Background
In overly customer-oriented business models companies often seem to forget that the quality of their service is directly linked to the quality of their employees. If you’re a large transport company, all your processes may be top-notch and your routes - optimal, but if your drivers don’t show up on time, you’re still heading for serious brand damage.
The pandemics made it even more clear that treating your staff as you treat your customers is a key to success. As most shopping moved online DHL employee turnover skyrocketed, putting a huge strain on both the management and the couriers. Understanding that happy employees mean happy customers, and that the former have no time to waste, the company decided to replace their traditional onboarding and training system with a cutting-edge mobile app.
“Treating your staff as you treat your customers is key.”
Solution
Curiously, the launch of the first functionality (onboarding) coincided with the start of the pandemics. Needless to say, Flock. engineers were thrilled to take an active role in the project.
The app we built comprises two major modules - for the employee and for the manager. The former contains onboarding, training, social and HR components - virtually all work-related matters at the courier’s fingertips. The manager’s version of the app makes it possible to oversee the people and the fleet, have direct access to the crucial KPIs, interact with the team and swiftly handle all HR-matters (recruitment, contracts, sick and holiday leaves, disciplinary measures etc.).
In terms of technology we relied on Scala with ZIO, which turned out extremely robust and reliable in complex environments where timing is crucial (e.g. prolongation or termination of contracts).
Our primary focus while building the app was user experience of the internal staff. The system is now really straightforward to use and requires no complex authentication procedures. Almost immediately after the launch DHL registered a surge in training enrolment and completion, which we consider a major success.
