Mobile-first communication channel proves “mission critical” during worldwide pandemic
New York, NY, July 21, 2020 – Initially looking to influence culture and engagement among a dispersed healthcare workforce of nearly 12,000 treating patients from all 50 states and to replace an ineffective desktop-based intranet, UC Health in Cincinnati, Ohio, partnered with Staffbase on a solution. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, UC Health was ready to effectively communicate with a largely non-desk workforce in a time of crisis.
Prior to this year’s global health crisis, UC Health enlisted the help of Staffbase, a global market leader in mobile-first employee communication platforms that engage diverse, disconnected and distributed workforces, to create a new mobile communications portal — a customized, branded employee app called “The Link”.
“While COVID-19 has been a significant challenge to everyone, we are grateful we had this new centralized source of information already in place,” said Kelly Martin, UC Health AVP Communications. “It made it much easier to deliver the right message at the right time to the right audience when the pandemic hit. Suddenly, communications, while always important, became mission critical and we were ready to quickly communicate new and essential safety protocols.”
User adoption rate of the new employee app was at 45% in January 2020. Now, 75% of the organization is fully engaged in utilizing this new communication channel. “We went from a hard to navigate intranet portal with thousands of pages that had never been visited to 75 percent of our workforce engaged. We have a significant portion of our workforce that does not sit at a desk – they are walking around a medical facility, providing hands-on patient care. Making this transition to a mobile-first communications solution gave us a modern and efficient way to deliver critical information to our employees and clinicians that educates, inspires and unites them like never before,” said Martin.
“The world changed after January 2020, especially for our brave frontline healthcare workers,” said Staffbase CEO and founder Martin Böhringer. “Never has it been more crucial for important information to quickly and easily reach remote and deskless workers. And for healthcare workers, that means receiving the most accurate information on new procedures, techniques and safety protocols in as easy a way as possible – via the mobile device they always have with them.”
Benefits and features of the UC Health employee app “The Link” include:
- Targeted messaging based on work functions and geographic locations
- Scrolling banners for important messages – like updates relating to COVID-19
- Easily accessible from anywhere, including home
- Push notifications for urgent reminders or alerts
- Easy ways for staff and leaders to publicly recognize colleagues and team members
- Training videos
- “Suggestion Box” for real-time feedback from employees.
For more information, check out this webinar: “3 Proven Strategies to Educate, Inspire and Unite Employees through Digital Internal Communications” featuring UC Health’s Kelly Martin.
A Case for Digitization
A few weeks after the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, Staffbase conducted a global empirical study on the impact of the crisis on the work of internal communicators. In summary, the professional field of internal communication is undergoing a major change as a result of the crisis. Amplifying previous trends, a majority of today’s internal communicators recognize the need for increased digitization, including improved comms via smartphones. In fact:
- 56% agree that digitization strategy for internal communications must be given higher priority
- 47% say employees must be given better access to corporate messaging via their smartphones
- 57% plan to develop a strategic concept for employee communication
- 44% see increased importance of expansion and restructuring of their intranet
About Staffbase
Staffbase is a global market leader in mobile-first employee communication platforms for enterprise companies. The mobile compatibility of the company’s Internal Communications App, Employee App and Employee Experience Intranet solutions allow employers to securely reach their employees everywhere with reduced complexity — whether in the office, at home, on the factory floor, or on the road. These solutions give employees greater access to the corporate information that’s relevant to them and tools for the modern digital workplace, including existing intranets. With headquarters in Chemnitz, Germany, and offices in Amsterdam, Cologne, Dresden, London, Munich, and New York City, Staffbase provides branded solutions for more than 400 leading companies worldwide who are transforming their employee experience including Adidas, Audi, DHL, Iron Ore Company of Canada, Paulaner, UC Health and US LBM.
Please visit staffbase.com for more information.
Press contact:
Leigh Nofi
Staffbase Inc.
U.S. PR Manager
e-mail: leigh@staffbase.com