How You Can Create A Connected Work Environment For Employees

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Technology has transformed traditional business roles into a collaborative and complex team effort across multiple departments. Communication has never been more vital but how do you make sure all employees are receiving the same, accurate information? How does marketing communicate with HR, or with IT, or even within their own department? We will be looking further in depth how the Salesforce1 platform changes the way enterprises interact with employees and how the platform provides an interconnected work environment.

In our previous post, we discussed the simplicity of creating consumer-facing apps on the platform to better connect with our customers. In order to create exceptional customer service, employees also need a way to communicate with each other. The Salesforce1 platform centralizes internal business operations across multiple departments, also making it easy to create employee-facing apps accessible at any time, from any location.

According to IDC, the Salesforce1 platform delivers 70% faster app development and a 520% ROI.Enterprises are building mobile apps department-specific for employees. These apps are increasing productivity, reducing costs and increasing communication. When employees are able to have their questions answered quickly and have access to the information they need in one location, they are working more efficiently and spending less time waiting on the resources they need. Field operations, marketing, finance, IT, HR, and sales can be connected with employees in their field easier than ever. Let's look at some examples of how the platform is changing the infrastructure of a few of these departments:

Marketing can develop a project app to manage and launch campaigns, or an app to access and share marketing collateral all on the employee's mobile device. If a salesman is in the field and needs a document immediately to share with a client, marketers can share files via a mobile app on the salesman's device within minutes. Make sure you are aligning your goals with the customer's expectations by tracking marketing efforts through analytic tools. Yes, there is an app for that too. Never miss an important deadline, quota, or customer interaction with the possibilities of the platform.

HR managers have a stressful job of organizing sometimes hundreds of employees and still have to maintain structure. HR can easily recruit, train, and schedule employee time off using the platform. Develop a recruiting app to automate the interview process and to ensure you're hiring the best talent in the industry. Training and managing new employees is not always easy but HR can tackle these tasks all within one centralized place on the platform. There are always employees requesting time off or vacation, help employees receive quick responses by having them communicate with you through a time management application. Managing people in an organized, efficient way has never been easier.

In a mobile world, employees will need help operating their devices when something goes wrong. Create an employee community where departments can contact each other, especially IT when they have technical issues. Have an employee who is working virtually or even out of the country? IT departments can build a help desk app to service employees no matter where they are located. You can develop apps for quality control, licensing, and even software development, all built on the Salesforce1 platform.

Are you unsure what type of apps you would like to implement for your company? Check out the Salesforce AppExchange and discover pre-made applications that are customizable to your business. Get ideas of what would work best for your employees by browsing the thousands of apps in the Salesforce library, all organized by department and job function to make it easy.

Communication is key. Employees need to have access to the right information, at the right time and be able to work with cross-department coworkers. Providing these tools allows employees to better serve their customers, which after all, drives business.