Maybe you are just facing a decision, choosing the right tool for internal communication in your company? Are you looking for the best solution for your team?

Or are you already decided on infokiosks or monitors? After all, they have their advantages.

You’ve probably already had the opportunity to use them. They are especially useful in places where customer service is important and the number of employees is limited. Companies are deploying infokiosks to improve customer service and increase productivity.

Setting up infokiosks in appropriate places in the company allows employees to embrace organizational matters and learn about the latest announcements. They can use them to submit vacation requests, check contract details, available days off, and participate in company surveys.

But if they had a choice, wouldn’t they be more likely to do all this on their phone? We always have it at hand, we are already accustomed to using it. We don’t have to persuade anyone to check notifications. We often poke around on our own to check for new information in some app.

Employees are quicker to find surveys on their phone. They can do it at any free moment. In line, on a coffee break, or even on public transportation. It’s a convenient and easily accessible way to reach them and get their feedback.

Every employee can be involved in what is important to them and relates to their immediate work environment. The app itself provides the ability to tailor content to different teams and departments. There is no confusion – each person is assigned only to his or her teams, so you don’t have to harness information that doesn’t apply to you.

You’re probably wondering if this will encourage employees to misuse their phones while at work. Based on a case study with Volkswagen Poznań, we checked whether employees had a similar experience after implementing the app. And what did we find?

Fortunately, none of the departments reported such problems. Interestingly, employees not only did not misuse the app as an excuse to avoid work. On the contrary, they willingly used it during breaks and after working hours.

With two-way communication, employees become not only recipients, but also active participants, which improves communication dynamics and promotes engagement.

A company needs innovation, training and investment in its team to be on the cutting edge. Before making a decision, it is worth considering which of the available solutions better answers the question:

Which tool will be able to grow as the company grows?

Every day huge amounts of money go into marketing. It is the one that attracts customers, builds product recognition and strengthens the company’s image in the market. Internal communication in the company is equally important, although its effects are not always so spectacular. It is often neglected.

Employees need to know that they are appreciated, that they are a key part of the company’s success. This requires systematic and clear communications. After all, it’s about much more than just completing the next task on the list. Constant communication plays an extremely important role here, not just as a means to an end, but as the foundation that holds the team together.

Infokiosks and monitors are like interactive posters or cork boards – great for displaying information, but their impact is limited. They can’t penetrate deeper and really engage people. It’s like if you see a poster on the street, you’ll probably glance at it. And that’s it. That’s not going to bring a real positive change in the way the company operates. It’s not enough to just put up an information kiosk, set up a monitor or install an app. We want to inspire employees, build their motivation and influence the way they look at the company. We are going one step further.

One representative from Volkswagen Poznań noted that it is very useful to be able to customize the app to meet the company’s current needs:

“At the stage of thinking about what we wanted our communication app to look like, we considered other solutions and ready-made products. However, looking at how much our application has evolved in response to our needs, I can’t imagine using a ready-made tool now. There we would only have certain functions and little room for modification.“

We are not limited to just implementing and ticking off the task as completed. We want to understand exactly what our customers need. We propose to conduct a survey on internal communication among employees. What does this provide? It allows us to find out:

• how they evaluate the current communication,
• what is missing from the company,
• what they would change if they had the opportunity.

We give a voice to employees, because they are the ones who know their needs best.

We also plan to introduce an innovative concept called Communication Space, where companies will inspire each other and learn from each other. Posts by a given company will be able to be made publicly available to other companies in a dedicated space in the app. This will create a unique platform for sharing experiences, solving problems, and growing. Another option will be to make posts available only to other companies in a given group, so that individual companies can inspire each other and exchange knowledge, but without sharing the information further.

The ideas are in the experimental stage, so it is together with our customers that we discuss how we can further improve them and adapt them to your specific needs. Our goal is to constantly improve and adapt to the real challenges you face in business.

If you are curious about the prospects of mobile application development, please visit the FAQ section on our website: allabout.mobi

Real problems – real solutions

When working different shifts, it is difficult to maintain direct contact with every employee. As an example, we asked a logistics company about the problems they faced recently. It turned out that fast communication is really important for the company, especially when the number of shipments to be handled changes from day to day.

Suppose a shift suddenly has to be canceled or rescheduled for many people. At such a moment, the company needs to get this information out to all employees in a flash. But the truth is that this is not such an easy task at all – you can’t do without the right information medium.

Let’s have a look at the results of the study. The analysis conducted by R. Bosua and K. Venkitachalam shows us that in a shift work environment, knowledge transfer does not always work as expected. New employees on shifts often get too little information, causing them to not fully understand what went on before. This leads to situations in which the same problems are repeatedly solved by different groups of employees.

In one case studied, employees had access to an integrated system that each of them could use. This helped them better remember what was happening during shifts and gave them an advantage over the other companies in the study. They also had easier access to information from earlier shifts. They had a better understanding of what they should focus on during their future work.

If you want to learn more about this case study, the article can be found at the following link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/kpm.1456

Long-term potential – which solution is better to invest in for the long term?

Let’s talk about money. How does cost affect the choice between an app and information kiosks and monitors? On the surface, creating an app may seem like a more expensive solution than buying and setting up either infokiosks or monitors. Is this really the case?

That’s where the catch lies: the cost of maintaining, servicing and regularly updating infokiosks and monitors can build up over time, especially if there are several of them. Even a single glitch or the need to adapt to new requirements will cause a considerable financial burden. On the other hand, while applications require some investment to start, they can provide more predictable and controllable costs in the long run. Fees and their distribution over time can be tailored to the company’s budget.

Infokiosk or app – that is the question

Of course, both infokiosks and apps have their place in internal communications. The important thing is to choose the solution that best fits our company and team. The decision should be based on what we actually need, how we operate and what we want to achieve through communication.

What is really important in all this? An effective, clear and open exchange of ideas among employees. They are the heart of any company, and the tools enable them to act effectively. We have the chance to positively influence people and their working relationships and the right tool to help us do so, why not use them?

We want to see positive changes in companies that will be felt and appreciated by employees. Good communication is more than a few posters, posted on a bulletin board and forgotten. Bought, posted, ticked off – it doesn’t solve any problem or provide new opportunities. Good communication provides knowledge and builds intrinsic motivation for action. It helps employees see their company in a new and better light.

A clear work plan, a motivated, well-communicated team and concern for their well-being all translate into long-term benefits for everyone.

If you want to learn more about AllAbout’s capabilities, there are a couple of options. You can take a look at our website: allabout.mobi or schedule a meeting right away, where we’ll be happy to clear up any uncertainties, answer questions and provide a demo of the application: https://calendar.app.google/VatFohHr8kXzuVjQ9 See you there!