Communication is the foundation of effective teamwork. Open, accessible, and simple messaging empowers you to share ideas with your employees, loop everyone in on important updates, and execute game-changing strategies.

Whether you lead an established business or are building a crew for a forthcoming venture, it’s crucial to set up technology that allows for simple workplace collaboration—especially if you direct remote or hybrid teams. Here are some of the best platforms to consider implementing in your business.

This option has surged in popularity in recent years due to its powerful tools that compile messaging, file sharing, and more into one app. Slack’s instant messaging enables faster conversation, and its compatibility with third-party programs, including Google Drive, Microsoft Outlook, and Zoom, allows coworkers to seamlessly tackle projects together. In fact, 85 percent of users believe the platform has improved their communication and, 88 percent feel more connected with their coworkers.

Possibly the greatest aspect of Slack, though, is its channels, or dedicated chat spaces. Through this feature, you can segment conversations by topic or task, creating public ones for general access and private ones for secure discussions. Furthermore, channels allow you to fully leverage Slack’s team-building potential; for example, you can set up a #suggestion-box thread for employees to submit workplace feedback or an entertainment-centered space like #movies or #random for casual chatter, icebreaker questions, or trivia games.

Utilizing Slack could greatly enhance your business communication by inviting open discussion, enabling real-time cooperation, and building workplace bonds, leading to increased productivity and a connected culture. Best of all, it offers many of these features for free—though upgrading your membership certainly yields greater benefits, including a built-in employee directory and unlimited messaging history to support a large team.

A staple of many businesses, this comprehensive suite of programs integrates email, chat, document sharing, and other collaboration features into one seamless system. One of its most popular offerings, Outlook, is a secure email platform with calendar-planning elements that allow you to arrange meetings and view your coworkers’ availability. Teams, meanwhile, is a hub for instant messaging, videoconferencing, and more. And OneDrive and SharePoint, two cloud storage apps, allow for secure, accessible document management to facilitate productivity among multiple users. Even better, all of Microsoft 365’s apps are cross-compatible; for example, scheduling a meeting in Teams will send each participant an email update in Outlook.

Though using Microsoft 365 to its fullest may require your team members to bookmark numerous websites or install multiple apps, it’s an excellent platform for staying connected due to its versatile services that marry perfectly with one another. As for its cost, the basic plans are surprisingly affordable, requiring only a small price per user. Or upgrade to a Business Premium version for video-editing tools, additional apps, enhanced security, and more, all of which could make it a worthwhile investment.

Though it’s technically designed for project management, Trello is chock-full of features that make it an effective collaboration service in its own right. This versatile and user-friendly tool streamlines workflows on an intuitive, clean interface that divides communication into boards, checklists, and cards. Each of these equips your team to manage shared tasks efficiently, allowing them to visibly make changes and leave feedback and even tag people to ensure that they stay looped into updates. Working in this way promotes transparency, accountability, and clarity on important projects and can minimize the need to hold time-consuming meetings and check-ins, granting your employees dedicated solo time for focused productivity.

While Trello doesn’t include a private, one-on-one chat feature, it easily integrates with instant-messaging platforms like Slack as well as scheduling technology like Google Calendar, which your crew can utilize to create a comprehensive communication experience. Overall, Trello’s flexibility, real-time collaboration, and integrations make it an invaluable tool for sustaining daily discussion and efficiency in your business. You can sign up for the free version or invest in a paid membership that offers more for those managing larger organizations or complex projects.

Due to the ubiquity of smartphones, text messages and phone calls may be the most effective forms of communication, especially for businesses whose employees are frequently on the go. However, SMS is rife with challenges, including poor security and lack of privacy. There are even potential legal limitations that could prevent you from sharing your team members’ phone numbers in a professional directory.

For these and other hindrances, iPlum offers a solution: messaging that feels like texting and calling, but better. This is one of the highest-rated mobile apps out there thanks to its ability to conveniently mimic ordinary phone service. iPlum allows your employees to use a separate phone number from their private one—no additional phone plan needed. They can close the app when their workday ends, and none of their workplace contacts can disturb them. There are three tiered plans that scale up in price for access to message your employees, clients, and business partners or even hold group phone calls without revealing anyone’s private contact info.

While iPlum offers benefits for any business, it’s many security features make it ideal for those in industries requiring strict confidentiality: it’s HIPAA-compliant for medical organizations, adheres to privacy strictures for legal-industry workers, and allows service-based entrepreneurs to converse conveniently yet confidentially as they pursue leads. Standard messaging begins at a $8.99 per user and scales up to $19.99 for access to additional perks, such as convenient text-to-email services and access to a toll-free phone number.

While each of these platforms offers plentiful communication features, keep in mind that they may work best when combined with other methods so you and your team can employ multiple modes of messaging, including email, file-sharing platforms, and digital workspaces. In turn, you can share ideas faster, streamline productivity, and accelerate toward your overarching business goals at extraordinary rates.

TAKE ACTION:
Identify and adopt the business communication platforms that are ideal for your business, and invite your team aboard to begin collaborating faster.