5 Tips for Rolling Out New Mobile Apps to Your Staff Effectively

An employee mobile app can be a useful tool to accomplish all manner of goals within the organization. It can be used to share news in a large organization. Employees can use it to track their personal performance goals. In many organizations, it is used to curate culture by sharing of stories, curated content from external sources, and documentation of the company’s heritage.

Successful company apps are not the ones that have the fanciest features. Instead, they are the apps whose features provide the most utilities, so that the usage rate is high and sustainable. How should your organization go about rolling out a mobile app successfully?

1. Having Clear Goals for the App

As discussed, it’s essential for your app to have a defined primary purpose. Is it meant to provide a personal portal for employees? Do not start with the technical specifications for the app. Instead, hold a series of discussions with employees to find out what problems you could solve with an app. Use the feedback from these discussions to determine what features to include in the first version of the application. An MVP.

2. Have Sponsors for the Employee App

Successful launches of an employee app depend on the amount of support the app gets in informal discussions among employees. Identify sponsors to help curate the narrative about the app. The CEO of the company should be the main sponsor of the app and their support is crucial in creating enthusiasm for the app. Each organization has its nuances which you must remain aware of when introducing changes.

3. Pilots are Important for your Mobile App

Once you have the first version of the app, launch it in stages. Have a pilot run with a small group of employees. This will help you test how the app performs in a real-world environment. You will be able to catch any technical bugs while also noting feedback on the various features. Pilot runs might lead you to drop some features or make others more prominent based on the reaction to them.

The people involved in the test run are also very likely to become ambassadors for the app once you release it to a larger group of users.

4. Gamify the Mobile App Experience

It would help if you thought about ways through which you can increase usage rates on the app based on the purpose for which you built it. For instance, gamifying user experience through a reward system is a common way to increase use. If the app was meant to be a learning portal where employees can take self-development courses, awarding them points and having a public leader board will provide a positive incentive.

5. Communicate Relentlessly

Once you launch the app, have a plan to continue educating users on the various features of the app. You can have a video series highlighting how the features are helping users become more effective at their job because of the app. In addition, you could provide users with statistics on how well the mobile app has been received. When you do this constantly, it is likely to increase the usage rate of your app.

Lastly, picking the right software development partner will make the launch of your employee mobile app much easier. The developer should help you craft a strategy to gather information on employee needs and incorporate them into the final product. NS804 is a world-class app development company. We help businesses build products that directly improve their workflow.