Persimmon Homes has commissioned Leeds and London based software development company Audacia to develop a bespoke platform for the housebuilder to support its growth plans and strengthen its workforce during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Audacia, which employs more than 50 software specialists, was appointed by Persimmon to develop a digital solution to support the building giant’s 5,000-plus employees across the country and colleagues across the county by providing a platform for instant communication, providing feedback, and collaborating on content whilst the organisation is working substantially remotely.

With a recent survey showing nearly half (43%) of UK workers think business leaders needed to improve communication during the pandemic, Persimmon, clearly leading the way in this field, commissioned Audacia to create a bespoke system to allow for seamless internal communication amongst the firm’s distributed workforce during the Covid-19 crisis and beyond.

The platform includes a content management portal for teams to create draft content, adding tags for increased searchability and the attaching of multiple files and media content. Features also allow for segmenting content at a corporate, regional, or service level, as well as enabling external partners to review and publish content on its behalf.

The platform has been developed for mobile as an Android or iOS app, enabling employees to view news articles and engage in polls wherever they are and however they work in order to rapidly capture employee feedback and engage with its employer.

Philip White, Managing Director at Audacia comments: “This project is a fantastic example of a large organisation with a distributed workforce, moving quickly to deploy technology to engage with their employees when they are at their most remote.

“We’re really pleased with the end result. Persimmon’s clear vision and strong technical leadership during the project enabled us to move from concept to deployment in just over a couple of months, with a genuinely collaborative approach. It’s rare we see such large organisations operate with so much agility.”

Lance Evans, Associate IT Director at Persimmon Homes, added: “Persimmon places great value on the welfare and wellbeing of its staff as well as the strength of our internal communications. This is a vital part of any business - especially one of our size and in the current climate.

"We have a corporate, social and moral responsibility to look after every member of staff whoever they are, whatever their role and wherever they are based. Our Employee Engagement Panel was established to canvass opinion and feedback from employees across the regions and identified the need to get the right information to everyone at the same time, especially whilst so many of our colleagues are working remotely.

This is a real sign of our commitment to supporting our staff in a real time of need as well as continuing to lead the way in digital innovation across the sector.

“We commissioned Audacia to develop a piece of software that could help us communicate with our colleagues and the app has already seen great feedback from employees. The polling feature will allow us to gather rapid feedback for improvements within the business as well as in providing recommendations. The app, in a time of disparity with some of our colleagues working from home, will bring us together to communicate and share news in one place in an effective, easy-to-navigate platform.”