HR Everywhere: The Case for Engaging Mobile Experiences

Mobile technology has opened the door to some very impressive opportunities for business profit and growth. From real-time customer assistance and engagement to updates in the field, mobile user experiences have built a bridge of communication, connection, and data exchange that helps business leaders seize opportunities on the fly while addressing potential risks along the way.

Many businesses have already undergone significant adoption of mobile apps. However, relatively few are leveraging the technology to enhance their employees’ experience to the same degree they focus on the customer experience.

This is especially a missed opportunity for organizations that fail to recognize the role of mobile in keeping people engaged and connected, while their competition pulls ahead. Deloitte’s report, “2018 Global Human Capital Trends,” cites that businesses are alert enough to sense and responsive enough to accommodate stakeholder expectations and demands when they enable greater collaboration, internal agility, and an external ecosystem. And this is very difficult to do when employees are exclusively using desktop-based enterprise technology.

As the workforce continues to evolve, HR organizations are facing the weighty burden of implementing and reinforcing a workplace culture that strengthens employee engagement. This is where mobile technology can be incredibly useful.

Opportunity for HR to Tap into What Employees Want Most

Let’s face it, the days of using technology to get employees to complete a single task are quickly coming to a close. The more people become accustomed to digital experiences in their everyday lives, the more HR organizations need to reassess their portfolio of digital tools and technologies from their users’ perspectives.

From recruiting and hiring to talent management and development, employee expectations on how they want to engage with HR are rapidly changing and divergent. Increasingly, they want the entire user experience to be connected and available when they need it. At the same time, the freedom to jump between desktops, Web portals, multiple mobile devices, and any other interaction channel is highly valued, especially when the data is constantly evolving, and people are less and less likely to be tethered to their desks.

HR organizations that understand these behaviors well can appreciate how diversifying points of interaction and access to data offers a compelling business case. And for those that are still skeptical, they really need to look no further than their marketing and sales colleagues. In fact, as cited by Aberdeen Group, organizations with strong omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain, on average, 89% of their customers, compared to 33% for those with weak programs.

Mobile User Experiences Turn HR into an Employee Engagement Superhero

For HR organizations eager to jump on the omnichannel bandwagon, creating mobile applications that display a carbon copy of core HR, payroll, and talent management applications is the most common knee-jerk reaction. However, the workforce would be better serviced with a more thoughtful approach.

While the same transactional capabilities may be available, the user experience itself should be designed with a people-first approach. The key is to consider the workforce’s current behaviors and preferred technology channels, then put them in the context of what the business needs to achieve workforce goals and comply with regulatory requirements.

Giving employees everything they need with the ease, speed, and flexibility they have come to expect from their consumer mobile apps goes a long way towards technology adoption and long-term engagement. When we equip our people with powerful mobile experiences, we not only connect them with HR, their careers, and one another, but we do so in a way that engages and empowers people to do their best work.


Gabriela Burlacu works in Solution Management for User Experience and Mobile at SAP SuccessFactors.