mobile application adoption trends and strategies to engage the

A Custom Thought Leadership Paper Commissioned by Humana Inc.

Mobile Application Adoption Trends And Strategies To Engage The Workforce

March 2012

Forrester Consulting



Table Of Contents

Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................................... 3

Companies Use Mobile Devices And Applications To Address Employee Needs ............................................................. 3

Improving Health And Wellness, Productivity, And Engagement Through Mobile ........................................................... 5

Emerging Demand For Mobile-Supported Recruitment....................................................................................................... 7

Smartphone Versus Tablet Adoption By Employees For Work Activities .......................................................................... 8

Tablet Adoption Facilitates Strategic And Tactical Human Resource Goals ...................................................................... 9

Implementing And Driving Adoption Of Mobile Applications ......................................................................................... 10

Conclusions .......................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Appendix A: Study Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 13

Endnotes ............................................................................................................................................................................... 13

© 2012, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available

resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®, Technographics®, Forrester Wave, RoleView,

TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective

companies. For additional information, go to www.forrester.com. [1-JXXCBZ]

About Forrester Consulting

Forrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders succeed in their organizations. Ranging in

scope from a short strategy session to custom projects, Forrester’s Consulting services connect you directly with research analysts who apply

expert insight to your specific business challenges. For more information, visit www.forrester.com/consulting.

http://www.forrester.com/consulting




Executive Summary

An increasing number of employees are bringing their own smartphones and tablets to work and using these

devices to access a wide variety of personal and work-related mobile applications. Human resources (HR)

executives and benefits administrators are taking advantage of this mobility momentum by seeking ways to

proactively engage employees using mobile devices, applications, and services. Results from in-depth qualitative

interviews conducted by Forrester Research on behalf of Humana highlight the following key findings:

Improving work/life balance, attracting and retaining top talent, and increasing employee productivity are

key factors driving HR and benefits related mobile application deployment.

Emerging mobile applications focus on helping employees throughout the recruiting, training, travel, and

expense management processes, as well as to monitor employee health and wellness initiatives.

Driving employee adoption of mobile HR applications requires a variety of initiatives, including employee

awareness campaigns and incentives.

Companies Use Mobile Devices And Applications To Address Employee Needs

Providing more mobile device and application support is a key priority for many companies. They are expanding

their mobile application deployment initiatives beyond email, calendar, and personal information management

applications to include new applications that address the needs of specific types of workers in the organization.

Forrester’s Forrsights Networks And Telecommunications Survey, Q1 2011 showed that 64% of surveyed

companies plan to provide more mobility support for employees as a key corporate initiative in the coming year.1

Employees are bringing their own devices into the office. The line between personal and corporate mobile

device usage is blurring as employees increasingly use their mobile devices for both personal and work-

related activities. Workers want the flexibility and convenience of selecting their own smartphone or tablet

device. In fact, 45% of workers want to choose the smartphone they use at work, and 40% of workers want

to choose their own tablets (see Figure 1). In addition, between 20% and 23% of these employees are willing

to contribute to the purchase of these mobile devices. The variety of mobile devices employees can select is

extremely fragmented, with a growing number of employees choosing Apple or Android devices (see Figure

2). Supporting these personally owned devices with bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs enables

companies to cost efficiently mobilize their workforce.

“Employee demand for and use of mobile devices in our firm has grown exponentially, as has employee

demand for mobile applications to help them be more productive.”

“More and more consumers have access to mobile phones, smartphones, and tablets. As an employer,

we need to provide them with access to mobile applications on all of these devices.”




Figure 1

Many Employees Want The Flexibility To Select And Purchase The Mobile Device They Use For Work

Base: Technology end users from companies with between 100 and 1,500 employees

(percentages may not total 100 due to rounding)

Source: Forrsights Workforce Employee Survey, Q4 2011

HR is driving a new wave of mobile applications. HR executives are looking for ways to leverage the

mobility momentum to support their strategic and tactical goals. Most firms are in the early stages of

deploying HR-focused mobile applications. These include applications to improve employee engagement,

boost productivity, provide employees with timely and relevant information, and support their health and

wellness. Emergency or critical response applications are the leading category of HR-related mobile apps,

with 17% of firms deploying applications in this category. Other examples of HR-related applications

include time and expense tracking apps (deployed by 14% of enterprises) and mobile learning, training, or

compliance applications (deployed by 9% of firms). Discussions with mobile strategy professionals revealed

future plans to deploy mobile applications to monitor disability programs, claims tracking applications, and

employee exercise tracking mobile applications. To drive further adoption, firms must invest in education

programs and incentives to generate employee awareness and application usage. Some firms also drive

adoption by informing employees of mobile application availability on their corporate or internal websites

and encouraging them to download these mobile applications.

23%

32%

45%

I'd be willing to contribute some of my own money to

get the mobile phone or smartphone of my choice

I don't care about choosing my work mobile or

smartphone

I'd like to choose my own mobile or smartphone but wouldn't pay anything out

of my own pocket

20%

40%

41%

I'd be willing to contribute some of my own money to get the tablet of my choice

I'd like to choose my own tablet but wouldn't pay anything out of my own

pocket

I don't care about choosing my work tablet

N = 322N = 286

“Are you interested in being allowed to bring

your own mobile phone or smartphone as

a work device?”

“Are you interested in being allowed to bring

your own tablet as a work device?”




Figure 2

Employees Are Using Mobile Devices Running On Many Different Operating Systems


Improving Health And Wellness, Productivity, And Engagement Through Mobile

Initial HR-focused mobility applications often include emergency or critical response communications, time and

expense tracking apps, or mobile learning, training, or compliance applications (see Figure 3).

“We are currently implementing an emergency alert system for business continuity and disaster recovery

(BC/DR) that sends text messages and alerts to employees with mobile devices who work in the three

buildings on our campus.”

“We have crisis continuity communications and contingency mobile applications for our employees.”

Deployment Of Employee Health And Wellness Applications Is Still Nascent Our discussions revealed that benefits administrators in proactive organizations are beginning to deploy mobile

applications to support employee health and wellness initiatives, including exercise trackers, walking path or

healthcare provider location finders, and chronic disease management applications to monitor an individual’s heart

rate or glucose levels. For example, some firms are deploying mobile apps to help employees identify healthcare

provider locations or determine the price of a specific drug. Other applications can monitor physical activity or

track insurance claims. In some cases, employees can download these applications from consumer-focused mobile

app stores like the Apple App Store.




Figure 3

Enterprises Are Deploying Different Types Line-Of-Business Applications

Base: 1,051 North American and European mobile technology decision-makers

Source: Forrsights Networks And Telecommunications Survey, Q1 20112

“We encourage our employees to download a mobile application showing walking path locations. This

application is available to iPhone users through the app store.”

“All of our employees are required to get CPR certification. There is a video application for iPad users

available from the Apple App Store that teaches employees how to correctly administer CPR.”

“We gave iPads to employees who work with the youth market and spend 90% of their time in schools

encouraging children to exercise. Youth market employees need mobile applications that provide contact

information, promotional materials, and training videos immediately while in the schools.”

“Our internal employees have the option of using member-facing mobile applications to identify

healthcare provider locations, find a physician, or determine the price of a specific drug.”

Improving Workforce Productivity And Engagement Many companies have implemented or are expanding their implementation of a wide variety of mobility

applications. Survey results show that 32% to 36% of firms are focused on supporting more mobile applications for

employees. For example, line-of-business applications are being deployed to help workers in many roles, including

sales, human resources, marketing, and customer service, complete daily activities and enable them to interact with

employees, partners, suppliers, and customers using task-specific mobile applications.

More than one-third (36%) of firms are deploying more mobile apps for employees who often work away from the

office, such as road warriors and sales executives. Examples include wireless email, calendaring, and personal

contact management applications that enable employees to maintain contact with the office and obtain updated

“What are your firm’s plans to adopt the following mobile applications?”

6%

9%

9%

10%

10%

13%

14%

15%

16%

17%

17%

42%

71%

83%

Supply chain management applications

Enterprise asset management

Training applications (e.g., mobile learning and compliance)

Warehouse and inventory management applications

Order tracking, management, and fulfillment applications

Field service applications

Time or expense tracking

Help desk applications

Sales force applications

Emergency/critical response applications

Customer-facing mobile applications

Network and systems management alerts

Personalized contacts and calendars

Wireless email

Implemented or expanding/upgrading implementation

Horizontal

applications

Line-of-business

applications




scheduling information while they are on the road. These horizontal mobile applications are widely adopted by

enterprises. In fact, 83% of firms have implemented or are expanding their implementation of wireless email

applications; 71% of enterprises are doing this with personalized mobile applications for contact management and

calendaring.

It is also interesting to note that 32% of firms are expanding their use of mobile applications for employees who

work inside the office but could benefit from mobile apps to enhance their productivity. For example,

administrative assistants primarily work in the office but also need to access expense sheets, timesheets, and team

status reports through mobile applications while away from their desks.

Enabling employees to access corporate and personal mobile applications using personally selected devices also

lets companies provide employees with a better work/life balance.

“Giving our employees anytime, anywhere access to mobile applications enables them to have a better

balance between their personal and professional activities. In addition, improving the work/life balance is

an important benefit when we recruit tech-savvy job seekers who expect to use mobile devices and

applications wherever they’re located.”

“We want to provide a better work/life balance for our employees. Our bank examiners are away from

home a majority of the year, and they want to use their mobile devices to access both work and personal

applications when they are on the road.”

Emerging Demand For Mobile-Supported Recruitment

Mobile applications can support the strategic goals of the human resources organization by helping to build the

employer’s brand. Some HR executives are also deploying mobile applications to interact with current and

prospective employees through mobile recruiting and performance management applications.

Strengthening The Corporate Brand And Attracting Top Talent Providing employees with the flexibility to use their personal mobile devices is one way to help attract and retain

employees. Competition for top candidates is intense, and deploying mobile applications both for employees’ use

and to support the recruiting process presents an innovative and forward-thinking brand image to current and

prospective employees.

“We are a high-technology company and we want our employees to use new mobile devices, including

iPads and tablets, to reinforce the forward-thinking focus of our corporate brand.”

“We use mobile device and application support to attract and retain employees. We must show new hires

that we have a flexible, progressive workplace.”

“We want to reflect our corporate innovation to candidates by supporting new mobile devices and

applications. Mobile HR applications let us interact with prospective employees through this increasingly

important channel.”

“Prospective employees view iPads as cool devices. Using applications during recruiting events is

opening doors to new types of applications. Our staffing organization uses mobile applications on tablets

to drive applicant traffic to our career website.”




Mobile Recruiting Applications Complement Web-Based Recruiting Content Some firms use mobile recruiting applications to complement web-based recruiting applications during job fairs.

The mobile recruiting applications are used by the staffing team at job fairs to capture contact information,

professional areas of interest, and follow-up action items quickly and efficiently on an iPhone or tablet. Firms are

also creating job profile video clips that are accessible on mobile devices so prospective employees can watch a

video showing a day in the life of their prospective job. These recruiting applications are ideal for the larger screen

size and form factor of the iPad and other tablet devices. Other mobile apps that HR departments deploy focus on

helping employees complete workflow processes such as mobile training, travel and expense reports, and vacation

requests and approvals.

“Recruiters are like sales executives — they want mobile devices and applications to help them get their

jobs done quickly and efficiently on the road. They can use iPads and mobile applications to achieve these

goals.”

“There are five or six key criteria that a potential employee must meet before meeting with the hiring

manager. The mobile application allows recruiters to quickly capture information on these key

requirements and send it to the hiring manager.”

“There has been a significant increase in the number of candidates accessing our corporate career

website using mobile devices. We are updating our career website to ensure that it is optimized for mobile

content and traffic.”

Smartphone Versus Tablet Adoption By Employees For Work Activities

Employees engage in many different types of work activities using their smartphones and tablets. Forrester’s

Forrsights Workforce Employee Survey, Q1 2011 revealed commonalities as well as clear differences in the types

of activities employees perform on their smartphone and tablet devices (see Figure 4).

Accessing email and browsing the Web are leading activities on both types of devices. Two of the top

three work-related activities employees engage in are the same for both smartphone and tablet users.

Specifically, 87% of employees who use smartphones and 69% of tablet users access email from these

devices. Web browsing is also a prominent activity on both types of devices: 57% of smartphone users and

60% of tablet users engage in this activity.

Reading or viewing documents and taking notes are common tablet activities. Tablets dominate

employee usage for a number of activities. For example, 60% of workers use tablets to take notes and 56%

use them to read or view documents, spreadsheets, or presentations. In comparison, only 37% of employees

use smartphones to take notes, and 40% of employees use smartphones to read or view documents,

spreadsheets, or presentations.

Tablets are more likely to be used to access web meetings and videoconferences. Device form factors

also affect employee adoption of particular activities. For example, the larger screens available on tablets are

better suited to showing visual content.




Figure 4

Employee Application Usage Differences Are Evident Across Smartphone And Tablet Devices

Base: 1,291 North American and European technology end users

(multiple responses accepted)


Tablet Adoption Facilitates Strategic And Tactical Human Resource Goals

Tablet adoption is in the early stages — in fact, less than 2% of all employees are using tablets today. Tablets are

primarily used by executives, sales professionals, and heavy travelers, but the use of tablets among HR

professionals is increasing.

Tablet Features And Functions Support The Key Requirements Of Many HR Apps There are key differences in the content employees use and the activities they engage in on smartphones versus

tablets. The larger screen size of tablets is better for showing video content, which can be included in employee

training materials, corporate collateral, and recruiting demonstrations. Our survey results show that 35% of

employees use their tablets to watch video and 21% use tablets for web- or videoconferencing. In comparison, only

21% of employees use their smartphones to watch video and only 9% use them for web- or videoconferencing.

“eLearning programs are supported on laptops, not smartphones. But, as tablets become more widely

deployed, we plan to use tablets to deliver these training applications.”

“What types of work activities do you use your work smartphone for?”

4%

6%

9%

9%

12%

15%

21%

37%

37%

40%

57%

87%

16%

33%

21%

36%

23%

34%

35%

60%

56%

33%

60%

69%

Processor-intensive activities like analytics or modeling

Creating new documents, spreadsheets, or presentations

Web or videoconferencing (e.g., Cisco WebEx, video chat)

Editing documents, spreadsheets, or presentations

Photo or image editing

Company or industry-specific application that my company created

Watching video

Taking notes

Reading or viewing documents, spreadsheets, or presentations

Instant messaging

Web browsing

Email

Smartphone (N=1,291)

Tablet or slate (N=261)




“Tablets are changing the game, because mobile applications can include more video content and

increase employee participation and use of the application.”

“Employee demand for iPads is driven by increased use of mobile applications that incorporate video

content, PowerPoint presentations, and spreadsheets. Smartphone devices are not good at showing video

or information-intensive content.”

HR Executives Use Tablets And Tablet Apps To Replace Paper Processes Discussions with HR execs highlight how tablets are used to replace clipboards or paper processes to enhance HR

process activities. Tablets allow HR personnel to showcase that their company is using cutting-edge mobile devices

and tablets to attract top talent. Using these cutting-edge devices is particularly important when recruiting tech-

savvy personnel like software developers and app developers. HR execs are also using tablets to replace paper-

intensive processes. For example, tablet applications help recruiters to consistently capture candidate information at

the time they meet with candidates; recruiters can then use this information to proactively follow up with

candidates following the career event.

“Recruiters are a lot like sales executives; they want to use the newest and coolest tablets to show

employment candidates that the company is a hip, forward-thinking organization. Recruiters also use

tablets to quickly and consistently capture candidate information at job fairs or at offsite recruiting

events.”

Implementing And Driving Adoption Of Mobile Applications

As firms evolve their mobility initiatives, some seek assistance from third parties. For example, 14% of surveyed

enterprises are working with third-party vendors to assist with mobility management and mobile device

management services. Another 14% of firms are hiring employees with mobile application development skills and

the expertise to help with these mobile initiatives. There is also emerging demand for mobile middleware services

to support the efficient deployment of mobile applications across many different device operating systems.

Companies also use many different types of activities to encourage application usage, including:

Implementing awareness campaigns and incentive programs to drive usage. Discussions with mobility

strategy and HR decision-makers highlight the importance of using awareness campaigns and incentive

programs to encourage employee use of mobile health and wellness applications. Incentives such as bonuses

for employee participation and contributions to employee health benefit accounts are examples of tactics that

work for some firms.

“We must invest a significant amount of personnel and resources into promoting and managing wellness

programs and applications for employees.”

“It is challenging to get employees to use mobile health/wellness applications because they may not want a

reminder of chronic health problems like diabetes.”

“We give financial incentives or premium discounts to employees for healthy behavior (e.g., not smoking or

meeting metabolic goals). In 2012, we will use incentives to drive adoption of mobile applications that

monitor these health initiatives.”




Leveraging their website to educate end users of mobile applications. Some firms are using their web

presence to market their mobile applications to end users — including prospective employees. For example,

one firm we spoke with includes information on its website to inform visitors of the availability of mobile

applications.

“We track how many prospective employees use the mobile-optimized site to opt into our talent network.

People do not carry their resumes on their mobile phones, so we direct them to a link to our website that

enables them to apply for jobs and send in their resume through the traditional website once they are at

home.”

Addressing the needs of employees who use their personal smartphones and tablets at work. The

Forrsights Networks And Telecommunications Survey, Q1 2011 showed that 59% of enterprises provide

some support to some personal devices employees bring into the office. It is also important to note that only

about one-quarter (26%) of firms do not provide any support for personal mobile devices.

The corporate mobile device operating system landscape is fragmented. New Apple and Android mobile

devices are making their way into organizations as a growing number of employees purchase and pay for

personal smartphones or tablets and use these devices for work activities. Many employees are also willing

to contribute to the cost of the mobile phone, smartphone, or tablet used at work if they can choose it. In fact,

23% of surveyed workers are willing to help pay for the mobile phone or smartphone of their choice; 20%

would do the same for a tablet.

Designing mobile applications with end user requirements in mind. Realizing benefits from deploying

mobile applications depends upon employees using these capabilities. However, many mobile applications

are underused because employees have difficulty accessing the applications and using non intuitive

interfaces. If workers have problems using mobile applications, or do not use them appropriately, the benefits

from these applications will fall short of their promise. Facilitating employee adoption requires developing

an intuitive, easy-to-use application interface.

“We are hiring executives from outside the organization to help us identify how we can improve our mobile

brand experience.”

“Mobile application adoption is about functionality... Keep the mobile applications as simple as possible.”

Managing employee expectations and application utilization rates. It takes time for employees to get

familiar with adopting new mobile applications; this must be incorporated into adoption scenarios for each

mobile application. Each adoption curve for mobile applications must consider the usage profile for

particular types of employees in the organization. To help increase employee adoption of mobile

applications, enterprises must invest in training employees on how and when to use them and giving them

incentives to do so. It is also important to incorporate the “What’s in it for me?” benefits of using these

mobile applications during the training sessions.

“End users expect fast, cheap, easy-to-use mobile applications. However, the IT team often invests weeks of

time and effort in developing, testing, and securing new corporate mobile applications.”

“We must do regression testing for each application, device, and form factor to ensure consistent

performance in a stable, scalable environment.”

Identifying methods to measure the benefits achieved from mobile applications. It is critical to identify

measurement tactics to evaluate the impact of mobile applications prior to deployment. These measurement




results can be used to validate the business case for existing mobile applications and can help justify future

mobile application investments. Measuring the benefits of health and wellness mobile applications can be

particularly challenging, and companies are trying to understand how they can tie investments in health and

wellness mobile applications to more cost-efficient healthcare, or improved employee health. Some of the

key questions to ask during the evaluation process include: How many employees will benefit from this

mobile application? Which mobile application screens or mobile web links are employees accessing? Case

study examples are also a good way to address this issue and show the value of these health and wellness

applications.

“Right now we do not measure the benefits achieved from our mobile applications, but we are going to use

heat maps to measure how end users interact with our mobile applications.”

“After we pilot a mobile application, we conduct surveys to get feedback from employees.”

Conclusions

Wide spread adoption of mobile devices and smartphones among employees is driving human resources executives

to evaluate new ways of interacting with employees who use mobile devices and applications for personal and

work-related activities. Results from this study highlight the following key themes:

There is nascent demand for health and wellness mobile applications. The demand for health and

wellness mobile applications is in its early stages. Benefits administrators in proactive companies are starting

to deploy mobile applications that enable employees to locate healthcare provider sites, track exercise

activities, or monitor biological aspects of chronic diseases such as heart rates or glucose levels.

The deployment of mobile recruiting applications is emerging. Recruiters are also using mobile

applications to help address their strategic goals. For example, deploying mobile applications throughout the

recruiting process reinforces the strength and proactive characteristics of the corporate brand. In addition,

some recruiters are using mobile applications on tablets to quickly capture candidate information during job

fairs or to show video clips of a day in the life of employees in a specific job.

Implementing awareness programs is critical to facilitating employee adoption. HR and benefits

administrators must drive adoption of mobile applications. Awareness campaigns, incentive programs, and

bonuses are often used to encourage employee use of mobile applications. Some firms also highlight their

health and wellness mobile applications on their corporate websites to generate adoption.




Appendix A: Study Methodology

At the end of 2011, Humana commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a research study to get an in-depth

understanding of how enterprise organizations are adopting various types of mobile applications. To create this

Thought Leadership Paper, Forrester leveraged its Forrsights Networks And Telecommunications Survey, Q1

2011, and Forrsights Workforce Employee Survey, Q4 2011. Forrester Consulting supplemented this data with

information gleaned in qualitative interviews with 10 executives in enterprise organizations with headquarters

based in North America. Each of these qualitative interviews lasted 45 minutes. Topics discussed during these

interviews included:

Identifying an overall corporate strategy for deploying mobile applications, devices, and services to

employees.

Understanding the factors driving firms to deploy mobility applications, devices, and solutions to employees.

Gaining insight into deployment plans for human resources-related mobile applications.

Understanding the benefits and challenges facing firms as they deploy mobile applications and services.

Endnotes

1 Source: Forrester’s Forrsights Networks And Telecommunications Survey, Q1 2011. Respondents were 2,042

North American and European networks and telecommunications decision-makers. 2 Note: Health and wellness applications were not offered as a response option in this survey.

GCHH8SXHH 3/12

mobile application adoption trends and strategies to engage the

Documents