More companies are beginning to understand the benefits of mobile when engaging and communication with frontline employees, providing real-time information regardless of time and location through smartphones, rather than emails or other traditional methods. Through examining, programs initiated by early adopters of a mobile strategy, some important pitfalls to avoid, lessons learned, and keys to success have emerged.

1. Keep it simple

One of the reasons mobile trumps desktop-based communication is because mobile makes it easy for employees to receive and understand the information they need. Traditional approaches require that staff log onto employee portals or intranets, keep track of passwords, and search for relevant information once there. In a mobile-first process, employees know exactly where (their phone) and what (role specific) information they’ll receive and can digest it in a matter of seconds.

Employee engagement apps should take less than one minute for employees to download and the on-boarding process must be as simple as possible. Use and interaction should be intuitive, easy, and fun. Ultimately you want people to love their experience with the app.

Insider Tip: Don’t spread your app too thin. Once you’ve brought in a great mobile app and are seeing the returns of increased engagement and productivity, it’s tempting to expand to provide other employee needs (such as timesheets, payroll, or calendar features). Resist the urge – an app is most effective when it is tailored to a particular goal – such as employee engagement or communicating business-critical and time-sensitive information.

2. Clearly communicate value

For today’s busy employee, time is precious. How effectively a firm communicates the value of having and using an app corresponds directly to app downloads and engagement. A few key value propositions for employees include the following:

• Be informed: Mobile apps make it simple for employees to be informed on key information relevant to their role and job, removing the burden of endless emails and meetings
• Be heard: Mobile apps, unlike, say, information posters, allow for instantaneous feedback from individual employees on their opinions and preferences
• Be engaged: When used as a part of CSR, health, and wellness, or community investment initiatives, mobile apps keep employees up-to-date on corporate goals, progress, and most importantly, opportunities to get involved
• Be recognized: Through gamified information delivery, mobile apps make it easy for direct managers to identify and recognize employees who accumulate points by reading, understanding, and acting on the messages received, removing a pain point common to most organizations

And remember, value means something different to each person in an organization. A message that targets a senior manager is different from one that targets an on-the-road salesperson. The app provider should work with the organization to understand the unique value proposition for each audience. The best apps are able to segment organizations by geography, department, or role and deliver messaging tailored to each group’s specific function or needs.

3. Eliminate IT headaches

While nearly 100% of employees have a mobile device within reach, the type of device varies from iPhones to Androids to Blackberrys. Finding an app that has been proven to work across all major manufacturers and operating systems is absolutely vital to ensuring all employees are able to engage with the content you plan to deliver in your mobile approach. One of the first steps an organization should take when planning to launch an enterprise app is to understand the mobile landscape of their organization. What types of devices do they bring to work? Does the organization supply devices to all or some staff?

Launching a mobile software solution should require very little effort from an IT department. A mobile app should provide a plug-and-play solution and should work either completely outside the organization’s IT network, or require minimal integration to meet the organization’s needs.

When successfully applied, the mobile solution should save everyone managers, C-suite, employees, and IT—time and energy, while delivering superior results compared to conventional employee engagement communication strategies.

As much as we are living in an increasingly connected world, we’re still faced with the challenge of effectively communicating with employees, especially as remote workforces become more prevalent. Companies can no longer rely on in-office meetings, email blasts, and lunchroom posters to reach a geographically dispersed workforce. Today’s employees expect timely, relevant, and customized communications in easily digestible pieces.

Under these conditions, enterprise mobile apps are quickly becoming the go-to communication tool for organizations looking to cut through the clutter of internal emails and the noise of underutilized intranet sites.

While some companies have started using mobile technology to communicate more effectively with their customers, best-in-class organizations are also adopting an enterprise mobile app strategy to communicate business critical and time-sensitive information to their staff.

Early adopters are beginning to see impressive returns on their investment in the form of improved message penetration, increased employee participation in programs, instantaneous 360 feedback, and valuable analytics that drive better decision making and business outcomes.

Email is out, mobile is in

Email is out for employee communications. A recent survey determined that employees typically receive an average of 121 emails a day, while another suggests that the average employee spends 28 percent of the work week managing emails with little benefit to the business. Savvy employers have taken note.

With the explosive growth of smartphone adoption globally, enterprise mobile apps provide a convenient communication channel that’s familiar to individuals and can reach a much broader section of employees than email, including those without constant access to a work computer. In fact, 90% of people will read a text message within three minutes of delivery. Mobile is a direct and proactive way to ensure and verify employees consume critical and time-sensitive communications immediately. So mobile can act as a direct way for employees to communicate feedback and opinions to management easily and in real time.

Companies who are not actively using mobile strategies to communicate with employees are missing out.

Hit them with your best shot (when they want you to)

Mobile communication allows employers to gain the attention of their staff in ways that traditional communication channels cannot.

• Push notification: Mobile platforms allow employers to send content to employees at a specific time. For example, when a group of shift workers start their work day at 9 am every day, companies can send critical information through a mobile app during the first 5 minutes of their shift, exponentially increasing knowledge rates.
• Short and sweet: Mobile generates responses at the push of a touchscreen and increases response rates for desired outcomes. For example, employees can quickly indicate their understanding of a new process, or product, thus enabling a company to understand when more or fewer communications are necessary.
• Direct: Mobile doesn’t require an employee to open an email or visit a website—a big time saver. An employee simply taps the app notification and is taken directly to the information to be consumed. For example, in our experience, a well-designed mobile app only takes about two minutes of an employees time per shift to establish knowledge around new programs, and ultimately eliminating lengthy meetings.
• Customized: Successful enterprise app developers take a page from popular consumer loyalty rewards programs, which uncover large amounts of information on customers and targeted content that spurs action. For example, some apps allow organizations to segment staff by any number of demographics or divisions and develop customized messages. The system also remembers which employees expressed interest in a particular type of message or program (i.e., lunchtime yoga) and will only deliver future messages on these topics to interested individuals. This is the ultimate in developing a one-on-one, firm-to-employee relationship.
• Gamification: Rewarding your employees for engaging in your programs and consuming business-critical content can establish a fun, competitive, and social environment throughout an organization.

You manage what you measure

Mobile apps can provide real-time, one-click feedback on communication effectiveness. Managers use this information to improve business and communication strategies. For example, if a specific division or age demographic didn’t read or respond to an initial round of communications, the managers portal can provide suggestions on how to reach a disconnected audience. Additionally, when gamification is integrated as a part of the strategy, employee understanding and engagement is captured in a much deeper and meaningful way.

“Companies want to transform into a center of gravity for brilliant people. Companies that use these data-driven approaches to work and operate with increased speed, make better decisions and foster inspiring cultures. This attracts the best people, who want to work in these types of environments.”—Rahaf Harfoush, Communication World Magazine

Bring it all together

Good ideas, when brought to life, bring countless rewards, and it is no different with mobile communications. Although the technology was developed with frontline employees in mind, we’ve found that an effective mobile app also encourages management toward a common goal. Too often a company’s engagement strategy is divided among several management leaders, who are not familiar with internal communications, creating confusion and a disconnect between the brand and its employees.

When complementary objectives and communications are brought under one system, these messages become part of a cohesive and positive message for employees—a huge internal branding boost that produces big results for employees, and the company as a whole.