This article was originally written by Jordan McArthur and has been updated for relevancy.

Rising Above the Noise

On average, you and your colleagues are sending and receiving 121 business emails per day. It’s no wonder why companies are looking for new solutions when it comes to communicating with their employees. Between the onslaught of work emails, the constant lure of social media, and every other modern distraction they’re dealing with – many folks just like you are trying to figure out how to put the conversation on a channel that won’t get lost in the mix. For most people nowadays, that equates to our personal mobile devices. The world looks to our apps for information now (we each spend an average of 171 minutes in them per day), yet the path to creating one remains somewhat of a mystery. That is, until the development of mobile app building platforms.

Build Your Own Apps

For the longest time, the problem with creating mobile apps was that the process was inaccessible for everyday people without any technical knowledge. Guidebook did away with that with Builder, which allows anyone – regardless of their comfort level with technology – to easily create and publish mobile apps right from a web browser. Building a mobile app should be easy, and they’ve created an easy 4-step process that’s incredibly easy to follow. The exciting thing about the democratization of mobile app development is that you can begin to make all your different ideas for using mobile communication come to life. Ever wanted an app for your leadership training programs or onboarding efforts? It’s possible!

Why HR Professionals Build Apps

Think of an app as a direct line of communication to the various groups you communicate throughout the year, and you’ll start to have some ideas of your own. In general, we’ve noticed that apps are being used to centralize conversations for teams of people – even when they might not all be in the same place at the same time. Here are some common uses:

• Leadership Training – Turn a leadership training program or summit into a digital event by providing an app that serves as a central hub of communication. Allow leaders from across your organization to form stronger bonds with networking and engagement features that will extend beyond the training and throughout their careers.
• Onboarding & Welcome Programs – Getting new employees up to speed requires delivering a lot of concentrated information in a relatively short timespan. Combat information overload by neatly placing all your need-to-knows into one mobile resource that can be referenced later at-will, then check in with a few strategic push notifications and feedback surveys.
• Team-Building Activities – Mobile apps features like shared photo albums and social activity feeds turn team-building activities into exciting events. Use an app to add a social layer onto whatever you have planned. People love checking to see who has uploaded the funniest photo or whose post has the most likes – building stronger relationships along the way!
• Conference & Tradeshows - Provide teams with alll the information they need in order to navigate a tradeshow of any size. Keep staff organized with schedules, maps, and session information so that they make the most of their conference trip!
• Intern Season – Your intern program can feel like a true experience if you join your cohort together with a HR mobile app. Know their thoughts with surveys, send them reminders with push notifications, and even host documents for them to reference. They’ll love it because they can chat directly with their fellow interns through the app, and you’ll love it because they’re forming strong relationships.

What does this look like in practice?

Businesses across the world – like Google, Coca-Cola, and CA Tech – have been building apps to communicate internally with their people. For them, mobile apps give them a degree of freedom and accessibility that didn’t previously exist. To learn more about how mobile can strengthen communication at your company, click the button below to request a demo.