6 Ways Technology is Transforming Employee Engagement

In many ways, mobile apps are the future of business. Think about it, your younger employees are literally glued to their phones – and so are your older employees. As such, it stands to reason that if you want to increase employee engagement, you need to use platforms which they are comfortable using.

But what if you aren’t a multinational with millions of dollars to spend on employee engagement programs? You might think that you’d be left behind. However, this isn’t the case and here are six ways technology is transforming employee engagement.

1. Workforce Collaboration

Before smartphones workplace collaboration either meant sitting at your workstation to get things done or finding a physical location where teams can regularly meet. While projects would eventually get done, logistical challenges often delayed delivery. 

Enter the smartphone and specifically apps which help to coordinate peer-to-peer communication across workgroups, regardless of where they are located. The introduction of these devices has changed how work is done. Sure, you take work with you everywhere. But you no longer need to be in the office to easily communicate with the team.

2. Payroll Processing

Let’s face it, processing payroll is tedious and if you have hourly employees, then just making sure they have properly clocked in and out can be a waste of time and energy. To solve these problems, payroll companies offer apps which allow employees to clock in and clock out on their phones.

These apps can be used regardless of whether your workforce remains on-site or is mobile. In addition to making it easier for employees to clock in and clock out, it also gives them added transparency into how many hours they have worked.

This makes it easier for administrators to track who’s working and even where they are. The latter helps when managing a mobile workforce and can be used to see if anyone is available when a service call comes in.

3. Corporate Communications

A critical aspect of employee engagement is the flow of communication throughout the organization. Enterprise apps can streamline the delivery of company news, employee announcements, events, and even for employees to provide feedback direct to senior management.

This happens through a combination of push notifications, newsfeeds, and messaging, replacing the company bulletin board of days gone by. In addition, many apps have options allowing employees to customize how they use the app, and this helps to ensure engagement.

4. Human Resource Management

While Human Resource Management (HRM) software has been on the market for decades, more and more developers have released mobile apps. This includes everything from offering a leave management system, to training and development tools which employees can use right on their cell phone.

In addition, to broad-spectrum apps which cover every aspect of human resource management, specialty “micro apps” have started to enter the market and this has helped HR departments large and small to better complete their mission.

But it is not just big companies which benefit from these applications. In fact, many small businesses have taken to HR applications to help cover the fact that they cannot afford to have a full-time HR manager on staff.  This not only helps to reduce costs, but it also makes it easier onboard and tracks employee development than ever before.

5. Increased Efficiency

Making it easier to get work done is critical to keeping employees engaged. For this reason, most app developers have focused on user experience. Why not? You're Investing in technology to make your team more effective but if they don’t enjoy using the solution, then you will never be able to reap the benefits. 

Beyond this, apps can also help managers to track the progress of projects, alerting them when something is behind schedule. This can be the difference between getting things done on time or not.

6. Increased Independence

The old way of doing things usually meant that employees needed to be chained to their workstations to get anything done. However, technology has increased flexibility in terms of when and where work can be done.

Not being forced to work in the office means some employees will spend less time in their car on their way to work, which has added benefits. If someone else causes your injuries in a car—whether on the way to the office or elsewhere—a car accident lawyer in Charlotte can help you seek compensation.  

Granted some employees work better in a structured work environment but for many, the increased independence on offer is a blessing. While for managers, the use of workforce collaboration tools can allow them to follow up even when employees are not in the office.

Conclusion

Even as technology has transformed how business gets done there is one constant – your employees.  That being said innovations have proved important in keeping teams connected, focused, and happy. As such, you should consider how your organization is embracing technology to increase employee engagement.