Which apps help employees most? 3 tips for growing businesses

(BPT) – For many businesses in our increasingly technical world, future success will depend on how well they can take advantage of digital tools such as apps.

These days, it’s all about finding and optimizing the right apps, which may explain why app usage has grown so much in recent years. In fact, 81% of workers worldwide are using more apps now than they did five years ago, reports a recent Slack and GlobalWebIndex study.

Many of the apps most valuable to businesses are those that can step in to make work processes simpler, more productive and more collaborative. As you shop around for the tools that can help your business grow and function more efficiently, consider looking for the following capabilities.

* Improve communication. Workers are the heart and soul of your organization, and keeping them clued in to what’s going on company-wide is key to keeping them engaged, supported and empowered. That’s why many organizations are moving beyond email to an efficient workplace collaboration software like Slack. The digital workplace connects you to the people and tools you work with every day, no matter where you are or what you do. In Slack, teamwork and communication happen in channels. This new way of working enables teams to establish a single place for the sharing of messages, tools and files. Channel content can be organized by team, project or whatever else is relevant to the users. Chatbooks, a company that creates photo books, for example, uses Slack channels across remote teams in different time zones to manage marching orders, product quality control, and speedy customer support.

* Create transparency. Today’s employees, particularly millennials, highly prioritize trust and transparency in their dealings with companies and organizations. To truly feel aligned and engaged, they must feel empowered to make decisions; however, that’s hard to achieve when they don’t have the information and resources they need. If you want everyone on your team to be able to find, access and share that crucial information, you need to have the right system in place. Using Google Drive to create a “digital home” for all important documents is an easy and convenient way to ensure that happens.

* Get organized. It’s hard to focus when computer desktops are packed with multiple notes, files and calendars that get clogged up easily. That’s where Trello can step in to help users visualize and organize workloads. The project management tool has been a boon for Seattle-based ice cream company Molly Moon’s, which integrates Trello with Slack so shop managers across branches can collaborate on day-to-day issues.

“Modern work is more technologically driven than ever before, resulting in a fast-paced workplace and increased pressure with heightened demands,” comments Jason Mander, chief research officer at GlobalWebIndex. “While apps and other tech tools help workers become more productive and collaborative, it’s about providing better versions of them, not more, and carefully selecting consolidated solutions.”

Optimizing technology can be a boost to your business, but bombarding workers with too much technology (just for technology’s sake) can backfire by making them feel overwhelmed. Tools like Google Drive, Slack and Trello can help by letting employees decide how and when they wish to receive notifications and engage, so they face minimal interruptions and are able to remain productive and efficient.