What is employee engagement software?
Employee engagement software is a human resource management (HRM) tool used by organizations to improve worker satisfaction, retain skilled employees, and reduce turnover. A subcategory of performance management solutions, employee engagement tools let HR departments identify, measure, and track disengagement across the business. The software is designed to combat employee stress and burnout.
Employee engagement solutions work by providing pulse surveys and team analytics, collecting and monitoring employee feedback over time. In addition, many software vendors provide tools for employee achievement recognition, as well as gamification features. Organizations can draw actionable insights from employee feedback and better understand worker sentiment.
This type of software plays a critical role in uncovering opportunities to drive business growth while enhancing the employee experience. It enables companies to create a workplace culture that accelerates business success by focusing on employee commitment and productivity.
Employee engagement software is often available as a standalone solution, but some integrated HRM suites also include employee engagement tools. This software can sometimes be used as a complete replacement for traditional performance review processes.
We reviewed 20 top employee engagement software solutions and narrowed it down to the best of the best:
- Workleap is best for small to medium businesses looking for employee feedback.
- Motivosity is best for scaling companies wanting to foster employee collaboration.
- Leapsome is best for medium to large companies requiring engagement analytics.
- Xoxoday Empuls is best for global businesses prioritizing employee recognition.
- Engagedly is best for larger companies wishing to promote employee development.
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Top employee engagement software recommendations
Workleap: Best for employee feedback
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Workleap is an employee engagement and performance management software with separate modules for engagement, performance, recognition, and leadership development. Despite boasting customers like Trivago and Dyson, its free plan and simple interface suit smaller, remote, or hybrid organizations wanting to gauge employee satisfaction.
Workleap accomplishes this through its heavy emphasis on employee surveying. For example, each module includes some kind of survey element, such as pulse surveys, continuous performance feedback, and manager or team surveying. This helps your team remain aware of employee concerns, take action quickly when required, and promote the overall health and cohesion of the group.
Moreover, its simple interface is easy-to-use for small organizations while still enabling HR teams to gather necessary insights. For example, Workleap presents survey data visually so you can compare it against historical company benchmarks and industry standards. Thus, you can see where you excel or fall flat and adjust your strategies accordingly.
Onboarding surveys
Workleap allows you to survey employees after they have completed preboarding and onboarding training. You can then use the data to fight turnover and promote employee retention. Workleap also produces a trackable onboarding score for a quick way to measure the satisfaction of your onboarding over time.
Employee net promoter scores
An HR standard, the employee net promoter score (NPS) measures employee satisfaction based on how likely they are to recommend your company to others. Offcevibe automatically includes eNPS questions in pulse surveys every 90 days so you can monitor your company’s reputation and change company procedures when necessary.
Automated pulse surveys
Workleap allows you to customize or choose from pre-made templates to survey employees. Each pulse survey is simple and fun, with illustrations and one question per screen to promote completion. Workleap also sends surveys automatically according to your schedule, making it easy for you to stay up-to-date on employee satisfaction.
If Workleap doesn’t sound quite right, check out some of our favorite silver medalists with comparable features:
Culture Amp: Culture Amp requires a minimum of 25 users, so it is best for larger teams looking for employee surveying, 360-degree feedback, and goal tracking. In particular, its employee development module stands out for its customizable employee career development plans.
Trakstar: Trakstar allows you to send pulse surveys and compare responses to identify improvement areas. Unlike Workleap, Trakstar’s engagement elements are tied to its performance module, so you can consolidate and view metrics from both arenas for more strategic company planning.
SurveySparrow: SurveySparrow is an advanced employee engagement platform that supports 360-degree feedback, onboarding, and exit interview surveys. All surveys are compatible with mobile devices and available in multiple languages. If you have a distributed and remote workforce, SurveySparrow is a great option.
Workleap’s simple and fun interface makes giving and receiving feedback easy. Compared to other employee experience platforms with employee surveying elements, it is more affordable and accessible for small businesses. As a result, we find Workleap a great platform for companies just starting with employee engagement software.
Motivosity: Best for employee collaboration
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Leapsome: Best for engagement analytics
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Although well-known for its performance management features, such as review cycles and OKRs, Leapsome includes an array of employee engagement options. These features include:
- Public recognition of peers on Leapsome’s Praise Wall.
- Engagement surveys.
- Anonymous conversations with survey respondents.
- Learning paths to promote career development.
Also read: 8 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement With Your LMS
In particular, Leapsome is targeted toward medium to large businesses needing to understand the effects of their engagement efforts. Its more advanced features gather data to provide key HR metrics, such as employee satisfaction scores and training completion rates.
HR teams can then compare these analytics alongside performance data and historical benchmarks to develop bigger-picture company strategies. For example, tying satisfaction to performance can help companies with succession planning. Similarly, filtering pulse survey data among managers or departments can identify patterns requiring attention from upper management, such as investing in more onboarding training.
Check out how Leapsome compares with its competitors in our Top Performance Management Software Guide.
Sentiment analysis
Leapsome uses artificial intelligence (AI) to parse employee surveys and determine whether the feedback is positive, negative, or neutral in key areas like manager support. You can then see this data represented visually to quickly pinpoint areas of employee happiness and discontent.
Turnover prediction
Leapsome’s AI gathers survey data, assigns weight to comments based on how much time has passed, and uses the anonymized data to estimate how many employees will be leaving in the upcoming months. With this data, you can forecast workforce numbers and take proactive measures to reduce employee attrition rate or change recruitment strategies.
BambooHR: BambooHR includes modules on employee wellbeing and detailed analytics to track employee sentiment over time by department, location, employee status, or length of service. And, because BambooHR is an all-in-one human resources management system (HRMS), you can easily compare this data with other metrics, like attrition.
Lattice: Lattice and Leapsome offer similar features within their engagement modules, including pulse surveys, eNPS, and sentiment analysis. If your organization focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), you can use Lattice’s analytics to compare employee satisfaction among various employee groups and implement targeted changes.
Workday Peakon: Like Leapsome, Peakon heavily emphasizes analytics to help shed light on employee engagement, including AI-powered sentiment analysis and benchmarking. Peakon also integrates with Workday’s human capital management (HCM) suite to provide you with insights throughout the employee life cycle and make suggestions to improve your company’s employee experience.
Leapsome is an advanced platform that can accommodate large companies with an international workforce. Besides its surveying and learning management features, its AI-backed employee engagement analytics is a must-have HR feature. It quickly identifies areas needing improvement so that you can quickly tackle top concerns and drive full-scale changes to increase employee well-being.
Xoxoday Empuls: Best for employee recognition
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Engagedly: Best for employee development
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Engagedly is an employee experience platform that includes survey tools to gauge and track employee satisfaction. It also includes a well-being and a reward system to incentivize positive behaviors. However, its approach to employee engagement differs from the others on our shortlist by focusing on motivating employees through workplace gamification and learning.
Gamification, like Engagedly’s badges and leaderboards, encourages collaboration, colleague appreciation, and employee upskilling. For example, employees can receive an Engager badge every time they participate in the company by liking or commenting on posts. With each badge, employees earn points they can redeem for tangible rewards, like gift cards.
Engagedly’s gamified system also encourages employees to progress in their roles by rewarding them for completing training courses, achieving goals, or helping others. In addition to fostering a community of continuous learning and development, the software makes it easier for larger companies to fill skill gaps with current talent or optimize their teams during periods of economic uncertainty.
Mentoring programs
Engagedly’s algorithm pairs employees with mentors in your organization to help them develop and succeed as leaders. In turn, employees have a space outside their managers to troubleshoot work issues while building competencies to help reach your company’s objectives faster.
eLearning
Engagedly offers an LMS solution to streamline employee onboarding and skill development. You can create or integrate with third parties for courses and automate learning workflows based on specific parameters. Engagedly then assigns, tracks, monitors, and rewards employees upon completion so you spend less time on administration and more on your talent mobility plans.
360-degree feedback
Employees can get feedback from their managers, peers, and external clients or customers. By receiving feedback from all relevant stakeholders, your employees can understand what areas need improvement and the tools they need to increase their productivity and efficiency.
Limeade Listening: Limeade Listening, formerly TinyPulse, also focuses on coaching to promote employee happiness and fulfillment in their role. Limeade does this through 360-degree feedback and automatic one-on-one meeting cadences with managers. Limeade might be better if your team seeks a more straightforward user interface to strengthen relationships between employees and their managers.
15Five: 15Five is a feature-rich performance management and employee engagement platform. Of particular note is 15Five’s Transform module, which offers live coaching sessions with certified performance coaches. This is a great option if your organization lacks the internal resources to train someone on a particular skill set in your team.
Qualtrics EmployeeXM: Qualtrics EmployeeXM platform includes a full range of features, like surveying, 360-degree feedback, and people analytics to optimize employee engagement. Qualtrics can also help you evaluate your training and manager development through training surveys and Manager Assist. This can help you assess your training effectiveness and guide your managers in increasing team engagement.
Because of Engagedly’s approach to engagement through gamification and career development, it is a great choice for organizations struggling with quiet quitting. In addition, Engagedly’s continuous learning makes it easy to challenge employees in their roles and reward them for their efforts while increasing retention and preserving company knowledge.
Find your new employee engagement software
Employee engagement software benefits
Increases employee engagement
As its name suggests, employee engagement software provides organizations with various capabilities to enhance the employee experience. It makes workers feel more involved with the team, streamlining feedback, communication, and collaboration. Consistent feedback and communication can promote engagement, as employees feel they are an important part of the team.
Promotes productivity
Employee engagement solutions come with tools for tracking goals, recognizing employees, and boosting morale, so workers are inspired to perform better. These tools inspire employees to feel more dedicated to their duties. Inspired employees are more productive and driven to meet expectations.
Improves retention
A employee engagement platform can help employees realize the significance of their individual impact on company goals. It also fosters consistent communication between teams. Employee engagement software elevates worker experience by facilitating recognition and maintaining positive employee relationships, improving employee retention.
Ensures better communication and alignment
Many employee engagement platforms offer continuous check-in features. Employee check-ins enable effective one-on-one communication between managers and team members. They allow employees to raise concerns to their superiors, enhancing engagement and communication. Employees feel valued when their feedback is heard by management. Furthermore, check-ins let leaders ensure alignment across the entire organization.
Also Read: Best Employee Onboarding Software 2023
Facilitates business strategies
Employee engagement solutions gather and examine employee data through surveys, goal tracking, and performance monitoring. They deliver crucial reports that help HR departments understand trends and uncover obstacles to improvement. Companies can use these reports to adjust business strategies to meet employees’ needs and increase profitability.
Types of employee engagement software
Survey tools
Surveys increase visibility into the employee experience and reveal engagement opportunities. Advanced employee engagement solutions include annual, pulse, and lifecycle surveys for consistent employee sentiment monitoring. Surveys enable leaders to understand employee opinions, allowing them to optimize the working experience for every member of the organization.
Numerous employee engagement platforms also have customizable surveys that let management gather feedback about workplace issues.
One-on-one communication tools
These tools support meaningful one-on-one discussions between managers and staff. Aside from talking about workplace issues, leaders and their direct reports can have conversations about learning and development, performance, career goals, and job satisfaction. One-on-one communication is an essential part of employee engagement, giving clarity and ensuring workers understand their responsibilities and goals.
Feedback software
Employee feedback software gauges employee engagement and satisfaction. It allows managers to provide updates and suggestions for employee performance. Companies can utilize combined employee performance data to make plans for the growth of the organization.
Employee recognition software
Employee recognition platform help companies make employees feel valued and motivated to deliver better work performance. Organizations can celebrate milestones and reward employees for a job well done.
What is the business impact of employee engagement software?
Keeping talented employees engaged is vital to the success of any organization. When workers find their jobs engaging, satisfying, and rewarding, they’re more committed and less likely to leave the company.
Investing in an employee engagement platform shows workers that the organization has a vested interest in their experience, ensuring employees feel connected and valued. Additionally, this type of software offers features for recognition and communication. These are essential factors in raising employee satisfaction and reducing turnover. Goal and feedback monitoring, alongside employee surveys, also contribute to developing a culture of openness in the workplace.
All told, employee engagement software empowers companies to understand their workforce and make better decisions. It allows management to capture and visualize issues that may result in turnover so they can take action before it’s too late. The right employee engagement software can upgrade employee experience and morale, which results in higher productivity and retention.
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