How mobile apps can improve employee engagement in 2023

Going mobile isn’t a new concept for businesses. Still, 2022 reports suggest that less than half of organisations are using apps for HR processes to manage and optimise these tasks. With their ability to automate tasks and streamline onboarding and payroll processes, using a mobile app can benefit your business. These apps are extremely useful in streamlining the HR function, but they can also improve employee engagement by making your workforce management mobile.

Employee engagement itself is a vital component of people management that is the end result of an exceptional employee experience. Organisations that create an environment where engagement thrives are likely to see a more committed workforce, leading to improved retention rates and success for the company. With the Humanforce Mobile App, you can further enhance both aspects of your business. 

Here are just a few ways your organisation can benefit from the use of mobile apps.

Enhanced autonomy

Autonomy is that much-needed antidote for micro-management. Not only does it fundamentally allow more freedom in the way your employees perform their jobs, but it also empowers them. According to Harvard Business Review, autonomy is currently the most desirable benefit for employees. 

As working patterns and businesses return to a new normal after the lingering effects of the pandemic, what workers crave the most is being given a choice about their new working patterns. When Apple, for example, informed workers that they had to return to the office for a certain number of days per week, it led to multiple resignations — not because they were fundamentally against the strategy but because they wanted the autonomy to choose themselves.

This is just as important for deskless and shift workers and Humanforce's innovative Mobile App offers them this autonomy. The app allows them to accept, swap, bid for and change shifts within the parameters of your shift scheduling policy. They can also view and access rosters and timesheets from any location, helping to keep the process running smoothly for managers and employers.

Accessible training and learning

Boston Consulting Group reports that ‘lack of career advancement’ is the second most-cited reason why shift-based employees want to switch employers. Continuous training and education is an increasingly important part of any employee engagement strategy for deskless workplaces. Thanks to the rise in eLearning tools, employees now have easier access to training and development. Using mobile apps to provide your courses and learning modules means that upskilling is accessible to all your workers, whatever their working patterns.

Streamlined communication

As billionaire Richard Branson succinctly argues, “communication makes the world go round”, so it's not hard to see why there's such a strong link between employee engagement and the way communication is handled in an organisation. It's also a simple fact that employees leave when there’s poor communication.

Mobile apps incorporating methods such as a chat function, corporate memos, welcome messages and important internal notifications ensure a centralised point of communication. This means that employees can access information on the go and on a single platform, streamlining the process.

However, it’s not just communication from the top down that can be promoted through mobile apps. Businesses can also leverage this opportunity to encourage inter-departmental communication and collaboration — a key way to keep deskless or shift workers feeling engaged with their colleagues. 

Effective team communication plays a big part in continuous engagement, as it promotes a free flow of information and ideas, as well as encourages the emotional connection with work, which leads to a stronger commitment to the company.

Enhanced performance tracking

Another crucial element for engagement is allowing employees to know how they’re performing and what can be done to improve their performance rating. A HR mobile app can include performance tracking tools, providing an efficient process for both the manager and the employee and offering possible guidelines on how to improve. Link this up with an accessible training program, and employees have everything they need to progress their careers at their fingertips.

Gamification

Even the most mundane job can become exciting and challenging with the employment of a gamification strategy. This can be a simple office scoreboard or something bigger, like special rewards. Mobile apps are a simple way to measure these tasks and keep everyone up to speed on the progress and what needs to be done to reach the next level. For employees, this is a fun way to do the job and gain some fast, informal recognition for their work, which are both important elements in employee engagement.

Benefits for managers

It's not just your workforce who can reap the benefits of using these apps. The ability to streamline daily tasks such as rostering and payroll means that HR professionals and team managers save huge amounts of time that would otherwise be used to complete admin tasks. Humanforce's Mobile App can make a range of processes much more efficient and effective, including:

• Checking attendance and location of workers with real-time visibility

• Accessing and amending rosters

• Finding an instant solution for last-minute shift changes

• Publishing rosters for all staff to see

• Digital, paperless onboarding

• Automated payroll with award interpretation

With these tasks taken care of by our workforce management software, managers and the HR team are given the freedom to focus on what's important for your business. They have the time to get back to managing, thanks to the increased efficiency of using the app, and have instant access to all the important data they need, thanks to the mobile app's dashboard. This means that they can review information on the go, from any location and at any time and then make informed changes and decisions when they have to.

How Humanforce can help

Humanforce is a leading provider of shift-based workforce management solutions that simplify onboarding, scheduling, time and attendance, payroll, employee engagement, and communication. Customers in more than 23 countries use Humanforce to optimise costs, realise compliance confidence, empower their team, and drive growth. Humanforce was founded in Sydney in 2002, and today has offices across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the UK. 

Contact Humanforce and book a demo to see how our employee engagement software, including our Mobile App, can change the way you do business and improve your employee engagement.