The best, most effective teams collaborate well and work together to accomplish goals. But team collaboration today is very different than it was before the pandemic. With some teams now entirely remote and others hybrid, fostering collaboration in your workplace has become more challenging but also more essential.
Fortunately, as workplaces evolve, technology also evolves to keep pace. The result is a wide array of collaboration tools that can help keep your business running smoothly and efficiently.
Top Collaboration Tools for Your Team in 2023
If you want to support team collaboration in 2023, these tools should be at the top of your list. They can help with everything from communication to meetings to staying organized and more.
For Communication: Slack
Slack functions as a digital headquarters for your team, and it can foster team communication. Slack operates through channels. You can create channels for your projects, topics, and teams. These channels help keep all of your communication organized, and they give your whole team the ability to see important information and work in sync.
Since everything is organized by channel, you can quickly bring a new team member up to date. Conversations and files become searchable archives, so you can quickly access the information you need without having to ask others to resend a file.
Your whole team will enjoy several other flexible communication options with Slack. Huddles promote connection and communication, and you can access audio or video calls in a single click, whether you need to reach out with a quick question or have a more in-depth conversation.
With Slack clips, you can create short videos, audio, or screen recordings to swap information. Transcripts of those clips are archived and can be searched, too, so team members can always retrieve those updates.
Slack offers four subscription plans, including a free plan and a Business+ plan for $12.50 per user, per month.
For Video Recordings: Loom
Loom is one of the best collaboration tools to improve your meetings. We all know that they sometimes seem to drag on and interrupt workflow. With Loom, you can record videos and bypass time-consuming meetings entirely. Loom lets you record your screen, and thanks to its desktop and mobile apps, it will work on any device.
Once you’ve recorded a video, you can share it with a link, so recipients don’t have to log in to watch it. Your team members can react to the video with time-stamped comments and emoji reactions to keep the conversation going.
Loom’s Starter plan is available for free and supports videos up to five minutes long. Upgrade to Loom’s Business plan for $8 per creator per month for unlimited videos and unlimited length. Loom also offers an Enterprise option.
For Shared Workspaces: Jotform Teams
With Jotform Teams, you can create shared workspaces for your teams. No matter where your team members are based, they can collaborate on online forms, tables, apps, and more. Functioning as an all-in-one workspace, Jotform Teams allows you to keep all of your data in a single location, so team members have access to the latest information.
Within Jotform Teams, you can use Jotform Tables to organize and manage data and stay on top of project progress and deadlines. You can also assign team members different roles, which gives them different levels of access. Jotform Teams even allows you to monitor activity logs and recent changes made to forms.
Jotform offers five subscription plans, and Jotform Teams is part of the Enterprise plan.
For Project Management: Asana
Asana helps keep your whole company and all of its teams connected in a shared space. The platform offers multiple view options, including list, timeline, and board views. Changing the views gives you a broad look at the overarching project progress, or you can opt for a much more nuanced, detailed view of each element of a project.
With Asana as one of your collaboration tools, you can assign team members tasks and deadlines. You can also easily break down a project into smaller components. Team members can communicate through cards and upload documents directly to cards to save time. The platform’s automation capabilities include project templates and automated work requests. Asana also offers the ability to create custom rules to automate tasks like assigning work and setting due dates.
Asana offers three subscription plans, including a free Basic plan, a Premium plan for $10.99 per user per month, and a Business plan for $24.99 per user, per month.
For Meetings: Zoom
Zoom has emerged as one of the go-to collaboration tools for meetings. Known for its quality webinars and virtual meetings, Zoom is a robust platform that supports workplace collaboration in many ways.
This platform is an ideal choice for teams that include remote members. Zoom’s online whiteboard allows your team to expand on and clarify ideas, even when team members are in different locations.
Zoom Rooms are virtual conference rooms that support collaboration. These rooms allow both in-person and remote team members to collaborate in real-time, creating a valuable experience for your entire team. Zoom Rooms help foster a sense of connectivity among your team members, even if you can’t be physically present in the same space.
The platform offers a broad selection of plans. That includes specific options for products like Zoom One, Zoom Whiteboard, and Zoom Rooms. Zoom One plans include the free Basic plan, the Pro plan at $149.90 per user, per year, and the Business plan at $199.90 per user, per year.
Choosing the Right Collaboration Tools for Your Team
Whether you need a better way to stay organized, want to facilitate online project collaboration, or need to improve your video chat capabilities, these collaboration tools can help. As you explore the different tools, consider not only what your current needs are — but what your collaboration needs will be as your business grows. To get the best value, choose a tool that can grow with your business and provide the support it needs to expand and evolve.
Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Pexels; Thank you!
