SMS vs email vs Slack for hourly staff
Office teams run on email and Slack. Hourly teams mostly don’t — not because those tools are bad, but because they assume a desk, a work account, and time to check them. Here’s how the three compare for a frontline team.
| SMS | Slack / Teams | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Needs an account | No | Yes | Yes |
| Needs an app | No | Usually | Yes |
| Seen on a lock screen | Yes | Sometimes | If notifications are on |
| Good for long content | No | Yes | Somewhat |
| Good for conversation | One-on-one | No | Yes |
| Typical cost | Low per person | Free–low | Free tiers, paid per user |
Text for anything urgent
Closures, coverage, safety, and same-day changes. Every employee already has it and nobody needs a login. Keep it short and keep it rare enough to stay meaningful.
Email for things people keep
Policies, benefits, pay documents — content people will reread. Send a short text pointing to it, because many hourly employees rarely check email. More on text vs email.
Slack or Teams for teams that sit at a computer
If your managers and office staff already use one, keep it for them. Rolling it out to hourly staff usually means accounts for everyone, licenses per person, and a lot of nudging — for messages that would have reached them by text anyway.
Text your whole team at once
Add your team, they reply YES to confirm, and you broadcast from one dashboard. $5/mo plus $0.75 per employee — no contracts.
Free for 7 days and 60 messages — no credit card. Your trial starts when you send your first broadcast, not when you sign up.