Leveraging the power of technology to create a highly engaged workforce is becoming a top priority for the most successful businesses. The link between engaged employees and higher productivity is becoming clear.

A 2017 Gallup study concluded employees who felt highly engaged with their employer had 17% higher productivity, 20% higher sales, and 21% higher profitability among many other positive metrics resulting from higher engagement levels. Through technology, businesses can connect employees with each other and management in meaningful ways, and overall make their jobs more intuitive, rewarding, and productive.

We believe that these connections and rewarding experiences will lead to more engaged, more productive employees.

Looking for technologies to boost your office productivity? There are no shortage of options, which can make the search even more complicated. Below, we’ve highlighted 12 of our favorite productivity apps and products that’ll be sure to improve your employee engagement and productivity.

1. Slack

Slack is a collaboration software that offers employees a more efficient, intuitive way to communicate with each other. Users can be segmented into groups called "channels" by team, project, or any other parameter you may need to use. It's well supported, and you can integrate it with other popular business programs with ease. You'll never want to email a co-worker again.

2. HootSuite

Hootsuite is a major time saver for social media manager. Instead of having to go to each social platform to post, HootSuite allows you to manage all your accounts from a single hub. You can schedule out future posts, respond to followers, and receive detailed analytics so you can report on and optimize your social media strategy.

3. LastPass

Creating and then remembering secure passwords is a pain for anyone. We've all been frustrated at our desk, futilely attempting to remember that new password we were just sure we wouldn’t forget. LastPass saves you from that situation altogether and allows you to securely share logins with your team.

Simply create one good master password for your LastPass account, and let it manage all of your other passwords for websites, work tools, and Microsoft Windows applications. Not only is it easier to remember a single password, but having LastPass create your other passwords is much safer than making them up yourself.

4. Meeting Owl Pro

The Meeting Owl Pro is an all-in-one 360º video conferencing device. In simpler terms, it fulfills your speaker, video, and microphone needs for your meeting rooms. It has full 360° camera, 8-microphone array, and full 360º speaker all on the device.

Additional, intelligent internal software on the Meeting Owl Pro allows the camera to be split into a Panorama View of the room at the top of the screen and Stage View at the bottom that highlights up to three active speakers a time. The technology creates a dynamic experience for all of your remote and in-room participants to see and hear each other more effectively than a traditional "birds-eye" view setup.

5. Dropbox

Dropbox is a popular file storage and sharing application. You can backup all of your important files to the cloud so that they're never in jeopardy of being lost if your computer fails. You can also easily share work files for collaborative efforts in a safe, secure manner. Rather than just having your files on your browser or in your computer files, you can easily access Dropbox files in both ways, making it easier to work however you need to in the moment.

6. Calendly

All employees can benefit from a great scheduling app like Calendly. Rather than engaging in what can seem like endless back and forth emails with colleagues trying to find a time that works for everyone, Calendly does the work for you.

You set up your availability preferences, share the link, and the recipient picks a time that works best for them to schedule the meeting. It then integrates with your calendar software of choice and marks down when the meeting is scheduled. It has some free features, so you can start taking advantage of it at no cost to you.

7. Confluence

Every company has a large sum of information that needs to be shared easily with one another. But what’s the best way to do that? Confluence an easy-to-use, highly functional collaboration software. It's from the creators of Jira and features strong integration with it and a number of other popular business tools. You can plan projects, keep track of meeting notes, provide feedback, and more.

8. Mymanu CLIK +

These wireless earbuds are more than meets the eye! They utilize smart technology and can translate live voice in 29 different languages. Perfect for a conference call with potential foreign investors or clients.

9. Expensify

Your accounting team is going to love this product. Expensify automates each part of expense reporting to expensing a more streamlined process. Scan receipts, reimburse employees and file expense reports in a fraction of the time. A study by Forrester found that Expensify provides its clients a 598% return on investment.

10. Snagit

Snagit is a screen capture tool that can save pictures or create screen recordings. This is a great tool to enhance software demonstrations, aid your IT department in troubleshooting issues, or even create marketing materials. It even features a rather robust set of image editing options, so for some people, it can even be a substitute for Photoshop if you don't need all of its bells and whistles.

11. Freedom

Sometimes a project requires all of your attention. But how are you supposed to give all of your attention when there are so many cat memes out there? They're so hilarious! Well, with Freedom, you can block websites and apps on your computer for a specific amount of time. So, even if you're tempted to stop working on the big project for a moment to scope out the meme scene, you can't! Might as well just get that work done, right?

12. Packed Pixels

Many companies utilize dual monitor setups at the office, but what about when employees are on-the-go with their laptops? Using two monitors can improve productivity by 20-30 percent, so leaving them with just their laptop screen can be inefficient. And lugging around an extra monitor is impractical. Packed Pixels offers a novel system where you can attach one (or two!) of their lightweight, high-resolution screens to a laptop via their patented mounting system. You can finally enjoy a multi-screen laptop setup that is truly transportable.

13. Zoom

Connect with your colleagues and collaborate no matter where they're located. A cloud-based, video conferencing tool like Zoom brings remote and hybrid teams together for productive video meetings and audio conferencing. Plus, it can be used to host webinars, record meetings, and to live chat with coworkers.

Ready to give one of these tools a try?