Employee Communication Apps: Why They Matter
Employee communication apps have grown in value as the number of remote workers soared.
Over the past few years, there has been a seismic shift in corporate and employee communications – a shift that touches almost every aspect of work life. Team members, more often than not, work from far-flung locations. Project management happens via video conferencing. The ability to hold online meetings using mobile devices that allow file sharing, screen sharing, and social networking has become a day-to-day necessity. And although there are plenty of employee communication apps available, taking the time to find the best employee communication tools to suit your internal communication strategy will save you time and energy.
The apps that we cover in this article will help you increase employee engagement, enhance team communication, and support a healthy company culture.
although there are plenty of employee communication apps available, taking the time to find the best employee communication tools to suit your internal communication strategy will save you time and energy.
The 10 best employee communication apps
The following 10 employee communication apps, also called internal communication tools, are well-recommended. Take a look to determine which ones might best serve your internal communications strategy and your corporate communications plan:
1. Contact Monkey: sharing company news and analytics
Effective internal communication relies on getting essential news to employees in a way that best reaches them. Contact Monkey offers a platform for sharing internal email newsletters and important company news. It also allows you to collect employee feedback. This internal communication tool is unique in that it integrates with Outlook and provides communicators with devices used to open newsletters, unique clicks, multiple clicks, unique opens and multiple opens, etc. This gives management prompt insight into ways to improve internal communications — as soon as the very next newsletter. Contact Monkey has several pricing packages available.
2. Trello: top of the collaboration tools
Sometimes team communication can get disorganized and disjointed. Trello pulls employee communication features into one easy-to-use interface that clarifies messaging about each project into one specific place. Everyone on the team can see what has been accomplished, what still needs to be completed, and what is underway. Stakeholders can simply click to view or share files and can comment on each task. Standard pricing starts at $5 per user, per month.
3. SnapComms: digital signage
Do you have digital signage in your office that really doesn’t get your messages across? SnapComms offers an internal communications app that enables you, from one interface, to send and update your internal communications onto your digital signage hardware, mobile devices, and desktops with just a few clicks. It features advanced message scheduling and segmenting, and it works even with older, dedicated signage machines. Pricing ranges from $9 to $14 per employee, per year.
4. Friday: automating regular announcements
Friday gives you a fresh, modern user interface that centralizes essential work into a single location. The tool was designed specifically for intranet use; it even integrates with Slack (see directly below). You can post announcements, view team member profiles, engage in work chat, view to-do lists, see who is reading your posts, and offer new hires your company handbook in moments. Because it was built to integrate with other internal communications apps, Friday offers a lot of options for streamlining team communications. Pricing options include a free option, an individual option at $4 a month, and a “teams option” at $6 a person each month.
5. Slack: instant messaging tools for your team
Slack provides a dedicated internal instant messaging app with push notifications, and it even integrates with Friday. With Slack, you can create multiple chat rooms for team projects so that colleagues can organize communication about each project within each chat room, instead of blasting it to the entire company. Slack also provides direct messaging to specific team members. The company offers a range of price options, depending on the size of your organization.
What’s your biggest 2022 HR challenge that you’d like to resolve
Answer to see the results
6. Yammer: the enterprise social network
Building a positive company culture depends on the building of social connections as much as it does on just getting the work done. Yammer, which Microsoft acquired, creates a social network space for your employees. No matter where your employees are working, Yammer helps team members collaborate, share projects, and join groups relevant to their projects, keeping group conversations organized. Pricing starts at $5 per user, per month.
7. Bucketlist: employee recognition tool
Giving a shout-out to employees who are doing a great job helps to build a positive company culture, and Bucketlist offers a great employee recognition platform. It organizes rewards so that employees who have achieved milestones can choose what they want; leaders can share praise on internal social networks.
8. Basecamp: project management
Basecamp has been a go-to collaboration tool for project managers for a while now. It offers the latest news on projects, as well as the ability to share files and to discuss progress on one easy-to-use internal communications interface. The Catch-up button brings you the latest news on what’s happening with each project, and the Progress button shows you how your project timeline is progressing, and it even offers a Calendar feature, at a $99 a month flat rate.
9. Microsoft Teams: full-featured internal communication software
The Microsoft Teams internal communication software platform gives you an easy video chat tool for real-time conversations, boosting your employees’ communication across geographies. Because it integrates with other Microsoft apps, it’s become a prime choice for many companies that like to use one unified platform. Pricing is $5 per user, per month.
10. Zoom: video calls and remote meetings
Zoom is known for its ability to bring remote teams together for video conferencing and collaboration. It runs head-to-head with Microsoft Teams, and many companies have made their choice between these 2 giants. Either way, there is no substitute for being able to run an easy video conference with far-flung team members. Plus, screen sharing and data sharing couldn’t be easier. Zoom is flexible enough that you can use it for video webinars, file sharing, and cross-platform messaging. It even includes a digital signage feature. Pricing ranges from the free version all the way to $240 a year for large businesses.
Choosing the best internal communication apps for your company
You can strengthen your employees’ ability to collaborate, communicate, and thrive together, regardless of the geographical location they’re in or the device they have at hand. Zenefits helps leaders and HR professionals discover collaborative communication software tools to help organizations streamline procedures, enhance productivity, and improve communication. Sign up for a trial today!
