediate avenue for communicating and engaging with employees, even when they are not engaged with your app. Push Notifications can be sent company-wide, or only to specific Locations or Personas. Different notifications might include:

Banner Messages appear at the top of the screen on specific pages within your app, and are another great way to engage employees. They are less obtrusive and can be used contextually. For example, changes to the day’s menu can be announced just on the dining module so only those users seeking information about dining will see it. You can even schedule Banner Messages to appear and disappear at predetermined times.

5. Promote Special Events and Programs

Provide employees with up-to-date, real-time information about any company event or program. Gone are the days when creating a mobile app for a special event required a tremendous amount of time and resources. Today it’s easy for even non-technical staff to create an app in hours, without coding expertise or resubmissions to the app stores. Any business or content owner can easily create and update apps for any special event or program such as: 

  • Benefit Enrollment
  • Company Meetings
  • Company Outings
  • Global Sales Meetings
  • And more

As workplaces evolve to support remote and flexible work environments, mobile apps are an increasingly important tool for organizations to ensure that they are meeting the rapidly evolving needs of their workforce.

The ability to provide real-time information on any number of important workplace activities can transform the way work gets done. Only a few years ago, mobile app development was time consuming and expensive. Yet today, new easy-to-use mobile app development tools make it possible for even non-technical staff to quickly provide employees with a practical and meaningful mobile experience. Read more about how Modo Workplace can transform and connect your office.

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