HR App & mSHR Team
Hospital Authority Head Office

HA information at your fingertips

In this digital age, a smartphone and a mobile application are what we need in daily life. The Human Resources Division and Information Technology and Health Informatics Division of the Head Office jointly piloted a mobile App in March 2016 and finally rolled out to over 70,000 staff in HA. Offering various functions, the App has over 48,000 downloads and is embraced with warm welcomes from users.

Dr Theresa Li, Head of Human Resources Division, says, “We have conducted a small survey earlier regarding effective communication channels and found that face-to-face communication, like staff forum, is still the most popular channel. As soon as we realised that they also wished to modernise staff communication via mobile solution, we came up with the idea of HR App and started discussions with the Information Technology and Health Informatics Division right away.” Dr Cheung Ngai‑tseung, Head of Information Technology and Health Informatics Division, adds, “We’ve designed applications for patients and also apps for medical staff for clinical use, but there isn’t anything to facilitate the work of our colleagues in general. Therefore, we want to design an App for our 70,000 staff.” Both Dr Li and Dr Cheung further comment that the App must be functional and useful for staff to assist them in daily work.

The App currently includes work schedule ‘myWorkDay’ and leave approval ‘Approval’ functions for colleagues to apply for annual leave and check the status of their annual leave balance. Other useful information, such as to view staff welfare under ‘myBenefit’; view salary statement, and tax return under ‘myPay’; access to vacancies under ‘myOpportunities’; search staff directory under ‘myColleagues’; access to learning corner under ‘myLearning’ and editor’s pick ‘myNews’ are available at their fingertips. The App is linked to mSHR for colleagues to make appointments at staff clinics and amend or cancel their appointments. Medical records such as the laboratory reports, as well as those of diagnostic radiology can be checked at your fingertips.

The team met with frontline staff every three months for the past two years to discuss their actual needs, follow up on the latest progress and add new functions to enable pleasant surprises to colleagues at new App release every quarter. The latest feature ‘HA Chat’, which will be rolled out on 7 May this year, allows colleagues to send and receive text messages, audio messages and images for cross-departmental exchange under safe environment hence reducing the risk of data disclosure. In the near future, colleagues only need to show their ‘e-staff welfare card’ from HR App to enjoy special offers to HA staff provided by designated shops.

Magdalene Poon, Senior Occupational Therapist from Kwai Chung Hospital, recalls, “I have to approve colleagues’ leaves on a computer in the past. Now it can be easily done by a tap on the mobile.”

Registered Nurse of Kowloon Hospital, Ms Tai Mei-lan says, “Now I can search for the phone number of a colleague by entering the name in HR App. It is much more convenient than relying on computer only before having the App.”