Pitching a Team Engagement tool and Staff App to your CEO

Picture the scene. You have a large workforce of staff in your business, most of which do not have access to a company computer during their shift, or a company email account. You’ve decided that a Team Engagement tool with staff app is the way forward. You’ve spoken to other senior colleagues and they agree. The only thing that is standing in the way is convincing your CEO — and the inevitable budget sign off.

Over the past few years, we’ve spent a huge amount of time working with decision makers, discussing the power of a Team Communication tool and staff app for non-desk workforces (NDWs). In this article we talk about our experiences and tips to move the project forward within your business.

Why do you need it?

Last month, a data analytics firm published a report detailing how US consumers now spend up to 5 hours on their smartphone every single day. This follows from news in January that said the time spent in mobile apps had increased 69 percent year-on-year. The United Kingdom will inevitably follow these trends.

You know that you have hundreds (possibly thousands) of staff that are completely out of reach by the majority of existing internal communication methods. They don’t work from a desk during their working hours, so why would they bother accessing that intranet you installed a few years ago?

New staff are greeted with a large paper based induction manual, or spend several of their first hours on shift occupying a company desktop computer working through an antiquated “e-learning system”.

What’s the value?

Vital to winning the CEO’s buy-in is answering this question. A Team Engagement tool and staff app can bring many positives to the business. Pick your top 5 . Here are some examples that we’ve seen used time and time again:

• Provide your Customers with better Customer service: your staff would be more in the know, they can provide your Customers with a better service.
• Real-time crisis management: should something happen at a location that requires urgent attention, properly escalate the situation in the right manner to the right Management Team member, all in real-time.
• Customer satisfaction: hearing directly from the frontline will mean that customer feedback will be received more promptly. More feedback means more ideas and improvements to existing processes.
• Reach all areas of the organisation: rather than a corporate email address and intranet for the top 10% working in the business, all employees are connected, meaning that all company information is shared to all parties directly.
• Improve collaboration and best practice sharing: all team members can now communicate freely, yet all within company control, allowing them to collaborate and share ideas, quick messages, all leading to a more informed and more engaged workforce.
• Provide your staff with a better onboarding experience and save the company money: rather than paying staff to sit their entire induction in the workplace, set a culture for them to work through some modules in their spare time.
• Time saved: share time saving touch points within the business. For example, rather than a manager spending hours on the phone attempting to cover a shift or a class, all relevant staff can be notified and respond within seconds, drastically freeing up the Manager’s time.

How will it support the business strategy?

Crucial to winning CEO and Senior Stakeholder support is linking the tool to existing business strategy. Be specific on a particular business goal, and provide examples on how the tool could help.

For example, providing the latest sales promotion to the Reception Team, or latest Health and Safety policy to the Lifeguards. Whilst the process of communication works well for Managers with corporate email or access to company intranet, it becomes much more of a challenge for these workers who do not necessarily have access to these tools during their shift.

Using the Engagement tool, the company can provide documentation, or short video updates and can track employee feedback in real-time; reporting on who has viewed / read the information provided. Surveys can be created to discover what has been most useful, and quizzes can be created to quickly test staff knowledge and understanding.

Budget / Cost

We know that this is probably the main question they will be thinking about during the majority of your discussion, so be prepared for this. Obviously factoring in the cost of the software (we can help you with this) will be a key staring point, but some other points to build into the presentation:

• What will the cost of the project be from a resource / implementation point of view? The Our People tool is designed to be as simple as possible to implement, taking the hassle out of roll out. Our team can often build an entire environment in a single day.
• How will the product impact on existing organisational challenges? Think about direct costs like printing of company newsletters or staff handbooks? The man hours wasted calling staff for cover? The cost of staff survey software? The Our People tool has often been used to completely remove the need for an intranet, directly cutting existing expenditure.
• How will the product help the company save money once it’s fully functional? The Our People team can provide ROI documentation on this and help to identify the direct cost savings within your business.

Taking things to the next level

Rather than presenting to the CEO right away, talk to us, as we can provide collateral by way of product screenshots, testimonials from other customers and data on cost / time saving. We can even provide a short webinar to help walk you through the various elements of the product that would be useful to your particular business. Feel free to get in touch.

OurPeople is a Team Engagement tool designed specifically for workforces which do not work from a computer on a during their shift. Are you interested in finding out more?