The Best Employee Communication Software
Here’s my shortlist of the best employee communication software I’ve covered in this article, plus detailed summaries below:
- 1. Workvivo — Best communication app for building human connection and emotional commitment between employees and your company
Our one-on-one guidance will help you find the perfect fit.
Transparent communication is critical to the productivity and success of any organization. Yet, many don't have an organized internal communication strategy in place. That's a risky position to be in when you consider the effect that poor internal communication can have on morale and employee turnover. Thankfully, there are many employee communication software systems out there that can help.
These modern solutions will help you share information easier, so everyone in your team is always in the loop. In the meantime, your employee satisfaction and engagement will go up, while your inbox clutter goes down. It's a win-win situation for both sides of the table — from upper management to your frontline employees.
In this article, I'll walk you through the top employee communication software on the market today. I'll explain what each system does best, to help you find the tool with the right functionality for your business needs.
What Is Employee Communication Software?
The term "employee communication software" covers a wide range of software systems and apps that help companies communicate with their staff. The most popular communication methods include direct messaging, text messaging, or phone calls. However, this type of software often supports file sharing and other team collaboration tools like video calls too. By streamlining your internal comms through a dedicated platform, you'll be able to keep all your employees on the same page. This is true for all types of workforces, whether your team is office-based, hybrid, fully remote, field-based, or anything in between.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Employee Communication Software
To help you find the best employee communication software for you, I’ve described my top 10 choices in detail, highlighting the key features that make each system stand out. I’ve also included a screenshot for each one to give you a glimpse of their user interface too.
Workvivo
Best communication app for building human connection and emotional commitment between employees and your company
Workvivo is an employee experience app designed to foster engagement and emotional connection between employees and your company culture, no matter where they're located. Their platform functions as a modern intranet, engagement platform and communications hub, blended into a single social network experience.
Their system supports traditional communication features like company news and event updates, and SMS push notifications to all staff for critical communications. As well, you can use their platform to host live video streams, such as town hall meetings, to improve leadership transparency through multimedia interactions with all staff. Their system can even host podcasts, which offer a deeper window into your corporate culture and have been shown to foster higher engagement than traditional company newsletters or emails.
Workvivo integrates with many commonly used HR tools, including payroll software, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.
PeopleOne
Best employee communication and engagement solution
PeopleOne is an employee communication and engagement platform that aims to improve internal communications. It comes with pre-defined features for HR, IT, facilities, and business teams, helping to deliver tailored news, holiday calendars, wellness information, events, and leadership communications. The software ensures clear ownership of content creation, permissions, and approval mechanisms.
This solution is a solid choice for corporate communications, as it can accommodate custom workflows to help organizations operate more effectively. Using Microsoft Office 365’s SharePoint, PeopleOne enables the distribution of corporate news, events, and announcements, while the document management system provides access to processes, policies, and procedures. Leaders can also use the software to connect with employees to share information, thoughts, and insights.
PeopleOne lets you customize your corporate branding, including the colors, logo, and themes, to create a sense of association with your organization for your employees. In addition to this, there are built-in themes available for different occasions and festivals to bring holidays cheer to every employee.
PeopleOne has pre-built integrations with major email and messaging platforms, Office 365, and social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. They also have an iOS and Android app that empowers teams to communicate, collaborate and engage seamlessly, anywhere and anytime.
PeopleOne offers customized pricing upon request, as well as a free demo.
Deel
Best to bring HR tasks into Slack
Deel is a comprehensive workforce management platform for global businesses, with local expertise in over 150 countries. It has HR tools to help you manage a remote or distributed workforce of both employees and contractors. Some of its core features are contract management, expense management, and payroll and benefits administration.
As a communications tool, the software can bring core HR tasks directly into your company's Slack environment. Employees can manage their one-on-one meetings with their manager and complete pulse surveys directly through Slack. The Slack plugin also facilitates social discussions to build connections across global teams, and allows you to make timely announcements with important news and information.
Beyond these core communication functions, you can also setup workflows through the Slack plugin for common HR tasks. For example, employees can complete their onboarding, fill out time off requests, and submit referrals through Slack.
Deel offers flat rate user pricing, with a free version for businesses with up to 200 people. You can also get a free demo via their website.
Connecteam
Best for remote or deskless teams
Connecteam is an internal communication software designed for HR people, employee managers, and business owners, to communicate, manage, onboard, and train non-desk employees and new hires, wherever they might be.
Available on mobile, desktop, or as a kiosk app for tablets, Connecteam was built for deskless and remote teams. From retail and restaurants to manufacturing, construction, field services, and healthcare — Connecteam is being used by thousands of businesses across dozens of industries, to communicate with and manage their mobile workforce.
Connecteam comes with a dedicated employee communication channel with targeted updates, team engagement features, surveys, polls, group or 1:1 chat features, a suggestion box to collect employee feedback, searchable company directory, an organizational chat, training and onboarding capabilities, a company library, time management, digital forms and checklists, and quick tasks.
Connecteam is designed to streamline communication for out-of-office use, even on the run. It's easy to use, customizable, and quick to set up. Integrations include Google Calendar, Gusto, QuickBooks Payroll, and others.
Workmates
Best newsfeed and announcements system
Workmates, by HR Cloud, is an employee engagement platform with a built-in org chart and customizable communications channels to facilitate cross-departmental collaboration. It comes with a content management system (CMS) to make managing and sharing company information easier. Additionally, you can push through important announcements to segmented audience lists and even flag them as mandatory reads.
Workmates boasts individualized newsfeeds, employee profiles, event and calendar notifications, messaging and chat — basically everything you need to manifest a connected and engaged workforce. You can make their solution as comprehensive of lean as you desire. For example, you could just use their rewards and recognition system for communicating company wins. Or, you could leverage their workplace intranet for a more holistic approach to communications and security.
Workmates can even help you set up an enterprise social network platform, where you can connect with colleagues, share news and updates, and recognize high performers. It works across all devices, either through any web browser on by using their dedicated iOS or Android apps.
Workmates integrates with Staffbase, ADP, Quickbooks, Ultipro, SAP, LEVER, Compas, Greenhouse, JazzHR, Workable, TalentLyft, Smart Recruiters, Checkr, Indeed, Ziprecruiter, Glassdoor, Slack, Twilio, and other tools.
monday.com
Best for employee communication around tasks & projects
monday.com is marketing mainly as a workflow tool for scaling an organization, but they’ve also built in several HR features. They are not a pure HR software but it’s a useful tool with a lot of the basics, particularly when it comes to internal communications and collaboration (in which they very much excel).
monday.com can be your day-to-day workflow management tool for deadlines, HR workflows, and resource tracking with built-in communication features like commenting, approvals, @-tagging, notifications & alerts, customizable dashboards, a built-in inbox, social media-esc 'likes,' and email integration.
For the best employee communication functionality, take advantage of their 'docs' system, where you can build collaborative or read-only company manuals, checklists, or wikis. You can also build 'request forms' so that your employees have an easy way to report issues or new ideas right in the platform.
monday.com’s integrations include project management apps like Slack, Google Workspace, Gmail, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform and many more, accessible through a paid plan with Zapier.
Hub
Best for employee communications within an intranet
Hub is an all-in-one workplace intranet platform for employee engagement and internal communications. The software provides everything from polls and surveys to messaging and recognition. It allows businesses to create messages quickly, send them out to employees, track who opened them, and measure their impact. Users can manage and distribute content across multiple channels, such as mobile devices, desktop computers, and tablets.
The corporate intranet software hosts document management, employee profiles, and group calendars on the Google cloud. User accounts and target groups or individuals can be sent customized messages. Recipients can be sorted into groups based on role, location, language preferences, or other criteria.
The platform provides detailed insights into user engagement, like views, clicks, shares, and likes, which helps companies identify which content resonates best with different audiences and adjust future internal communications campaigns accordingly. Users can export data related to usage metrics for deeper analysis or reporting purposes.
This software integrates with Gmail, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Outlook, and Sharepoint. Users can embed RSS Feeds and Widgets for a customized employee interface.
Height
Best for project communication and collaboration
Height is a project management software that supports internal communication around projects and tasks to support teamwork and collaboration. Teams can create project plans, set and assign tasks and sub-tasks, and track their progress using a spreadsheet or calendar view, Gantt charts, or Kanban boards. Each team member gets a personalized inbox with an overview of the tasks assigned to them, notifications relevant to their projects or work, and any half-finished drafts that need their attention. Users can also create private tasks with access controls in place.
Notifications are totally customizable, making sure irrelevant updates aren't clogging up your inbox. To stay aligned on projects and collaborate in real-time, teams can use the software's live messaging with reaction emojis, mentions, replies, and typing and read indicators. Media like video, images, and GIFs can all be used in the messaging tool, and code highlighting is available to separate code text in a message.
Integrations include Discord, Fivetran, GitHub & GitLab, Google Sheets, Notion, Sentry, Slab, Slack, and Zendesk. Additional integrations can also be unlocked with a paid Zapier account.
TextMagic
Best for communicating with employees in bulk via SMS/text messages
TextMagic is a cloud-based bulk SMS service that helps businesses send out important updates, alerts, and notifications to their employees instantly. It's a pretty straightforward tool for communicating with your employees internally, since you can reach all your team members at once, or segment your contacts into teams, departments, or into location-based groups, as needed.
In a market filled with complex communication tools, TextMagic stands out with its simplicity and efficiency. It's a tool that does one thing, and does it well - helping you communicate with your team quickly and effectively via text messages.
TextMagic isn't just a one-way communication tool. Your employees can also reply to your messages, making it a great platform for quick discussions or feedback. To help you easily track your communications between individuals, all text replies get filtered back into an individual chat stream, making it easy to track large volumes of responses.
Another unique capability is its scheduling feature, which is a lifesaver when you need to send out reminders or updates at specific times. You can prepare your notifications in advance, then schedule them to send when the timing is right.
TextMagic is suitable for businesses of all sizes. Whether you're a small team looking to improve your internal communication, or a large corporation needing to send out updates to hundreds of employees, TextMagic can handle it. It's also great for remote teams, as it ensures everyone stays connected, no matter where they are.
Integrations with numerous systems are available by connecting TextMagic to Zapier. They also have a custom API, which means you can automate your communication processes, saving you a lot of time and effort.
All incoming text messages (i.e., replies from your employees) are free. Plus, USA & Canada-based users can request virtual toll-free numbers, so your employees don't have to pay to reply to messages either.
Homebase
Best communication tool within an employee management app
Homebase is an employee management software tailored for small businesses with hourly workers. It has internal communication tools as well as scheduling, time tracking, payroll, and other HR tools. The app has a built-in messenger tool whrtr users can send direct messages to individuals or the entire organization. Users can also create groups for a specific projects, job functions, seniority, or shift schedules.
Teams and individual staff can use the messenger tool to share documents, files, and images, while team leaders and managers can leave specific notes for employees and team members. The team communication software can also be used to share feedback.
Some of the top team communication features include team announcements and shout-outs, shift notes and employee feedback, data and analytics, automated reminders and notifications, and file sharing and storage.
Need Expert Help Selecting The Right Internal Communications Software?
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The 10 Best Employee Communication Software Comparison Chart
This comparison chart summarizes basic details about each of my top employee communication software selections. You can view pricing details and the availability of free trials or demos side-by-side to help you find the best software for your budget and business needs.
Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Workvivo Best communication app for building human connection and emotional commitment between employees and your company | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
2 | PeopleOne Best employee communication and engagement solution | Free trial available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
3 | Deel Best to bring HR tasks into Slack | Free demo available | Flat rate user pricing, with a free version for businesses with up to 200 people | Visit Website |
4 | Connecteam Best for remote or deskless teams | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $29/month for 30 users (paid annually) | Visit Website |
5 | Workmates Best newsfeed and announcements system | Free demo available | From $3.50/user/month | Visit Website |
6 | monday.com Best for employee communication around tasks & projects | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $8/user/month (billed annually, min 3 seats) | Visit Website |
7 | Hub Best for employee communications within an intranet | Free demo available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
8 | Height Best for project communication and collaboration | 30-day free trial | From $8.50/user/month | Visit Website |
9 | TextMagic Best for communicating with employees in bulk via SMS/text messages | 30-day free trial | From $0.049/text (pay-as-you-go-model) | Visit Website |
10 | Homebase Best communication tool within an employee management app | Free plan available (unlimited employees) | From $20/month (payroll add-on is $6/user/month + $39/month) | Visit Website |
Other Internal Communication Software Options
Here are a few more employee communication software systems that didn’t make the top list, but are still worth checking out:
- Staffbase
Best for a mobile-first intranet
- Blink
Best for reaching a deskless workforce
- SnapComms
Best for mobile-friendly employee communication and engagement
- Happeo
Best channel-based communication
- Jive
Best for mapping team relationships
- Cerkl Broadcast
Best for time-sensitive communications
- Appspace
Best for a simple workplace engagement and productivity tool
- HubEngage
Best for engagement and deep insights
- Mango Connect
Best for top-down communications
- Gmail
Best for those already in the Google ecosystem
Selection Criteria for Employee Communication Software
Wondering how I selected the best employee communication software for this list? I'm happy to satisfy your curiosity by walking you through my process. I started off by creating a long list of employee communication systems based on recent market data and positive user ratings. I then dug into the details of each system to see how each one compared to the next.
Here's a summary of the main features I evaluated during my assessment, to satisfy your curiosity even more:
Key Features
These are the main features I assessed in detail when making my final selections for this list of the best cloud-based employee communication software:
- Instant Messaging: the core feature of any communication software today is direct, instant messaging that allows team members to interact one-on-one or in groups
- Notifications: employees need clear notifications when messages are received or when relevant messages are posted in a group
- File sharing: this allows users to distribute files by sharing from the cloud or uploading from their device
- Status updates: team members should be able to leave a clear indication of their current availability
- Activity feed: this keeps employees up to date with messages sent to them personally or in their groups
- Search: users must be able to search for old messages by keyword and find them quickly
- Surveys and polls: managers can use interactive tools to canvas opinions and make informed team decisions
- Knowledge base: access to a company-wide knowledge base reduces repetitive questions and helps people find the information they need faster
User Interface
Employee communication tools will be used by every level of every department. That's why a clean and clear user interface (UI) is so important. It must prioritize intuitiveness and user appeal that speaks to the masses.
Usability
Will employees find it easy to use both in the office and while on the move? Does the onboarding, training and support work for employees at all levels?
Software Integrations
Does the software connect easily to productivity and collaboration tools employees use every day? Are there existing integrations with popular workforce apps?
Value for Price
Does the pricing make sense on a per-employee basis for both small and large organizations? Is pricing clear, transparent, and easy for everyone to understand?
Employee Communication Software: Frequently Asked Questions
Still wondering about employee communication software and why it’s important? These answers to popular FAQs are a good place to start:
Why is employee communication important?
Why are employee communication apps better than email?
What are the best free employee communication platforms?
Other Communication and Collaboration Software Reviews
With employee communication at the top of your mind already, you may also want to take a peek at these other software systems too:
- Team Communication Apps for Hybrid Teams
- Intranet Software Solutions To Connect Teams
- Document Management Systems
- Employee Engagement Software
- Employee Experience Platforms
- Remote Working Software for Distributed Teams
- Remote Collaboration Software for Hybrid Teams
- Brainstorming Tools for Sparking Creativity
- Video Conferencing Software for Engaging with Remote Teams
Final Thoughts
Do current internal communication tools get everything done, or are we still waiting for the ‘killer app’ to rule them all? Is your team focused on one software, or are you communicating using multiple apps?
Let us know what you think in the comments below. And remember to sign up for our newsletter to get news of the latest developments in employee communication software and beyond.
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Related Read: Thinking About An Employee Intranet? Read This First