Smartphones have become ubiquitous, bringing great convenience into our everyday lives. You may be wondering what value they can deliver in the business world. Here are three ways phones can enhance your company culture.

Phones and Company Culture

Since over three-quarters of adults in the U.S. own smartphones, most of your employees should already be comfortable with this familiar technology. When used to access a diverse group of applications designed for social sharing, project planning, communication, and productivity, phones are a versatile tool for improving company culture.

Company culture can be defined in many ways. This article from the Harvard Business Review identifies six main components of company culture:

• Vision
• Values
• People
• Practices
• Narrative
• Place

Let´s look at how phones enhance these aspects of company culture, sometimes in ways that touch on several components at once.

1. Share Vision and Values

Corporate vision and values may be intertwined, and employee use of smartphones can support both.

Communicating the Company Vision

In some situations, a company´s vision might be to provide customers with the best possible service in its industry. If so, phones can be used to broadcast vision-related information to employees, describing long-term company goals or keeping staff up-to-speed about projects designed to make the corporate vision a reality.

Adding Value with Training

When a company´s vision is to promote excellent customer service, employee training and education can make that vision possible. Virtual training solutions, delivered via smartphones, can support your company´s goals by conveying knowledge and helping your employees hone their skills, regardless of their locations or schedules.

Sharing the Company Vision

Some companies emphasize corporate volunteerism by sponsoring community service projects or letting employees participate in volunteer activities during work time. Workers can take smartphone pictures at these events, then use social media to share visuals of the company´s values in action—provided employees understand the company´s expectations of their behavior on social media, especially if the accounts used are accessible to the public.

2. Personalize People and Their Practices

Better business practices can enable employees to work more efficiently. Employees empowered by such practices will be more likely to make significant contributions to their company culture.

Celebrating Interactions among Coworkers

A simple way to build team spirit is by promoting the use of social media to capture moments from company gatherings, like holiday get-togethers or summer picnics. Employees might compete for prizes in themed contests, such as submitting or captioning photos that best exemplify the company´s vision or values.

Simplifying Project Management

In addition to fostering work relationships through the use of social media, phones can benefit company practices by facilitating communication and project management. Seamless project management is crucial to the success of any company. Smartphones can keep your team plugged into tools like Trello, Asana, or Basecamp.

Enhancing Communications

Close communication develops camaraderie by improving team cohesiveness and morale. Text messages, team chats, emails, video calls, and private messaging apps organize and streamline communication among coworkers.

Remote teams can be brought together for threaded and searchable conversations in virtual chat rooms using tools like Cisco Webex Teams and Slack. Apps such as Zoho Meeting, Go-to-Meeting, and Webex Meeting provide a face-to-face meeting interface, even across the miles or time zones.

3. Strengthen Company Narrative and Sense of Place

Social media can play a role in developing your company narrative. Because of its cooperative and somewhat democratic nature, employees from all strata in your company can use it to shape the story of the business. However, keep in mind that inappropriate use of social media may have serious consequences for your company, so encourage employees to use this tool wisely.

Through social media, your employees can establish a shared sense of place, especially for colleagues who do not work on site. Photos from company events often help to create a sense of common ground for remote workers and strengthen the connection between on-site and off-site employees.

Smartphones: A Smart Solution for Businesses

In the ever-evolving and increasingly competitive business world, your company must embrace every technological advantage. Enabling employees to stay connected, current, and productive by using smartphones is a powerful step toward ensuring your company´s success, in addition to maintaining an efficient, profitable, and positive corporate culture.