Building a sense of community in the workplace is fundamental to attracting and retaining the very best talent and increasing employee engagement.

Replacing an employee can be as high as 60% of their annual salary. As well as a monetary loss, it can also effect productivity, moral and efficiency. It’s far more cost-effective to focus on retainment over replacement. There are several things you can do to create a great company culture and a place employees don’t dread walking in to on a Monday morning. One of those is investing in a workplace community app.

As many companies now move towards a hybrid working strategy, technology’s role becomes increasingly important in enabling enterprises to keep a very disperse team on the same page logistically.

In this article, we take you through the key. features of a Community Software Platform so that you can understand the benefits and decide if one is right for you.

Content and communications

A fundamental part of building a community in the workplace is communication.  If your workplace community is hearing from you regularly and given informative, relevant information, they are more likely to feel part of your organisation and understand your values. Clear, consistent and relevant communication lay the foundation for an engaging workplace experience. District’s workplace community platform highlights the most recent news and resources on the homepage and lets your team send out engaging push notifications to users. There’s also a place where they can access resources and guides.

Events

Community platform software like District Technologies lets you publish events in-app that users can join. Holding regular events can be a great way to build community among fellow employees or tenants. The app can be used to promote social events such as a summer party or a pub quiz, team-building exercises such as an escape room, training workshops and even fitness sessions such as yoga. The events can all be managed through the platform. You’ll be able to see the number of attendees, have a waiting list if required and take bookings and payments. Your workplace community will easily be able to join events and leave an event feedback rating after. What’s great about events via a community app is that they can also be virtual, meaning that you can engage with your community that are working remotely. With the shift to hybrid working, virtual events have risen in popularity as it’s a great way to connect distributed teams.

Community search, directory and profiles

A community app connects employees and tenants and is key to building a sense of community. This is especially fundamental in a hybrid working environment where teams are distributed. With District’s community platform software, users can create their profile in the app and add relevant information and skills about themselves. This lets fellow users discover more about their community members and helps to break down the barriers to human connection that hybrid working can create.

Profiles are accessible through the community directory and people can search for fellow users based on skill, job title and name. This makes it simple to find and connect with the people you need.

Employee rewards and recognition

A community software platform can also be used to provide rewards and perks. This is a great way to add value to your community, and drive lasting loyalty. District’s online community software allows you to set up perks and discounts in the app that can be viewed and redeemed. You can make it truly unique by partnering with local shops, cafes and restaurants for unmissable deals.

Tools and services

The next aspect of a community software platform is tools and services that facilitate a seamless workday. From smart building tools such as mobile door access to desk or meeting room bookings – community building software makes accessing the tools that you need for work as simple as it can be. It also includes access to any amenities on-site such as restaurants or cafes allowing users to browse, book, pay and collect their items. Tools and services also extend to those that are working remotely, giving them access to resources and guides from anywhere as well as a virtual concierge service.

Branding and personalisation

Reinforcing your brand and building the platform to your bespoke needs is the next essential element of a successful community platform. Each company and their employees are unique, and therefore each workplace app will need to be customised to each company’s needs. In addition to that, personalising the platform to fit with your unique company branding will help to keep consistency across your channels and allows you to reinforce your brand message. Many employee experience software tools will have the capability to integrate with your existing software, as well as integrate with your chosen third party smart building and HR technologies to suit your requirements.

Analytics

The final but equally important element of a community platform is the ability to measure and improve. Without insights, you can only understand so much about your community. With the analytics dashboard, you can track and measure engagement levels on the platform empowering you with data-driven insights to be able to make improvements to your engagement strategy. This cuts out the guesswork meaning that you can spend time on what your community need and want.

 

District Technologies is a workplace experience platform that can be used to engage your employees and increase wellness through communication, events and smart building technology. Check out our Workplace Wellness E-guide which to find out more about how our platform can be utilised to increase workplace wellness.

Simply book a demo to find out more about our workplace experience solution.