FEATURE
Here’s a look at some of the emerging apps that aim to foster social connection:
Donut: This app is integrated with Slack, which describes it this way: “Donut makes connections across the organization for teams of all sizes in three ways: by encouraging in-person or virtual meetups, asynchronous banter and more festive birthday and work celebrations.” fikaTime: A Microsoft Teams app that builds socially connected teams by pairing up employees to meet for “virtual coffee.” fikaTime’s goal is to break down geographical silos to encourage new relationships, drive diversity by building empathy through one-on-one and group conversations and combat loneliness and burnout. Snack: (not to be confused with the dating app of the same name) is a Slack bot that engages employees to have spontaneous, time-restricted video conversations. Snack developer Gajus Kuizinas says the app addresses common hybrid/remote problems: combatting loneliness and keeping sparsely distributed teams engaged. It’s “just the right mix of fun, spontaneous and useful interactions that I wish every remote community had.”
Shuffl: Developers of this Slack app strive to create “high- trust cultures” that provide 76% more engagement, 106% more energy at work, 40% less burnout and 22% greater profitability (stats from Harvard Business Review and Gallup). They do this through team networking social shuffles, one-on-one new match connections, onboarding activities and more. LEAD: This app integrates with both Slack and Microsoft Teams. Its mission: “creating an interconnected workforce” through building “intentional bonds between employees by serendipitously connecting employees across teams, depart- ments and locations.” Users can launch in-person or virtual outings, implement peer-to-peer learning opportunities and build internal networks for both existing employees and new hires. — Teri Greene
Harbert Business, Fall 2022 35
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