Across all industries and all types of teams, there are always pain points in their communication that act as push backs in the accomplishment of  their daily tasks. Proper tools and processes should be put into place in order to facilitate the workflow for a creative, conversational workspace. It’s not just about productivity, it’s also about the confidence of each employee  to share their views about their day-to-day issues within the company.

Agile businesses that work in a remote or hybrid manner invest in virtual workspaces with open communication in order to address friction between co-workers already struggling to build a good rapport. There are multiple success factors that determine the outcome of a project, one of the most important items to consider is effective conciliation between internal or external stakeholders. The common ingredient to all successful teams is  good and clear communication.

With the right tools,employees are encouraged towards the construction of meaningful relationships and creative collaboration for successful project completion. Here are a few tools that can be considered necessary for smoother communication within your company:

1. Messaging platforms

Messaging apps are an instant way to get in touch with all the members of the team. A communication app can bring a wider offer to the table. It can compress response times, increase immediacy and improve workflow.

Apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Chanty, Troop Messenger can get the job done for the company and the team. However, each company should select an app that fits its specific needs better. Messaging platforms act as facilitators for interpersonal relationships that grow into organized and functional cooperation between team members.

2. Meeting applications

Although online meetings can never really replace  face-to-face communication, there are tools that can be used to make it more effective and seamless.

During the pandemic Zoom grew exponentially, but there are other equally good apps such as Join.Me, Skype, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet: that allow people to video chat while they share their screen, receive feedback, or discuss any kind of topic. Through the power of video conferencing people do have actual interaction between one another and the distance between significantly decreases. 

3. File sharing apps

File sharing platforms are a must for top-notch organizations, since they empower a centralized, secure and easily accessible manner for handling all company’s files.

Currently, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive are the top apps of this category as they offer infinite space and immediate access to all team members.
Through this collaborative environment, all team members get the last version of each document at the tip of their hand. Teamwork is enhanced as all employees can edit and share files at the same time.

4. Project management solutions

Last but not least. project management platforms or apps constitute the most valuable team planning tool for a team. These apps allow all parties involved to track all elements of a project along with the status of each one of them, including: barriers that may come up, percentage of task completion, dependency between people and tasks, and important milestones. It’s the place where the different departments meet and come together.

We can name some of the top project management solutions such as:  Basecamp, ZoHo, Asana, Proohub, Trello, Monday.com, and many others. They all aim to the same objective: organize the workflow and simplify the communication between all parties involved.

The next step

Communication tools empower companies to connect their teams from multiple locations in a single place, to create meaningful interactions  and also to refine their approach by using data collected by these platforms in order to inform and validate strategies and decisions. 
The importance of adopting such communication tools when it comes to understanding how your business is performing is something that can’t be underestimated.