20 collaborative tools to improve employee productivity
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Twenty collaborative tools, sorted into five families, and the criteria for choosing between them:
- Five families: communication, feedback, file sharing, planning and project management, employee management.
- Each family settles a specific problem. Naming the problem before comparing tools is what keeps a stack from turning into a pile of apps.
- Five criteria for choosing: what the tool replaces, role clarity, where the data is hosted, the frame around AI features, and actual adoption.
- Sovereignty is now a selection criterion for a European organization, on a par with price and usability.
- An all-in-one solution covers several families at once, which cuts the number of tools to govern. Talkspirit hosts its data in France and Switzerland.
Remote and hybrid work have turned team collaboration into a daily concern. And a large part of that effective collaboration comes down to one thing: having the right collaborative tools.
Collaborative tools have become a must-have for successful organizations. In fact, a whopping 80 percent of workers used collaboration tools in 2021, a 44 percent increase from 2019.
But not all collaborative tools are created equal. If you want to enable your team’s best work, you need a stack that fits the way they actually work, rather than a pile of apps.
So what types of tools does your team need to collaborate better? Here are 20 of them, sorted into five families, to improve employee productivity, along with five criteria for choosing between them.
Contents
- Communication tools
- Feedback tools
- File-sharing tools
- Planning and project management tools
- Employee management tools
- How to choose your collaborative tools
- The best collaborative tool is an all-in-one solution
Communication tools
How are ideas shared, issues brought to light, and projects completed? Communication. Interaction between employees is vital to collaboration, but that’s not all. Employee engagement depends on communication. The more engaged an employee, the more productive and loyal they are.
Collaborative tools that enable better communication between team members let employees hold themselves, and one another, accountable to deadlines, data accuracy, and a high quality of work. Chatting between employees lets them ask for and provide context about tasks or projects, offer feedback about each other’s work, and build the rapport necessary for nurturing a cohesive and efficient team.
Collaborative tools to improve employee productivity enhance communication through a variety of channels, including:
- Instant messaging (IM) and group messaging between employees and teams,
- Video conferencing and team meetings,
- Integrating and syncing with other collaboration tools to add or enhance feedback and discussion capabilities,
- Task boards and project management tools.
Some communication tools you may want to consider include:
- Talkspirit: a collaborative work tool that includes a variety of communications features, including chat, video conferencing, and a project management board.
- Slack: a channel-based team messenger that pulls conversations, notifications and integrations with the rest of your stack into one place.
- GoTo Meeting: a web conferencing software that connects teams through video.
- Zoom: another popular video conferencing software.
Feedback tools
In addition to communication tools, which let employees share and discuss thoughts between themselves, organizations need feedback tools for getting the insights they need to improve their organizations and drive performance. A strong feedback culture enables employees to raise concerns, suggest process and product changes, and collaborate to enhance productivity across the board.
This requires a collaboration tool that makes it convenient for employees to analyze feedback from all sources, including customers, and glean insights from that feedback before developing a plan and taking action. These tools also enable managers and team leads to evaluate the performance of employees and share guidance on ways to improve and increase productivity.
Collaborative feedback tools help employees improve productivity by:
- Collecting and analyzing feedback and suggestions from internal and external sources
- Responding to surveys that improve team cohesion and the quality of management
- Earning recognition for personal achievements, hard work, and meeting goals
- Creating opportunities for open, honest feedback with coworkers and colleagues, which can strengthen relationships and drive better collaboration
- Increasing employee engagement and creating a more positive employee experience
Popular feedback tools that support collaboration include:
- Bonusly
- Empuls, by Xoxoday
- Nectar
- Workleap Officevibe, formerly Officevibe
Also read: How Can Managers Instill a Feedback Culture in your Team ?
File-sharing tools
In order for employees to effectively collaborate, they need to be able to easily, quickly, and efficiently share information with other teams, departments, and any external stakeholders. That is why collaborative tools to improve employee productivity through more effective file sharing and collaboration are an absolute must.
In order to effectively get work done, particularly when working in different locations, employees need to have constant access to files, the ability to collaborate on documents and projects in real-time, as well as the capability to transfer files of different types and sizes across departments, teams, and locations.
Collaborative data and file-sharing tools improve productivity by:
- Fostering real-time (or near real-time) collaboration
- Accessing previous revisions of work to provide feedback or compare changes
- Transferring data to different teams for ongoing iteration and development
- Ensuring everyone has access to the same files and information
Some collaborative file-sharing tools you may want to consider adding to your organization’s tech stack include:
Planning and project management tools
Even the simplest of projects benefit from careful planning, ideation, and ongoing feedback. Project management tools are especially important when multiple employees and teams are collaborating to see a project through to completion.
Coordination suffers without effective collaborative tools to improve employee productivity, like project planning and management tools. These tools are a win-win for all involved; managers and team leads rely on these tools to track progress, share updates, and organize project-related communications and files. On the flip side, employees need these tools for knowledge management and to remain focused on their shared tasks and goals.
Project management tools improve employee productivity by:
- Establishing shared goals and guidelines for assigned projects
- Helping employees track a project from ideation to completion
- Allowing employees to provide ongoing feedback about a project as it evolves
- Centralizing information about a project in a single, easily accessible location
Popular planning and project management collaboration tools include:
Also read: Collaborative tools: a new way of working
Employee management tools
If you want employees to be more productive, you need to manage them in a way that fosters that productivity, and that is where employee management tools come in. They offer a variety of ways to support your people, including tracking assignments and tasks, scheduling meetings, and working toward goals and key metrics, which can help employees meet deadlines, fulfill responsibilities, and continually work toward increased productivity.
These solutions also let managers and human resources representatives provide assistance and guidance to employees, helping them improve their performance and morale. In turn, organizations can demonstrate a commitment to employee health and well-being while providing the necessary framework for employees to achieve increased productivity.
Employee management tools facilitate productivity through collaboration by:
- Providing organizations with data about employees that the organization can use to streamline or improve processes
- Centralizing workforce data to give better insight into employee performance and other metrics
- Improving employee morale and reducing work anxiety
- Tracking expectations and other performance metrics to reduce mistakes and turnaround times
- Allowing employees and managers to collaborate on plans to improve performance and drive productivity
Popular employee management collaborative tools include:
How to choose your collaborative tools
A stack is judged less by how many tools it holds than by how they fit together. Five criteria settle most of the decision.
- What the tool replaces. Before adding an app, look at the one it makes redundant. Every extra tool is one more place to look for information, one more access list to keep current, and one more stream of notifications to absorb.
- Role clarity. A tool with no named owner quickly becomes a shadow tool: nobody knows who grants access, who arbitrates usage, or where the rules are written down. Role clarity drives adoption as much as usability does.
- Hosting and data sovereignty. For a European organization, knowing where the data sits and which jurisdiction it answers to has become a selection criterion, not a footnote in the contract. Worth reading: what the SecNumCloud qualification actually covers.
- AI features, and the frame around them. Most collaboration suites now ship an assistant. The useful question is not what it can do, but what it is allowed to read and what happens to that data afterwards. Our AI governance guide lists the questions to put to a vendor.
- Actual adoption. A tool used by half the team costs more than no tool at all: the information splits in two, and somebody has to stitch it back together by hand.
If the choice is still open between families, our roundup of collaborative decision-making tools and our comparison of email, intranet and collaborative platform help set the frame.
| Tool family | What it settles | Adopt it when | Tools listed here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool familyCommunication | What it settlesHow information travels and how people talk day to day | Adopt it whenDecisions get lost in email threads and side conversations | Tools listed hereTalkspirit, Slack, GoTo Meeting, Zoom |
| Tool familyFeedback | What it settlesCollecting input, recognition and internal surveys | Adopt it whenWeak signals never reach managers | Tools listed hereBonusly, Empuls, Nectar, Workleap Officevibe |
| Tool familyFile sharing | What it settlesAccess to documents and real-time co-editing | Adopt it whenThree versions of the same file are travelling as attachments | Tools listed hereGoogle Drive, Dropbox, Quip |
| Tool familyPlanning and project management | What it settlesTracking tasks, milestones and ownership | Adopt it whenNobody can say who is doing what, or by when | Tools listed hereTalkspirit, Airtable, Asana, Monday, Trello |
| Tool familyEmployee management | What it settlesTracking goals, performance and well-being | Adopt it whenHR data is scattered across several spreadsheets | Tools listed here15Five, BambooHR, Moodwork, Lattice |
The best collaborative tool to improve employee productivity is an all-in-one solution
For many organizations, the answer is not one more tool but an all-in-one solution like Talkspirit. It brings into a single workspace chat, video meetings, project and task management, knowledge and document management, and a directory of people and roles. Its data is hosted in France and Switzerland, which handles the sovereignty question at the same time as the tool sprawl one.
Want to know what Talkspirit would replace in your current stack? Schedule a demo with someone from our team.
FAQ
80 percent of workers used collaboration tools in 2021, a 44 percent increase on 2019. The figure is a few years old, and nothing since has revised it down.
Talkspirit, Slack, GoTo Meeting and Zoom. Talkspirit brings chat, video meetings and project management into one workspace; Slack organizes conversations into channels; GoTo Meeting and Zoom cover web conferencing.
Collecting and analyzing feedback from internal and external sources, customers included, and turning it into insight before deciding on a plan. They also let managers assess performance and recognize good work. Tools listed here: Bonusly, Empuls, Nectar and Workleap Officevibe.
Because working from several locations requires constant access to documents, real-time co-editing, and the ability to move files of any type between teams and sites. Without that, three versions of the same file travel around as attachments. Tools listed here: Google Drive, Dropbox and Quip.
By setting shared goals and guidelines, letting teams track a project from ideation to delivery, keeping feedback flowing, and centralizing project information in one place. Tools listed here: Talkspirit, Airtable, Asana, Monday and Trello.
Five criteria settle most of it: what the tool replaces, who owns it and decides how it is used, where the data is hosted and which jurisdiction it answers to, the frame around its AI features, and whether the team actually adopts it. For many organizations, an all-in-one solution that covers several families at once cuts the number of tools to govern.
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