Best Employee Engagement Software - April 2021
Best Employee Experience Software, ROI calculator, questions to ask on demos, and more
Employee engagement software allows companies to continuously collect data on the health of their culture via employee surveys that gather feedback on individuals within the organization. This software category is similar to performance management software which allows companies to track the goals of an individual, group, division, and company.
Companies have increasing been using employee engagement software to build strong cultures for a few reasons:
- First, the number of employees quitting their jobs increased to 27.9% in 2019, compared to 23.7% in 2015. This is further confirmed by a survey of over 600 US businesses, concluding that as many as 63.3% of companies find it more difficult to retain employees than to hire them.
- Second, aspects of corporate life such as culture and purpose have become more important with the rise of the millennial and gen z generations. 2 out of 3 millennials state their organization's purpose and culture are the reason why they chose to work there. Without a healthy culture, companies simply cannot retain young talent.
- Lastly, People Analytics is becoming a more important discipline with 71% of companies regarding it as a high priority in their organizations. A top employee engagement solution allows HR to have more insight into what's going on in their organization.
Employee engagement software allows companies to keep their hand on the pulse of their organization to see what managers need more training, which teams have higher flight risk, and how key objectives are being met within the organization. Most of these solutions allow HR and People Analytics leaders to zoom in or out of their organization and put data around what is happening with their culture.
The below guide is meant to help HR and People teams to select the right engagement platform for their business. We've provided a shortlist along with general info on use cases, pitfalls, best practices, etc. Good luck!
We spend hundreds of hours researching the best HR and recruiting software so you don’t have to. We never take money from vendors during our research phase and rely heavily on practitioners and experts to help us recommend the right software. Most of the vendors featured on our site have no commercial relationship with us, we want to feature the best software for our readers regardless. Learn more
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Featured in
Top Employee Engagement Tools
We track thousands of HRTech solutions, these are the best Employee Engagement tools and services per our research and expert council.
Why we love it
:
Reward Gateway is the employee recognition software of choice for over 5 million employees.
Reward Gateway
Review
Companies looking to boost their employee retention should take a look at Reward Gateway’s engagement solution (we also have them featured on our rewards page). Their product offers employee communications, peer to peer recognition, automated awards and so much more.
Reward Gateway
Customers
Ikea, McDonald's, Unilever, Heineken
Reward Gateway
Stats
- Net Promoter Score of 72
- Used by 5 million employees
- Over 1900 customers
Reward Gateway
Pricing:
Reward Gateway does not publicly share price. You will have to get in touch with a salesperson.
However, if you are a UK customer, they offer small business pricing for companies with under 100 employees. It costs £6 per employee.
Best For
Reward Gateway is best for any company looking to boost their engagement efforts.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Kazoo offers performance management, employee recognition, rewards, and engagement surveys all in one powerful platform.
Kazoo
Review
Kazoo’s employee engagement solution is coupled with rewards and performance management all in one platform. This three pronged approach allows People teams to use one vendor that seamlessly shares data across all three modules.
Kazoo
Customers
Allianz, Hitachi, Kia Motors, Patagonia
Kazoo
Stats
- 95% customer retention rate
- 600+ global customers
- 10-20% higher employee retention
Kazoo
Pricing:
Kazoo has three pricing levels:
- Growth costs $12 per month per employee billed annually. It is designed for 100 - 250 employees.
- Standard costs $9.50 per month per employee billed annually. It is designed for 250 - 1000 employees.
- Enterprise is for 1000+ employee companies and is offered at a custom quote.
All tiers get the features previously mentioned. More higher level plans provide extra solutions tailored to your company's needs. There are also additional onboarding fees, listed as $5,000 for Recognition features and $7,000 for performance features.
Best For
Small-to-medium-sized businesses to Fortune 100 enterprises will find a use case for Kazoo.
Worth Checking Out:
It’s no wonder they have over 600 customers, which include Patagonia, Kaiser Permanente and Allianz. Also worth noting is they have a customer retention rate over 90%! Learn More About Kazoo
Why we love it
:
ClearCompany do all sorts of HR software, and they do it all quite robust, customizable, intuitive, and for a great price.
ClearCompany
Review
ClearCompany's employee engagement solution can take care of everything from recognition and celebrations to goal-planning and real-time feedback. It is also a mobile-friendly and multilingual tool. Their survey tool is particularly powerful, with template reviews that are proven to work and you can choose or create your own from.
Another thing we like about this vendor is their excellent customer service and the wideness of their offer. With their platform, you can choose to use only one or a few modules or use one of their tools for each stage of the employee lifecycle.
ClearCompany
Customers
The Salvation Army, Fujifilm, Chick-fil-A, and the Supreme Court for the State of Arizona.
ClearCompany
Stats
- Over 2,000 clients
- Founded in 2004
- 640,000 total users
ClearCompany
Pricing:
With ClearCompany, you can choose to buy a single module, several, or the whole platform. The latter includes an ATS, onboarding tool, performance management, planning & analytics, and, of course, the employee engagement tools. However, the price for either modality isn't provided, as it would be based on your company size and particular needs.
Best For
ClearCompany is best suited for companies looking for a complete employee engagement solution and also get their ATS, onboarding tool, or many types of HR software from the same vendor.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
eloomi combines engagement with their best in class LMS and performance management systems which means you can fully utilize feedback for employee development.
eloomi
Review
eloomi's employee engagement tool offers a simple to use survey to capture employee feedback through multiple choice, sliding scale, etc questions. Feedback can come in the form of anonymous or non-anonymous answers from employees.
Combining their LMS with engagement allows you to automatically send surveys that relate to certain learning modules. For example, you may have a module about your company's new year strategy that details a group's OKRs. You can immediately send an engagement survey to make sure employees are understanding where they fit into the organization.
eloomi
Customers
Domino’s, Jabra GN, Sophos, Le Creuset, Icelandair Hotels, Delta.
eloomi
Stats
- eloomi was established in 2015
- eloomi has been used by over 500 customers
Best For
eloomi is a good buy for companies across different industries looking for an integrated employee learning, development, and appraisal solution.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Glint uses AI to provide customers with predictive insights about employee engagement.
Glint considers itself a People Success Platform. It is now a part of LinkedIn/Microsoft and definitely one of the pioneers in this space. They are worth taking a look at, especially because of their predictive AI-for-HR analytics and People Science team.
Glint
Customers
- Ancestry
- Spectrum Health
- DISH Network
Glint
Stats
- Owned by LinkedIn
- Founded in 2013
- Raised almost $80M in funding
Glint
Pricing
While Glint does not share their pricing publicly, you can try out a free demo before you buy.
Best For
Glint is best suited for companies looking for extremely in-depth analytics with their employee engagement platform.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
TinyPulse is trusted by multiple Fortune 500 companies to build culture and increase performance.
Tinypulse’s employee engagement software allows managers to have a holistic understanding of their organization to cut down on unexpected employee departures, build the right culture, and increase performance. Their solution is used by Microsoft, the Red Sox, Nike and many more.
TinyPulse
Customers
- Ben & Jerry's
- Dole
- Indeed
- Microsoft
TinyPulse
Stats
- Over 1,000 customers
- Featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, BBC
- Customers have seen over 50% engagement
TinyPulse
Pricing
Pricing must be negotiated with the TinyPulse sales team. Their chatbot makes it easy to provide company details to receive a quote in your email.
Best For
TinyPulse is used by teams of all sizes, from 10 to 10,000.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
CultureIQ uses tech and consulting to bring you a well-rounded engagement platform.
CultureIQ is an employee engagement platform that ties employee listening to culture, and culture to business strategy. Their offering is part SaaS, part high touch consultants that will help you plan and execute your program. This is helpful especially for their core target of large enterprise customers.
CultureIQ
Customers
- Air Canada
- American Express Global Business Travel
CultureIQ
Stats
- $7.5M in funding, with the last round completed in 2018
- Founded in 2013
CultureIQ
Pricing
CultureIQ does not list pricing publicly. You must get in contact with a salesperson.
Best For
CultureIQ is best for companies who want continual expert input to boost culture and employee engagement.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Workvivo is an employee engagement platform that lets you harness the power of your enterprise social network to make recognition and rewards more visible.
Workvivo is an enterprise social network that becomes the central hub for employee communication. Employees can share content, give one another shoutouts, and tie company news/events back to values. Their product looks and feels like a traditional social network. This familiar experience drives engagement, collaboration, and belonging.
Workvivo
Customers
- Netgear
- Seneca Resorts & Casinos
- Telus International
- Taxback Group
Workvivo
Stats
- Raised $16 million in Series A funding in 2020
- Founded in 2017
Workvivo
Pricing
Workvivo is priced on a per user per month basis. However, they do not share pricing information online. Get in contact with a sales representative for a quote
Best For
Workvivo is best for big companies needing an employee social network. By providing a space to collaborate, share achievements, and connect with disparate parts of a large organization, your employees will feel more at home. This is especially true in the era of remote work.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Reflektive can do it all, as proven by the multiple Fortune 500 companies that make up its customer base.
Reflektive’s software covers the gambit of performance management to employee engagement. This means their product allows you to measure and track OKRs, 1:1’s, real time employee engagement, etc all from one platform. Reflektive was recently acquired by LTG, the company who owns PeopleFluent.
Reflektive
Customers
AirBNB, Dropbox, Comcast, Squarespace
Reflektive
Stats
- Some customers decreased turnover by over 70%
- Founded in 2013
- Over $100M in funding
Reflektive
Pricing
While Reflektive does offer a free product demo, they do not publicly reveal pricing. You must contact a sales representative.
Best For
Larger companies will see the best ROI from Reflektive, but that doesn't mean small businesses won't find use cases.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Emplify measures 14 drivers of employee engagement, helping company leadership understand and solve underlying engagement problems.
Emplify uses a data driven methodology to understand the state of engagement in the org (which they point out, is different than happiness/satisfaction!), and then uses their dedicated engagement strategists and manager coaches to help organizations action this data. They look at different data points across the organization, and strive to get statistically significant data on a regular cadence that aligns with your business’s metrics.
Emplify
Customers
- Ivy Tech Community College
- California Closets
- OKC Zoo
Emplify
Stats
- Customers have seen 50% reduction in turnover
- Emplify has completed 2,500+ executive strategy sessions
Emplify
Pricing
Emplify prices its platform based on employee count, and is billed annually. You must contact the Emplify sales team to negotiate actual numbers.
Best For
Emplify is best suited for companies that want to diagnose engagement issues with more than just software alone. Emplify teams your company up with their "People Insights Consultants" to help you make sense of the data.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
CultureAmp helps over 3000 companies keep their employees engaged, with detailed analytics to show areas for improvement.
CultureAmp is an all-encompassing employee engagement suite, that runs the gamut from engagement to performance management to education to coaching. With over 3000 customers that include some big names across many industries, it's a tried-and-true solution for any company looking to boost engagement efforts.
CultureAmp
Customers
AirBNB, Yelp, Slack, Warby Parker
CultureAmp
Stats
- Used by 3000+ companies
- Used by 3 million employees
CultureAmp
Pricing
CultureAmp has three different plans. Each one features all of the engagement and performance management features that CultureAmp is known for. The plans differ in coaching and education features.
The plans are as follows:
- Self-starter: Designed for 25-200 employees. Includes all Engagement and Performance features. Limited HRIS integrations. Group coaching and education. Coaching and education features include survey design review, project working sessions, and demographic mapping under education.
- Standard: Designed for 200-1000 employees. Includes all the features from Self-starter. All HRIS integrations. Adds one-on-one Coaching features, including feedback strategy review, project planning, and results & report sharing follow up. Group Education features.
- Enterprise: Designed for 1000+ employees. Includes all Standard features. One-on-one Coaching and Education features, including meetings with Success coach, action guidance, management training, and People Scientist insights.
You may also purchase the employee engagement or performance management modules individually. You must contact a representative for exact pricing.
Best For
CultureAmp is used by businesses of all sizes. However, their Standard package is marketed specifically towards companies with 200 - 1000 employees.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
15Five is quick to setup and easy to use for any sized business.
15Five has been around since 2011, and has over 2,000 customers that rely on their performance management suite to figure out what drives their employees, and how to incorporate this knowledge into feedback/coaching. The product is easy enough to setup where they didn’t even have a sales team the first 6 years of the business.
15five
Customers
- Hubspot
- Capital One
- Spotify
15five
Stats
- Over 2,000 customers
- 3 unique survey templates and 120 different questions to choose from
- Founded in 2011
15five
Pricing
15Five has three product tiers, Basic, Plus, and Performance. All are billed per person per month on an annual basis.
Basic is priced at $7 per person per month. It's presented as the essentials package for small companies or large teams within a bigger company. Its features include:
- 1-on-1s
- Basic survey templates
- Basic reporting
- 6 months of Check-in history
- Microsoft Teams integration
- Bulk import
- Security logs and MFA
Plus is 15Five's recommended package, priced at $14 per person per month. It's designed for organizations of all sizes. On top of the Basic features, it offers:
- HRIS integration
- Dedicated customer success manager
- Unlimited data history
- Customizable surveys
- Implementation and training
- In-depth reporting
- Bigger question bank
- 15Five's Best-Self online learning platform
- OKRs
Performance is their custom plan with even more features on top of the Plus plan. You must get in contact with 15Five to discuss pricing. These bonus features include:
- Executive coaching
- Leadership coaching
- Manager development
- Online workshops and education
Best For
15Five is good for companies of any sized. Their $7 per user per month plan is affordable for small businesses, while large corporations will see plenty of use with more expensive plans.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Quantum Workplace helps companies to manage their employee experience through engagement and performance management software.
Quantum Workplace allows HR teams to build strong, performance-based cultures through their employee engagement and performance management systems. From the employee perspective, you can keep tabs on what's going on with the company via a social media-like newsfeed. This lets you see goals for the organization/team/individual and what progress has been made, as well as recognition that colleagues are getting.
Quantum Workplace
Customers
Redfin, Panera, Politico
Quantum Workplace
Stats
- 385+ customers
- 2 million surveys per year
- Over 165k 1:1's launched
Best For
Companies with >100 employees
Worth Checking Out:
Quantum Workplace uses data to figure out the flight risk of employees in your company.
Why we love it
:
7Geese is the perfect choice for HR teams of mid sized companies.
7Geese is an employee-first performance management system which has focused on the under-resourced HR teams of mid sized companies. They are very focused on tracking OKRs and allowing employees to see how their actions are contributing to the overall performance of the organization. 7Geese has a dedicated team of talent advisors who can help you get started, all of whom have backgrounds in both HR and change management. Their recent acquisition by Paycor gives them more funding to innovate.
7Geese
Customers
- Fair Trade USA
- Pipedrive
- Autodesk
7Geese
Stats
7Geese
Pricing
There are three tiers of pricing. They all include automated program management, advanced reporting, single sign-on, a support team, org chart, HRIS integrations, mobile app, OKR goal-setting, 1-on-1 coaching, and valued based recognition.
Align costs $10 per user per month billed annually, with a $3,000 per year minimum (meaning at least 25 users per month, or basically paying extra per user for smaller teams). This is the baseline plan, and only has the functions featured above.
Perform costs $14 per user per month billed annually, also with $3,000 per year minimum (meaning at least 18 users per month, or paying extra per user for smaller teams). It adds the additional functionality of company surveys and performance reviews.
Grow costs $19 per user per month billed annually, also with a $3,000 per year minimum (at least 14 users per month, or paying extra for smaller teams). It offers everything the Perform tier has, plus career management, roles and responsibilities, and people analytics.
Best For
7Geese is a great choice for mid-sized companies.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Waggl stands out with its unique pulse survey methodology of shorter surveys on a more frequent basis.
Waggl is an employee voice platform that started with the unique insight that organizations can get more insights from employees by asking less, more often (relative to arduous annual surveys). Waggl is a great way to understand what aspects of your culture need help. Their product can help small teams all the way up through enterprise companies.
Waggl
Customers
- Paychex
- Freddie Mac
- 3M
Waggl
Stats
- Founded in 2014
- $10M total funding, last round completed in 2018
Best For
Waggl is best used by companies who are tired of long annual surveys.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Peakon has a ton of analytical functionality that makes it not only a great engagement tool, but also a people planning tool.
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.
Peakon
Customers
- Duke University
- Lush Cosmetics
- Aldo
- Verizon
Peakon
Stats
- 1000+ customers
- Recently acquired by Workday
- Customers have cut employee turnover from 64% to 23%
Peakon
Pricing
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.
Worth Checking Out:
Looking for an HR Tech consultant to help out?
We've hand picked a shortlist of consultants who can help with vendor selection, implementation, strategy, and more
Final Advice on Employee Engagement Software + Our Best Pro Tip
We wrote a bit about cross functional buying committees in the past and think they are so relevant for employee engagement platforms.
A cross functional buying committee is a group of 5-10 people who care about a given topic, in this case culture/retention. They brainstorm, and then figure out the best way to tackle the issue is to execute some sort of initiative, in this case buy employee engagement software. Then, there are usually 1-2 leaders in the group who do all the work of executing the initiative. They usually have KPIs related to the results of the initiative - and of course in this case will be the people who are in charge of talent management.
There are some huge benefits to having this committee. First off, getting budget for your initiative is so much easier. You now have leaders from marketing, sales, engineering, etc on your side when you go to the CFO to get money. They can help you pitch, and throw their weight behind the initiative.
You also have the help of every organization during implementation. This is especially useful when rolling out a tool like employee engagement where individuals need to be bought into the initiative across all different functions. Having the person from your engineering team who’s on the committee tell their team why they need to use a solution can resonate a lot more than someone from outside of the organization doing the same.
Final Advice
The best employee engagement software is a game changer for organizations looking to supercharge their workplace experience, and decrease employee turnover. There are no silver bullets when it comes to disengaged employees or having perfect insights into what’s going on with your business. However, this is a great place to start.
If your company needs a better way to start gathering employee feedback, or is simply looking for ways to improve culture, then our suggestion is to start by getting demos with 2-3 of the top employee engagement software companies in order to figure out the details around how this would work within your organization. Good luck!
Top Employee Engagement Solutions
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