How to choose the right employee app for your company

You’re here, which means you’ve been tasked with sourcing an employee app for your company. There are a lot of options to choose from, so you’ll need to set out key parameters for the kind of employee app that your organisation needs, to whittle down the shortlist and make your final decision easier.

How did you get to this stage? Was there a specific trigger or issue where the answer was ‘we need an employee app’? Perhaps your company is experiencing significant growth, or employee feedback has highlighted failing internal processes and pain points of working across fragmented tools.

Fear not. We’re here to help identify what exactly you need from an employee app to solve your pain points, but first, let’s take a moment to make sure we’re on the same page before we get stuck in.

An employee app is a mobile-first tool that enables complete connectivity between employer and employee, offering instant opportunities for two-way communication and information access without relying on information cascades in morning meetings or lunch break chats.

Accessible via a mobile device, either through an app or web-based browser, an employee app opens up comms channels and access to resources that may otherwise be completely inaccessible, outdated or paper-based.

It depends who you’re asking. Many modern platforms combine both.

An employee intranet is typically accessed via a desktop device and acts as a central hub for company documents, booking time off, the go-to for internal processes and a space for two-way communication between colleagues.

Some employee apps are exceptional at providing a mobile-optimised experience that echoes that of the desktop intranet, while others provide a reduced amount of content that is specific to the deskless workforce, or simply allocates daily or weekly tasks to be completed.

The best use case for an employee intranet app is to connect the colleagues who don’t have access to a desktop device. These people may work in factories, supermarkets, restaurants, healthcare and any other hands-on jobs which don’t require working at a computer. They shouldn’t be the last to know, just because they don’t work in an office.

Frontline colleagues can often end up left out of company-wide comms because they don’t have a company email address or they haven’t got a laptop to check in for updates. They often rely strongly on managers to pass on key information and then when looking for resources, policies and procedures themselves, have to rely on managers to access them on their behalf. 

Being able to reach every employee directly also has a strong impact on reducing risk by sharing policy updates and critical information in an instant, so nobody gets left behind.

The components of the mobile app that works best for your business will be completely dependent on what the issues are that you’re here to solve. 

• Have you gathered employee feedback which signalled that frontline colleagues felt cut off from HQ?
• Does your workforce have a variety of other tech tools that your employee app needs to integrate with in order for IT to give it the green light?
• Is audience segmentation crucial to ensuring that each employee only sees and can access what’s relevant to them, their location and role? 

These broad questions are the tick-box exercise before you dig into the outcomes that you’re hoping to achieve and what you can use to get there.

Consider the key pain points you’re here to overcome. Could it be:

• Employee communications
• Employee retention and onboarding overhauls
• Employee engagement
• Gathering employee feedback from the whole workforce
• Collaboration and integration with Microsoft 365

Whatever your end goal, there are a multitude of ways that an employee app can bring key features to life for your people, leading to these positive outcomes.

Before defining your objectives, you’ll need clarity on exactly what it is that you need from the employee app. Once you have alignment on all of these objectives and requirements, you can narrow down your shortlist of employee app vendors that you know tick all of the boxes from the start.

1) Understand the needs of each segment of your workforce

You may know you have a split of desk-based and deskless colleagues, but what are the pain points of each segment of your workforce? Will your employee app be an extension of a desktop-based intranet or will it be a frontline-first mobile experience?

Gather feedback from employees at different levels, i.e. store or floor staff, line managers, regional managers and such to understand the pain points and requirements of each group. Once you have a clear picture of how each segment of your workforce operates and what tools they need to do their jobs more effectively, you can build out your objectives.

2) Define your objectives to find the right employee app for your organisation

From the feedback you have gathered, in addition to the trigger that kickstarted the search for an employee mobile app, you can start to define your objectives.

Perhaps your employee survey identified a need to speed up manual processes for deskless workers, from filing safety reports to claiming expenses, booking time off and submitting requests. 

A key focus may be getting messages direct to frontline colleagues in an instant or enabling access to information and resources digitally, rather than rifling through long and outdated paper-based process documents or employee handbooks. 

It could be that your employee feedback highlighted a disjointed employee experience between your desk-based and frontline colleagues. You may be focussed on providing a space to nurture company culture and connectivity, where colleagues can build community with their peers and bring that social element to work.

Another common objective encompasses the onboarding experience. It may be a challenge around uniformity of the onboarding process across departments, access to key training materials or a need to get new starters up to speed quickly. If employee turnover is an issue or new starters don’t feel equipped to get stuck into their new role after onboarding is complete, there could be gaps that a modern employee app could help to bridge. 

3) Create your employee app wish-list

At this stage, it’s wise to consult a technical checklist that will ensure any employee app you choose will provide the tools you need to achieve those objectives – and keep your IT team happy.

Simple, easy to use interface

There’s no point creating a seemingly showstopping employee mobile app if it’s difficult to navigate, clunky and becomes a chore to use.

Your employee app should be built with the end user in mind. Don’t pile in features that will clog up the user experience and put people off returning. Keep employee feedback in mind, include what they need and make it clear where they can find different kinds of tools and information. 

Integrations with your other tools

A key consideration is to ensure that your employee app of choice integrates seamlessly with your current digital ecosystem, such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and your business productivity tools to avoid fragmented workflows.

Consult your IT team to ensure that you have a list of all their requirements and bring them into conversations with preferred suppliers further down the line to make sure everyone is aligned.

Role-based targeting

When communicating with different groups of your workforce, you’ll need to ensure that you can segment your audiences. Streamlining comms delivery within your employee app will keep each user engaged and informed from the outset by only seeing what is relevant to them, their location, department and role.

Security

No matter where you’re based, your region will have some kind of IT and data security requirements. 

Your shortlist of employee intranet app vendors will also adhere to a range of security compliance regulations and certifications. Your IT team can read up on our robust intranet security guidance as part of their due diligence process.

Analytics

Being able to deep-dive into the data to understand what’s working is crucial to reporting on success. Built-in intranet analytics will highlight which segments of your workforce have the best employee app adoption, where they are the most engaged and to identify patterns in user behaviour to help future decision making.

4) Prepare to prove expected ROI

There’s no denying that you’ll need to demonstrate the Return on Investment (ROI) of whichever app you choose.

Aligning your employee app goals to wider company outcomes can encourage stronger buy-in from the outset and pique the interest of your senior leaders.

Here are some examples:

• Reduced employee turnover
• Stronger confidence in the company’s direction
• Increased frontline engagement
• Stronger food safety scores or improved training outcomes
• Improved productivity with streamlined access to resources and key information

Now let’s look at real-life examples of achieving objectives like these.

‘Chatty Patty’ by Five Guys 

Chatty Patty has changed the way Five Guys work. Built from the ground up, it allows Five Guys to communicate with their large deskless workforce quickly, recognise and reward employees and bring together training materials, rotas and payslips in one secure place. It has changed the way they work and is an essential part of the business.

They launched their employee app in just 48 hours in the midst of lockdown and the regular communications they shared via the app meant that over 90% of their colleagues returned to their restaurants afterwards. These open communication lines and opportunities for social interaction with colleagues near and far made a world of difference to the Five Guys culture and it continues to thrive every day.

Now, Chatty Patty remains a critical component of daily life at Five Guys, with restaurant teams regularly sharing updates and generating friendly competition from their own sites,  and Head Office sharing crucial allergen or menu updates with all staff in an instant.

“I can’t imagine trying to run the business without Chatty Patty now. It is an essential tool in our toolbox for how we run the business, how we communicate with each other, how we feed back, it’s essential, not optional.” – John Eckbert, CEO at Five Guys Europe

‘BK Hub’ by Burger King UK

Now a multi-award winning employee app, BK Hub has been transformational for the 98% deskless workforce at Burger King UK.

From tailored app-based pre-boarding before a new starter’s first day, to onboarding in their first few weeks, BK Hub has helped new hires to integrate into the culture from the outset, all without work email addresses. This has contributed to a 40% reduction in new starter drop-outs and a 32% reduction in turnover in hourly paid crew in just 3 months.

These stats really do speak for themselves. Bringing the culture to life, keeping employees informed without overwhelming them and drastically reducing the time managers spend on admin so they can instead lead their teams, all comes back to the ease of having one employee app that is the true central hub for all staff.

“BK Hub is growing into something our people can’t live without. To have created such a FOMO mentality around it is incredible. It empowers us to always be thinking of what’s next to keep our colleagues engaged and excited about working here.” – Nick Hollis, Head of Engagement, Burger King UK

‘In Touch’ by Scottish Rugby 

Scottish Rugby wanted a single platform that worked just as well pitch-side or on event days as it did in the office. With a workforce spanning office-based staff, on-the-go stadium operations staff and frontline teams working with players on the pitch and on the move, communication had become fragmented and critical updates weren’t always communicated in the most efficient way.

Their employee app is an extension of their desktop intranet and provides on-the-go access to everything their deskless colleagues need day-to-day. Mobile access has transformed how information flows across the organisation, ensuring critical messages reach the right people at the right time. 

Another key success of their employee app has been improving safety visibility by digitising the process of accident, incident and near miss reporting to ensure that everything was logged and nothing was missed. Bringing this into InTouch has given them the agility to move at the speed of sport, putting vital information and safety procedures directly into the hands of those who need them most.

“InTouch has allowed us to bring Edinburgh Rugby, Glasgow Warriors, and Scottish Rugby together under one digital roof, ensuring every employee feels part of the same team while still celebrating their unique brand identities.The biggest difference for us is accessibility. People don’t need to be at a desk or have a laptop to stay informed anymore – they’ve got everything they need in their pocket, whether they’re working an event, on the road or moving between our clubs and schools.”- Sarah Bell, Internal Communications Lead at Scottish Rugby