5 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD INTEGRATE YOUR EMPLOYEE-FACING TECHNOLOGIES
As we showcased our new integration with CPL Learning (watch the On Demand version here), we thought it would be worth reminding customers why we invest so much in designing and delivering integrations with 3rd party platforms.
1.The easiest way to retain employees is to make their lives easier
Companies have been ‘bundling’ and ‘unbundling’ technologies in cycles for the past 30 years. Microsoft Office is a famous business technology bundle (Word, plus Excel, plus Powerpoint), whereas the streaming service Disney+ (the animation giant’s new, rival service to Netflix) represents an unbundling from cable TV. And, interestingly, cable TV was originally a bundle of individual movies and tv shows.
Sadly, both bundled and unbundled solutions can make life harder for employee users.
Bundled platforms have a reputation for taking end users for granted, under-investing in functionality and ease of use - because bundled products don’t need to be excellent when they’re cheap (or free) to licence and convenient for head office to implement.
On the other hand unbundled (sometimes known as ‘best of breed’) platforms are usually slicker and more functional that bundled rivals at first glance, but disengage employees in other ways - such as lack of interoperability between systems (your learning app not speaking to your HR system etc) and duplication of effort (having to remember several passwords to sign-in 😬, for instance).
We have designed Yapster’s platform and integrations strategy to give our customers and end users the best of both worlds: the convenience of a bundle (where individual solutions are available in one click, from the Yapster app), with the quality and flexibility of best of breed (delivered through our many integrated partner platforms). Provided you’re hiring the right people and treating them well offline too, there is a growing body of evidence that providing high quality digital services to employees materially reduces labour turnover.
2. You will get more from the systems you’re already paying for
Yapster is most often brought into organisations which already have a range of employee technologies: Applicant Tracking, Workforce Management, Learning, Rewards & Recognition, Employee Assistance, Business Services and IT Ticketing etc.
We often discover during the initial phases of a new customer engagement that many conversations which should be happening within their specialist systems (so that the relevant information can be documented, retained and actioned) are in fact taking place informally via WhatsApp groups, email or other channels.
When Yapster is integrated with relevant systems (i.e. an HR system) and configured to support relevant workflows (shift swapping, for example), connected systems often see a spike in usage and value delivered.
3. You are most likely to discover innovation at the ‘intersection’ between existing solutions
Innovation is a tricky thing to ‘make’ happen within a business. If you only place massive bets, there’s a high likelihood they won’t pay off and your organisation will fail to move forward. However, taking only incremental bets also carries risk - you may be out-innovated by rivals (and effectively go backwards in the market, by standing still).
A recently proven approach (by Frans Johansson in The Medici Effect) to discovering major innovations without taking reckless bets is to look at ‘intersections’ of different departments, team cultures and - in the digital age - platforms. By way of example, we at Yapster recently discovered a transformational innovation for retail and hospitality customers at the intersection of Comms (ie Yapster) and EPOS systems - resulting in our KPI ‘match play’ gamification feature. The effort required on each side of this integration was incremental (low risk), but the benefits being realised for customers are significant (+7% sales uplifts).
4. You will spot systemic problems more quickly and easily
When people and systems are ‘siloed’ it can be difficult to get to the root causes of cross-functional missed opportunities and failures. Take workforce management, for instance - particularly arranging shift cover between different sites in a multi-site business. When Yapster is integrated with an HR system, every employee within a relevant site or area can be reached to offer open shifts. So, if shifts are routinely going unfilled in a given area, you can review messaging logs to understand what’s going on - and then fix the issue.
5. Ultimately, integrating core technologies should make your business more profitable
Adding together all of the above, you can significantly reduce waste and thereby increase profitability within your business. Most companies already have initiatives underway to engage employees, leverage existing IT spend, drive innovation and streamline operations. If that’s true for your business, please do take a look at which technology integrations are available to you and consider the many advantages of using them.
You can also hear from Graham Blackwell, CEO of Tenpin on 20 August 2021 at 13:00 in our Feature Release on how they use the CPL Learning and Yapster integration.
