It's no secret that employee engagement is the top priority of almost every organization, regardless of its size and industry. We all know that productive and engaging employees, a healthy work culture, satisfied customers and a growing company - are the dreams many CEOs and CIOs have for their organizations. As reported by Gartner, more than 80% of corporate employees consider employee engagement as a critical factor in meeting organizational goals.

Though the term 'employee engagement sounds like a simple concept, in reality, it's a big task. Most companies give extra money or incentives to attract and retain their best-fit employees to keep them engaged and productive. However, for some people, even these benefits may not be sufficient.

Creating a positive work environment that inspires people to work requires a good combination of employee support, seamless employee experience, work-life balance culture, adequate training and career development opportunities, and employee recognition programs. Despite this, effective collaboration and communication - are the big hitters. When your organization meets all these requirements, your businesses will thrive. But getting there will be difficult. So, how can we resolve this problem? Luckily, some cutting-edge employee engagement apps within Microsoft Teams can help.  

Integrating modern employee engagement apps with collaborative platforms like Microsoft Teams is an excellent beginning point for every organization's digital workplace journey to thrive and enhance retention time. It keeps your staff engaged and gives them a sense of worth.  

In this blog post, we will look at the top 10 robust employee engagement apps that work within Microsoft Teams which can skyrocket employee engagement rates in 2023. But before we get into the details, let's first discuss employee engagement apps!

What is Employee Engagement App?

An employee engagement app can be defined as a mobile or web communications app that focuses on improving the overall work experience and delivering positive employee engagement. It enables employees to receive individualized, targeted communications from their business in addition to the typical flow of information in the workplace. They differ from employee communication apps that focus on information by encouraging interactivity and engagement.

Employee collaboration apps provide a one-stop shop for organizational content, whereas engagement apps enable two-way interaction with the content. Investing in the right employee engagement app will help businesses succeed by keeping employees connected, motivated, encouraged, and engaged.

Read More: Top 10 Employee Engagement Platforms for 2023

Why Millions of Users Love Microsoft Teams?

As you already know, Microsoft Teams is a chat-based collaboration platform that provides a workspace for communication, meetings and file-sharing. It provides easier methods for companies to work online and collaborate seamlessly on a single platform to satisfy all their needs. It provides an extremely simple yet convenient user interface and work environment to improve employee efficiency and productivity. It is free in Office 365, making it available to every office user by default. This, along with its intuitive learning capabilities and effective management functionalities, makes it an extremely viable option for most businesses.

As per the research of Statista, despite a fall in the pandemic, the number of MS Teams users has effectively doubled over the past year from about 145 million to 270 million daily users on the platform. Another report by Yahoo Finance says that from March to June 2020, MS Teams witnessed an 894% growth in usage, even more than zoom. Microsoft also saw tremendous growth since its inception, especially as compared to Slack, a well-established competing text-for-business platform at the time. With many companies already leveraging Microsoft 365 and picking Microsoft Teams as a platform for team collaboration, file-sharing, and communication, it stands to reason that there is a market expectation for Microsoft Teams to provide employee engagement and recognition.

Through MS Teams, HR managers and employees can share in business wins, recognize individuals for outstanding work, and receive feedback from their teams. 

Now, let's check out the most important features of MS Teams:  

• Chat Functionalities
  
  Microsoft Teams allow users to not only send messages but also reply and react to them. Additionally, files and other documents can be easily sent in the chat box during or after a meeting. The chat recorded during a meeting is also available after the meeting ends.
  
  
• Calendar
  
  Microsoft Teams has an elegant, simplistic yet thorough calendar, making it easier for employees to keep track of meetings and other engagements, while also allowing employees to reject meetings or accept them as per their convenience.
  
  
• MS Teams Phone App
  
  MS Teams phone app is highly intuitive and easy to use, making it an easy way to stay connected on the go and while travelling. Calls and meetings may be taken through this app if necessary.
  
  
• High Security
  
  MS Teams has all the security features possessed by the rest of Microsoft 365, allowing secure connections and meetings.
  
  
• Easy-to-view Data and Documents
  
  Since all of Microsoft 365’s tools are integrated into Teams, documents and spreadsheets can be viewed on the Teams app itself, thereby making sharing and collaborating significantly easier.
  
  
• Structured Workplace
  
  The use of MS Teams, channels and private channels allows a much more structural management of each division, allowing relevant individuals to view their respective teams on an employee-to-employee basis.  
  
  

How Does MS Teams Support Better Employee Engagement?

In an increasingly remote and hybrid work environment, Microsoft recognizes the growing importance of employee engagement solutions. As a result, Microsoft Viva and the Communities App have been released, providing experiences primarily through Teams. The new MS Teams features also aim to enhance employee engagement and experience. It is possible to cultivate a better work environment from any location by using these tools. While this may be true, organizations can now use MS Teams’ engagement apps to unlock each person's potential by engaging them continuously, providing feedback, and rewarding them. Microsoft Teams-based employee engagement apps enable you to accomplish more with your team. They are Microsoft Teams extensions that integrate straight into your team's workspace. These Microsoft Teams apps are intended for specialized use cases such as project management, event planning, and sales lead management. You can even use them to schedule meetings right in your team's chat room. These apps are so simple to use that your employees won't even need to leave your team's chat room to get things done. And, thanks to interfaces with other Microsoft apps, you can perform almost anything with a few clicks or touches.  

Microsoft Teams makes it simple for everyone in your team to contribute at the same time and speed up your workflow by eliminating manual and repetitive work and getting everyone on the same page at the same time with the right apps.

How To Integrate Other Apps With MS Teams?

MS Teams allows your employees to add apps that can help you and your team keep on top of your work, whether it's through sharing files, generating new papers, or collaborating in real-time with others. Teams can even be used for video and teleconferencing.

Below are some of the key steps for integrating third-party apps to Microsoft Teams:  

• Log in using your work account. Sign up for an Office 365 account if you don't already have one.
  
  
• Navigate to the MS Teams and then to the bottom of the left pane, click the Apps button. This will bring up a menu where you may search for the app you want to add.
  
  
• After you've chosen an app, click "Add" on its detail page, then follow the onscreen directions to complete installation and setup.
  
  
  
  

Why are Microsoft Teams-based Service Desks Leading in the Industry?

Undeniably, Microsoft Teams was a great winner throughout the global pandemic. Although many businesses already used MS Teams before the pandemic, its popularity increased when Covid-19 caused isolation and stay-at-home periods. Companies were forced to go remote for an indefinite period. Hence, organizations started investing in MS Teams to ensure business continuity and deliver flexible and supportive services.  

Since most employees were working remotely, chances were high for the employees to encounter too many challenges and work-related queries that can be resolved in seconds. Employees may seek immediate assistance from a service desk agent when such situations occur, causing them to be delayed in their work. A McKinsey report states that employees have to spend almost 2 hours daily to search relevant data. And this will impact their productivity and the organization's performance. Integration of the service desk with Microsoft Teams can help avoid this. When an AI-powered employee service desk is connected with Microsoft Teams, it automates the agents' jobs by handling these repetitive, multiple concerns in 15 seconds without causing complications. Employees and service desk agents will be able to work more efficiently as a result. Though, an automated service desk within MS Teams will address the majority of employee tickets; employees can also interact with a dedicated agent for support.  

An automated service desk within MS Teams will raise employee productivity and business revenue in a variety of ways, including:  

• Allowing employees to respond to comments on tickets, approval requests, and modifications using actionable alerts in Microsoft Teams.
  
  
• Employees can access their pending tasks, query ticket status, and company communications.
  
  
• Agents can book a live chat with an employee from a ticket within MS Teams.  
  
  

Top 10 MS Teams-based Employee Engagement Apps For 2023

Hope you have a better understanding about MS Teams and its integration. Now, let's check out the top 10 new Microsoft Teams-based employee engagement apps of 2023 and beyond. Let’s begin.  

1. Rezolve.ai
   
   
2. Trivia
   
   
3. Scrum Genius
   
   
4. CoffeePals
   
   
5. Assembly
   
   
6. SurveyMonkey
   
   
7. ClearCompany
   
   
8. Power BI
   
   
9. Health Hero
   
   
10. Adobe Creative Cloud
    
    

Let’s look at one by one.  

1. Rezolve.ai
   
   Rezolve.ai is a leading AI-enabled modern employee service desk solution integrated with collaborative channels like Microsoft Teams and Slack which solves up to 65% of all employee issues, specifically first-level and second-level support (L1 and L2). It provides instant responses to employee questions within MS Teams and constantly learns from the users to ensure that it keeps improving. It can also respond with images and animations to ensure a better understanding for users.
   
   Along with providing seamless transitions to expert live chat to solve more complex issues, Rezolve.ai also provides an invisible ticketing system by creating tickets by simply chatting with Rezolve.ai’s intelligent chatbot that works within MS Teams. It streamlines the onboarding of new employees to ensure positive employee engagement from their first day. Furthermore, the AI has an easy-to-create and accessible knowledge base, which, along with its constant learning from user behaviour, ensures it gives quick answers to queries and problems. It can even answer in the form of text, videos or animations.
   
   
2. Trivia
   
   Trivia is an employee engagement app integrated with MS Teams which allows employees to connect with each other and enjoy themselves during breaks. It provides several games including Pictionary, a virtual water cooler to simulate the water cooler and help begin conversations between coworkers.
   
   There are also several types of quizzes available for the employees to boost their mental energy while also having fun and competing with each other. This app is easy to launch and integrate with your organization and runs quite smoothly on the platform. There are built-in leaderboards to boost competition and incentives among employees.
   
   
3. Scrum Genius
   
   Integrated within MS Teams, this employee engagement app allows employers and employees to easily keep tracking of scheduling and meetings as well as managing deadlines. The platform also takes feedback from the employees and their productivity and ways in which they can improve and work more efficiently. It also provides relevant analytics and live updates to get rid of unproductive meetings and boost engagement. It is easy to integrate into teams and can amplify the output of a company, however has very low customizability.
   
   
4. CoffeePals
   
   CoffeePals is an MS Teams-based app that actively matches people to meet over coffee on MS Teams’ window. It helps build stronger connections and improves team bonding. This platform allows cross-team communication, allowing people from different teams to connect and form partnerships, thereby fostering collaboration across the organization.
   
   The platform has a dashboard which provides relevant statistics and data to showcase the extent to which employees are collaborating and the level of engagement that has been achieved.
   
   
5. Assembly
   
   Assembly is a workplace engagement tool which allows for the appropriate recognition and rewarding of employees for their work. It provides incentives for the employees to maximize their productivity and contribute to a greater degree to the overall performance of the company. Their Give Recognition Flow allows high-performing employees to receive recognition for their efforts, while the employee nominations program allows these employees to be rewarded.
   
   
6. SurveyMonkey
   
   The SurveyMonkey platform provides an improved and more efficient form of taking surveys and collecting feedback from the employees. This allows the firm to be more actionable on the comments received, thereby bettering their performance and boosting engagement.
   
   SurveyMonkey provides all kinds of surveys and has a special means of implementing the data received into the most appropriate aspects of the company.
   
   
7. ClearCompany
   
   ClearCompany is a platform which provides its services to smoothen the process of scouting, hiring and managing talent for a firm. It manages a complete employee lifecycle, from creating a more efficient, smoother hiring experience to efficient performance management systems. The tool allows for easy onboarding as well as hassle-free goal alignment to ensure that the employee fits right in and forms a crucial part of the workforce. Their applicant tracking program automatically selects, screens and shortlists potential hires to ease the process for the firm. With Performance and Goal Management, easily set up as many custom scales, questions and reviews as you need, including weighted sections, scoring tables and free-form results. Manage continuous performance and see progress against goals in real-time, then easily visualize all of the data by role, department, office, or any other metric needed.
   
   
8. Power BI
   
   Integration with Power BI is highly advantageous for companies that want their employees to discuss, debate, and make decisions about the company's direction. Since Power BI is integrated as a tab in Microsoft Teams, every employee has easy access. Hence, it's Microsoft Teams app empowers employees by providing easy access to company insights, analytics, and data. Discussing a specific report, brainstorming ideas for improvement, and conveying corporate results in Tab chat is possible.
   
   This platform help in the decision-making process at an organization by providing easy access to the relevant data, insights and statistics. It’s easier to set up meetings, discuss ideas and decide a plan of action. The integration is relatively inexpensive; however, the user interface leaves much to be desired.
   
   
9. Health Hero
   
   Health Hero is one of the top Microsoft Teams apps for ensuring your team members' physical well-being. Furthermore, it allows you to design challenges and enjoyable tasks. This way, you may engage employees while raising their awareness of their well-being. With Health Hero, Microsoft Teams users can track their health while working from home, thanks to its integration with fitness applications. The platform includes an all-in-one dashboard for employees to engage through media uploads and chats.
   
   
10. Adobe Creative Cloud
    
    For graphic designers or those who work with visual presentations, Adobe Creative Cloud is one of the best Microsoft Teams apps. Sharing your creative ideas, boosting team productivity, and getting feedback from other designers worldwide provide a platform for sharing creative ideas.
    
    While Adobe's professional applications need no introduction due to their popularity, let's explore some of its other features! Integrating this app allows you to share your graphics design/visual presentation work with your team members. Your work will also be able to be explored by others so that they can return to it at any time. As a result, it can boost employee collaboration and engagement and give a smooth employee experience. This platform allows for creative visual presentation, making it easier to share ideas and boost productivity. Other people are able to access an employee’s work as and when needed and can suggest changes easily, making it easier to collaborate and connect.  
    
    

Conclusion

According to Haiilo statistics, disengaged employees cost organizations across the USA between $450 and $ 550 billion yearly. It is important to note that disengaged employees take less responsibility and ownership of their attitude, conduct, and motivation, leading to a decline in overall productivity. Since 2023 is just one month away, organizations should plan employee engagement strategies.  

Investing in cutting-edge employee engagement apps with killer features makes it easier for organizations to engage their employees. Microsoft Teams-based engagement apps are excellent choices to engage your team members and create a more engaged workforce. They can be used for various objectives, including informing employees about company news, sharing critical information with them, and allowing them to participate in projects in real-time.

If you are looking for a world-class all-in-one solution for your organization to enhance staff engagement by giving the right support, invest in Rezolve.ai. Rezolve.ai is a next-generation service desk that works within MS Teams to provide full-fledged support to users. This will help organizations to improve employee engagement and productivity by combining effective collaboration and personalized support.

Read More: Rezolve.ai Power-up Seamless Employee Engagement & Personalize Employee Support Using MS Teams