Choosing the right employee communication software is crucial for the success of any business. It improves collaboration, ensures efficient message delivery, and fosters a better-connected workforce. Research proves that it works extremely well!
The Insight Partners undertook research in 2020 that shows the software market compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is expected to grow by 11.8% from 2021 to 2027. If that doesn’t sound like much, think in money terms. They reckon it’s going to grow from $816.41 million in 2021 to $1,780.09 in 2027. Across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa (MEA).
They point out that employee communication software streamlines internal communications and boosts employee engagement. “With increasing competitiveness across industries, the need for high operational and employee productivity is growing among enterprises for sustainable long-term growth.” This is why the demand for effective internal communication software is rising at such an impressive pace.
“Employee communication software allows organizations to customize and offer targeted communications across departments such as internal communications, HR communications, operational messages, compliance communications, and emergency notifications among others. These solutions also offer a high level of personalization and employee engagement tools to support holistic communication development across the enterprise.”
The Insight Partners
At Cerkl, we believe in the transformative power of employee communication channels, including dynamic newsletters, for hyper-personalized employee communication. But the landscape is brimming with tools, each with unique strengths. Before evaluating our top 10 contenders let’s touch upon the importance of personalization and the effects on both companies and employees.
Hyper-Personalization: A Must-Have Feature of Employee Communication Software
Personalized internal communication plays a pivotal role in fostering company culture, attracting talent, and boosting employee productivity for the entire workforce. By creating a personal connection with employees through targeted and meaningful communication, companies can achieve enhanced employee engagement. And by personalizing internal comms, they can achieve more attention, resulting in higher engagement metrics including email open rates or CTR.
Chief People and Culture Officer at Achievers, Hannah Yardley defines hyper-personalization as “a data-driven approach to adapting each employee’s experiences based on their unique preferences. With frequent and consistent hyper-personalization, you can create and effectively retain talent across all levels, helping employees and companies thrive together.” Referring to hyper-personalization as an “emerging strategy,” she says it plays a vital role in improving work and employee engagement. It generally leads to employees feeling welcome and included in the organization.
In an article in HR Daily Advisor, Personalization: The Key to Retaining Your Employees in an Uncertain Economy, Hannah emphasizes that a hyper-personalized approach is worth the investment.
“Hyper-personalization is critical to today’s workforce, especially when employers are working with different generations in one group. Additionally, companies increasingly need to invest in hyper-personalization as economic uncertainty continues to worry employers and employees alike but for different reasons. However, even amid a rosy economic outlook, hyper-personalization presents an invaluable opportunity to reward and recognize those contributing to your business and show up in meaningful ways to each employee, bringing outcomes that benefit your organization overall.”
Hannah Yardley
What the Research Tells Us
Gallagher’s most recent State of the Sector report highlights the importance of hyper-personalization in communication. In the context of a five-year outlook of the impact of technology, 20% of respondents regard hyper-personalization as being very high in importance. A further 28% say it has high importance. They perceive personalization and automation as providing the right information to the right people at the right time with advances in technology supporting this.
In Global Employee Experience Trends 2023, Kincentric emphasizes the importance of personalizing the employee experience holistically. While employee engagement remains important, “organizations need to rethink how they approach engagement and find new ways to move forward and create meaningful change to drive it.”
“High-performing organizations add sand and water by looking for ways to ensure the employee experience consistently supports the business goals, and by ‘personalizing’ the work experience to address the needs of different cohorts and groups. This creates a more cohesive and distinctive experience.”
Kincentric
However, many organizations have “rocks and pebbles” in their proverbial jars. By adding “sand and water” they can create a top-quality employee experience instead of one that is average.
By leveraging data to customize messages you can achieve an effective internal communication strategy through knowledge management and secure communication. This improves the efficiency of communications.
The Zendesk Employee Experience (EX) Trends Report 2023 emphasizes that using employee data to provide more personalized guidance enables organizations to strategize across the entire employee journey.
The report, quoted in a blog post by Zendesk Content Marketing Manager Hannah Wren, shows that:
- 52% of employees believe software related to employee experience is dated and difficult to use
- 87% of EX professionals believe personalization increases employee satisfaction
- 59% of EX teams currently deliver personalized employee communications
- 23% plan to add this capability in the next 12 months
Snapshot: The Best Employee Communication Software Options for 2024
Employee communication software offers a suite of features for personalizing employee communication, including:
- Email blasts
- Hyper-Personalized Newsletters
- Internal audience manager
- Content hub
- Employee communications app
- Modern intranet
- Employee analytics
- Surveys
These features enable personalized messaging through multiple channels, including instant messaging. Incorporating behavioral data into communications significantly increases the effectiveness and relevance of internal messaging.
Before you decide which employee communication software you are going to use for internal communications, you need to know what capabilities you need from your internal communication software. Be sure to tailor your choice to your needs. For instance, consider your company size, employee count, communication needs, and desired features. Features like activity feeds, conferencing, instant messaging, and analytics can all be valuable, but the best fit depends on your specific situation.
Take stock of your current communication landscape. Do a quick audit of how your teams communicate now. Identify any pain points or areas for improvement. Get input from relevant teams to understand their communication needs. This will help you choose a platform that solves real problems and boosts collaboration. Focus on features that address your priorities. Once you understand your communication needs, prioritize features that directly address them. Integration capabilities, file sharing, and employee data management might be crucial depending on your findings. Also, ask yourself whether it’s user-friendly, cost efficient, and mobile accessible – and be sure it has great security features.
To help you make the right choice, we’ve identified the top 10 options and we show you how they focus on personalization.
#1 Cerkl Broadcast
Cerkl Broadcast is revolutionizing internal communications with its innovative approach to mass personalization. By offering a sophisticated yet user-friendly platform, Cerkl Broadcast specializes in delivering AI-powered personalized newsletters to employees, making every message impactful and relevant.
Cerkl Broadcast shines when it comes to hyper-personalizing newsletters. Its features include:
- MyNews engine that curates weekly news digests tailored for each employee
- Custom segments synced in real-time with HRIS and Payroll systems for different departments and teams
- Searchable, sortable Content Archive (personal content homepage)
- For Internal communicators, there is a Content Hub for managing the distribution, sequencing, scheduling, and automation of communications
Despite its comprehensive features, Cerkl Broadcast is designed to be easy to implement without the need for coding or ongoing maintenance.
Imagine a retail organization using Cerkl. Regional sales managers in the Northeast might receive a newsletter highlighting upcoming promotional campaigns for winter gear, while the marketing team in California gets a targeted update on the launch of a new activewear line. All of this is through the power of dynamic content. This granular personalization ensures every employee receives content that’s relevant and interesting to them, boosting engagement and increasing knowledge retention.
St. Elizabeth Healthcare used to rely on PDF files attached to emails before they discovered Cerkl. You can’t not be inspired!
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#2 Unily
Unily offers large organizations an AI-driven intranet and a suite of communication tools.
Strengths
Unily is built for large, complex organizations. It has many features and scalability, alongside integrations with existing systems, creating a holistic communication environment.
Personalization
Personalization is limited. Unily excels at enterprise communication infrastructure, but customization often involves segmentation rather than true one-on-one personalization. You can create content for different departments or locations, but not tailor it to individual needs.
#3 Haiilo
Haiilo works with businesses seeking to maintain a high level of collaboration and trust among their remote workforce.
Strengths
Haiilo supports remote teams, fostering communication and a strong sense of connection despite physical distance. It offers features specifically designed for remote work, like virtual huddles and water cooler chats.
Personalization
It offers some personalization through content targeting based on employee groups or locations. However, creating extensive personalized content for each group can be time-consuming. Haiilo might be better suited for general communication within remote teams, rather than sending personalized updates.
#4 Workvivo
Workvivo’s centralized hub for internal communications is designed to enhance a more connected and inclusive work culture. With employee recognition tools and a focus on fostering company culture, they provide a comprehensive solution for effective communication within organizations.
Strengths
Workvivo fosters a vibrant company culture through features that encourage employee connection and recognition. It gamifies achievements, facilitates peer-to-peer feedback, and promotes social interaction.
Personalization
It provides some personalization options like targeted content streams based on roles or interests. However, it lacks the granular, data-driven personalization Cerkl offers. Workvivo excels at building a strong company culture through social features, while Cerkl personalizes the information delivered within that culture.
#5 Staffbase
In an era where mobile connectivity is paramount, Staffbase offers a good solution for mobile-first communication within the workplace. Recognizing the shift towards a mobile-centric workforce, Staffbase offers a platform that caters to the on-the-go needs of modern employees.
Strengths
Staffbase prioritizes mobile-first communication, ensuring everyone stays connected while on the move with its user-friendly mobile app and features like push notifications. It integrates well with various communication channels like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Personalization
It primarily focuses on mobile-first communication, with limited automatized personalization functionalities. You can segment audiences for email campaigns, but individual content personalization is not a core strength.
#6 Poppulo
With Poppulo, businesses can navigate the stormy waters of an emergency with clear, impactful, and actionable communications, keeping everyone informed, aligned, and ready to act.
Strengths
Poppulo is the go-to solution for crisis communication. It offers features like two-way communication during emergencies, real-time alerts, and integrated task management for a coordinated response.
Personalization
This option is not designed for personalization. Poppulo prioritizes speed and efficiency in crisis situations, sending out the same message to everyone. Use Poppulo for emergencies, and Cerkl for regular communication with personalization for confirmed long-term engagement.
#7 ContactMonkey
ContactMonkey focuses on email marketing automation for internal communication.
Strengths
ContactMonkey can help in email marketing efforts, turning them into personalized communication channels. It allows for targeted email campaigns based on user data and automates repetitive tasks.
Personalization
Allows personalization through email marketing techniques like dynamic subject lines, merge tags, and audience segmentation. However, it’s not yet an omnichannel communications platform like Cerkl Broadcast.
#8 Firstup
Firstup is an employee communication software that helps businesses explore, connect, design, deliver, and gain visibility into employee-centric campaigns.
Strengths
Firstup focuses on crafting a positive employee experience through all communication touchpoints. It offers tools for surveys, feedback management, and content creation, ensuring a consistent brand voice.
Personalization
Firstup establishes a communication framework, Cerkl personalizes the messages within it.
#9 Simpplr
The Simpplr AI-powered employee experience platform is built for business owners, so they can own it, with limited-to-no dependency on IT.
Strengths
Simpplr offers a user-friendly intranet solution for centralizing information and fostering collaboration. It provides a platform for company news, announcements, document sharing, and team discussions.
Personalization
Lacks true personalization features. Simpplr focuses on centralizing information and doesn’t offer functionalities to tailor content for individual employees.
#10 Empuls
Empuls stands at the forefront of employee engagement platforms, providing a comprehensive suite of tools designed to bolster a sense of belonging and satisfaction among team members.
Strengths
Empuls is all about employee recognition. It allows you to celebrate achievements, reward positive behaviors, and gamify the recognition process, boosting morale and building a strong company culture.
Personalization
It is not directly focused on personalization for communication. Empuls personalizes the recognition experience, allowing you to target specific employees for achievements, but it doesn’t personalize communication content itself.
How to Choose Your Ideal Communication Companion
Choosing the right employee communication software for your organization requires a thorough consideration of several factors. It’s important to assess your current communication practices and involve relevant teams in identifying needs. Cost is another important factor to consider, including initial investment costs, ongoing fees, and the complexity of deployment.
Download our FREE Guide on How to Choose the Best Employee Comms Software
The user-friendliness of the platform is another crucial factor as it can lead to higher adoption rates among employees and increased productivity. Preference should be given to communication tools that are easy to implement, require minimal technical configuration, and can be readily used from the start.
Considering integrations with other essential applications, such as project management tools and small business CRM systems, can greatly enhance communication efficiency.
The Cerkl Broadcast Advantage
By specializing in dynamic newsletters, Cerkl empowers you to hyper-personalize communication at scale. This targeted approach fosters a more engaged workforce, reduces information overload, and keeps everyone aligned. Don’t settle for generic communication – unlock the power of personalization with Cerkl.
As our Head of Customer Success, Maddy Rieman says:
“Our one-to-one philosophy focuses more on publishing rather than sending. Although there are times when one method is required over the other, our AI news digest (or what we call MyNews Digest) allows you to automatically personalize each of your employee’s experiences across many different channels, reducing noise in your employee’s inbox and ensuring that each employee sees the things they need to know as well as the things they want to know.”
Maddy Rieman
Download a FREE 1-page overview of the 5 best employee communication software
What’s Next?
Improve internal communication with Cerkl Broadcast. Our audience management platform delivers personalized newsletter and email content to engage and inform employees. Join millions of satisfied employees who trust us to streamline their companies’ communication and improve employee satisfaction. To learn more, schedule a chat with us.
FAQ
Employee communication software is like a digital toolbox for companies to improve internal communications. It aims to enhance the flow of information, collaboration, and engagement among team members regardless of physical location or work setup. It offers features like chat, video calls, and news feeds to keep everyone informed and engaged.
There’s no single “best” method for employee communication, as different situations call for different tools. However, effective communication usually involves a mix of methods, like instant messaging for quick updates and video conferencing for in-depth discussions. One tool that has gained significant popularity and importance in recent years is the intranet or digital workplace platform. But ultimately, the methods you choose will depend on the organization’s needs.
Many software options can help with employee communication. Popular choices include platforms with features like chat, file sharing, and social media-like feeds. These employee communication tools can centralize communication and make it easier for everyone to stay on the same page. The most common employee communication devices are desktop computers, laptops, and smartphones.
