Internal Communication Tools – 2016 Trends and Solutions

An internal communications tool should deliver relevant, timely and operative information to employees at all levels.

By James Scott 23 June, 2016

Internal communication tools facilitate dialogue and collaboration within a business, translating top level business strategy into messaging which connects with all employees enabling the business to meet its objectives. An internal communication tool can be anything from a noticeboard in a staff room to a printed quarterly or intranet system.

The question is – "is your company carrying out your business internal communications strategy effectively?"

An internal comms tool should deliver relevant, timely and operative information to employees at all levels. In office based businesses with typical hierarchical structures and working hours the traditional intranet or printed communication channels may still be effective, but businesses are changing.

According to Deloitte’s 2016 Human Capital Trends report the demands and expectations of today’s diverse, multi-generational, mobile workforce require a more flexible, employee-centric work environment and strong communication is required to implement this:

This new mode of organization—a “network of teams” with a high degree of empowerment, strong communication, and rapid information flow—is now sweeping businesses and governments around the world.”

- Global Human Capital Trends 2016, Deloitte University Press

A noticeboard in a staff room, or a desktop intranet may serve to communicate some basic company information, but is it a tool which will help to engage, empower and retain a millennial employee who has grown up with instant messages and information at their fingertips? The App Builder has created a new internal communications tool which does recognise the demands and lifestyles of today’s workforce. Find out more below.

An Internal Communications Tool for a Mobile Millennial Workforce

Companies can grow reliant on traditional communication channels without recognising that they haven’t evolved with the growth and mobility of the workforce. The internal communications plan may appear to be working on paper, but without live measurable data on the uptake of the communication tool, it is likely that many employees are not connecting with the information if it reaches them at all.

Think of transport, retail and construction companies as just 3 examples - the vast majority of their staff are not in front of a laptop, don't have a company email account or phone and are geographically dispersed. They can often represent the highest cost of the business and also their greatest assets especially when the same staff are the front line to the company’s customers.

The App Builder have created a solution. 80% of UK employees work with a smartphone in their pocket. With an internal communications tool in the form of a mobile app, employees can check in on or add to communications at any time of day on their own mobile device. Employees can access information when and where they need it and complete tasks in a couple of taps.

More than just an Internal Comms Tool

The App Builder Internal Communications Mobile App is not just a mobile version of an intranet, it goes far beyond that. Our internal comms mobile app can revitalise the culture of your business, creating a new system of listening, interactivity and responsibility with measureable analytics at each step.

To start with we set out to create solutions to the basic problems in existing traditional communications channels as follows:

	Traditional Communications Channel		The App Builder Internal Communications Mobile App
Intranet	Difficult and often impossible to access on personal mobile devices Locked behind a firewall exclusively accessible via corporate mobile device Poor user experience (UX)	→	Available to all employees on their own personal mobile device, even those without company email. Secure fast mobile login. Employees can access the app with an individual username/password or their company email. Users can be added and removed easily to ensure only authorized people see your content.
	Intranet content is not optimised for consumption on mobile devices Difficult to find what you need Navigation is clunky	→	Mobile first design Content & navigation optimised for mobile Extremely fast - find what you need in a couple of taps Great user experience (UX)
	Original structure outgrown and added to organically over company history Challenging to find information quickly Problematic to add to and update	→	Fresh user friendly navigation developed along with company based on employee feedback and employee testing. Easy access to key information, policies, documents and contact info. Stay in control of your content & costs by making in-house updates with our intuitive Content Management System (CMS).
	Costly – expensive annual licences & support fees Slow and expensive to make significant changes	→	Modern "pay as you grow" SaaS pricing Make immediate changes to your app content, structure and features from the range of building blocks available through our Content Management System (CMS).
Email	Overloaded inboxes Important updates get lost amongst the daily email build up Distracting and stressful for staff	→	Push Notifications gain measurable read rates of 80% via internal communications tool apps versus 20% for email. Social facilities for millennial workforce more in tune with social messaging apps. Richer News stories enhanced with image galleries, snippets, polls and feedback.
Print	Printed staff magazines or line management briefings lack any form of real time interaction After publication and distribution – out of date when they reach staff Costly, at odds with environmental policies, lots of wastage.	→	No time delay – connects with every employee office based or on the move, no environmental impact. Two-way engagement with comments, employee feedback forms and user generated content. An employee feedback app facility can motivate and empower employees.

Easy implementation and roll out

Our development teams can have your fully branded company internal communications mobile app up and running in as little as 10 working days. We will go through your existing internal communications strategy in detail and bring it to life via the mobile app.

Apps provided by TheAppBuilder are created with the user in mind, and with our simple to learn Content Management System and dynamic training sessions, your staff can be on the App dashboard, producing optimised mobile content, sending notifications and more in less than an hour.

Getting on board with the app is a hassle free process for all employees. Once it’s up and running it can be downloaded directly onto an employee's own smartphone without any fuss, creating an instant direct, personal, 2-way channel with all employees, including those hard to reach audiences without company email or intranet access.

With the App Builder mobile app as an internal communications tool employees access information when and where they need it and complete tasks in a couple of taps. Information can be updated in real time meaning everyone has the latest information at their fingertips. Even in operations businesses where shift work is the norm and employees are on the move.

Measurable Success

With the internal comms mobile app, the potential for new levels of employee engagement is huge. And with measurable analytics data from the app, your team can understand and react to audience behaviour in order to develop a responsive internal communications strategy and create news tailored to your employee audience.

Find out how our mobile app internal communications tool could help revitalise your company communications strategy.