Zellis uses Pendo to boost mobile app adoption by 41%

Human resources (HR) has existed since the 19th century when Robert Owen and Charles Babbage promoted the idea that employee well-being was crucial to a productive organization. 

While the business and workforce landscapes have dramatically changed, HR is still a vital and indispensable tool for all organizations. Sophisticated software helps companies worldwide deliver easy-to-access benefits and tools for employees. 

Zellis is the leading AI enabled HR, WFM and payroll provider in the UK and Ireland. Its goal is to empower its customers’ workforce with an all-in-one platform designed to deliver exceptional employee experiences.

Proving the value of the Zellis platform

Pendo supported Zellis with quantifying their platform’s impact. In the past they relied on individually collected anecdotal information through manual, time-consuming processes. Simon Lobb, Head of Customer Success – Insights, recognised the need for increased metrics that would both showcase their platform’s effectiveness and help customers optimise their operations.

Using Pendo’s analytics, Zellis gained visibility into usage data that they can turn around and share with their customers to prove how impactful the platform is for its employees.  

The importance of mobile HR

Creating a robust mobile app is considered a best practice for employers. Employees often access their HR information after hours, and 20% of the poorest households only have internet access through a smartphone. Offering robust HR capabilities through a mobile app makes pay information, holiday requests, and other self-service features more accessible to the employees of Zellis’s customers. 

In 2020, Zellis launched the mobile app version of their desktop platform. While the mobile app worked exactly as intended, it relied on Zellis’s customers to make their employees aware that it existed. Often, this message got lost in the shuffle. 

The proof is in the adoption metrics

Zellis created marketing collateral for customers to help them promote the mobile app to their employees, including:

• Posters
• Standard messages they could use in communications
• Educational materials showing the benefits

Lobb knew that additional communication support to promote the mobile app was necessary, and turned to Pendo In-app Guides. His team launched guides in two key places: desktop and mobile browsers. 

Desktop users saw a guide featuring a QR code that connected them with the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Mobile users on a browser also saw a guide directing them to their app store of choice. 

Both tactics worked: 

• 25% of desktop users engaged with the mobile app after seeing the in-app guide 
• 41% of mobile users on a browser used the mobile app after seeing the in-app guide

Lobb’s team continues using guides to drive mobile adoption so their customers’ employees will have a better experience and easier time getting what they need from their HR platform. 

A unique use case for guides—charitable giving

As Lobb is an avid Pendo user, he often thinks outside the box for unique ways to leverage Pendo’s capabilities. He found a perfect internal use case for guides: promoting philanthropic giving within the company. 

Zellis has a system wherein employees can opt to donate the extra pence from their earnings. For example, If an employee earns £100.50, they can opt in to donate that 50 pence to charity each month. He implemented a guide to help communicate this option to employees. 

This simple yet powerful example shows how broadly guides can support internal initiatives without being intrusive or complicated. 

Continuing the trend of excellence with Pendo 

As a Pendo user since 2019 and ten-year veteran of Zellis, Lobb has considerable expertise in both platforms. Later this year, Zellis will  launch a new version of their platform. He’s confident that it’ll be a smooth process, knowing what data he’ll need to measure its success, “I want to make sure that we’ve got all the right metrics ready to measure so we’ll be able to tell our customers how successful adoption is. Then our product team can take any learnings from our Pendo NPS data and make the necessary improvements.” 

Lobb continues to work with his colleagues to ensure they’re getting the most out of Pendo by holding monthly Pendo Center of Excellence (CoE) meetings with team members outside of the customer success team. 

Regular touch points across teams ensure they use Pendo to its fullest potential and always rely on the data. “As we move forward,” Lobb said, “We’ll continue to be very data-driven, and will use Pendo to gather the data we need to demonstrate our value to our customers.”