Why Unily ranks first for Employee Communications and Engagement in Gartner® Critical Capabilities

What is the Gartner® Critical Capabilities report?

The Critical Capabilities report is an accompaniment to the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Intranet Packaged Solutions, in which Unily is named a Leader and placed joint furthest for Completeness of Vision. The Magic Quadrant™ provides a clear graphical overview alongside a concise write-up of each vendor’s performance across two criteria: Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute. As an essential companion to the Gartner Magic Quadrant, the Critical Capabilities methodology provides deeper insight into providers’ product and service offerings by extending the Magic Quadrant analysis. Use this research to further investigate product and service ratings based on key capabilities set to important, differentiating use cases.

Discover why Unily ranks first: An interactive Product Tour

This year, we're taking a bold step to show you exactly why we think we outperformed all competitors across every use case. We've created a self-paced, interactive product tour that lets you explore the features and capabilities that earned us the top spot. Dive into the details, see why Unily ranks first for Employee Communications and Engagement, and how Unily helps shape culture, build community, attract and retain talent and foster productivity.

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Recognition that translates to real-world value

Gartner describes Employee Communications and Engagement as a way to “Provide interaction to and between employees to shape culture, build community, attract and retain talent, and foster productivity.”

When employees feel well-informed, connected to company values, and empowered to participate in dialogue, it positively impacts collaboration, innovation, and overall satisfaction. Engaged employees are also more likely to remain with a company long-term, directly contributing to talent retention; according to Deloitte, belonging can lead to a 56% increase in job performance and a 50% reduction in turnover risk.

Gartner evaluates how well each solution meets the needs of six different use cases. Each vendor's product is assessed across critical capabilities, with a rating scale from 1.0 to 5.0 (where 1 is poor and 5 is outstanding). Product scores are then calculated by multiplying the ratings by the respective weightings for each use case. This methodology helps quantify how well each product meets the specific needs of different scenarios.

The weighting system underscores that Employee Communications is traditionally the most critical capability for IPS products, as it directly influences employee engagement and the flow of organizational information. With a 20% weighting for Employee Communications in this use case, vendors that excel in this area are positioned as strong candidates for fostering better employee interactions, culture, and productivity.

The weightings Gartner assigns to each use case reveal how they recommend enterprises evaluate vendors. Their emphasis on multiexperience support (14%) and personalization (14%) highlights the growing need for intranet solutions that can adapt to diverse workforces, including frontline workers, mobile workers, and remote teams. By delivering information across multiple formats (e.g., employee apps, tablets, and digital signage), businesses ensure that all employees, regardless of location, stay connected and informed.

Our native Broadcast Centre provides a template-rich, no-code toolkit for scalable communications across web, mobile apps, email, popups, Slack, Teams, and digital signage. News, events, and blogs can be targeted to specific audiences and optimized for all devices.

Robust approval workflows ensure that all content is reviewed before publication, maintaining high quality and compliance. Content governance features, such as audit trails, version control, and automated content review lifecycles, help maintain content relevance.

In addition, Community and Social (12%) is addressed with built-in social features to foster two-way communication, collaboration, and community building across the organization. The social feed, forums, and employee-generated content ensure active participation, driving engagement and cultivating a collaborative culture. Additionally, gamification and native recognition tools like Kudos enhance employee involvement by celebrating achievements and contributions.

Unily in action

When communication is successful, it feels personal - not just as a user, but tailored to individual roles and interests.

Unily responds to behaviors and simplifies administration with tools like audience sync from HR systems, ensuring promotions or team changes are captured without missing a beat. This personalized, relevant experience leads to better adoption and more effective use of the employee experience platform.

Our capability to transform community operations is evident in our success with clients like Wipro, which reduced company-wide emails by 80% and migrated 700 unwieldy communities from Microsoft Viva to 80 thriving Unily communities. This showcases our ability to handle complex community needs, driving engagement and streamlining communication across large organizations.

At Unily, we believe your Employee Experience Platform (EXP) should serve as a unified, simplified interface — a ‘single pane of glass’ — that reduces complexities and fosters alignment and community.

Estee Lauder Companies case study

The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) is the global leader in prestige beauty brands with a diverse portfolio of brands sold in more than 150 countries and territories. ELC employs a full range of employees, from retail to supply chain, in-field, manufacturing and corporate – all from various brands, regions, and functions across the world.

Previously, ELC relied on SharePoint, which, while functional, couldn't meet the customization and scalability needed to serve such a large, varied employee base. Content was difficult to access, often outdated, and the user experience fell short of the consumer-grade expectations of today’s workforce.

As a result, ELC turned to Unily to help build a unified platform that would connect employees, provide intuitive access to critical tools and knowledge, and transform the company’s internal communications. The outcome was MyELC, a digital workplace platform that offers personalized, streamlined access to all the resources ELC’s employees need to succeed.

With MyELC, Estée Lauder Companies’ workforce now benefits from:

• 300 articles per month are published in the Global Newsroom leveraging Unily’s native AI publishing capabilities
• Save up to two hours per week through simplified access to systems and information compared to the legacy intranet
• Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are housed within the platform, facilitating collaboration and community-building
• MyELC’s robust analytics provide real-time data on employee interactions, allowing ELC to track the effectiveness of their communications and continuously improve their strategies

See why Unily won all 6 Use Cases