Key Benefits of Instant Messaging Apps for Businesses

In 2023, the need for a consistent line of communication with your employees has never been clearer. The rise of remote work and flexible working policies mean teams are often spread across multiple locations, and rarely in the office at the same time. For businesses that operate across more than one site, constant back and forth phone calls and emails to site managers take up valuable time, and can be incredibly inefficient. Relying on emails means you're left waiting till employees are back at their desk before they can read and respond - which is often too late for time-sensitive queries.

As a solution, many businesses have moved to instant messaging; but using a general messaging app which is not designed with businesses in mind isn't always the best choice, and can open you up to serious vulnerabilities.

Choosing a communication channel for your business

Once the need for an instant messaging channel has been identified, it can be tempting to use a well known, popular messaging app such as Whatsapp; these apps are often free to use, and employees are already familiar with them, so they are easily adopted. However,  choosing an app which isn't optimised for business use can cause issues down the line.

Built-in moderation

Allowing employees to use instant messaging apps which you have no control over means they're free to spend their time discussing matters unrelated to work; which can lead to time wasting at best, and possible HR issues at worst.

Apps designed specifically for businesses usually include automatic moderation, so any inappropriate messages are blocked. Employees also won't have access to their private contacts; when using a standard messaging service, personal and professional chats are intermixed, and employees may spend work time responding to their personal messages.

Revoke access easily

Work group chats which include whole departments and even the whole company can become cumbersome to maintain. Whenever an employee leaves your business, group admins must remember to manually remove the employee from all  groups they are a member of, so they no longer have access to your company's sensitive information.

By opting for a communication channel that's integrated with your business' internal HR system, you can revoke employee access to messaging as soon as their employment with you ends - preventing any possible data leaks, and simply saving you some extra admin.

There have been countless examples of employees leaking compromising data from internal messages once their employment has been terminated - yet another reason to ensure your communications are kept secure, with dedicated business messaging channel.

Broadcast important messages

Instant messaging allows you to send important updates and announcements to the relevant groups, so you can keep whole departments or even the whole business up to date in one quick message - rather than sending endless emails with hundreds of employees CC'd in.

Employees can all reply in a central group chat, saving you time repeatedly answering the same questions to individuals. Group chats are also great for fostering employee morale, as teams can easily collaborate and feel more connected.

Know when employees have read messages

With read receipts enabled, you'll know if an employee has opened and seen your message (or if everyone in your group chat has read an important announcement), so there's no need to send countless follow up messages for confirmation.

No need to save contacts

Once they're enrolled into your business' system, employees will automatically be able to message their managers and team members, without needing to save everyone's personal mobile numbers to their own phone.

Not only does this improve privacy, it prevents breakdowns in communication where an employee has entered someone's mobile number incorrectly. New hires will be automatically ready to go, as soon as they're onboarded to your system.

Integrated with other key features

One of the key benefits of using a business-targeted instant messenger is the built in integrations to other features your business utilises.

For example in TimeKeeper's mobile app, if an employee notices an error on their timecard which needs to be rectified, they can simply send a quick query via the chat function to their manager, without needing to leave the app. Managers and administrators can receive messages to their web portal and then action any changes instantly, streamlining the process and preventing any interruptions to their workflow.

Keeping continuity in the software you use is key for employee engagement, and also means employees have one less password to remember.