Can an Employee App Save you From the Zombie Apocalypse?

Granted it's not a question we get asked every week.  Clients are normally using employee apps powered by our platform for "business as usual" communications -  sharing internal news, employee recognition, benefits, policies, useful contacts and so on.  However a couple of stories recently caught our attention whereby clients had to deal with abnormal / crisis situations and used their employee app to good effect...

The first scenario was a fast developing natural event - a nationwide storm was closing in fast and late at night the organisation had to take the decision & get the message out to all 6,000 staff not to come into work the following morning - especially those working on very early shifts when the storm would still be at its worst.  Using TheAppBuilder platform their internal communication manager was able to log in from home, create the weather warning and send a push notification instantly to all employees with the app - all in just a few minutes.  Whilst the functionality is nothing unusual for one of our apps, the speed at which the organisation could react and get the message out was light-speed compared with their previous cascade communication methods prior to having an employee app.

The second scenario involves one of our clients who adopted the Microsoft Office 365 environment for all of their "desk-based" staff and unfortunately that service experienced an outage - no employees where able to login to check their emails, use Skype for Business or access any of the Office 365 services - they were all effectively plunged into a digital darkness! The organisation was able to use the internal comms app we provided to keep everyone in the loop as the issue was worked on and eventually resolved.  This example highlights the benefits of not having all of your eggs in one basket when it comes to cloud services.

Due to the number of variables in the app equation - network/data coverage, push notification permissions, app download % you wouldn't of course argue for any app to be seen as a "life critical" guaranteed means of communication, it can of course still form part of an overall crisis management response / strategy to help you get the message out there and keep the lines of communication open.

If you would like to discuss a similar app as part of your internal communications strategy – click here to contact us!