55 Reasons Why You Need a Communications App

There are so many reasons why you need a communications app to reach the modern workforce. More and more companies have a distributed workforce and need mobile-first solutions to reach their deskless, frontline, hybrid, and remote teams.

That’s why we’ve written our top 55 reasons why you need a communications app in 2023 and beyond.

But first, a little context.

What is a Communications App?

A communications app is a mobile application designed to facilitate communication between individuals and groups. Employee comms apps are those specifically designed for internal comms at a company.

Often, these apps are used for top-down communication where a company shares key messages about operations, benefits, safety, and company updates. But many employee apps also help with middle-out communication from managers and bottom-up communication where the employee voice is amplified.

Traditional Comms Channels Just Don’t Cut It

1. Frontline workers lack access to traditional comms channels like company email and Intranets. And these workers make up 80% of the global workforce.

2. The remote workforce is rapidly growing. Even after the pandemic, more companies will adopt a “work from anywhere” model, requiring new ways of communicating.

3. Only 13% of employees use their company’s Intranet daily and 31% never do (State of the Social Intranet, Prescient Digital Media).

4. 83% of comms pros think it’s important to personalize content to reach employee groups, but only 40% can (State of Internal Comms Report, Ragan).

5. Some traditional comms channels like email and company Intranets lack sufficient analytics.

6. Most traditional channels don’t allow for customization. DID YOU KNOW theEMPLOYEEapp lets you add your company branding within the app?

7. Intranets don’t usually have push notifications. Email can’t help but be a push notification. But an employee comms app lets you strategically use push notifications, improving the employee experience.

8. Apps like theEMPLOYEEapp are multifaceted. You can post banners, alerts, content, folders, events, and more, letting you use a 360-degree campaign approach.

9. Old-school comms channels don’t have the same control over user permissions that theEMPLOYEEapp does. With our app, you can empower local leaders to be able to post to the app—and still have complete control over what folders they can post in and to what groups.

10. If you make a mistake in an email…there is no easy way to take that back. With apps, you can quickly and easily edit the content and no one has to know!

Better Communication Helps the Bottom Line

11. Better communication improves employee engagement.

12. Employee engagement results in lower absenteeism and turnover, higher productivity, and increased sales (Gallup).

13. 70% of the variance in employee engagement is due to the manager (Gallup). Apps give you an easy way to share talking points, training, and more with your frontline managers to help them be stronger communicators.

14. The cost of poor communication is $37 BILLION (Holmes Report).

15. You can save money and managers’ time by making all printed content digital like rue21 did.

Mobile is the Future

16. Eight in ten digital minutes are spent on mobile devices (Marketing Charts). 

17. Nine in ten mobile minutes are spent on mobile apps (Marketing Charts). Meet your employees where they are!

18. Comms apps allow for the seamless sharing of multimedia content. You can more easily share videos. And videos are better for training, retention, and engaging your busy audience.

19. Comms apps let you post from a desktop or mobile device, so you can always share updates in real-time.

A Communications App is Accessible 

20. With smartphone ownership being 97% (PEW Research), mobile applications are familiar to nearly everyone and require little training to use.

21. Bring your own device (BYOD) opens the door for employees to have access to information and resources whenever or wherever they need it.

22. Employees can turn on translation so they can read the hard-coded content of their app in their native language.

Apps Are More Fun

23. Our client Cooper Lefler from Veterans United so poetically once said, “Email is necessary but it’s boring.” We couldn’t agree more.

24. Apps, unlike email or Intranets, don’t have to be as formal. You can (and should!) have more fun with the content.

25. Apps let you use catchy titles, eye-catching thumbnails, and captions for context.

26. A comms app makes running fun contests and programs for your employees easy.

Apps Are Secure

27. If your app provider is worth their salt, they will be SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and crush their Veracode audits.

28. Apps like ours leverage the power of biometrics and single sign-on making them secure and easy for your employees to remember their passwords!

Apps Benefit All Departments

29. HR will thank you. Open enrollment comms have never been so easy!

30. Power out? WiFi down? The app still works no matter the circumstances, so IT can get updates out easily.

31. A company directory where you can include department contacts helps employee questions get to the right people faster.

A Communications App Improves the Employee Experience

The State of the Sector found eight things that make up the employee experience. Apps for communication help with all of them.

Physical and Emotional Wellbeing

32. Your wellness team can share helpful tips for physical and mental health directly through the app. A few of our clients have started Wellness Wednesdays to promote this.

33. Safety reminders and rules can be shared on a channel where everyone can view them. 

34. Apps help create two-way feedback loops where employees can share how they’re doing.

35. Directly communicating with all employees at the same time helps you share information on difficult but important subjects, improving psychological safety.

Career and Financial Wellbeing

36. BNSF Logistics decided to move their learning and development program onto their employee app so employees would have access to training and career development resources anytime.

37. Many of our clients post open positions in their app—this is one of the top content types at companies that do this.

Technology, Environment, and Ways of Working

38. Comms apps give your employees easier access to the tools to help them in their jobs.

39. Features like a directory give employees a direct line to the people they need to interact with.

Leadership and Culture

40. Leaders can post messages, including video messages, to employees easily through the app.

41. An app can become a hub of information regarding your mission, purpose, and values.

42. You can post nice-to-know content that reinforces your values and culture.

Strategy and Change Management

43. An app helps you navigate all the stages of ADKAR for change management by helping you build awareness, navigate resistance , educate employees on the change, build their ability, and reinforce the message over time.

44. 74% of employees feel like they are missing out on company news and information (Trade Press Service). Apps help you reach them directly and clearly communicate that what they do matters.

Reward and Benefits

45. A communication app is great for building out your employee recognition program and makes it easy for leaders across your company to recognize their teams publicly. Our client Jodi Heard at Polyconcept did just that.

46. One of the top posts on our clients’ apps is a link to the Self-Service portal—apps make it easy for employees to access their benefits, payroll, timekeeping apps, etc.

A Communications App is Useful During Crisis

47. At the start of the pandemic in 2020, daily active users on our app went up 207% and content views increased 348% platform-wide. When employees need information, they’ll know where to find it.

48. Avera Health saw a 23% jump in users on their app due to an increased need for COVID-19 information in 2020. Their app became a source of truth during a stressful and chaotic time.

49. United Health Services had a similar experience during the pandemic with posts receiving 10x as many views on average.

50. But apps aren’t just good for global health crises…clients like Kreg Tool used their app to communicate through common crises like when a storm swept across the midwest, damaging their plant, and forcing them to shut down.

Communications Apps Connect a Hybrid Workforce

51. Mobile solutions that are accessible from anywhere ensure that remote and hybrid employees don’t lose touch with their office-based colleagues.

52. Employees who aren’t visible at work sometimes get passed over for promotions due to a phenomenon called proximity bias. Communication apps allow you to make microlearning and professional development opportunities accessible to all.

53. Apps for communication make it easier to recognize your distributed teams in a meaningful way!

54. One of the key components to a successful hybrid workforce model is a digital workplace. An app is a better hub of resources, updates, and events than any other channel, other than an intranet, which isn’t alway as easily accessible.

55. Apps can be used as a key onboarding tool for distributed employees, preventing them from feeling as isolated during their first few weeks.

Take Action

Congrats for making it all the way to the end of our list! We figure that means you are probably interested in learning more about employee apps. If that’s the case, we’d love to talk to you.