Smartphone · USSD · WhatsApp — every African phone

Mobile HR
on Every African Phone.
Even the Old Ones.

A smartphone app for office workers. USSD for the security guard with a feature phone. WhatsApp for the payslip your driver actually opens. Three channels, one source of truth — built for how Africa really works.

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Works offline Under 2 MB / month 6 languages

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3G · 67%

May payslip

KES 142,500

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Why most ESS apps fail in Africa

Built for boardrooms, not for the people who actually need them.

Half your team doesn't have a smartphone

Security guards, drivers, factory floor staff, casuals, distributors. They have phones — just not Android-or-newer phones. Your shiny ESS app doesn't reach them.

The app needs constant internet

Field staff lose signal. The app crashes. They give up and start phoning HR for everything again. You've paid for software nobody uses.

It chews data

A 50 MB ESS app on a 1 GB monthly bundle is not a feature, it's a tax. Employees disable it after one month.

Payslips printed and hand-delivered

Once a month, HR prints 800 payslips, sorts them by branch, and hands them to a driver. Some get lost. Some get opened by the wrong person.

The three-channel strategy

Reach every employee, on whatever phone they have.

One employee record, three delivery channels — pick what fits each person.

Smartphone app

iOS & Android · 8 MB · offline-capable

Full payslip viewer with PDF download
Apply & track leave, see balance
GPS-verified clock-in / clock-out
Submit timesheets & expense claims
Push notifications for approvals
Biometric login (fingerprint/face)

Best for: office staff, supervisors, project managers

USSD on any phone

Dial *483*200# · no app · no internet

Check leave balance instantly
Request leave through numbered menu
Latest payslip net amount
Confirm employment status (HR letter)
Self-service password reset
Works on every African phone — even Nokia 3310s

Best for: security, drivers, casual workers, field staff

WhatsApp delivery

Payslips · letters · alerts

Monthly payslip auto-delivered as PDF
Employment letter on request (reply "letter")
Payday confirmation alerts
Employee asks "balance" → auto-reply
Loan repayment reminders
Distribution that actually reaches everyone

Best for: 90% of employees — they all already have it

USSD — the African superpower

No smartphone? No data? Still self-service.

USSD is how East Africans bank, top up airtime, and check exam results. It works on every phone — including phones from 1999 — and costs almost nothing in data. We use it to give every employee the basics: leave balance, leave request, last payslip, employment letter.

Numbered menus translated into local languages.
Mobile-network agnostic — Safaricom, Airtel, MTN, Orange, etc.
Free or near-free for the employee in most countries.
Approval flows: line manager gets an SMS to approve/reject.

*483*200#

SmartHR

Karibu, Mary K.

1. Leave balance

2. Request leave

3. Last payslip

4. Employment letter

5. Reset password

0. Exit

Reply with: 1

Works on any phone · No internet

SmartHR

verified business

SmartHR · 9:42 AM

Hi Mary, your May 2026 payslip is ready 📄

PDF

Mary-K-payslip-may-2026.pdf

147 KB

balance

You have 12 leave days remaining for 2026. 🌴

WhatsApp business integration

The most reliable distribution channel in Africa.

90%+ of African employees use WhatsApp daily. They check it before email, before SMS, before the company portal. So that's where we put the payslip.

Payslips delivered automatically each payday — no app required.
Employees reply "balance", "leave", "letter" — auto-replies use the same data as the app.
Verified business profile — employees know it's really HR.
Privacy: only the employee's registered number receives their data.

Built for African phones, networks, and employees.

Three things most ESS apps overlook: data cost, language, and what to do when the phone is lost.

Tiny data footprint

~8 MB initial install
1-2 MB per active employee/month
Compresses photos before sync
WiFi-only sync option

Six languages built in

English

Français

Português

العربية

Kiswahili

አማርኛ

Add more in 1-2 weeks at no charge.

Lost phone? No problem.

No PII stored after logout
Force-logout from admin panel
Biometric (fingerprint, face) login
Encrypted local storage

Common questions about mobile ESS

Don't see yours? Ask the team →

Yes. The mobile app captures everything offline — timesheets, expense claims, leave requests, GPS clock-ins — and syncs the moment the device is back online. Critical for field staff in rural areas, on travel, or in low-coverage sites.

Each employee has a registered phone number. They dial a short USSD code (e.g. *483*200#) on any phone — even a basic feature phone — and navigate a numbered menu: 1 for leave balance, 2 to request leave, 3 for last payslip summary. No app, no data, no smartphone required.

Yes. Each payroll run can deliver payslips automatically as PDFs to employees' WhatsApp numbers. WhatsApp has 90%+ penetration across most African countries — it's the most reliable distribution channel. Employees can also request a re-send by replying.

Designed for African data costs. The app uses around 1-2 MB per typical month for an active employee. Initial install is around 8 MB. Image-heavy actions (e.g. expense receipt photos) are compressed before sync.

English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Swahili, and Amharic out of the box. Each employee picks their preferred language; payslips, leave forms, and notifications all respect that setting.

Configurable per role and per location. Office staff usually don't need it. Field staff, drivers, security guards, and site workers typically do. The app verifies the employee is within a configurable radius of an approved site before allowing clock-in.

No PII is stored on the device after logout. Active sessions use encrypted local storage. Lost or stolen devices can be force-logged out from the admin panel. Biometric login (fingerprint/face) is supported on devices that have it.

Yes — for fields HR allows employees to manage themselves (next of kin, emergency contact, address). Fields like salary, role, or bank account require HR approval before they take effect, with a full audit trail.

See it on a real African phone.

Book a 30-minute demo. We'll show you the smartphone app, dial the USSD code on a feature phone, and send a test payslip to your WhatsApp.

Book a Mobile Demo Built for field workers ← Back to Platform

Mobile HR on Every African Phone. Even the Old Ones.