Malcolm Padley, communications director, Rentokil Initial plc We’re fast becoming a social enterprise by using the full suite of Google Apps which is embedded within our email and other business tools. So it’s fully aligned rather than something separate. Our aim is to free up colleagues’ time to spend more time with customers – so fewer meetings but rather than impacting on communications the use of apps has improved it.

In reaching disparate workforces and engaging employees through their mobile devices, internal communicators are increasingly turning to apps. What type of mobile application do you use and why is it the right fit for your team?

With Google Hangouts we can now hold virtual meetings and training sessions with colleagues in South Africa or Kenya and the UK, without needing to fly them to a central location. Technicians now have onsite consultations via Hangouts with their line managers, seeking advice on difficult issues that they are facing. By being able to share images and videos of specific job challenges, the technician can tap into his manager’s years of experience. It is like having a virtual manager in support by their side.

Google+ has changed the way the company communicates and recognises success as well as sharing sales leads and best practice. With fewer physical branches and, today, more employees based at home, we use Google+ to create local team spirit. Google+ is also a good platform to share success stories. One recognition event in 2014 was attended by 88 people, but photos and posts from the event reached 38,000 views within two days.

Today we’re one the largest users of Google Apps, social media and Hangouts – the key has been to make it relevant to the individual operational roles, while the communications benefits have been significant.

Scott Todd, senior marketing executive at Kurve Our team manages the online marketing of the online loan provider Wonga.com. The nature of our work requires us to be available for instant contact at any point throughout the week, at the same time the job takes key members of our team out of the office at a potentially disruptive frequency. Our weapon of choice is primarily Google Mail’s chat function. This is simple to use on a desktop, but also when the team is separated and working on various mobile operating systems. On the go, we found that ‘ebuddy messenger’ allowed us the cross-platform functionality we needed for the whole team. The diversity of IM software the app is compatible with is another plus for us.

Kitty Ganier Conrad, vice president of communications and government relations at Caesars Entertainment Corporation Late last year, Caesars began the initial rollout of an employee app designed to provide messages to hospitality and service employees of affiliated hotel casinos who do not have daily access to computers. Messages relating to employee benefits, wellness rewards, road closures, and other topics of interest were instantly transmitted to the smart phones of employees who opted to receive these messages. Our human resources and communications teams identified gaps in communications and developed the app to quickly connect, engage, and reach employees on mobile platforms they are accustomed to using. The capability to track, understand, and follow analytics that show what employees actually use and read on a daily basis has been very rewarding. We look forward to rolling theEMPLOYEEapp out across our enterprise this year with our human resources teams and to continue to innovate the way that employees receive information that is useful to them.

Steven Murgatroyd, director, CommunICating From my experience, app requests often come from a senior manager who has heard about how apps are the next big thing for IC. They don’t necessarily think about the problem they’re trying to fix, just that they want something in the App Store by Friday! Apps are usually brought up in discussions around accessibility and how some employees might not be able to see your intranet but with an app they could view it at home. If accessibility is the problem, why not spend time making your intranet/website mobile-friendly? Create a website that actually works on a phone or tablet and you won’t need to create it as an app.