In order to better communicate and engage with employees, organizations are taking advantage of technology. What was once shared by posters, flyers, and word of mouth is now spread through company emails or notices on the company website. However, to Carla Jennison, head of human resources (HR) at the southern division of Hospital Care Corporation (HCC), that kind of communication has not been as effective as she would have liked. For instance, HCC rolled out a wellness program 4 months ago and let employees know through an email. There have only been a few dozen sign-ups among several thousand employees at 12 different hospitals. However, when surveyed at trainings, only one or two participants had heard of the program. So Carla has decided that HCC definitely needs a new way to communicate with its employees.

Carla thinks that the problem may be that most hospital personnel don’t have time to check email on their shift and that the website is built more for other aspects of HR—like job applications or completing forms. In order to find a different solution, she begins looking into alternatives. After exploring recommendations and products both online and at the Society of Human Resource Management conference, Carla has narrowed it down to two options. The first comes from the company Straight to Text, which will send texts to employees’ cell phones that let them know about things going on at HCC and where to go from there. It works similar to the emergency alert system that the hospital uses to notify employees of emergencies like bad weather or Amber Alerts. However, the one most intriguing to her was to get a cell phone app for employees that lets them learn about new benefits, receive benefitrelated news, and even manage and make changes to their benefits from the company Katora Inc. For those employees that do not have phones that use apps or tablets, there is also a web-based option. After getting demos of each product and pricing the different package options, Carla decides to go with Katora’s app for communicating with HCC’s employees.....

Discussion Questions

1. What kind of communication would you say these apps would be?

2. What problems do you see with using an app for upward communication, if any? For using an app for formal organization communication?

3. Do you have any concerns with the employees using their own cell phones or tablets to run the company apps? If so, what are they?

4. What do you think a company should look for in terms of functionality for employee engagement and two-way communication? Explain your thoughts.