Pulse

Company

ANS

Date

2020

Pulse is an employee engagement and feedback app that was designed ad-hoc for internal use at ANS. The app serves to supply staff with a single point of contact for accessing various platforms and products that they would typically use on a daily basis, whilst also implementing a reward system that highlights employees' achievements and hard work.

The problem
As part of their roles, employees would often be required to access a series of internal platforms to carry out their everyday tasks. For example, separate applications would be used when booking paid time off, raising expenses, booking attendance at company events, completing training, and socialising with colleagues using Yammer.

Based on feedback from employees, it became apparent that there needed to be an effort made to streamline these tasks and save time per day (and also to cut down on the number of accounts needed by employees).

Previously there had also been a proposal to introduce a way for the company to keep track of the well-being of employees, and to recognise & reward members of staff for their work achievements. It was therefore decided that the two aforementioned use-cases be combined to introduce a single one-stop app to fulfil the needs of employees.
The solution
As an employee of ANS I was already familiar with the platforms that were required for our day-to-day activities, and, with input in the form of gripes from colleagues, I was able to comfortably put together a high-fidelity design prototype.

The proposed app, named ‘Pulse’, combined functionality from a multitude of platforms, reducing the number of necessary accounts from 5 to just 1. Gamification functionality in the form of providing feedback ‘points’ and unlocking rewards was also implemented, along with ‘PulseBot’, an employee well-being chatbot based off technology used in a separate recently-developed application.

Unfortunately my time at ANS came to an end before ‘Pulse’ entered development, but I, along with project stakeholders at the time, believe that the prototype fulfilled all identified use-cases.

Below you will find a breakdown of the app’s main feature set:

Team leaders are able to give positive feedback to staff members in the form of awarded points. These points are accrued and displayed in the form of a leaderboard which can be seen by all users and serves to provide recognition for employees’ achievements. Monthly ‘milestone’ awards can also be unlocked upon hitting a certain amount of points, which may range from giftcards or gadgets to paid holidays.

All employees are able to see and RSVP to upcoming internal & external events. Each event page includes information about the event location, date & time, hosts, and number of attendees.

‘PulseBot’ is an employee-wellness chatbot who will occasionally get in touch with users to ask about their day and if they have any topics they need to discuss. PulseBot also serves as a more engaging employee handbook, offering answers to many frequently asked questions.

Employees are able to access a series of different training videos, allowing them to brush up on knowledge of their role and any updates to various internal processes. Search functionality also provides the option for users to explore other topics that may interest them.

Yammer integration allows employees to access their feed, interact with posts and view/download attachments just like they would on the dedicated Microsoft site but straight from within Pulse.

The employee profile section allows them to access a series of HR functions, such as requesting paid-time-off, raising expenses, and viewing documents pertaining to their employement, all without having to access multiple pre-existing platforms.