4 Must-have features in an employee app.
Every large company needs employees who are up to speed with the current company affairs. It needs to communicate each news piece clearly and efficiently. Since 95% of adults aged 18-49 own a smartphone, a custom-made employee app is just the right tool for that. Aside from the usual stuff (messaging, calendars, the things that should be taken for granted), here are the 4 must-have features (and 1 bonus one) to consider.
01.
News articles - eye-catching and beautiful
A single glance should suffice. Put in a WYSIWYG editor to make creating articles nice and simple. Targeting specific audiences based on organisation structure, for example, is always useful. Not to mention all the other standard features like pinning, push notifications, and scheduling.
02.
Find anyone’s contact info within 10 seconds
With thousands of employees, you don’t want to make your own version of the Yellow Pages. Implement a useful search function so that however obscure and uncertain information the person has, they can still search for the relevant contact info.
Some useful features of an efficient search system:
Use queries, i.e. “Find all forklift operators in Rostock”.
Full-text search.
Filter people by company information (location, position, role, etc.).
One tap call or email.
03.
Easy access to all things HR
Vacation policies, code of conduct, etc. should always remain at hand’s reach. An employee app is the perfect medium for each employee to only see the information relevant for them.
Your app can have the information neatly organised in a granular fashion.
Every employee should only see the topics relevant to them, no need to throw useless walls of text on top.
04.
Suggestions!
Make it easy for employees to suggest changes. After all, they are the ones in the frontlines and oftentimes the ones with the most innovative ideas.
Make your suggestion box advanced, here’s how:
Let the employees attach media to their suggestions, strengthening their case.
Create customisable rules so that suggestions reach the relevant people.
Send a copy to the suggesting employee’s supervisor and the global quality coordinator.
Implement the ability to export suggestions in a .csv format, including all relevant metadata.
05.
Something extra
Why not throw in an extra feature? What about a closed marketplace for your employees to sell and buy used stuff? After all, trading with your colleagues is more trustworthy as you actually know the people you are buying from or selling to.
Some simple features a nice and slick marketplace should have:
Listing great-looking ads.
Direct contact to the seller
Reporting fishy ads.
Organising into categories.
Now that you know what features a useful and user-friendly employee communication app should have, perhaps you’d like to see it in practice. Why not check out our case study detailing how we helped GEFCO with their own app?
And if you’re planning to build your own, feel free to drop us a message, we’d be happy to help!