The Rewe employee apps

The REWE employee Apps mark the start of a new chapter in business internal communication. Ranging from the board’s news to the employee benefits, the entire workforce in Austria and many other countries in Europe is well informed.

In times of digitalization, it is especially important for large companies to make their communication channels as efficient and varied as possible. REWE Group's employee apps are inspired by the award-winning "My BILLA" app. Based on this, we also developed the "TEAM Penny", the "WIR, BIPA" and the "Renate" app. The approach: A white label solution, where design and functionalities can be adapted for each brand and which remains flexible in its implementation. A successful approach that we have now had the pleasure of rolling out for REWE in several European countries - from Slovakia to the Czech Republic, Italy, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria.

The goal of the project was to develop appealing and user-friendly apps that not "only" serve to communicate, but also to connect employees and promote team spirit within the company. For this reason, the employee apps have functions such as "like" for individual content or "comments" that encourage employees to give feedback.

The basic framework of the app and the log-in were implemented on the basis of the native programming languages of iOS (Swift) and Android (Kotlin) for performance and security reasons. Digital employee cards were made available offline so that employees* can benefit from all advantages at any time. The menu navigation is dynamically loaded via an interface and includes seasonal content in addition to the homepage and employee directory. For the presentation in the look & feel of the app, all other content and functionalities are integrated as optimized HTML content directly from the client's CMS. This guarantees flexibility in case of changes and easy expandability.

All employees - from the management board to the branch employees - are connected via the respective apps. In addition to information relevant to the day, the apps provide information about internal company news and exclusive employee benefits. These include offers and goodies, pension schemes, family support, and training and development. In addition to all this, there is also a video library, a gallery and the online version of the employee magazine, which provides varied and exciting content.

Communication apps such as the REWE employee apps can be continuously filled by several editors with little effort. The various contents - from the digital employee magazine to the sweepstakes - are imported and kept up-to-date by the communication managers through a direct connection to the company's own content management system (CMS). This makes it easy to fill the apps with content and keeps all employees up to date. After downloading from the store, employees can log into the app using the access data they already know from other systems (intranet).

The "Mein BILLA" app was awarded the "retail technology award europe" in the "Best Enterprise Solution" category at the EuroCIS trade fair in 2018 for its comprehensive provision of corporate information to employees. We, bluesource - mobile solutions gmbH, were awarded as Top Supplier Retail.

All REWE employee apps are also linked to Bluecode's mobile payment system. The secure and fast online payment processing is becoming increasingly popular and is already accepted across all retailers at 85 percent of all food retailers in Austria. All that is required is the registration of one's own bank account in the app (under the item "Employee Card").

The success of the REWE employee apps in Austria was the starting signal for the use of the app in other countries in Central and Eastern Europe where the REWE Group is represented. These include apps for Billa in Slovakia and Bulgaria, as well as apps for Penny in Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. In addition to these employee apps, we have implemented so-called "smart apps" that digitize the work of specific REWE employee groups. Among others, for BILLA and Penny (in several countries), for BIPA and ADEG as well as for the employees of REWE stores at various gas stations.