The world is more connected than ever before. Mobile and social applications have changed the way people go about their daily activities. Guess what? Employees now have expectations that the same experience they have with technology in their personal lives will be replicated at work.

This shift has HR departments everywhere inspired to be innovative when it comes to the tools they give staff. The challenge for IT is to find a way to get this done. According to Gartner, there is an “IT Debt Gap” approaching $1 trillion that exists between the solutions the business side wants to build and the capacity IT has to make it happen.

The Salesforce1 Platform provides everything needed to build connected employee-facing apps out of the box, including back-end infrastructure, security, and scalability, plus thousands of APIs to bring social and mobile apps to life faster. The result? Happier, more connected, and more productive employees.

We spoke to two people who work closely with the HR application development on the Salesforce1 Platform at their companies: Marc Marasco, Facebook’s HR Information Systems Manager and Jeannene Michel, salesforce.com’s Senior Director of Employee Success Shared Services.

Here are four best practices for building HR apps they’ve learned from this process:

1. Make them mobile

Employers like Facebook and Salesforce are increasingly adopting a mobile-first strategy to meet employees where they are, which is often on their mobile device. In fact, the number of global smartphone users worldwide is expected to reach 1.75 billion this year. Apps built on the Salesforce1 Platform get mobile access through the Salesforce1 Mobile App instantly, with no code required.  

2. Include social

Some 73% of adults use social networking sites. Chances are your employees also want to interact this way at work. Salesforce.com gives its team of 13,000 social means through the company intranet, Chatter, and the ES support and services portal known as #dreamjob central, which features a strong employee community. Both tools can be accessed via desktop and mobile devices.

3. Iterate quickly

Facebook already embraces an "if you fail, fail fast” development philosophy at the company. Using the Salesforce1 Platform, they’ve been able to rapidly iterate and get working prototypes of HR apps built quickly. Once live, the Facebook team has the ability to quickly make changes and updates on the fly.

4. Consider the UX

When building employee-facing apps, think about what the user experience should be. Today’s worker doesn’t want to go to multiple locations to find the answers they need. Consider blending HR, IT, travel, payroll, and more into a single function support center. The Salesforce1 Mobile App works as an “app of apps,” providing one location for employees to find all the applications they use in their work lives, wherever they are.

Hear more about how Facebook uses the Salesforce1 Platform to build critical HR apps for their employees by watching the Build Apps to Supercharge Your Business webcast recording. You'll also get the inside track from the salesforce.com HR team as they share how IT has helped them grow and support our talent pool with mobile apps built on the Salesforce1 Platform. To view the webcast, click here.


Learn about how you can build custom mobile apps for your business using the Salesforce1 Platform by downloading this free e-book.