16 Best Employee Engagement Software Tools in 2023
The best employee engagement software reviewed and rated by our HR tool experts. You’ll find pros & cons, user reviews, expert insight, pricing details & more below.
Browsing for excellent employee engagement software? You've come to the right place.
All too often, we find that companies don’t realize they need an employee engagement tool until it’s too late. Although this is a multi-faceted and complex topic, we have found the right employee engagement platform is critical to support your company’s efforts to keep productivity high and attrition low.
In this guide, we cover the entire landscape of employee engagement solutions. We start with a brief history to provide context, then we share the results of our research and experience. We hope to give you an end-to-end understanding so you can make a confident and informed decision on what to buy. But first, we share a list of some of our favorites and few words about how we decide who's the best among the best.
Employee Engagement Tools
To select the best employee engagement software, we combine insights from product demos with user feedback, the knowledge of industry experts, and the experience of our in-house team. We think the features distinguishing great engagement software from good ones are ease and anonymity of use, reporting and analytics, and automation.
- Ease and anonymity of use: The best employee engagement platforms make it easy for employees to take surveys and share their feedback regularly from different devices. Tools that integrate with Slack, MS Teams, and email scored particularly high in our selection process. We’ve also spent extra time looking for tools with anonymity settings, which ensure you’re getting the most honest and actionable feedback from your employees.
- Reporting and analytics: The most effective employee engagement software allows you to track engagement metrics, identify trends, and gain insights into employee sentiment. Reports can be generated to measure progress, spot areas of concern, and inform decision-making.
- Automation: We only select employee engagement tools that support a scheduled cadence for collecting employee feedback and seamless automation processes that disseminate that information to HR teams and execs through email and/or dashboards.
Our selection criteria prioritize what we believe is best for our readers. For an in-depth look at how we do that, read this article about our editorial guidelines.
WorkTango
Motivosity
Mo
Leapsome
Bonusly
Deel
Reward Gateway
Culture Amp
Synergita
Kudos
Empuls
Officevibe
Assembly
Quantum Workplace
Peakon
WorkTango
WorkTango combines engagement surveys, continuous performance management and employee recognition into one powerful platform to help you improve employee experience and by extension, company culture.
PROS
- Unlimited surveys available in English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Korean.
- You can add modules as you go and these will be charged on a prorated basis.
- Unlimited surveys available in English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Korean.
- You can add modules as you go and these will be charged on a prorated basis.
CONS
- Billing is only done annually and all plans require a minimum agreement of 12-month subscription (see our FAQs for more and their pricing page for full details).
- Several users have complained about the rewards redeeming process being not very intuitive.
- Billing is only done annually and all plans require a minimum agreement for a 24-month subscription (see our FAQs for more and their pricing page for full details).
- Several users have complained about the rewards redeeming process being not very intuitive.
WorkTango packs features for employee engagement, rewards and recognition, and performance management—all into a single user-friendly platform. Their three-pronged approach allows People teams to use one vendor that seamlessly shares data across all three modules.
To put it in stats, WorkTango sees over 80% of users engaging with their platform on a monthly basis. They also have a customer retention rate of over 90%.
Allianz, Hitachi, Kia Motors, Patagonia
WorkTango has three modules:
- Employee Surveys & Insights: Pricing starts from $8,000 billed annually.
- Recognition & Rewards: Pricing starts from $8,000 billed annually.
- Full Employee Experience Platform: Pricing starts from $10,000 billed annually.
Best For
Although WorkTango can be used by any company size, from SMBs to Fortune 100 enterprises, their 600+ clients are predominantly mid-sized to small enterprises in knowledge worker industries, such as software & tech, FSI, healthcare, and business services.
We used WorkTango regularly for engagement surveys, pulse checks, surveys following development events, for onboarding and so on. We used it to get feedback from our employees on specific events as well as general engagement feedback. We also used it for pulse surveys to get more insight into particular topics.
It's really easy to use in terms of setup of surveys and adding and deleting employees. You get results instantly with many ways to view the data and drill down. Their support is really good as well - knowledgeable and responsive.
I used WorkTango in a previous role, and used it for about 4 years. We bought it because we were looking for a better way to conduct employee engagement surveys, and WorkTango helped us do that in a way that was completely customizable. We did annual surveys as well as regular pulse checks. With WorkTango we could see participation rates throughout the survey periods and got results instantly. The tool provides some analysis and different ways to cut data (department, tenure, etc.).
The exporting of results isn't perfect - it got better while we were using it but we still had to manually create certain views to share the results we wanted with our executive. The trending feature, which is great overall, doesn't work if you change the wording of a question in any way, so if you want to reword a term the trending doesn't work.
I had always used companies to run engagement surveys and it was a less intuitive process and the results took weeks if not months to get. WorkTango makes it easy and instant.
Think about how often you want to use it and how to make the most of it. If you do one survey a year it's likely not worth it. Make sure you're comfortable interpreting results as well. The system does some of that but you need to be able to analyze responses and determine why things might be surfacing. And don't buy this type of tool if you're not going to do anything with the results.
WorkTango was very responsive to our suggestions for features or improvements. During the 4 years we used it there were some upgrades or changes, as well as one significant upgrade that addressed a lot of things and made the tool better, especially in terms of how data is displayed and exported.
Great for HR teams and people with little to a lot of technical savviness.
Very small organizations wouldn't benefit from this as it relies on a certain number of responses to maintain anonymity.
Motivosity
Motivosity differentiates itself through a peer-driven employee recognition model, unlike other vendors that take a top-down approach. The platform focuses on peer-to-peer engagement, reflecting the company's belief in an employee-centric culture.
PROS
- Motivosity’s friendly UI makes giving and receiving recognition easy.
- Users like being able to easily give shoutouts and recognition to colleagues across departments and locations.
- Users appreciate the ability to attach money to recognitions, making them tangible.
- The built-in reporting provides insights on attrition, top employees, and manager coaching needs.
- Employees can access this system from their phones, desktop, and apps they are in at work such as Teams/Slack
- One platform that combines rewards, recognition, employee engagement, and more
- Built in reporting with insights around potential attrition, most recognized employees, managers that need coaching, etc.
CONS
- Many users find the fixed monthly budget for giving recognitions rather restrictive.
- Integrations with tools like Slack and MS Outlook can be buggy, especially concerning notifications.
- There are no free trials at this time.
- Only has dollar (not points) based rewards. Their research shows dollars is more effective, but many companies want points.
- Some users claimed sometimes it can be a bit buggy connecting to Slack to notify people that an appreciation came through.
- It would have broadened the number of gift card options for users to choose from.
- There could have been an easier way to integrate the software with swag stores. For now, you have to transfer funds to a card and then link that card with the swag store, which slows down a bit the process to cash in funds.
Motivosity is all about helping you improve the experience of your employees. Its core functionality allows employees to easily recognize coworkers, explain why, tie recognitions to company values, allocate rewards, and post public messages viewable by all employees. The interface resembles a social network, driving high adoption through its intuitive design and accessibility via mobile and integrations like Slack.
Rewards and recognition aside, Motivosity can also function as your employee engagement platform, with Pulse and eNPS surveys designed to collect honest and actionable employee feedback on a regular basis. These surveys are fully customizable and easy to distribute. You also get real-time analytics compared to industry benchmarks so you’re able to identify trends and make data-driven decisions.
Chick-fil-A, A&B, Bosch, KPMG, Fujifilm.
Motivosity’s pricing starts from $2 per user per month (billed annually) for their base module per user per month. Recognition & Rewards, Manager Development, and Employee Insight are offered as add-ons, each starting from $2 per user per month.
Best For
Motivosity is best suited for mid-sized companies with 100-3,000 employees aiming to improve employee experience. However, companies of all sizes can benefit from its offering.
Mo
Mo's rewards and recognition platform can boost employee engagement for organizations of any size.
PROS
- The UI is user-friendly, and the majority of users like the wide range of vouchers they can provide using the platform.
- Mo’s pricing is publicly shared and quite reasonable compared to similar solutions.
- Users can access the platform in 12 languages.
- Android and iOS mobile apps are available for on-the-go access.
- Mo’s UI is easy to navigate, and users seem to appreciate the varied choice of gift cards they can offer through the platform.
- The platform’s pricing is transparent and reasonable compared to similar solutions in this space,
- Mo is available in 12 languages and growing.
CONS
- Mo currently only integrates with Slack and Microsoft Teams.
- The availability of customer support is limited to weekdays from 9 AM to 5 PM GMT.
- There aren’t free trials or free plans that you can sign up for at this time.
- Mo currently has limited integrations (only Slack and Microsoft Teams)
- The customer support hours are limited to weekdays, 9 AM - 5 PM GMT.
Mo‘s employee engagement solution features Moments and Boosts, which help you uplift employee morale by celebrating individual achievements and group successes. The platform stands out for its wide range of reward options, including vouchers redeemable at popular stores and personalized rewards tailored to each team member. The platform also promotes inclusiveness with peer-to-peer nominations, empowering employees to actively participate in the recognition process.
To support all of the above efforts, Mo’s recently launched Assistant tool recommends actions you can take to drive engagement further. For example, the Assistant will remind you of upcoming employee occasions such as birthdays and work anniversaries, and if they haven't shared appreciation with a coworker in a while, it prompts them to do so.
Mo counts over 58k users using their platform, including SGN, The O2, NHS, Aspen, William Hill, and SHL.
Mo’s offering is available over three plans. When billed annually, the pricing for each plan is as follows:
- Starter: This plan is designed for small teams who are new to recognition software. It costs $2.7 per user per month and includes features that allow you to acknowledge achievements, celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and more.
- Level Up: Priced at $4.5 per user per month, this plan includes everything in the Starter plan and additional features such as the ability to nominate individuals for awards, grant rewards, access advanced reporting and insights, and integrate with third-party platforms.
- Custom: Tailored for large companies, the Custom plan has personalized pricing. It encompasses all the features available in the other plans, along with rewards and recognition program design, advanced security measures, premium support, and implementation services.
Best For
Companies of all sizes can use Mo to drive employee engagement through rewards and recognition.
Leapsome
Leapsome is highly flexible; you can choose to build on their best-practice surveys and questionnaires developed by psychologists or customize everything — from questions to timelines and anonymity settings.
PROS
- Leapsome is feature-rich and easy to use.
- Through anonymous surveys, managers can collect honest feedback to understand the sentiment.
- Users appreciated how Leapsome centralizes feedback and reviews in one place.
- The notifications and reminders ensure tasks aren’t neglected.
- The visual charts, graphs, and analytics in Leapsome help you understand feedback and performance data.
- Leapsome is quite feature-rich; the platform packs modules for employee onboarding, learning management, engagement, performance management, goals tracking and much more.
- The majority of users find Leapsome’s UI to be friendly and easy to navigate.
- There are lots of third party integrations options to choose from, including Slack, which many users appreciate.
- The platform has transparent pricing, and you only pay for the modules you need.
CONS
- Users can’t include images or files in feedback.
- Leapsome’s wide range of features does mean a learning curve and lengthy implementation.
- There isn’t a mobile app for quick access on the go.
- Free trials require a sales demo to access.
- There is currently no way to post or upload an image or file into your feedback.
- Since Leapsome can do so many things, you may need some time to get used to it. The implementation process can also take some time.
- There currently isn’t a mobile app that users can download and access Leapsome quickly on-the-go.
- Free 14-day trials are available but you need to book a demo with the sales team first to sign up for one; you can’t do so on your own.
With customizable, easy-to-set-up employee engagement surveys, Leapsome allows you to measure the pulse of your company culture and make strategic decisions based on real-time insights. The platform also features Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning technologies that analyze written responses to open-ended questions, helping you quickly uncover sentiment, identify common themes, and undertake data-driven actions to tackle the biggest challenges.
Mercedes Benz, Spotify, Trivago, Eventim, Babbel, Plus Dental
Leapsome’s pricing depends on the number of your employees, the modules you want to use, and the length of your contract. Its modular pricing starts from $7 per user per month when billed annually. To get a detailed quote, contact Leapsome’s sales team. You can also test out Leapsome free of charge for a full 14 days - no credit card required.
Best For
Leapsome can be used by companies of all sizes across different verticals.
Bonusly
Bonusly helps you engage employees, celebrate their wins, and hear their thoughts on improving company culture. It does this through peer recognition, feedback surveys, integration with team communication tools, analytics, and more.
PROS
- Modern, easy-to-use UI that’s available in multiple languages.
- Employees can recognize one another with GIFs, points, and more.
- Its social-media-style spreads recognition across teams/departments.
- Employees can redeem points for gift cards and other tangible rewards.
- There’s a 14-day free trial you can use to test the waters.
- Intuitive user interface.
- Available in German, English, French, and Spanish.
- Supports Android and iOS.
- Discounts for nonprofit and education organizations.
- 14-day, full-featured free trial.
CONS
- The analytics and reporting functionality is limited in customization and scope.
- The rewards catalog lacks experiential options and is focused on gift cards instead.
- Employees outside the U.S. have reward caps and fewer options.
- Some technical issues like downtime, user imports, and redemption bugs may be experienced from time to time.
- The starter plan is for small businesses that cap out at 50 users.
- Analytics and reporting features are relatively underdeveloped.
- The reward catalog lacks in-person experience and physical goods, and options and focuses on gift cards, cash, or donations.
- Unused bonus funds don’t roll over: users use it or lose it.
Bonusly aims to improve employee engagement and retention by facilitating meaningful interactions and positive reinforcement in the workplace. The software features a user-friendly interface resembling social media platforms, empowering employees to publicly recognize their coworkers' great work for all to see. This allows appreciation and praise to spread across the entire company.
Beyond peer recognition, Bonusly’s survey capabilities help you gain insights into employee satisfaction through pulse polls, enhancing your engagement toolkit. You can deploy pre-made surveys or create custom questionnaires to collect real-time feedback across your organization.
Hulu, InVision, SurveyMonkey, Headspace, and more
Bonusly has 3 plan that costs as follows when billed annually:
- The Core plan costs $2.70 per user per month for up to 50 users. This plan is best suited for small businesses.
- The Pro plan costs $4.50 per user per month and provides more reporting, permissions, and integration capabilities for larger teams.
- The Custom plan gives access to all of the platforms’ features, plus premium customer service and implementation support for big businesses. Pricing is determined based on the number of users and features needed.
Best For
Bonusly serves companies in different verticals. As for company size, Bonusly has been used by companies between 50-5,000 employees.
We created a slack channel so you can see who is receiving points every day. I give out points to coworkers about 5x a month until my allotted amount is used up. You can easily integrate with slack, use the browser, or the app. Anytime someone helps me out, I send a few points over to say thank you!
I like that I can recognize coworkers that help me out and that the whole company will see it. I also like that I can get a sense of what each department is working on and with. It allows you to see all that is being done in the company, not just the specific people you work with. Lastly, you can redeem your points for cash prizes which is a great benefit. It is a great engagement tool for the company!
Since going fully remote, our company struggled with building culture and engagement. We also wanted a way to show recognition for all the hard work being done on a daily basis. We started using Bonusly 6 months ago and have had a fantastic experience so far. Bonusly allows our team to stay engaged, have fun with each other, see the different projects going on all over the company, and feel valued for their work. It's easy to use and does exactly what we were wanting.
I really don't have any complaints about Bonusly. The Slack integration could use some slight improvements but nothing major. I have not found an auto-billing setting that would save me some time. There could be more email reminders to employees who are not engaging on Bonusly.
They have a competitive price, easy set-up, great customer service, an easy-to-use website, and awesome options for prizes to redeem your points for.
Be sure to budget for the subscription and points you want to give out. You will want to make sure your employees have an easy way to access it. It works well for us because everyone is working on their laptop all day. Decide if you want to give out cash rewards or experiences.
We have added more prizes to it and incorporated them into all of our cultural events. Anytime we want to reward someone or give a prize - we use Bonusly!
Companies that work primarily on a computer. Can be for in-person or remote settings.
Employees that do not have desk jobs would most likely not use it as much since they do not have easy assess to the website.
Deel
While Deel is best known for global payroll, they have expanded into a comprehensive system enabling HR teams to manage and engage international employees and contractors.
PROS
- You can offer employee benefits through Deel, as well as other perks such as discounts at known service providers.
- The Slack integration allows the creation and deployment of pulse surveys to increase engagement.
- Getting paid through Deel is fast and easy. Payments arrive on time without delays.
- Deel's interface has a modern design and is fairly easy to navigate.
- Users praised Deel's customer support for being responsive and quick to resolve issues.
- It’s completely free to get started with Deel’s HR offering.
- One of the best features of Deel is its customer service. They offer 24/7 in-app support and the fastest-in-class onboarding speed of 2-3 days. Users get access to local payroll experts in each jurisdiction, and support is available for contractors facing challenges setting themselves up as an LLC.
- Integrates seamlessly with common platforms like Quickbooks, Bamboo, Greenhouse, and more. They also offer custom integrations to automate and sync processes.
- Self-service approach; tech-enabled features so customers can jump in quickly and easily. Our user researchers found it quite easy to set up: the identity verification process consistently took less than 24 hours, and in some cases, it took mere minutes.
- Automated invoices, which are a breeze to do as long as they’re in English, both on the company and the contractor or employee’s side.
CONS
- Pulse surveys are offered through the Slack plug-in, and aren’t built into Deel.
- The HR offering isn’t as developed as specialized HRIS/HCM solutions.
- Deel's fees and exchange rates are high compared to other platforms.
- The 30-day withdrawal deadline is inconvenient; many users would prefer for Deel to function as a wallet.
- There currently isn’t a mobile app for Deel; users can only access it through the web version.
- Despite being a global platform, Deel’s debit card feature is only available in a few countries.
- You can’t edit some of Deel’s contract clauses.
- Some of Deel’s best and most powerful services, like onboarding automation, appear to be add-ons, which might be too costly for some companies
- There is little to no flexibility when it comes to altering their contracts or service agreements, so many changes would require an addendum.
- There is a $5 fee per payout
- As far as we’ve seen, it’s not possible to generate invoices in another language.
Deel was designed with distributed teams in mind, which is evident in its flagship global payroll offering, but also in their continuous rollout of features that foster connections and engagement among remote employees. The "Connections'' tool enables 1:1 and group interactions to build relationships like those formed organically in an office.
Integrations like Slack make employee engagement initiatives accessible right within familiar workflows. Pulse surveys delivered via Slack see higher response rates. Surveys can also create interest-based Slack groups to connect employees around shared hobbies/topics beyond work projects.
It's impressive to see the employee experience capabilities Deel has built out, considering the company started by solving a different need - global payroll. The focus on relationships, networking, and engagement really caters to the needs of distributed, remote-first teams.
Over 15k businesses use Deel including Nike, Shopify, Redbull, and Zapier.
Deel’s pricing varies according to the tools you need. It is structured as follows:
- Contractors: Starts at $49/contractor/month covering payroll and compliance in 150+ countries.
- EOR: Starts at $599/month for hiring employees without local entities in new countries
- Global Payroll: Multi-country payroll for existing entities in 100+ countries. Contact sales.
- Deel HR: The plan packs features for you to automate HR admin and reporting for any worker with a global HR system. Pricing starts from $0. That’s right, it’s completely free to start using this plan.
- Immigration: Visa sponsorship in 25+ countries. Contact Sales for a customized quote.
Best For
Companies of all sizes can use Deel’s solutions to pay employees on time, offer benefits and engage them, wherever they may be.
Deel was used on a daily basis for us. It was used to manage all of our international contractors, manage contracts, payments, and payroll, and we used their employer-of-record model to hire in certain areas as well. Being able to run international payroll for various countries outside of the US using one system was extremely helpful. The customer support for Deel is also great, as you get an employment advisor as well who will help you understand how to best use Deel's international PEO/Employer-of-Record services. To summarize, hiring, international payroll, understanding employment/payroll laws of various countries, and making it digestible are the highlights of using Deel. It saved us a lot of time, money, and energy.
- I like that you can use one platform to run multiple payrolls for different countries.
- I like that they make hiring contractors in other countries easier.
- I like that they make understanding other countries' payroll and employment laws easy with all sorts of helpful resources.
Our small start-up company of under 50 employees was looking to hire international consultants in various areas, mainly Canada, Brazil, and later Poland and Ireland. We've used Deel for about 2 years now mainly for contract management and international payroll, and used their PEO and Employer of Record services as well. The key benefit is being able to hire great talent outside of the US and being protected and advised around payroll and employment laws for various countries.
- I dislike their reporting function as it's essentially just Excel and doesn't allow for advanced filtering/reporting.
- I dislike that the integration with Rippling is a bit wonky. Some employee info will flow in, but not all.
- I dislike that making changes in contracts can be difficult and that the e-signature capability is not great.
I believe that Deel is the best in class in terms of international hiring/payroll/compliance/PEO. They have a great team behind getting the system of hiring set up in each individual country. Their customer service is really great and they are great consultants that help you meet your goals. If you use their PEO or Employer of Record service it can be costly depending on where you're hiring.
- Location of Hiring - Depending on where you're hiring, Deel may not support that region so it's important to take a look at which areas they cover. They do cover most major areas of international hiring.
- Cost - Overall it's an affordable and effective system for international payroll. It does sit outside of the HRIS ( if you use one) so that's something to think about as an additional cost.
- HRIS Compatibility - It's also important to think about the compatibility with your HRIS, otherwise you have a lot of data sitting outside of your HRIS which you can manually upload through CSV reports.
In the time that I used Deel, they developed their PEO availability regions. I believe they do a good job at customer listening, and their team is extremely attentive.
Deel is great for small to medium-sized businesses that are looking to quickly expand internationally. It's also important to note that in each new location you're hiring in, if you're looking to have a hiring hub of 20+ more employees in that particular company, using Deel may only be a short-term solution. But for quick hires, small hiring hubs, and hiring consultants across countries, it's a great platform.
I imagine it may not be the best for a very well-established company with a significant number of hires in particular locations. For example, having 20+ employees in one country would not be the best fit for Deel.
Reward Gateway
Reward Gateway stands out for combining employee engagement surveys, recognition features, reward options, communication tools, wellness guidance, analytics and more in a single solution.
PROS
- Easy to use for both the employees and the admin users.
- Remarkably good customer support thanks to their 24/7 help desk team and multiple communication channels.
- Varied rewards, including products from Amazon, customizable ecards, and experiences.
- You can purchase modules separately if you prefer it.
- Integration includes HRIS, directory, authentication apps, and collaboration tools. There’s also an open API.
- Remarkably good customer support due to their 24/7 help desk team and multiple communication channels
- Varied rewards including products from Amazon, customizable ecards, and experiences
- You can purchase modules separately if you prefer it
CONS
- The “Reward Gateway for Small Business” version is only available for companies in the UK, Australia, and Ireland.
- The platform’s free trial is only available for the Reward Gateway for Small Business version.
- The reporting feature isn’t very easy to navigate, according to some users.
- Several users noted they had poor experiences using the mobile app to access discounts provided by employers. The app also hasn’t been updated since Dec 9, 2022.
- Users are unable to change employee profiles or create new recognition themselves but have to rely on customer support.
- No free trial
- The “Reward Gateway for Small Business” version is only available for companies in the UK and Australia
Reward Gateway’s employee engagement platform is popular for its flexibility and wealth of features. It offers a range of engagement tools covering rewards, recognition, communication, surveys, well-being, and employee discounts — and gives you the option to purchase all or whichever of those tools as you need.
Another standout point of the engagement platform is its customer service. Businesses will have a dedicated client success manager, an implementation team, and a 24/7/365 employee support staff. According to several users, the support team has been proactive and helpful.
The platform also has flexible layouts. Non-IT users can navigate and modify it pretty easily. While reports are not as user-friendly as other features, the well-being center and segment surveys that support voice feedback are some unique elements it possesses.
Reward Gateway has over 1900 customers, including Ikea, McDonald's, Unilever, and Heineken.
- For companies under 100 employees and are based in the UK, Ireland, or Australia: It costs £6 (around $7.5) per employee per month for an annual subscription.
- For companies with 100+ employees: Undisclosed pricing. You will have to get in touch with their team to get the quote.
Best For
While having customers in 23 countries, Reward Gateway’s customer support is available in English, making it more helpful for English-speaking organizations. Their special scheme for small companies in the UK, Australia, and Ireland also makes it a compelling option for teams with under 100 employees and are based in these countries.
Culture Amp
Culture Amp boosts engagement through dozens of science-backed survey templates, powerful analytics, and integration capabilities. To top it all off, the platform is supported by a group of data experts focused on everything relating to engagement.
PROS
- Culture Amp has an intuitive, easy-to-navigate interface.
- It’s very effective for feedback between employees and managers.
- You can set goals and track their progress seamlessly.
- You get useful reminders about different things like tasks, reviews, and 1:1s.
- People science team
- Tons of engagement surveys
CONS
- Customization options for reviews and ratings are limited.
- The platform features a text-heavy design that lacks visual elements like charts.
- It takes time to understand the platform’s full capabilities.
- Their people science plus offering is not available for very small companies
- Enterprise clients might find that they lack some of the integrations and customizations a bigger team needs.
Culture Amp provides trusted data and benchmarks through proven, science-backed surveys that help leaders understand and prioritize the drivers of engagement. Pre-built templates make it easy to gauge critical topics while expert support assists in tailoring surveys to your organization's specific needs. These surveys generate accurate data that managers and executives can use to develop targeted solutions.
The insights Culture Amp gives you aren't just comprehensive for leadership - they empower each employee to feel heard while driving change at an individual level. Both managers and employees appreciate the customized reporting and focused recommendations that translate feedback into clear steps forward. The platform is thoughtfully designed for each stakeholder, providing leaders with a birds-eye view of engagement while giving teams and individual employees visibility into areas requiring their input. This connectivity fosters a culture of accountability at all levels.
Culture Amp has three modules - Engage, Develop, and Perform. The pricing isn’t fixed and is calculated based on the modules, number of user seats, and features you need. Contact the Culture Amp sales team for pricing details.
Best For
I utilized Culture Amp for employee engagement surveys. The workflow allowed for direct links sent via email with data pulled directly from our HRIS as well as links and QR codes for employees without email access.
Post survey, the platform also provided action planning guidance and built-in training solutions with life labs. Culture Amp linked with our HRIS, Ceridian, and was able to provide a great demographic breakdown while maintaining the confidentiality of the survey. It also had a great sentiment tool for all free text reporting so you were able to analyze if it was a positive or negative comment with themes rather than read every single comment submitted.
- The end user experience from employees' end on computers, tablets, and phones was top-notch.
- Data analytics were clear, easy to use/export, and provided clear trending vs previous years or industry benchmarks.
I utilized Culture Amp at a previous employer for 2 years before switching organizations. We migrated to this platform from a paper employee engagement survey. Culture Amp provided great transition, resources, and tools to be successful in a manufacturing environment where many employees did not have access to a personal computer or e-mail. The end user interface was a huge selling point.
The backend side of the platform is also very strong. I loved the data analytics and how much you could compare data year over year. Culture Amp also stood out against competitors with their post survey support in the form of suggested action items and personalized training items. I loved this program so much that I immediately shared them as a vendor option with my new organization.
- There was no way to combine smaller participating groups for combined engagement data.
- Additional modules were great (performance) but expensive compared to the current platform.
- They had great exports for PowerPoints but I wish the templates could be customized.
I loved how Culture Amp tied in with our HRIS for demographic and contact information and was super user-friendly both as the end user and admin. The platform is advanced in ease of use compared with other platforms.
End user experience should be top of mind as if the system is complicated to access or use employees will not participate in surveys.
Ease of understanding data analytics and custom access/reports is a must. This platform is able to have custom results mass exported/delivered to leaders
It continuously adds benchmark data, training modules, and improved action items for survey results.
Organizations that need data split by site, function, and/or leader are a great fit for Culture Amp. Also, organizations that need flexibility on how users interact with the system (mobile, tablet, computer), etc., would benefit from the platform.
Lastly having an HRIS is great for system integrations but organizations can also upload user data by spreadsheet so it is not a full requirement.
It is an expensive platform so if you have a limited budget this may not be a great fit.
Synergita
Synergita helps company’s dig deep to understand their employees’ performance and company culture. The platform’s natural language processing (NLP) feature allows you to uncover sentiment, while HiPo Score helps you identify top performers.
PROS
- Synergita’s platform is affordable and scalable. On top of that, you get to choose between their modules for employee engagement, performance management, and OKR tracking, or combine them as needed.
- The majority of users find Synergita’s UI to be user-friendly and fairly easy to navigate.
- With the help of natural language processing (NLP), the platform can analyze the tone of your employees’ responses and assign team a sentiment score, which is valuable data you can use to improve the experience of your employees.
CONS
- Several users noted that the reporting module lacks customizations, and speed/performance issues can be experienced with it, particularly when working with larger reports.
- A few users have also reported that the customer support team is slow to respond and resolve issues.
- The platform currently doesn’t offer a mobile app for on-the-go access.
Synergita is a cloud-based solution for employee engagement, recognition, performance management as well as goal setting, and tracking. To achieve all of the above, the platform packs a comprehensive set of features including engagement surveys, AI-powered sentiment analysis, measure culture score, performance reviews, 1:1 meetings, e-communication, peer recognition, HiPo rating, and employee development planning.
Secova, Global Edge, Indegene, American Micro
Synergita has three modules, Engage, Perform, and OKR. When billed annually, those modules are priced as follows:
- Synergita Engage: Synergita’s Engage plan costs $2 per employee per month and includes basic talent information, continuous feedback, rewards & recognition, e-communication, culture score, and employee as well as feedback reports.
- Synergita Perform: For $4 per employee per month, Synergita’s Perform packs lots of features including advanced talent information, smart goals & achievements tracking, metrics import for goals, performance reviews/appraisals, normalization, custom workflows & feedback templates, people & performance reports, 9-box report, strength & weakness report, and reminders as well as notifications.
- Synergita Perform Plus: For $7 per employee per month, Synergita Perform Plus packs everything in Synergita Perform, along with 360-degree feedback, promotion cycle, career aspirations, appraisal letter distribution, skill repository & mapping, HiPo score, employee headcount trends, and employee performance trends.
- Synergita OKR: Synergita’s OKR plan costs $4 per employee per month and includes basic talent information, personal OKR, company/dept OKR, and OKR reports.
Note: Synergita’s modules can be combined together. You can take advantage of the price calculator on their website to find out how much your subscription is going to cost based on the modules you need.
Best For
Synergita can be used by companies big and small, across different industries.
Kudos
Aside from the fact that they snatched one of the best possible names for an employee recognition and engagement platform, Kudos features robust people analytics that provides companies with insights into their employee experience and the overall health of their work culture.
PROS
- Kudos’ interface is quite intuitive, making recognizing coworkers very easy.
- Employees like the ability to reward and appreciate peers.
- Employees can earn points to redeem for gift cards and prizes.
- Unique, company culture-oriented features are present all across the platform, such as in the way they approach analytics, or on the actual Culture Accelerator module.
- Excellent relation of mobile / desktop functionality. You basically get all the bells and whistles on both versions.
CONS
- The monthly point limits to award others can be restrictive.
- The system can be buggy at times, especially when redeeming points for rewards.
- The gift card options are somewhat limited, especially for local brands.
- Unless you get a demo and start exploring the tool with the help of an insider, we’d say it’s somewhat hard to get a good idea of what features are like, how they work, and even what they do, just from their website alone.
- From our research, we could gather that the points system and how this works can get a bit confusing for some users.
Kudos is a cloud-based employee recognition and engagement platform. Leveraging the impact of peer-to-peer recognition, values reinforcement, open communication, and actionable feedback, Kudos helps organizations boost engagement, reduce turnover, improve culture, and drive performance.
With robust dashboards and real-time people analytics, Kudos provides organizations with deep insights and a clear understanding of their workforce.
In addition to software, the team at Kudos also offers consulting services for companies that need extra help.
KidsPeace, Kronos, DHL, Chewy.com, Make A Wish
With a minimum requirement of 500 employees, Kudos offers pricing starting at $3.25 per user per month. The actual cost varies based on factors such as the number of users and the length of the contract.
Best For
Kudos is best suited for companies with large teams, from 500 to thousands of users in practically any country and industry.
Empuls
Empuls is one of the few employee engagement platforms that let you create your own social intranet to keep them abreast of the latest company updates, industry news, and seek feedback via interactive polls and quizzes. Your team can also celebrate milestones using built-in rewards, gift cards, and exclusive employee discounts.
PROS
- Empuls features a modern UI that’s easy to navigate. They also offer plenty of self-help articles to help you get started.
- The platform is quite comprehensive, with tools covering employee communication, engagement surveys, recognition, rewards, and analytics.
- Employees are able to participate in surveys on the go with the help of Empuls’ mobile app available on both iOS and Android devices.
- Their affordable and tiered pricing ensures different size companies can try out the tool and scale up or down as needed. They also offer a 30-day free trial that anyone can sign up for.
CONS
- A few users find the options for rewards rather limited. Several of them are specifically wishing for the inclusion of more Amazon gift cards viable in their countries.
- Employees cannot share their points with each other at this time.
- Once you assign a sub-domain, you cannot change it later.
- Several users have experienced performance speed issues with Empuls’ mobile app.
Empuls helps you create your own social intranet, a place where your employees can communicate with one another, send private messages to individuals or groups, create channels for specific teams or projects, and share files and documents securely. The platform also gives you the capability to create and deploy a variety of surveys covering every stage of their journey so get the insights you need to drive engagement, performance, and create a better workplace culture overall.
Empuls has over 1000 global customers, including Prodevans, Bahwan Cybertek, Magzter, FCA India Automobiles Private Limited, KPIT, Quixy, and more.
Empuls offers three pricing plans. Here are the prices if you choose to pay annually:
- Starter: This plan costs $20/year per employee. It offers features, including rewards and recognition, employee surveys and feedback, social intranet, and reports and analytics.
- Proficient: This plan costs $50/year per employee. It offers features, including white labeling, polls & quizzes, customer support, and everything that is in the Starter plan.
- Enterprise: This is a custom plan that offers everything from Proficient plan, plus custom HRMS integration, multi-region deployment, multi-currency payoffs, and dedicated customer success manager.
Best For
While Empuls offers several competitive features for every business, it’s most suitable for small to medium-sized businesses who want to build a people-first environment.
Officevibe
Officevibe is laser-focused on pulse surveys to help managers gain insights into teams' performance and just rolled out a recognition feature — Good Vibes. The platform has a scalable model and a generous free plan with all core features, making it a go-to option for both SMBs and large businesses.
PROS
- Officevibe is easy to use and set up. The platform also has a free plan with a feasible set of employee engagement features: automated pulse surveys, custom surveys, feedback, 1-on-1s, goals & OKRs, and recognition a team of up to 10 users can use.
- Officevibe puts effort into ensuring that feedback is truly anonymous without the manager or anyone with higher access being able to guess who submitted what response by requiring a minimum of 5 responses sent in before the survey manager can access the anonymous feedback.
- Officevibe has a peer-to-peer recognition feature, allowing your employees to praise one another for outstanding work.
- Officevibe built-in surveys cover a wide range of topics.
- Officevibe’s 14-day free trial lets users try all the Officevibe features without asking for their credit card info.
- Several users shared that Officevibe’s integration with Slack brought convenience for employees and improved their survey completion rates.
- Officevibe is easy to use and has a free plan that a team of up to 10 users can use.
- To ensure that feedback is truely anonymous, without the manager, or anyone with higher access being able guess who submitted what response, a minimum of 5 responses need to be sent in before the survey manager is able to access the anonymous feedback.
- The platform has a feature for peer-to-peer recognition, giving your employees the ability to praise one another for outstanding work.
CONS
- Personalized onboarding is available for 100+ users. A dedicated success manager is available for 500+ users.
- Resetting or adjusting OKRs has some limitations, some users noted.
- The Good Vibe lets employees do peer-to-peer recognition that only Good Vibes recipients, senders, and team managers can see. There has yet to be an option for public praise.
- Some users found the 1-on-1 templates and scheduling clunky.
- Some users have reported that Slack integration sometimes malfunctions.
- Officevibe does not include a complete performance management solution among their offerings. They have an OKR tool that lets you set goals but there isn’t a mechanism in place to track those goals or conduct performance reviews.
- There currently isn’t a mobile app that managers and employees can use on the go.
Officevibe is a cloud-based platform that focuses on employee engagement and manager growth. It allows managers to measure employee satisfaction through automated pulse surveys and anonymous feedback, then provides guidance on improving the work environment and culture. In line with those efforts, the employee engagement platform features agency-wide and team reporting so client-based businesses can spontaneously track and compare engagement across clients, departments, and managers.
Lately, the platform has rolled out some new features for manager-to-employee and peer-to-peer recognition. Good Vibes recognition is a simple feature that enables employees to recognized and being recognized for their great work in the form of e-cards. It also provides managers with a report on driving recognition, what’s being celebrated most, and who is at their absolute best.
WeTransfer, Dyson, Bose, PayScale, and Trivago are some of their 8,000 Officevibe customers.
Officevibe has four plans. When billed annually, these are charged as below:
- Free: This plan is free for 1 team with up to 10 users.
- Essential: This plan allows unlimited teams and costs $3.5 per user per month.
- Pro: Designed for larger teams, this plan costs $5 per user per month.
- Business: This plan has custom pricing for companies with over 500 users. Contact Officevibe’s Sales team to get a quote.
Best For
Officevibe focuses on employee engagement, recognition, and OKR management, making it a nice option for medium and large-sized businesses. However, small teams can also benefit from Officevibe’s free plan, which is available for up to 10 users.
I use Officevibe several days a week. I am the admin of the tool for our organization, so I am the one who manages teams and adds new employees to the program. We use the tool to report on each manager's team, as well as on department ratings, and all-company ratings. We also use the tool to send out any company-wide surveys, including our yearly Employee Engagement survey. Team members engage regularly with Good Vibes recognition.
- It allows you to build as many teams as you would like.
- It is clear on its anonymity policy so that team members feel comfortable sharing honest feedback.
- It allows you to conduct custom surveys on any topic.
We bought this tool for our organization because we take employee feedback very seriously. We have been using the tool for 3 years. I have been using it as a regular employee for 2 years and as an HR professional (admin of the tool) for 1 year. It allows you to get regular feedback (at whatever frequency you prefer) and allows you to put team members into teams so that managers can get team-specific feedback. It also allows you to give "Good Vibes" so that any team member can provide recognition to their peers.
- It does not have a Performance Management feature, which other similar tools do. For the price point, I would expect more features.
- It does not have industry benchmark data for specific questions, which is something our ELT was hoping to see.
- It currently does not integrate with our HRIS, which I mostly fault to the HRIS but it means I have to manually add all of our members and put them on teams.
I have not personally used comparable tools but I have done demos with others. I think this tool is very clear (more so than competitors) on its anonymity policy which is very important to our employees. I also think Good Vibes is a fairly unique feature that our team heavily uses and appreciates.
People should consider what features they need the tool to have. This tool does not have performance management, which is something that many similar tools do. They should also consider pricepoint. Officevibe is a high price point for the limited number of features. Overall, I think it is a great tool, just hard to justify the price considering it is lacking a crucial feature (performance management) that we will need soon.
Officevibe has launched new features throughout our time using it and I know it is currently working on others. Good Vibes was a feature that was added due to requests, and it has been a great addition to the tool. It also has an amazing Customer Support system, where you can answer your own questions or if you can't, they are very prompt at responding.
It is very good for large organizations that want specific team feedback. It is also good for teams that have a large budget for employee engagement metrics.
It is probably not a good fit for a small company or a start-up due to its price point. However, I do think any company could benefit from the tool.
Assembly
With an adoption rate of over 90%, Assembly is a rewards and recognition platform that also allows you to customize and send out all sorts of engagement forms and receive actionable feedback.
PROS
- Explore the platform for free, no need for a credit card or demo
- Great set of features for the price point
- Make your own rewards and even set up a points system with automated incentives
- You have the option to go with a month-to-month plan or a long-term contract. For the latter, you can reach out to their team for a custom deal if it’s a larger team. However, keep in mind that the minimum agreement is 12 months.
CONS
- Coins and points do expire, so sometimes they’ll expire by the end of the month before you can use them, although you get more the next period.
- SSO is only included with some plans. For others, it can be purchased as an add-on.
Assembly started out as an employee rewards product and rapidly grew into a comprehensive platform that facilitates employee engagement, project management, and performance management.
Thanks to customizable forms and workflows, companies can use Assembly to send pulse surveys, conduct routine standups and 1:1s, track progress, automate employee recognition, and much more.
To put it in numbers, Assembly sees around 90% of employees use it on a monthly basis which is evidence that companies are successfully using it to build stronger cultures with more engaged employees.
Coca-Cola, Quest Nutrition, Nesco Resource, HelloTech, Amazon
Assembly has four plans that are priced as follows:
- Starter: Limited to 10 members, the Starter plan is free of charge and is designed for small teams that are interested in employee recognition.
- Lite: For $2.80 per member per month, billed annually, the Lite plan is designed for teams that want to maximize their employee engagement. This plan is limited to 50 members.
- Standard: For $4.50 per member per month, billed annually, the Standard plan packs all the necessary features for businesses to amplify cross-functional engagement, without any limits on the number of members on board.
- Premium: Designed for large organizations that need a custom and unique program, the Premium plan can accommodate unlimited members. Contact Assembly’s Sales team for a price quote.
Best For
Assembly can be used by companies of all sizes across different verticals.
Assembly is such a fantastic platform for sharing gratitude with your colleagues, across the organization as a whole, as well as internally and externally between departments. It is straightforward, easy, and fun to use! This tool is especially good for nurturing culture across a remote team. The integration with Slack makes it seamless for the team to use and engage with, and Assembly engages senior leadership with ease.
Simple, fast platform. Easy set-up and free trial version prior to transition to paid version. Easy implementation and great reporting options and support.
In the age of remote, work-from-home, and hybrid models, and all of the inherent challenges it presents, Assembly has allowed us to continue to celebrate business culture and monetize the value of success within our organization. We are able to easily recognize team members and their accomplishments so that those ambiguous moments can become tangible for the entire company to see. Acknowledgements of birthdays, anniversaries, work anniversaries etc. are seamlessly built in, never to be forgotten or overlooked. Coins can be exchanged for gifts, donated to charity, traded in for company-branded gifts, or cashed in for rewards. Our engagement rate is over 90% on the Assembly platform and we are very excited to see how they can continue to evolve its value proposition.
Coins expire if not used in time. UX could be more user-friendly. Larger tiered allotments would be a great improvement.
When considering any employee recognition platform, functionality and reporting should always be heavily weighted in the final decision. Recognition platforms go hand-in-hand with engagement surveys; some platforms do not offer this feature or offer. Limited version of this feature. Mobility and accessibility are primary concerns, especially where remote and global teams exist. Also, goal/challenge creation, tracking and attainment features are wonderful enhancements to include.
There have been consistent upgrades to the platform and Assembly is very open to feedback and suggestions.
Assembly is ideal for small and mid-market organizations.
Assembly would not be a good fit for large/enterprise organizations.
Quantum Workplace
Quantum Workplace stands out for their exceptional ongoing customer service. Unlike most vendors that only provide initial implementation support, Quantum Workplace assigns clients a dedicated support team that provides continuous guidance to maximize the value of their platform investment over time.
PROS
- Easy to use, the user interface is intuitive, you can find what you’re looking for and still see the most important items pinned on top.
- The option to personalize surveys, make them from the best practices templates, or build entirely from scratch.
- The ability to share and review recognition with your teammates in a social newsfeed format. What’s great is that you have the option to make it as detailed and scheduled or as succinct and impromptu as you please.
- An ever-present customer service team. Many users have complimented on their responsiveness.
- Easy to use, the user interface is intuitive, you can find what you’re looking for and still see the most important items pinned on top.
- The option to personalize surveys, make them from the best practices templates, or build entirely from scratch.
- The ability to share and review recognition with your teammates in a social newsfeed format. What’s great is that you have the option to make it as detailed and scheduled or as succinct and impromptu as you please.
- An ever-present customer service team. Many users have complimented on their responsiveness.
CONS
- The platform lacks anonymity options with feedback being visible to peers/colleagues.
- Navigation can be confusing at times, particularly when trying to find past goals/feedback.
- The platform could benefit from more customization options, like adding more details when updating goals or customizing feedback questions.
- Many users have expressed their issues with canceling, rescheduling, and the inability to schedule 1-on-1s on short notice.
- Some users have found the goals feature to be a little confusing to understand because of its extensivity.
- This is a rather unprecedented one, but we found many users wishing for more vibrant colors for the platform.
Quantum Workplace’s employee engagement software is easy to navigate and is highly flexible in terms of customizations. It has three types of engagement tools: Engagement surveys, pulse surveys, and lifecycle surveys.
While the first type of survey is more in-depth and conducted after a long period of time (usually annually), pulse surveys allow teams to quickly survey employees on any topics and get real-time feedback. On the other hand, lifecycle surveys are fully automated and take place during key moments like hiring, onboarding, and retirement.
All the tools are built with research-backed survey design and provide you with multiple ways to slice your data.
Quantum Workplace is used by over 10,000 companies, including Dentsply Sirona, Panera Bread, Fossil Group, DSW, BKD, and Getty Images.
Pricing is not disclosed upfront but you can get it after booking a demo.
Best For
Quantum Workplace's employee engagement platform is ideal for medium to large businesses that require advanced engagement and analytics capabilities.
Peakon
Not only is Peakon a great employee engagement solution, it has a ton of analytical functionality that makes it great for people planning too.
PROS
- Workday Peakon keeps feedback anonymous, which allows employees to give their opinion without fear of reprisal.
- Surveys are easy to navigate, and employees can answer as many questions as they like from the survey—and skip over any that they don’t want to answer.
- Based on responses, Workday Peakon offers suggestions on what you can do to improve employee experience.
CONS
- Peakon doesn't come with the ability to create custom reports. It does, however, offer a variety of pre-built reports that you can use.
- A few users shared that it can be hard to navigate Peakon and find employee profiles at times.
- The platform’s pricing isn’t transparent and there aren’t free trials at this time.
Peakon is a data driven solution focused on allowing organizations to make better people decisions. Their people analytics software includes real time management training modules that are suggested based on employee data. While based in Denmark, their largest market is the US. Peakon powered data is being used in their customers’ annual reports alongside more traditional financial metrics. Peakon was recently acquired by Workday.
- Duke University
- Lush Cosmetics
- Aldo
- Verizon
Peakon has three different plans:
Essential is the basic plan. It offers the baseline engagement features, a mobile app, an d 24-hour online support.
Business is the next plan. It provides everything from Essential, but adds personalized benchmarking, custom insights, action plans, and HRIS integrations. You'd also have a dedicated Customer Success consultant.
Premier is the top level plan. You'll receive everything previously mentioned, plus micro-learning sessions, attrition prediction, hierarchy mapping, business impact metrics, and unlimited custom dashboards. You all have extended Customer Success support and change management training.
You must contact a Peakon representative for cost details.
Best For
Peakon will be best used by large and enterprise sized organizations who can make use of the nitty gritty people planning features.
15five
15Five provides administrators with access to assessments that collect employee feedback on topics including working from home, and diversity & inclusion. The questions are science-backed and confidential, allowing employees to be candid when giving their feedback.
PROS
- 15Five helps HR leaders run their performance programs from start to finish and make talent decisions based on a 360-degree view of each employee.
- With the help of visual dashboards, HR leaders can access colorful and easy-to-comprehend insights that will make their talent decisions easier.
- The platform is fairly easy to use, comes with a mobile app, has transparent pricing, as well as a 14-day free trial so users can try before they buy.
CONS
- Some users reported experiencing difficulty creating new objectives or connecting existing objectives to parent objectives in the objectives section.
- When you create an engagement survey using 15Five's template, you can only choose from a selection of pre-made categories rather than creating your own.
- The out of the box integration options are quite limited, and a Zapier integration used to be available but is now sunsetted. As an alternative, 15Five does have a public API for users to plug-in custom tools but that requires a bit more work.
15Five’s Engage tool helps HR leaders start meaningful conversations and get actionable feedback from their team members. The tool lets you have an engagement score and measure the response rate. It also lets you view response breakdowns, heatmaps, people involved, and more.
As an administrator, you get access to existing science-backed assessments and an intuitive dashboard that lets you perform weekly check-ins and 1-1 conversations to stay connected with your team. You can also use the High Five feature – a small, quick gesture of appreciation – to drive connectivity and gratitude within your teams.
15Five’s customer base includes Hubspot, Spotify, American Red Cross, Clearbit, Pendo and more.
- Engage: $4 per user per month. Its features include Core engagement surveys, Topic-based assessments, Custom topic-based assessments, Filterable heatmap & analytics, Enterprise-grade security, an Action plan dashboard, and more.
- Perform: $8 per user per month. Its features include Performance reviews, 360º feedback, Talent Matrix, Data insights, Career Paths & Plans, and more.
- Focus: $8 per user per month. Its features include Goal setting with OKRs, OKR chart view, Data insights, Jira & Salesforce Integration, and more.
- Total Platform: $14 per user per month. Its features include everything in other plans, plus DPAs and security questionnaires.
Best For
15Five is more suitable for growing companies and enterprises wanting to ensure that they're getting feedback from all corners of the organization.
I utilize 15Five on a weekly basis to monitor team performance and engagement and to identify potential roadblocks as well.
While my team initially adopted 15Five to utilize the OKRs portion of the tool, I would say the most beneficial features have been the weekly check-ins, 1:1s, and best self-reviews.
I love that these key functions are all streamlined into one location and from an HR perspective, make documentation more efficient and proactive. Tracking areas of the company that are struggling has never been easier in this regard.
My employees also utilize the high-five feature more than anticipated. This feature has been key in providing insights into team camaraderie and what employees really care about as well.
I like that 15Five allows for performance and engagement tracking - this insight gives us more understanding of where these things correlate. I like that 15Five's performance tool is modeled for OKRs. I like that 15Five has customizable options to accommodate different departments or teams throughout the business.
My organization was having issues with cross-functional collaboration, understanding the areas of the business with the least efficiency, and monitoring employee engagement. To address these challenges, I recommended that the organization invest in a performance management tool.
When we were shopping for a tool to support this effort, we were specifically interested in tools that would not only streamline 360 performance reviews but also aid us in ongoing performance and engagement tracking as well.
While two years ago I had never formally used 15Five, 15Five was initially attractive because it combined all of the desirable features and even utilized OKRs - which was our leadership team's preferred method of goal setting.
At its core, OKRs are a collaborative goal-setting methodology, so even though adding a new tool or responsibility to employees' day can often feel disruptive, 15Five made this rollout more seamless.
15Five could improve its UX/UI in some areas, specifically in the best self-review section, there are some portions of reviews that are not that intuitive to regular non-admin users.
15Five should improve its support functionality, it is frustrating that the only way to communicate with support is through email.
15Five should produce training modules for admins and employees, the help center is largely ineffective for employees using the platform for the first time.
I would say 15Five is very similar to Lattice. Both tools have their pros and cons, but overall I would say that 15Five measures up similarly to its competitors if companies are looking to utilize this kind of performance tracking.
One opportunity I would say for 15Five is that a lot of companies are wanting to simplify their performance tracking procedures so they are choosing to go with more metric-driven tools that produce custom reports.
When shopping for a performance and engagement management tool, companies should consider what key results are most important. Everyone wants to adopt a system to streamline these areas of the business, but I think a tool like 15Five can overcomplicate companies that do not have the resources to properly roll out a tool with such functionality.
I have been utilizing 15Five for almost 3 years and I would say I am not super impressed with the tool's ability to roll out product improvements. I think making foundational improvements to their support system, help center, and UI/UX would make a larger impact rather than offering opportunities to attend webinars or upsell leadership courses to companies already paying for the platform.
I would say 15Five is best suited for organizations where performance is more subjective or difficult to measure.
Organizations that rely heavily on sales are not a good fit for 15Five. There is a lot of administrative work that comes with utilizing this kind of system and it does not really support that kind of structure.
Benefits of Employee Engagement Software
The key benefits of employee engagement software are improvements to employee experience, access to real-time data for actionable insights, ability to create a focused strategy, holistic talent management, and increasedemployee performance.
Improve Employee Experience: By learning what they care about and representing their perspectives on the company culture, HR teams can build trust and a sense of belonging with each individual and the company. This is the foundation of a positive employee experience.
Trust building starts with the first contact with a recruiter and continues throughout the employee lifecycle. Benefits manifest at every step– when employees feel heard, and their concerns are addressed, it leads to less turnover and higher productivity.
To learn more, check out this article about employee engagement featuring our friend and engagement expert, Hallie Bregman.
Gather Real-Time, Actionable Insights: Unlike an annual survey, most engagement platforms use pulse surveys to gather small amounts of data in frequent intervals. These low-pressure samples ask only one or two questions and have high response rates. Pulse surveys offer real-time input on real-time issues, and the swift turnover turns data into actionable insights that can be deployed immediately.
Focused Strategy: Most employee engagement programs include a built-in playbook for engagement strategy. This is a massive bonus for HR teams who are (probably) already doing a lot (too much?) and don’t have the resources to drive this initiative with the focus it deserves.
The built-in playbooks are built on solid research, which often includes the input of experts in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (IO). You can expect companies in this space to follow best practices for surveys: what to ask, who to ask, how to ask, and how often.
Holistic Talent Management: An employee engagement platform provides a holistic view of your company across the entire employee lifecycle. They give the People Operations team and functional leaders a means to examine and de-bug cultural issues before they become systemic predicaments. This benefit, in particular, requires a mindset that may benefit from more context than we can fit in this article. We encourage you to read more about holistic talent management in this article: 31 Effective and Actionable Employee Engagement Ideas.
Increase Employee Performance: Though performance management platforms are available as standalone tools, some engagement platforms include performance management features. This feature adds the ability to assess the effect of employees' efforts toward company goals and how these efforts compare to their peers.
Common Pitfalls When Buying and Using Employee Engagement Platforms?
1. Unreasonable Expectations of Impact: To be effective, the platform must work alongside a distinctive, authentic, and positive company culture. The software can supplement your efforts, but it won't “fix” company-wide problems with engagement. Herrin and Marie agree here, and Marie's experience has borne this out. She reminds us in no uncertain terms that software cannot replace the power of a human connection.
2. Unreasonable Expectations of Adoption: Affecting a company-wide change will take time. Simply put, inspiring behavior change is difficult. After working in an environment that could have been more attentive to their engagement, employees are sometimes distrustful of initiatives that promise brighter days. The process of winning over the skeptics can’t happen overnight, but it can happen. The right time to start, whether with engagement software or other means, is now.
3. Underestimating the Slow Pace of Implementation: Like the plodding, uphill struggle of behavior change, implementation can also move at a painfully sluggish pace. To make it as easy as possible, choose a platform with an open API and/or partnerships with tools you already use. Consider your HR tech stack and daily communication tools: both must be seamlessly connected to your new tool to ensure a seamless transition.
4. Trying to do Too Much, Too Fast: Be conservative and methodical about your rollout game plan. Some vendors offer assistance with this process, but if yours doesn't (or you chose not to follow it), you can orchestrate a successful rollout with good planning and reasonable expectations.
In our experience, creating a schedule with a regular cadence that introduces features slowly is best. We’ve also found it helpful to take feedback from departments across the organization about the rollout order: the insight of your leadership and individual contributors is a massive asset.
Making a Business Case for Employee Engagement Tools
In addition to being our HR Tech Editor, Alison has years of personal experience working in HR.
Early in her career, she saw firsthand how this tool could bring a significant change to a struggling company. She shared this anecdote with us – it’s a “best of” use case.
“I was temping at a large company, and there were obvious signs of trouble on my first day; people were conspicuously unhappy and disengaged due (in part) to a change in leadership. But then, a corporate intervention in the form of employee engagement software arrived.
Initially skeptical, I witnessed a fundamental transformation over about six weeks. People became happier and more focused on work. Among other things, simply giving a voice to people's dissatisfaction was enough to lift people's spirits, and the company's culture took a positive turn.”
Balancing the benefits of a holistic, people-first approach with the requirements of a data-driven work environment is challenging. Still, there are many ways to cite the connections between one and the other.
For example, employers can reap bottom-line benefits like decreased attrition by using employee engagement software. This is achieved by studying the losses and identifying trends that can be accounted for with a shift engagement strategy. To learn more about bottom-line benefits, check out this article highlighting the 9 best employee engagement metrics to measure.
Many HR pros are drawn to the field because they have an innate ability to connect with people and a heartfelt desire to help them. While those skills are critical and should be recognized, they can’t do much when tackling tasks like calculating Return On Investment.
And that is why we created these HR Tech, ROI calculators! This is a tool designed to address both the desire to help and the means to do so.
Here’s a video on calculating the ROI of employee engagement software to address the desire to help and the means to do so. We highly suggest you use the video to the right to understand best how to use this spreadsheet!
How to calculate the ROI from Employee Engagement Software
We also offer a free course on ROI for HR tech for the extra nerdy, deep divers among us (we see you!)
Key Features of the Best Employee Engagement Software
Here are some of the features that should be a “given” for any tool in the marketplace.
- Easy, Daily Engagement: This tool should be effortlessly embedded wherever your teams “talk.” Whichever email or internal comms platform you use, be sure your employee engagement tool fits right in. In addition to being there for the office chit-chat (and please don’t undervalue casual conversation, whether virtual or in person!), some vendors include a dashboard for daily activities, status checks, and up-to-date info. These can be highly customized or generalized depending on team needs.
- Encouragement: Some platforms include performance management and goal-setting features, which are great! But be mindful of when and how you use features like these. While a thriving team will appreciate tools like talent assessment, coaching, and feedback, a team in a slump needs a little TLC before the talent show.
- Peer Recognition: While performance management and goal-setting must be applied with care, our experience says it’s best to apply peer-to-peer recognition liberally! Employee recognition is a staple of engagement. Though employee recognition software is a platform unto itself, elements of this highly effective tactic should be built into your engagement software selection.
- Employee Surveys: Designed for lightweight deliveries and swift returns, frequently-deployed “pulse surveys” can net a significant effect from small servings. They can also focus on topics like “uh, what just happened?” which is helpful for situations where the follow-on is “something needs to be done.” We love these surveys because they are, on the employee end, very low effort, and on the HR end, uniquely and highly informative.
- Collaborative Spaces: Whether for work or play, virtual or in-person, employee engagement platforms can create “spaces” where people connect. They are sometimes built to mimic the look and feel of social media, so workers are naturally drawn to spend time getting to know each other inside and outside of work topics.
What Do You Ask During a Demo With an Employee Engagement Software Vendor?
When the time comes, you’ll want to understand key concepts regardless of your industry or specific use case. We have had great luck with these questions and suggest you ask them all!
1. What is the core philosophy behind your employee engagement solution?
Some vendors are focused on employee health, others on company health. Some started by operationalizing OKR tracking, others employee recognition. Find the vendor that best aligns philosophically with your organization. You’ll find their product manifests their beliefs in what the most critical aspects of culture are.
2. Do you have these features that we need?
While feature parity exists across many of these vendors, you should keep a list of key must-have features. Ask if they are available or when they will become available.
This is unusual, but we recommend speaking to the customer service rep you’ll be working with. This person will play a massive role in implementing and adopting the platform, so you must have a good rapport.
We recommend this because there are a remarkable number of reviews of employee engagement platforms that specifically mention customer success managers. Given the delicate nature of engagement and change management, it’s no surprise that this person can make or break a customer’s experience.
We’ve done it ourselves, and you should too. It’s not as awkward as it sounds!
3. How does your employee engagement software leverage AI?
AI-enabled products are everywhere, but how the technology is used for employee engagement can vary widely. You should ask how AI is part of the current product and how (or if) the team thinks about using AI to improve their product over time.
HR tech has a complex history with sentiment analysis, the computational understanding of “affective states of subjective information.” This emerging field of AI will likely play an increasingly important role in assessing expressions of emotion, including engagement.
4. Do you have guidance on the rollout?
Ask the vendor for their take on best practices for the rollout, specifically on internal communication. They are experts; their input is precious even if you use another company’s product.
Pro tip: As you introduce your team to the tool, also introduce them to the “why?” behind the decision to use it. Make it clear that they are why. The goal is to improve their work experience by checking in and voicing their concerns.
Between those of us at SSR with experience in rolling out engagement software (on teams of all sizes across the globe), this sentiment meets with universal head nodding.
5. Do you have partnerships or notable integrations with communication tools like Slack or Teams?
Ask all the tech questions! Get to know their capabilities (Open API? Partnerships?) and specifics of their product (Web-based? Mobile apps?). Ask about information security too, and if you’re unsure what to ask, talk to your IT team, engineers, or other techy folks on hand about multi-factor authentication (2FA) and OAuth.
Specifically, ask if your team will have to log into their system to use it. If yes, you may want to consider removing this vendor from your list.
Many factors contribute to workplace stress, including the cumulative annoyance of multiple minor stressors, like creating a profile and managing login information for yet another tool. Avoid this by using a platform that has streamlined integrations.
6. How do you manage visibility and permissions?
Understand the who, what, when, where, and why of visibility on employee feedback. This information should be highly privileged, anonymized by default, and carefully provisioned.
Don’t shy away from asking highly specific questions about minuscule elements of the product's features. The sales rep you speak with should know this product inside and out!
Employee Engagement Software FAQs
What is employee engagement software?
Employee engagement software aims to boost job satisfaction and retention by emphasizing the worker's involvement in company culture and the goals of workers with the organization's mission and culture.
Simply put, this software aims to inspire workers to improve performance. If the link between engagement and performance is unclear to you, it may be helpful to picture the initiatives in action. This article on employee engagement strategies to inspire your workforce can help you do just that.
What is the difference between employee engagement and employee recognition?
Employee recognition is a culture and performance-building method that praises the exceptional performance of individuals. It is one of the many components that affect employee engagement, which is the entire scope of emotional connection employees feel to their employer.
There are software platforms for each; in many cases, one will contain elements of the other. But keep this in mind: employee recognition software can benefit the company’s overall engagement strategy but should not be used as a substitute for engagement software. The opposite is also true: employee engagement software should not be used in place of employee recognition software.
If you feel like we just asked you an SAT question, or if the subject of employee rewards and recognition is of particular interest to you, our blog covers these topics (and many more) in depth. Take a break from the SAT prep with this fun read: nearly 300 ideas for employee award titles.
What are some use cases of employee engagement software?
Broadly, the use case for this software is the analysis of engagement across the employee lifecycle. Engagement starts with a recruiter's first “hello!” and continues to the exit survey. It can carry a new hire through onboarding and provide valuable insight for process improvement. Engagement data and KPIs are interrelated and can be measured and analyzed with these platforms. I would even argue that an employee's engagement can outlast the duration of employment so that it can defend or debase a company’s reputation.
The use case for employee engagement software is also apparent at the company level. This tool is crucial for shaping strategic recommendations and generating actionable steps that encourage engagement. This can improve organizational culture, enhance retention, and increase overall productivity.
When is the Best Time to Use Employee Engagement Software?
Choosing the right time to buy and use this tool takes time and effort. Moran emphasizes that there’s no exact headcount or state of company development, but the right time will be connected to your company’s needs.
She recommends being on the lookout for signs that indicate widespread disengagement. This can include decreased productivity, absenteeism, and complacency.
She adds, “Like with any software purchasing decision, the software should make your life better, easier, and higher-performing in the realm it’s being added to. It should be an enhancement, a value-add, not just an accepted cost.”
Our collective experience at SSR is in keeping with this wisdom.
Our staff has seen a slight trend toward waiting too long. We’ve seen startups blocked by tight budgets, enterprise companies who moved too slowly, and executive buy-in is challenging at any size. But here’s one more trick about timing gleaned from our real-world experience: the “best time” window might be narrow, but it opens and closes slowly.
Last Words on Buying Employee Engagement Software
Some of us have learned the hard way that this is different from the kind of choice you can make (or roll out) alone! Put together a team exclusively focused on selecting and implementing this software.
A cross-functional buying committee is a small team assembled to speak to the needs of the departments they represent. In addition to the benefit of their perspectives, their collective knowledge, skills, and “weight” will help secure the budget you need to support the program.
Equally important is the personal connection to their divisions, amplifying the sense of safety and trust needed for a successful implementation.
Final Advice
There is no silver bullet for engagement or crystal balls for insight, but the right employee engagement software can do the work of some serious magic. Take your time, and remember to use the wisdom of your buying committee! We recommend scheduling product demos with at least three companies.
Whether looking for a better way to gather employee feedback or exploring new ways to support a thriving culture, employee engagement software will do the trick. See examples of an employee engagement action plan (complete with templates!) if you’re too excited to wait for the new software.
We hope this article will help you prepare and that you’ll take your next steps with confidence. Good luck!
About Us
- Our goal at SSR is to help HR and recruiting teams to find and buy the right software for their needs.
- Our site is free to use as some vendors will pay us for web traffic.
- SSR lists all companies we feel are top vendors - not just those who pay us - in our comprehensive directories full of the advice needed to make the right purchase decision for your HR team.
