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Case study:
inSino Application for Sino Staff – Digitized Employee Communication

inSino 信和集團內部員工應用程式 - 數碼化員工溝通渠道

#casestudy #inSino #internalappication #motherapp #properties #sinogroup

STEP 1. Background

Founded in the 1970s, Sino became one of the main property developers in Hong Kong, it involves different business sectors related to property in Mainland, Singapore, and Australia. For example, property management and development, security services, hotel and resort management, parking services, and even cleaning services. Over 11000 employees are hired and the company’s size keeps growing over these 50 years.

Image Source: Sino Group

STEP 2. Business Challenge

Lack of centralized communication platform for employees: Since the company size of Sino Group is large, different departments and a great number of employees are needed, from outsourced labors, frontline construction workers, security, cleaning staff members to office workers. Sino Group wants to ensure all their employees can receive the latest information and news of the company. However, except for the office workers, it is hard for other frontline employees to receive real-time information via emails, so information circulation is lacking for Sino Group.
Low effectiveness of paper-based notice: Before the inSino application existed, the senior staff in Sino Group mainly relied on paper documents and notices to communicate with frontline workers, such as sticking notice in the control room or pantry so that the frontline workers may read while resting. However, the notices were always ignored because the staff members may take day-offs or even never pay attention to the information board. The paper-based notice might not be an effective way to enhance the communication between different levels in the Sino Group.
Low download rate: Employees of Sino Group can choose to download inSino applications or not, but without an incentive, they will not be willing to waste time on downloading the application, which leads to the failure of enhancing communication.
Lack of employee training: Sino Group trained their employees manually about the regulations and work arrangements. Selecting trainers and spending time for training may affect work efficiency and the training might not be standardized. Therefore, Sino Group expected a digital training platform for their employees to finish training on their own, so as to increase efficiency.

STEP 3. The Solution

Convenient one-stop communication platform: inSino application allows all employees under Sino Group to download. The application combined the information of company news, work arrangement, staff discount and so on. Employees can also express their opinions to Sino Group via the questionnaire function. With only a mobile phone, all the employees can keep in touch with Sino Group and communicate better with each other.
Interaction enhances employees’ engagement: Apart from official articles and sharings, employees may also publish their own articles to express their feelings or tell their stories, as well as leaving comments on other topics. Badges and emoticons can be sent between employees to show kindness, enhancing the interaction between each other. Sino groups may also find out more about the interests and hot topics among their employees, and publish similar articles in the future so that the employees will be interested in the official articles.
Personalized integration of work information: The application includes company news, district-wise and departmental messages, and personal work information. Staff members in different departments and positions will receive different information. Apart from receiving corresponding departmental information, income certificates, and rosters, the application will segment the employees based on their work locations. For instance, employees in Yau Tsim Wong will receive Yau Tsim Wong related information, same as those working in Tuen Mun or Tsuen Wan. Confidential information for managerial level employees will not be sent to the frontline employees. It is not easy to sort an enormous amount of information accurately. The system and structure designs are complex and the content types and employee groups are highly overlapping. We have to ensure every employee can receive real-time information while ensuring no wrong information is sent to the wrong account. Therefore, our team approached Sino Group many times to discuss the access rights problems of the messages and eventually came up with this personalized, encrypted workplace communicating application.
Provide incentives for downloading: The employee documents such as rosters and income certificates, are kept in the belonging department, they are scattered and disorganized. With the inSino application, the mentioned documents can be managed in a digitized way, increasing the efficiency of human resource management. More importantly, employees may check their rosters, income certificates, healthcare insurance, and remaining day-offs. This is the killer feature attracting employees to download the application.
Online employee training: In the digitized way, Sino Group may edit and upload training videos onto the online training platform. Employees may watch the videos with their accounts to accept training, less manpower is needed. At the same time, employees can revisit the videos anytime in case they forgot the contents. To make it more convenient and efficient, the online training application and inSino application are connected seamlessly, so that the users do not have to sign in again when they need to swap between two.

( Image Source: Google Play – inSino )

STEP 4. The Results

Enhanced communication: Originally, the information needed to pass from the senior employees to the frontline employees, the whole delivery process takes some time (such as printing notices, sticking on the information board, etc.). Also, there were limited channels for the employees to voice out their opinions or needs. Now, inSino acts as a platform for information sharing, as well as a channel for employees to express their opinions to the company. Managers and employees can communicate with each other directly so that the efficiency of communication will be increased, information will be more circulated, operation and management will be more effective.
Improved the sense of belonging of employees: Employees may learn more about Sino Group’s latest news, objectives, awards, and other updates via inSino application. Besides having a deeper understanding of their workplace, the employees may even feel honored working under Sino Group. Staff discounts may also be another factor that enhances the sense of belonging of the employees toward Sino Group.
Loved by employees: inSino received a 4.5 stars rating in Google Play, which shows that the employees are satisfied with the application. Apart from that, as the functions are versatile and convenient, inSino are frequently used by Sino Group, it became one of the most used communication tools.

inSino 信和集團內部員工應用程式 — 數碼化員工溝通渠道

第一步. 個案背景

在1970年代創立，作為香港主要地產發展商之一，信和集團涉足多項與物業相關的業務，足跡遍及內地、新加坡及澳洲。 50 年來，信和集團發展積極，業務範疇涵蓋物業發展與管理、保安服務、酒店與會所管理、停車場業務以至環衛清潔服務，僱用超過 11,000 名員工，規模龐大。

Image Source: Sino Group

第二步. 個案挑戰

缺乏統一的員工溝通渠道：信和集團規模龐大，涉足業務廣，員工數目多。不同業務的工作性質各有不同，所需要的員工亦各有不同。由外判員工、前線建築工人、保安、保潔人員到後勤辦公室員工，信和集團想要確保所有員工都能收到來自公司的更新通知及重要新聞。然而，除了後勤辦公室人員能透過工作電郵即時接收到公司訊息外，其他前線員工一般較難及時收到，公司資訊並不算流通。
紙本通告的有效性低：在內部員工應用程式推出前，信和集團主要靠紙本文件及通告傳遞重要訊息予前線員工。例如將集團更新通告張貼於控制室／員工休息室／茶水間，讓前線員工在前往這些地方時能夠閱讀得到。但這個方法成效有限，前線員工可能會因為休假而錯過／根本沒有注意到有通告更新⋯⋯ 可見紙本通告的有效性低。
缺乏誘因下載：由於 inSino 應用程式非屬強制性安裝，員工有自由決定是否要下載和使用。但這難免會衍生出另一個問題，就是：應用程式可能會缺乏下載誘因，導致使用率過低的情況。
人手培訓的不足：信和集團目前透過人手培訓去培訓員工有關新指引／新工作安排。除了需額外抽出培訓員和受訓員工的時間進行培訓，影響工作效率外，亦難以確保培訓員的教學質素是否合符標準。因此，信和集團帶望透過電子平台，為員工提供線上培訓影片，提升培訓效率。

第三步. 團隊方案

便利的一站式員工溝通平台：inSino 內部員工應用程式能容許由外判、前線到後勤等所有信和員工下載。一次過結合了集團新聞、工作資訊、員工內部折扣等訊息及功能，員工亦可以透過應用程式內的問卷功能向公司提出意見，表達訴求。只要一機在手，所有員工都能與集團總部接軌，隨時緊貼公司最新消息及提出意見。
互動功能增加趣味性：不只有官方能發出的文章，員工個人亦可就任何議題發表文章詳述自己的看法，亦能在所有文章下留言評分，與其他同事分享自己對話題的看法。同事之間亦能互相給予對方襟章和表情圖案，表達善意。增加員工與員工，以及公司與員工之間的互動。信和集團還能從熱門文章中了解到員工的興趣所在，在日後向他們提供更多有關該方向的文章更新，貼合他們的取向。
個人化工作資訊整合：應用程式包含集團新聞、分區訊息、部門通知及個人化工作資訊等，位處不同部門及職位的員工將會收到不同的資訊。員工除了各自會收到自己所屬部門的訊息、個人糧單、更表假表等文件外，程式還會根據工作地區和層級再作細分。例如於油尖旺區工作的員工會收到油尖旺區的消息，而於屯門工作的員工會收到屯門區的消息；經理層級的會收到機密性更高的訊息，而普通員工則不會收到。要做到這項準確的訊息分類功能，其實一點也不簡單。由於整個架構的的設計十分繁複，內容分類及員工對象組別重疊度高。我們除了要確保員工能及時收到所需的訊息外，還是訊息不會傳到錯誤的帳戶（如保密訊息不會被錯誤地廣泛散播）。因此，我們團隊與信和集團方進行了多次交涉，針對訊息存取權與群組分類問題進行了多番討論後，成功開發了這能兼顧訊息保密發及個人化工作資訊的系統。
提供下載誘因：當時信和集團內部的員工文件（例如更表、假表、糧單等）均由其所在的部門和單位整理及保管。部門間工作文件各自分散，欠系統整理。透過 inSino 內部員工應用程式，電子化統一管理這些文件，提升了集團整合人力資源管理效率。更重要的是，員工能隨時隨地在手機應用程式裡方便地查閱自己的更表、假表和糧單詳細文件，還有智能的假期及醫療保障數據整理，成為應用程式的 Killer Feature，促使員工下載的誘因。
電子線上培訓：信和集團會將需要培訓的技能／服務流程／新增的服務等上傳到集團的電子線上培訓平台，供員工自行進行培訓和利用平台複習。為了方便員工和提升效率，inSino 內部員工應用程式和集團的電子線上培訓平台是無縫連結的，用家能在不用再次登入的情況下無縫轉換，橫誇不同平台使用。