A No-Nonsense Review of Connecteam

Connecteam is an employee management app for mobile teams. The company targets a number of industries including construction, cleaning services, field services, food and beverage, homecare, manufacturing, and retail. 

Connecteam’s selling proposition hinges on its offerings as an all-in-one solution for mobile workforce management. In this no-nonsense review, we’ll examine Connecteam’s capabilities for handling workforce management and project tasks in the construction industry.

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What Is Connecteam?

Connecteam is a multi-functional, workforce management mobile solution for businesses and managers overseeing mobile (or “deskless” as Connecteam calls it) teams.

The company characterizes its customer base as businesses managing employees who work “hands-on jobs – they fix doors,
clean floors, manage stores, load crates, guard gates, set plates…” Connecteam aims to provide the ‘right app’ for businesses employing blue collar workers.

Connecteam Overview

Connecteam’s employee management app offers the following features across three primary “hubs”:

Operations Hub

• Time clock
• Job scheduling
• Forms
• Quick Tasks

Communications Hub

• Chat
• Updates
• Directory
• Surveys
• Events
• Knowledge Base

HR & Skills

• Time off
• Courses
• Quizzes
• Documents
• Recognition
• Rewards
• Celebrations
• Timeline

What it’s Like to Get Started With Connecteam

Signing up with Connecteam is straightforward and easy.

Sign-up

First off, Connecteam asks for your personal details and business email. The sign-up page also asks how you heard about Connecteam.

The platform then customizes your app based on your chosen role, business size, and industry type. The page asks you to select hub features for the duration of your free trial:

As we’re reviewing Connecteam from the perspective of a construction team manager, we selected the typical run of options: time clock, schedule, forms and checklists, and task management. These are all under the ‘Operations’ hub.

Onboarding

The onboarding process starts with an intro video walking you through the platform’s sections and features.

One thing we noticed right away is how Connecteam groups its features under hubs in the dashboard. It also calls features like chat, directory, time clock, and time off ‘products.’

After finishing the video, the platform sets up a user ‘journey’ to familiarize you with its products. A $15 coupon for upgrades is offered as an incentive to finish the tutorial in 24 hours.

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The Web App Experience – For Team Admins

Connecteam’s dashboard is compact, designed to view tasks and updates at a glance.

A Quick Actions bar at the top of the page allows you to quickly add users, admins, tasks, or updates.

Two widgets at the right keep you up-to-date with employee requests (time off, shift, etc.) and alerts.

The left menu groups products into the three main hubs mentioned earlier, with the option to add new products (presumably as you go up the paid tiers).

The first item on the left menu is the overview, which serves as the home button and takes you to the main dashboard. Clicking ‘Activity’ brings up a list of recent activities and details.

‘Users’ opens a directory of team members and admins together with details on their last login. The next item caught our eye: ‘Smart groups’ are user segments that update automatically based on roles, departments, locations, and other categories. Connecteam prefaces this section with an intro video to acquaint you with the product.

User segmentation is a common application of AI in business use cases. It would be nice to see how the product has actually “maximize(d) operational efficiency” for Connecteam customers, as you never hear about the product itself on Connecteam’s homepage.

The Mobile App Experience – For Employees

On the mobile app, the same walkthrough tutorial greets mobile users together with the discount coupon.

The mobile dashboard replicates the Quick Actions bar from the web version, offering you the ability to create tasks, clock-in, find people, and view schedules on the go.

The bottom of the screen houses the icons Feed, Assets, Chat, Profile, and Admin. One thing to note is that ‘Assets’ stands for ‘products’ in the mobile app. Clicking ‘Assets’ opens up the same hubs as in the web dashboard.

Another thing to note is that the mobile app offers admin functions via the Admin tab. It allows you to view team members, manage time off, and follow employees’ activities. It also gives you quick access to job scheduling, time clock, and updates.

Connecteam Key Features

What is Connecteam’s Communication Hub?

Connecteam’s communication hub includes chat, updates, a directory, surveys, events, and knowledge base. In our free trial, the products included were chat, updates, and directory.

Chat

‘Chat’ includes typical team communication features such as one-on-one conversations (more commonly known as DM), team chats, channels, and file attachments.

Updates

‘Updates’ is the equivalent of a social media post on your feed that you have no choice but to read. The product is a team communication tool used to instantly share announcements and messages to team members.

Directory

This product is the equivalent of a phone book and organizes contact details of employees, clients, suppliers, and vendors.

What is Connecteam’s Operations Hub?

Connecteam’s operations hub includes its time clock, forms, job scheduling, and quick tasks. All of these products were available in our free trial.

Time Clock

When you open Time Clock for the first time, the platform guides you through basic actions such as checking the ‘Today’ tab and viewing who’s currently working.

Connecteam’s time clock product comes with the usual package of related features: auto clock-out, geofencing and GPS tracking, equipment tracking, overtime and breaks, pay rate, schedule synchronization, reporting and payroll integration, and automated notifications.

The web dashboard shows a list of clocked-in employees for the day as well as a map view of team members’ location and activities.

The timesheet tab shows an overview of time cards with job insights for projects, shifts, customers, and work sites.

Connecteam’s mobile app offers employee and admin functions for its time clock. Employees can start and end shifts, view timesheets, and make scheduling requests via the time clock.

Admins can access the team map view and check which members have clocked in. Admins can also view timesheets, requests, and activity in the time clock’s Admin tab.

We took Connecteam’s time clock for a road test and found that while the app had no trouble registering our location on WiFi connection, the GPS tracking died once we hit the road and shifted to mobile data.

Connecteam’s app allows you to change jobs while on the time clock. It will search your current location when you shift to a new job (in theory, as the app was not able to do so during our testing):

The app will record your location at clock-in and clock-out (again, in theory).

At the end of our short road test, the app was only able to track location at the starting point while connected to WiFi. On the road, where we relied on mobile data, the app’s GPS tracking failed to track and record our movement. Our clock-out location was registered as unknown:

Forms

When opening Forms, the platform asks whether you are creating a new form or scratch or if you would rather use a template:

The product helps you create digital forms, auto-share reports, auto-capture GPS location per field, and customize forms using 15 different input field types.

Job Scheduling

Similar to the time clock and forms sections, the platform shows you how to create new shifts in the calendar when you open Job Scheduling for the first time.

You can edit shift assignments by clicking on the entry and bringing up a side menu.

Connecteam’s schedule allows you to create shifts for individual members or teams, schedule shifts in different time zones, sync with its time clock and PTO, and manage open shifts with or without approvals. The app also comes with shift templates for faster scheduling.

The top bar gives you quick access to permissions, requests, jobs, and settings. A pop-up menu next to ‘Settings’ gives you even more scheduling actions: view activity, un-sync with time clock, edit assignments, and archive the entire product (Schedule) from the app.

Connecteam also allows you to duplicate and clear schedules with one click. You can unpublish and unassign weekly schedules using the ‘Actions’ menu.

Lastly, you can add single and multiple shifts, import shifts from Excel, and add shifts from templates using the ‘Add’ button.

Quick Tasks

This product allows you to create tasks for teams, schedule task publishing, break down main projects into subtasks, add labels and checklists, and set due dates and statuses.

There are four tabs overhead providing a quick overview of task groups: Tasks Created By Me, My Tasks, All Tasks, and Archived Tasks. Connecteam also allows you to quickly filter tasks by labels.

What is Connecteam’s HR & Skills Hub?

Connecteam’s communication hub includes the following products: Time Off, Courses, Quizzes, Documents, Recognition, Rewards, Celebration, and Timeline. In our free trial, only Celebrations and Time off were available.

Celebrations

This product is an employee affirmation tool to celebrate employees’ birthdays and work anniversaries. The Celebrations dashboard keeps track of how many members have their birthdays and start dates on record. It also shows upcoming and past celebrations.

Time Off

Time Off monitors time-off requests and PTOs in one place. It’s a fundamental labor compliance tool that helps you forecast schedules in light of time-off requests.

Integrating Other Business Apps With Connecteam

Connecteam integrates with some leading payroll systems — Gusto, QuickBooks, Paychex, and Xero — but nothing else.

Connecteam Might be a Good Fit for You If…

…you’re a new company or a small business overseeing an on-site team.

Connecteam has built a lot of functionality around this type of business. It excels in streamlining routine tasks like scheduling, managing shifts, forecasting team availability, and others.
Both the web and mobile dashboards are equipped with quick menus, shortcut buttons, and actions. The reason for this, of course, is that Connecteam targets onsite, service-based industries—cleaning, homecare, retail, and food and beverage.

If you want an efficient workforce management app and nothing else, Connecteam might suit your needs. However, that’s probably not the case if you’re a medium-sized or large company working with a number of third-party apps or legacy systems.

You Might Not Want to Use Connecteam If…

…you need a reliable GPS time-tracking location for mobile teams and field workers.

Our short road test showed that the app’s GPS tracking failed the moment we left a stable WiFi connection. Whereas other apps we tested put up a fight trying to track our location (albeit slowly and erratically – with the exception of one app), Connecteam waved the white flag once it shifted to mobile data.

You also might want to look elsewhere if your business setup requires you to connect to third-party apps and external systems other than payroll software.

For example, if you need integration with project management software like Trello or document management solutions like Dropbox, then you’ll have to figure it out on your own. Connecteam’s list of integrations is only limited to payroll, with no indication of expanding anytime soon.

Connecteam Cost/Pricing

Connecteam offers the same pricing scheme for all its products: Operations Hub, Communications Hub, and HR & Skills Hub. While the inclusions within each hub vary, the number of users per paid tier remains the same.

Connecteam Reviews: What Real Users Say

Connecteam offers the same pricing scheme for all its products: Operations Hub, Communications Hub, and HR & Skills Hub. While the inclusions within each hub vary, the number of users per paid tier remains the same.

iOS user NunyaGdBusiness says the app has potential but needs fixing first:

iOS user NunyaGdBusiness says:

Could be great, but not quite there yet ⭐⭐ 

I’d be willing to raise my rating if you fix these two UI issues:

1. The “My availability” feature needs work. I have recurring times when I’m unavailable, so I toggled the “Repeat availability preferences” button on and set it to repeat until a date one year later. I later needed to edit the time, but there is no way to edit the whole batch of dates. The only way to edit is to go through all 52 dates and change each one individually. This is extremely time consuming and frustrating.

2. The single week view/layout is not intuitive. The “week summary” does not match the dates shown above and below it and there is nothing indicating which month the displayed week is in. This is super confusing.

Android user Ashley Herring loves that everything is centralized in one place:

Android user Ashley Herring says:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
I was very surprised at how well this app was put together! The features were all nicely put into an easy-to-find place. The clear understanding of the cleaning specs, options for requesting time off/shift edit requests, chatroom options, and required site informational training are also available. The best part!? IT’S ALL IN ONE PLACE!! The Connecteam app developers have really outdid themselves & set a very high bar for everyone else!! T Sheets better step up their game! Way to go, Connecteam!

Connecteam user Josh M. cautions buyers to beware, though he acknowledges his employees find the app useful:

Capterra reviewer Josh M. says:

Buyer beware (you get what you pay for!) ⭐⭐

Overall: Their “customer service” is all online through chat, and they will always “put in a fix” and then expect you to go read some stupid newsletter to see if the fix has been implemented. …They clearly don’t care that their product is sub-par.

Pros: The employee use and ease is great. They love it. I hate it as the person who has to put things in, it’s so un-intuitive and I spend WAY too much time scheduling.Cons: They’ve clearly not done good product testing in this program, simples tasks like right-clicks and basic functions just aren’t there. It’s A LOT of mouse clicks to schedule anything. It is sold as a time saving program, but it’s not, and I consider myself pretty tech-savvy. It’s just very not user-friendly.

Our Score (and Why We Chose It)

Based on our sign-up and onboarding experience with the free trial, here’s how we scored Connecteam:

Top Alternatives to Connecteam

Connecteam offers core functions for scheduling, workforce management, and time-tracking for an assortment of industries. But other competitors also offer similar features:

Want more options? Our extensive article on Connecteam alternatives features over twice as many apps, with our review and real user reviews to help you choose:

Top Connecteam Alternatives: Other Apps to Consider

The Bottom Line

Connecteam calls itself “The World’s #1 Employee App,” which is a tall order for anyone.

While it does a good job of helping admins manage on-site teams, it lacks reliable GPS tracking for field employees. Connecteam might work for a Starbucks cafe full of baristas, but not as well for construction workers across multiple worksites.

Another small thing we noticed is how the platform hypes common features to sell their value, though most of these are what you’d expect to find in a business management platform. Some examples are DMs (‘one-on-one conversations’), digital documents (‘100% paper-free forms’), and team updates (‘hyper customizable updates’).

All in all, Connecteam offers a solid set of scheduling and workforce management tools that work well for specific industries. Unfortunately, construction companies, which often need precise GPS tracking and management of mobile teams across multiple project sites, hardly fits the bill.

If you’re looking for a time-tracking app that’ll record every worker’s time to the minute, try Workyard. Its industry-leading GPS accuracy now comes paired with an innovative auto clock-in and clock-out feature to ensure your team’s time will be tracked as soon as they enter their assigned worksites, even if they forget to pull out their phones.

Click here to see how Workyard’s GPS time clock app can save your construction business thousands, or sign up for a 14-day free trial today to experience it for yourself!