Culture Amp announces new integrations with Microsoft Teams and Slack

Culture Amp, the software company providing a platform for managing people and culture, has announced new integrations with Microsoft Teams and Slack.

These new integrations, which were prompted by the recent move of many to remote working setups, enables users to give and receive feedback without having to leave the primary application where they are completing their work, the company states.

The updates join existing offerings for Outlook and Google Chrome and together are designed to allow for more timely, relevant and actionable feedback to further enable employee development.

Culture Amp stores this feedback on an employee's profile and makes it available for managers to review, allowing for more impactful coaching conversations and mitigating recency bias during the performance review process, the company says.

Culture Amp states it is focused on helping people find a new rhythm of work within a distributed, remote workforce. With millions of employees working remotely and adjusting to new routines, fostering a sense of connection has become a key priority for leaders of dispersed teams.

A Culture Amp study of 140,000 employees found that only 63% of employees feel they are spending enough quality time interacting with others.

Additionally, having meaningful ways to stay connected as colleagues is one of the top drivers for employee wellbeing during this time, the company states.

Employees that were unable to stay connected as a team are not adapting; only 45% believed that the company is able to support customers through the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to fostering connection, companies that regularly share feedback see higher levels of employee engagement and performance.

In companies where managers give employees actionable feedback on a regular basis, employees respond 67% more favourably on being motivated to go above and beyond compared to employees who don't.

Employees who get better manager feedback are 1.9 times more engaged, Culture Amp finds.

Culture Amp co-founder and chief product officer Rod Hamilton says, "Companies need to actively seek out new ways for employees to share feedback, as without the incidental interaction that happens in the workplace, employees can feel disconnected or invisible.

"Organisations have had to undergo rapid, dramatic change in the past few months. In many cases, employees are adjusting to completely new ways of working. It's simply not possible to stop by a colleagues desk to share feedback.

"Culture Amp is committed to helping people around the world to find their new rhythm of work and to inspire their growth. The integrations with Microsoft Teams and Slack not only remove the friction associated with giving feedback, they help to deliver better quality feedback.

"This is part of our drive to put actionable feedback within reach for millions of employees.

Spokespeople from Microsoft and Slack commented on the integrations and the changing nature of work.

Microsoft Australia chief partner officer Rachel Bondi says, "In this new normal, it's vital to create more opportunities for feedback and connection.

"The collaboration with Culture Amp makes it easy for organisations and their employees to give and receive feedback from Microsoft Teams.

"With remote working the new normal, we've seen Microsoft Teams usage increase to over 75 million daily active users globally.

"Timely, relevant, and actionable feedback can transform organisations and we're excited to work with Culture Amp who are leading the way in making this a reality for companies around the world.

Slack head of enterprise Asia Pacific Arturo Arrarte says, "A strong culture has always been a good predictor of success, and that has never been more true than right now.

"As we have shifted to remote work at an unprecedented speed, it is those organisations that are intent on fostering their culture and supporting their people who are faring better and pivoting faster.

"Culture Amp is at the forefront of a critical shift in measuring employee engagement continuously, and importantly online, rather than relying on legacy feedback models like the annual face-to-face meeting in the office.

"Integrating the Culture Amp app with Slack is just another way we're making work simpler, more pleasant and more productive.