The number of remote workers tripled in the last three years alone. And this doesn't include hybrid workers. It is becoming more important than ever for HR departments to create an engaging work environment for their teams. People need a healthy dose of human connection at work. Thankfully, there are engagement tools to reinforce and encourage a healthy work culture.
Employee Matching apps are one of the most effective ways to provide your team with these connections. It's a chance to meet up, build connections and expand their internal network. Let's dive in to learn more about the employee matching (aka virtual coffee) apps that integrate with Microsoft Teams.
What Are The Best Employee Matching / Virtual Coffee apps?
There are apps to choose from, but of course, you will want to find an app that is the best for you and your team. Finding the best app comes down to features, benefits, pricing and security. Security? Yes. Employee requests for new software often get turned down if it does not meet IT’s security requirements. You also want to use a matching app that your team can figure out how to operate from home, and the experience should be simple!
The app you choose must be able to integrate with the platform your company communicates on. In this instance, the focus is on Microsoft Teams. If your company doesn't use Teams, there are apps that exist on other platforms. In this article, we will mention two that work outside of Teams.
Here are the six most popular employee matching apps that integrate with Teams:
- CoffeePals
- Lead
- Yucca HR
- FikaTime
- Random Coffee
- Lunch Roulette
To conclude which app will be best for your team, you must know each app's features, pricing, key benefits and security. Below, you will find a comprehensive guide to all of leading applications. This will help you to reach an educated decision on which app is best to put in place.
CoffeePals
CoffeePals is one of the best employee matching apps on the market. It's used by teams at well know organizations like Redbull, Microsoft and Harvard. The app keeps remote teams engaged and establishes a simple way to build connections.
The platform matches colleagues together periodically to meet one-on-one or as a group. Meetings can take place over video chat or in person. As a result, CoffeePals provides users with spontaneous connections with one another. These spontaneous introductions are great for improving onboarding and promoting cross-team communication. No more silos!
CoffeePals Top Features
There are many great features included in CoffeePals' platform. Here are some that you should be aware of:
1. Periodic spontaneous matching
It can be intimidating to meet new colleagues you've never met before. You may find that your team members gravitate toward the same colleague weekly. CoffeePals makes these introductions feel more casual by naming them coffee chats. These short meetings feel more authentic as if you're sitting down to enjoy a cup of coffee with someone.
CoffeePals automates the matching process to simulate bumping into someone at the office. Meetings don’t feel like they’re forced or cherry-picked by managers. Users can easily opt-in or out of the program at their own discretion.
2. Cross Group Matching
CoffeePals enables you to match regularly across different groups or teams. If you want two teams/departments to get to know one another, you can configure CoffeePals to make these connections happen. This can also be used to facilitate matches between mentors and mentees as well as new hires with existing employees.
3. Onboarding
A new team member joining a remote company can feel isolated. Especially when they don’t know anyone. This is why every organization is looking for ways to improve their onboarding. With CoffeePals, you can selectively match new hires with existing “star” employees. This gives the new joiner a warm welcome. This can also be used to randomly assign an onboarding buddy.
4. Match Reporting
It’s important for administrators to know if people are meeting their match. CoffeePals poses a simple yes or no question to users after they’ve had some time to schedule a meeting. This data is displayed on the analytics dashboard giving admins an understanding of how employees are using the platform.
5. Icebreaker conversation starters
CoffeePals has a 'Coffee Maker' feature which posts fun, thought-provoking questions into your Team’s channel. This helps your team get to know more colleagues in an asynchronous way. Much like chatting around the coffee maker!
6. Scheduling Integration
CoffeePals takes all the friction out of scheduling the meetings. Users can connect their Outlook calendar to one-click schedule meetings. This takes into account the availability of the people in the group and their timezone. CoffeePals provides the easiest way for employees to make meetings happen. If you do not want to connect your calendar, it provides a button to pre-populate a calendar event to schedule manually.
CoffeePals Top Features | Benefits
Match team members together for introductions and coffee chats. | Employees increase their social interaction and meet new people frequently.
Cross-group matching for intentional connections across your organization | Breaks down silos in organizations and can be used for mentorship and onboarding programs
Match reporting analytics dashboard | Admins can see if users reported meeting their match to evaluate the effectiveness of the program
Conversation starters post thought provoking topics into your channels regularly. | Build connections with more people by facilitating asynchronous conversations through chat.
One-click scheduling through deep outlook integration. | Reduce the friction for users to schedule the coffee chats. No more sifting through availability blocks!
CoffeePals Security
Security is top of mind for many companies and IT teams when it comes to onboarding software. CoffeePals puts security at the forefront of its operations and is SOC 2 and GDPR compliant. They’ve implemented processes and protocols to ensure customer data is secure. CoffeePals also works with secure and trusted vendors to ensure that user data is safe.
CoffeePals Pricing
You can add the CoffeePals add-on to Teams for free, which allows your company to connect 24 users per round. CoffeePals also has transparent pricing on its pricing page.
For larger teams, the Pro plan automatically scales the price up and down depending on usage. The Pro plan starts at $49 per month and increases based on the number of active users in the organization. They have options for both month-to-month and annual plans.
Lunch Roulette
Another employee match-making app on our list is Lunch Roulette. Lunch Roulette currently only operates on Slack but we thought we’d give it an honourable mention. It’s another platform that enables users to collaborate and get to know one another. This helps your organization to become more productive while enhancing the company’s social footprint.
Lunch Roulette is used by huge companies such as Starbucks. Let’s take a look at the critical features that make Lunch Roulette’s platform a great contender.
Lunch Roulette’s Top Features
Below are Lunch Roulette’s primary features to consider before using the platform:
1. Customization
Select the group size you want on the call, the day, and the time. Lunch Roulette provides end users flexibility regarding when they want to meetups. This ensures that the program meets all employees’ needs.
2. Channel connection
If multiple channels usually have matches independently, you can connect these channels for a large virtual meetup in a general channel. Users can opt-out of this if they don’t want to be involved in the larger group.
3. Participation guarantees
Every user that has been added or invited to attend a meetups needs to give Lunch Roulette approval and confirm their attendance. This feature ensures HR accurately knows how many employees attend calls and get involved.
Lunch Roulette Top Features | Benefits
User-customizable match scheduling. | Ensures users can participate on their schedule.
Multiple channels can come together in a general channel for larger meetups and chatting. | Provides users with a way to contact the entire organization – not just their team.
All attendees will confirm their participation to ensure HR and organizers know who is attending. | Enables companies to track attendance more accurately.
Lunch Roulette Pricing
You can use Lunch Roulette for free if you have 15 users or under, with costs increasing from here. After that, all prices are paid monthly, with plans starting at €29 for 16-40 users.
Lunch Roulette Security
Lunch Roulette does list that they are GDPR compliant. They do not, however, list any industry-recognized data security programs like SOC 2 or ISO 27001.
Lead
Lead is another market leader for virtual coffee apps. The app works by introducing colleagues to each other via Teams. Using Lead is a simple process that elevates colleague interaction and makes remote work a more social and enjoyable experience.
The great thing about Lead is that you can implement cross-functional meetings and leverage your companies' knowledge, as different departments can learn a lot from each other. Let's take a look at the features that make this possible:
Lead's Top Features
Although there is a range of features offered by Lead, the following points have been outlined as the most important:
1. Lead Bot matching
To match your employees for meetings, you can add the Lead bot to any team to start the matching process. The Lead bot works by going through whichever team it has been added to and matching employees accordingly for social catch-ups.
2. Calendar integration
The trouble with finding the perfect time to join a meeting is that schedules can clash, making it challenging for some employees to meet up. Lead conveniently provides a button to open up the meeting scheduler within Teams. This guides employees to create and schedule meetings with their matched colleagues.
3. Match Surveys
Having a coffee chat is one thing, but seeing how your employees enjoyed their coffee chat is another. With Lead, users are prompted to answer a survey after the matching cycle complete. This helps HR managers understand if their employees are enjoying their coffee chats.
Lead’s Top Features
Benefits
Lead bot matching employees for meetings. | Implements a social element to the company.
Team scheduler button to help schedule meetings. | Reduces clicks from opening the Teams scheduler UI manually.
Surveys to understand if employees are enjoying their coffee chats. | Helps HR understand the impact of the tool.
Lead Security
Security is crucial in any new application you bring into your organization. Lead currently does not mention any completed security program audits such as SOC 2. However, they do mention they are GDPR compliant for european users.
Lead Pricing
You can use Lead to match up to 24 users per month for free. Upgrading to their standard plan starts at $39 per month and increases with more users. With Lead, you select the set number of user licenses. You can then manually increase or decrease the licenses. This can result in users missing matches if you're not paying close attention.
Yucca HR
Yucca HR works to boost productivity in the workplace by connecting users more efficiently and frequently. In addition, the platform aims to leverage employee engagement and motivate companies to strengthen their workforce.
For these goals to be possible, Yucca HR requires features that users respond well to and can easily use. So let’s take a look at these features.
Yucca HR’s Top Features
Like other platforms, Yucca is designed with features that enable automated matching. Here are the top features of Yucca HR:
1. User-friendly application
Using Yucca HR is a simple process, with users only needing to download the app. Once the app is downloaded, Yucca HR is available in Teams, allowing HR to add team members and schedule matchings.
2. Campaign creation
In the Yucca HR dashboard, you can create a campaign that best aligns with your goals of using the platform. For example, if you want employees to be matched cross-functionally, you can select the cross-team matching feature.
3. Supervision abilities
Measuring the success of using an employee matching app is essential. Yucca HR makes this possible by providing HR with all the information they need. You can check employee participation and feedback about the app through their dashboard.
Yucca HR’s Top Features | Benefits
Integrating Yucca HR’s app with Teams is an efficient process. | Employees can easily get involved and access the application from home.
Create campaigns that align with your company goals. | Match employees with people they need to meet to improve motivation and integration.
Assess data through Yucca HR’s dashboard to oversee performance. | Outline areas of the virtual app that are working for your company and any room for improvement.
Yucca HR Security
It’s important you check if an application is secure before bringing it to your IT team – otherwise, it will never make it into your organization. Yucca currently doesn’t list any industry-recognized security program or audit. Their privacy policy does mention they are GDPR compliant.
Yucca HR Pricing
Yucca HR’s pricing is less transparent than alternatives, in which users must submit a form with information on their company. Then, Yucca HR will devise a pricing plan that suits your company size, goals, and setting.
FikaTime
FikaTime is another option for a virtual coffee app integrated with Microsoft Teams. The platform aims to build meaningful connections within a remote work environment by pairing employees.
Similarly to other virtual coffee apps, FikaTime provides features that make the platform useful for users. Let’s take a look at these features!
FikaTime Top Features
FikaTime is designed to be a user-friendly wellness app, so a range of features are included to enable this wellness-inspired interaction.
1. Data collection
Pinpointing things that are going well is essential to measuring the effectiveness of an employee matching app. FikaTime provides admins with insights into how employees interact with the platform. They ask users how the meeting went and ask them to share highlights of the meetings. This data is then provided to administrators through a dashboard
2. Coffee station topic
For days where no social interactions are happening via Teams, FikaTime provides a team with a coffee station topic in the general chat. The purpose of the coffee station topic is to give employees a break from their work to have an entertaining social conversation on a random topic.
3. One-to-one pairings
Employees are matched with one another randomly. It is unclear whether you can change the match group size or configure cross-group matching. Matches aim to spark connections between employees that otherwise may have never interacted. This aims to improve wellness.
FikaTime Top Features | Benefits
Insights and data provided regarding employee and user interaction. | Outline areas requiring improvements or assess the way your team interacts.
Coffee station topic allows employees to have an engaging chat in their break. | Remote working has social elements implemented throughout the week.
Employees are paired together for virtual meetups. | Improve company engagement and interaction.
FikaTime Pricing
FikaTime provides users with a 14-day free trial to test out the platform, and from here, the plan increases to $2 per user per month. If you have a large enterprise, you are required to get in touch with FikaTime to devise a custom plan.
FikaTime Security
Fika currently doesn’t list any industry-recognized security program or audit such as SOC2 or ISO 27001. Their privacy policy does mention they are GDPR compliant.
RandomCoffee
RandomCoffee creates better work relationships through automated and regular meetings with coworkers. In addition, the platform prides itself on being seamless and easy to set up for users.
With a whole host of users ranging from Twitter to Disney, RandomCoffee provides users with employee matching via email. To do this, you must import your contacts and manually manage the users in the program. This is one drawback when compared to other apps that integrate with Teams.
RandomCoffee’s Top Features
Though RandomCoffee does not integrate with Teams, it does provide users with several useful features.
1. Employee onboarding
Introduce new employees to the team in a more personal way that helps them to feel comfortable, accepted, and appreciated by the team.
2. Cross-team meetings
Large companies often have many teams that rarely cross paths. RandomCoffee bridges these connections by introducing different sectors of the business.
3. Targeted connections
RandomCoffee has customizable elements that allow HR to create Targeted connections. For example, if entry-level employees want to grow their skills while socializing, you can make these connections through the customizable algorithm.
RandomCoffee’s Top Features | Benefits
Introduce new employees to the team through a virtual meeting. | Remote onboarding becomes more personal and interactive.
Implement cross team interactions through virtual meetups. | Leverage the company's overall engagement.
Customize connections to ensure employees gain something from the person they interact with. | Grow your team's social skills simultaneously with their professional skills.
RandomCoffee Pricing
To retrieve RandomCoffee’s exact pricing figures, you must get in touch with a member of their sales team. They currently don’t offer any transparent pricing on their website.
RandomCoffee Security
RandomCoffee does not mention any industry-recognized security programs such as SOC2 or ISO 27001 on their website. They do claim to be GDPR compliant.
Summary
There are six great options For getting your company set up with employee match-making and virtual coffee chats. Although all the apps covered in today’s articles offer similar strategies, they come complete with features that make each app unique and perfect for different users.
If you’re looking for a versatile and robust virtual coffee chat application, check out CoffeePals. Try the app with a small team of up to 24 users for free or start a 14-day trial where you can experiment with all the pro features for unlimited users. Start building connections and improving your employee's experience.
FAQS
How do you create a virtual coffee break in Microsoft Teams?
You can create a virtual meetup in Teams by adding the CoffeePals app to a team. This facilitates team connection and scheduling meetings.
How long is a virtual coffee chat?
Virtual coffee breaks should be scheduled for 15 to 20 minutes to give users enough time to build a connection and get to know each other.
What do I talk about in a virtual coffee chat?
You can talk about anything. It’s meant to get to know someone in your company that you may have never gotten the chance to meet. If you’re looking for questions to ask in your meeting we have a list of questions and tips for you.
What is the best day to host a virtual coffee chat?
The best day to match employees is Tuesdays. On Mondays, people are busy and getting back from the weekend – and maybe not ready for social interaction. Tuesdays still give users enough open time in the week to schedule a coffee chat in their calendar.
Is there a Donut app for Microsoft Teams?
CoffeePals is the Donut app for slack alternative that can be integrated with Microsoft Teams. It randomly assigns social meetups within and across teams. Users can download the app from the Microsoft Teams app store and get set up within 5 minutes.
How do you host a virtual coffee chat?
You can host a virtual coffee chat by adding a virtual coffee app like CoffeePals to help create a more seamless virtual meetup. When using a virtual coffee app, users will be paired with another coworker to get to know them and have a social break during their work day.
