The 20 Best Employee Engagement Software Tools of 2025
We’ve just wrapped up our review updates for Q2, with a thorough review and comparison of top employee engagement software vendors, their pricing, product enhancements, and more. Read on to get all the juicy details.
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Employee engagement software is a digital platform designed to help organizations improve how connected, motivated, and satisfied their employees feel at work. These tools often include features such as surveys, recognition programs, communication tools, feedback mechanisms, and performance tracking to foster a positive workplace culture and boost retention, productivity, and morale.
We demoed over 80 vendors in the past five years and put them to our rigorous tech tests to find quality ones that truly deliver. Whether you’re looking to build an engagement program from scratch or seeking to upgrade your current tools, this guide helps you compare top employee engagement solutions tailored to different needs, team sizes, and budgets.
Since 2021, we’ve conducted dozens of software demos and real-world testing, evaluating each engagement software on three factors: 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.
And we simply reassess them from time to time. Usually every quarter, our tech editors run the software demos and technique assessments again to evaluate how well our picks are performing, whether any vendors no longer make sense or new ones might be worth considering, and if any information and data need refreshing.
To further ensure we select the most effective employee engagement software, we leverage a blend of insights from product demonstrations, candid user feedback, the expertise of industry leaders, and the extensive experience of our in-house team. We are proud to have invited significant voices in the field:
- Mallory Herrin: As the CEO and Principal HR Consultant of HerrinHR, Mallory brings over 18 years of HR expertise and holds dual certifications from HRCI and SHRM. Renowned as a thought leader, she consistently contributes innovative ideas that shape the industry.
- Tracie Marie: A passionate partner and leader, Tracie is dedicated to delivering outstanding experiences and results. With nearly 30 years of extensive HR experience across various sectors, including start-ups and corporate giants, she possesses deep knowledge in Talent Acquisition and Communications, making her insights invaluable.
- Christina Moran: A licensed Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, Dr. Moran is part of the leadership team at ThenDesign Architecture. Known for her energy and strategic mindset, she has a proven track record in enhancing people leadership, streamlining business operations, and driving organizational effectiveness, along with expertise in marketing and international account management.
We also want to extend our thanks to the HR professionals who took the time to share their candid experiences with the tools featured in this guide. Special thanks to Connor Peterson, Sr. Associate of Technology Modernization at Grant Thornton (US), Amir Hussain, Manager of Talent Acquisition at ACL Digital, Laurie Brewer, CEO of Glow Up Consulting, Antoinette Price, Senior Human Resources Business Partner at Seneca Holdings, and others who contributed insights, even if we can’t mention everyone by name here.
This multi-faceted evaluation process prioritizes what we believe is best for our readers. For an in-depth look at how we do that, read this article about our editorial standards.
Motivosity
Motivosity’s product is changing every time we see it! We like that their employee Net Promoter Score survey (eNPS) goes out on the cadence you choose, and their feature-rich tools combine community, recognition and rewards, and employee insights.
PROS
- Easy to use for both employees and managers.
- Employees can access this system from their phones, desktop, and apps they are in at work, such as Teams/Slack.
- Free implementation support is included in all plans.
- Premium support: Help desk, help site, community site, training videos, quarterly QBRs with a dedicated Customer Success rep (for large customers) in every product.
- The average administrator spends 43 minutes per month in this system.
- Robust analytics to measure the impact of their platform as well as measure employee sentiment
- eNPS surveys, template surveys, plus build your own surveys.
- 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
- Only has dollar (not points) based rewards. Their research shows dollars are more effective, but many companies want points.
- Doesn’t allow for as many rules regarding who can give what dollars to whom (for example, a team member could theoretically give 100% of their rewards to a friend each month).
- 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 product’s philosophy is that engagement and recognition should come from the bottom up, not from the top down, which explains why the software is designed to be simple for employees to access via their mobile devices, Slack/Teams, and also easy to use with an interface that looks like a social platform vs. enterprise software.
Motivosity’s solution is based on three pillars: Building Community, Employee Recognition, and Manager Relationships. The platform enables employees to interact with their entire team via a Facebook-like social feed and recognize and reward peers for a job well done, while managers engage with their team members, see where their employees are going above and beyond, and understand and track employee engagement.
What’s also great about Motivosity is that it’s scalable. Users can upgrade plans and add additional products or team members as they grow.
Instructure, University of Michigan, WGU, Cotopaxi, HealthEquity, DF Credit Union.
Motivosity costs $4 per person per month for the Recognition & Rewards package and $2 per person per month for the Employee Insights product.
Best For
Movitosity works best for mid-market (75-750 employees) companies looking to take their employee experience to a new level.
We had used Motivosity to promote events in the community. We also used it to facilitate Employee Giving (i.e. Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico several years ago). During the pandemic, it was leveraged especially to lean into our Employee Resource Groups. We used it to focus on specific dates on the calendar, such as Veteran's Day, Juneteenth, and International Women's Day. We also used this platform to encourage Employees to take the Employee Experience Survey.
Clean Interface. Multi-faceted and easy-to-use
Our organization bought Motivosity as part of our strategy for Corporate Social Responsibility. A discovery from our Employee Experience survey showed that there was an interest in our employees who wanted to give back to the community.
The interface is easy to use. The benefits of the platform include multiple functions such as global connection and employee giving. I used this Motivosity for close to a year.
I don't have anything negative to see about Motivosity.
I would say that Motivosity offers multiple streams to help support Employee Engagement.
Executives should think about the company culture. Does the culture support employees taking on projects and missions for CSR projects? Also, from a Technical standpoint, is it easy to integrate with their current systems?
I would say Motivosity has made our needs, and it has stayed the same.
For-profit corporations and/or organizations with many employees.
Small non-profit companies with small margins.
Leapsome
Leapsome is highly flexible; you can choose to build on its 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 employee sentiment.
- Users appreciate 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.
Leapsome offers a host of features dedicated to measuring and improving employee engagement. Through easy-to-create surveys featuring pre-made templates based on scientific research, you can regularly collect anonymous or identified feedback from your employees and gain valuable insights.
Among the Leapsome features, what stood out for us is its advanced sentiment analysis. Using AI and machine learning, the software can analyze open-ended survey responses to uncover hidden insights and common themes. It automatically scores the sentiment of qualitative feedback to reveal how employees truly feel. This level of analysis provides the actionable data you need to tackle the biggest engagement challenges.
Leapsome also enables the segmentation of survey results by factors like tenure, team, and manager. By spotlighting correlations between engagement drivers and performance or turnover, you can develop targeted strategies for improving the culture at your organization. Selective sharing options allow managers to view trends and feedback relevant to their teams without compromising anonymity.
With its focus on survey customization, automated deployment, advanced analytics, and anonymous follow-up dialogues, Leapsome combines comprehensive feedback collection with the tools to turn insights into positive action. If you’re seeking to measure employee experience and make positive changes to workplace culture, we think Leapsome is worth checking out.
Over 1,500 companies use Leapsome, including Mercedes Benz, Spotify, Trivago, Eventim, and Babbel.
The starting price for Leapsome is $7 per user per month with an annual billing plan. A 14-day free trial is available.
Best For
Leapsome is suitable for medium-to-large companies across different verticals.
We use Leapsome daily as a comprehensive tool for managing performance and increasing employee engagement. It is especially helpful for the leadership and HR teams, allowing us to align personal goals with the company's broader objectives through OKRs and goal management. The platform supports performance reviews, 360-degree feedback, and real-time feedback, which help enhance communication and development. Leapsome’s customizable features make processes like surveys and one-on-one meetings more efficient by allowing us to adapt the platform to our needs. Overall, Leapsome has streamlined how we engage with and support employees.
- Leapsome’s user-friendly design makes it easy to recognize colleagues and boost morale with positive feedback.
- The platform functions as both a learning management system and an organizer for meetings, reviews, and surveys.
- It’s intuitive and quickly adopted by employees, improving morale by encouraging shared feedback and appreciation.
My organization adopted Leapsome to centralize and improve multiple HR functions within a single platform. We wanted a solution that could integrate goal-setting, OKRs, performance reviews, employee learning, and engagement into a cohesive system. Leapsome’s all-in-one design has been key in enabling streamlined performance tracking and employee development. It has also helped promote better communication and engagement with features like 360-degree feedback, surveys, and recognition tools. I have personally used Leapsome for two years, and it has consistently proven valuable to our team.
- The platform’s workflows could be better optimized for smoother use.
- The UI/UX for completing a learning path could be improved to provide a more seamless experience.
- Some internal management processes still rely on outdated methods.
Leapsome differentiates itself with customizable performance and 360° reviews that are straightforward to use. It supports goal alignment and tracking across the organization, fostering transparency and accountability.
Through employee engagement surveys, it provides insights into company culture that help in strategic decision-making. Leapsome also encourages a culture of continuous growth with real-time feedback and praise.
These features create a holistic approach to performance management, employee development, and engagement that stands out from competitors.
I recommend researching the platform’s functions to ensure it aligns with your organizational needs. Leapsome offers many valuable features, though some may require further development.
Leapsome has remained relatively consistent, though there is room for further updates to meet evolving user requirements.
The platform’s versatility makes it suitable for various types of organizations and industries.
Currently, I believe Leapsome could be beneficial for almost any organization looking to streamline HR functions.
Connecteam
Connecteam’s platform is mobile-first, user-friendly, and packed with tools to drive engagement, including surveys, polls, rewards, recognition, chat, news feed, skills development courses, and much more.
PROS
- Connecteam’s platform is user-friendly and mobile-first, designed with deskless workers in mind.
- The platform covers a wide range of features for team management, communication, training, and engagement.
- The pricing of all modules is transparent, with free plans for small businesses.
- There’s a 14-day free trial you can sign up for, no credit card is needed.
- One of the only fully-mobile HR tech tools for deskless workers
- Very adequately-priced for all it entails, SMB-friendly
- Quite open to feedback, having implemented user suggestions as features in the past.
CONS
- It can take some time to fully get the hang of the platform because of how many features there are.
- Although the platform’s scalability is a good thing, many essential features are locked behind the higher pricing tiers.
- The surveys module is offered as part of the communication hub, while the rewards, recognition, and training modules are under the HR & skills hub, which means to use all modules together fully, you may need to purchase subscriptions to both hubs.
- In the communication hub, the app offers no confirmation that messages were sent and/or seen.
- Certain features that some teams consider essential, such as GPS-tracking, are only available in the higher-tier pricing plans.
Connecteam offers a series of employee-centric tools for communication, training, and Ops management. We’ve trialed their employee engagement features for this review and are happy to report that there’s a lot to like. First up is the surveys and live polls functionality, which you can access from the Communication hub in the left side panel. Through it, you can gather insights and opinions from team members on various topics. The platform also excels at keeping teams informed in real-time. Through the Updates module (also accessed through the Communication hub), employees can easily get relevant company updates, share insights, and discuss best practices from the field.
Another thing we like about Connecteam is its focus on employee recognition, which isn’t something we usually find on deskless employee management platforms. There’s a dedicated space within Connecteam where managers can showcase the achievements of exceptional team members, celebrate special occasions, and acknowledge personal milestones through rewards, awards, and shout-outs.
Connecteam also prioritizes professional growth, offering features that support employees from onboarding to ongoing skill development. New employees can be efficiently trained and connected through the platform's digital onboarding process, while mobile-first learning enables personal improvement at every stage of an employee's journey. Additionally, Connecteam's customized information hub keeps teams engaged and informed, ensuring they have access to the resources they need to succeed.
Finally, Connecteam streamlines business operations, making it easy to assign shifts according to employee availability, manage tasks remotely, and submit requests from the field. The platform even allows for the promotion of activities and events, further raising morale and fostering a sense of community within the organization.
Connecteam is used by 36,000+ businesses, including Subway, Hilton, and Volvo.
Connecteam offers 3 hubs: Operations, Communications, and HR & Skills. Each hub has various plans from $29 to $99 per month for 30 users, and a free plan for under 10 users.
Best For
Connecteam’s employee engagement tool is best for midsize businesses with deskless teams.
The client primarily uses Connecteam at the beginning of each season, but it is reviewed and updated daily. Schedules are adjusted for weather delays, call-outs, and other changes as needed. It serves as the central tool for managing the game schedule and communicating with umpires. The client relies on it throughout the season to ensure smooth coordination. It replaced a previously manual and inefficient system.
Scheduling is clear and easy to understand. Communication between umpires has improved. The knowledge area is helpful for storing rule books and other documents.
I purchased Connecteam for a client. The client is a regional softball umpire organization affiliated with USA Softball and local recreational organizations. The scheduler was creating handwritten schedules for 100 umpires and more than 500 games per season (across three seasons).
After manually creating the schedules, he would text pictures of them to the umpires. Mistakes often occurred, and the process was time-consuming and prone to error. Connecteam helped streamline scheduling and communication.
Connecteam refers to all users as "employees" with no option to change that label, which is not accurate for independent contractors like umpires. It would be helpful to have a way to customize role terminology. I found the scheduling feature easy to use, but the umpire in charge had some difficulty with it initially.
I have not used other tools like Connecteam. I reviewed several options before selecting Connecteam and chose it because it offered a free plan for the first 30 users, which allowed us to test the tool before committing.
Make a list of the specific features you need before committing. Connecteam charges additional fees for some modules, so it can end up costing more than expected if you do not review the pricing details. Understanding what’s included in each tier is important to avoid unexpected costs.
I have only used Connecteam for 1.5 years, so I’m unsure of changes.
Connecteam is ideal for groups with offsite or field-based workers who need schedules and may need to clock in at job sites.
Connecteam may not be suitable for larger companies, those with mostly office-based staff, or organizations with more complex operational needs.
Workleap
Workleap (formerly 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
- Workleap 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.
- Workleap 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.
- Workleap has a peer-to-peer recognition feature, allowing your employees to praise one another for outstanding work.
- Workleap built-in surveys cover a wide range of topics.
- Workleap’s 14-day free trial lets users try all the Workleap features without asking for their credit card info.
- Several users shared that Workleap’s integration with Slack brought convenience for employees and improved their survey completion rates.
- Workleap 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.
- Workleap 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 thos
- e goals or conduct performance reviews.
- There currently isn’t a mobile app that managers and employees can use on the go.
Workleap 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 Workleap customers.
Workleap offers a free plan for up to 10 users and 3 paid plans: Essential ($3.50/user/month), Pro ($5/user/month), and Business (custom pricing for 500+ users).
Best For
Workleap’s employee engagement solution is best for medium and large-sized businesses, though small teams can also benefit from the platform’s free plan, which is available for up to 10 users.
I used Workleap every two weeks to review feedback from pulse/employee engagement surveys, identifying organizational strengths and areas needing improvement. It helped determine our NPS score, branding us as an employer of choice, and understanding employee referral likelihood. KPIs were set for performance reviews, allowing managers and employees to provide feedback and track career development. I set up 1:1 meetings with discussion topics, enabling prepared and productive sessions. Managers and employees could set goals and track project or task completion and progress.
The pulse/employee engagement surveys effectively assess overall satisfaction and identify improvement areas, aiding proactive staff retention.
Anonymous pulse surveys encourage honest feedback and higher participation rates.
Tracking performance and reporting within one system supports staff development and accountability, with goal setting and milestone tracking enhancing manageability and achievability.
My company wanted to enhance its culture and obtain more frequent feedback from staff. Workleap was utilized to track employee feedback through engagement surveys, build on employee satisfaction, and manage performance reviews quarterly. It also allowed managers to set up monthly 1:1 sessions with employees to drive engagement, check on well-being, and discuss performance goals. Workleap combines these functions into one system. I used Workleap for six months.
I had no cons with this tool
I have not encountered another system that tracks performance and surveys on one platform, which is a significant advantage of Workleap.
Workleap offers many capabilities, including pulse surveys, employee engagement, 1:1 meetings, and performance management, all in one platform with robust reporting and data analysis functions. It is an excellent communication tool for engaging with employees, building transparency, and understanding both positive and negative feedback. This fosters a high-performing and positive work culture. The surveys are concise, primarily ratings-based, minimizing time commitment and maximizing valuable feedback. The reporting data is also beneficial for sharing insights with executives.
The functionality and usage remained consistent during the six months I used the tool.
Workleap is suitable for organizations of any size or industry. It is a valuable tool for HR departments to enhance retention, engagement, and company culture. Its user-friendly interface makes it accessible to employees at all levels.
I believe Workleap would be beneficial for all organizations.
Mo
Mo drives morale and engagement through its easy-to-understand rewards system, peer nominations, and an AI Assistant that ensures appreciation never falls through the cracks.
PROS
- User-friendly UI with a wide range of vouchers available.
- System auto-nudges employees to recognize achievements if recognition is overdue.
- Reasonable pricing with no rewards fees.
- Free onboarding and implementation support.
- Users can access the platform in 12 languages.
- Android and iOS mobile apps are available for on-the-go access.
- UI is easy to navigate, and users seem to appreciate the varied choice of gift cards they can offer through the platform.
- Transparent pricing starting from $2.25/user/month with no rewards fees.
- Free onboarding and implementation support for all users.
- Robust and feature-rich mobile applications.
- Available in 12 languages and growing.
CONS
- Base plan does not offer HRIS integration. Additional implementation fees may apply for Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations.
- 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.
- HRIS integration absent in Base plan. Possible implementation fee for Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations.
- The customer support hours are limited to weekdays, 9 AM - 5 PM GMT.
Mo’s platform takes on employee engagement through meaningful rewards and recognition. At its core, you’ll find Moments and Boosts - which are simple yet effective features engineered to fuel morale. Managers can easily create Moments to praise team or individual accomplishments, pairing the shout-outs with gift cards or custom rewards. Boosts, on the other hand, are automations that ensure day-to-day kudos are never forgotten.
We appreciate Mo’s attention to different preferences through its varied and customizable reward options. We also like how straightforward their rewards program is; if a user puts in $5 to recognize someone, the recipient gets $5 to redeem. Having a clear dollar value to rewards is great for a few reasons: it’s simpler for users to understand (as opposed to confusing point-based systems), and it also makes budget tracking infinitely easier.
Mo also promotes inclusiveness in its peer-to-peer nomination features, which give employees the ability to actively recognize one another. This not only makes employees feel more empowered but also contributes to a positive and supportive company culture.
To complement its core offering, Mo recently introduced its AI-powered Assistant tool, which provides customized recommendations on actions leaders can take to boost engagement further. For example, it will automatically remind managers of upcoming employee milestones like birthdays and work anniversaries. Or if someone hasn’t given praise to a deserving co-worker in a while, the Assistant will gently prompt them to send some appreciation.
Mo counts over 58,000 users using its platform, including SGN, The O2, NHS, Aspen, William Hill, and SHL.
Mo’s pricing starts at $2.25 per user per month. More specifically, the employee engagement tool offers 3 plans: Appreciate at $2.25/user/month for basic recognition, Engage at $4.5/user/month adding awards and advanced reporting, and Transform with custom pricing for large companies including full features, program design, and premium support.
Best For
Mo is suitable for companies of all sizes looking to drive employee engagement through rewards and recognition.
We use Mo every day across my remit which is back office Operations. We have roughly 1100/1200 people on the platform and an average of 1500 moments shared on it a month. The key processes we use it for are:
- P2P points scheme - We give everyone in the departments a small financial amount at the start of each month. They can't spend it on themselves, they can only give it to colleagues when sharing moments. It encourages them to recognize each other for things like training, help with a tricky problem or account, support as a friend/colleague, advice or generally being a good egg. This is the most popular activity we use Mo for and has the biggest impact on the shift in culture and engagement.
- All leadership groups have additional ad-hoc pots that they can reward from which focus more on performance-based recognition.
- We use the platform for our quarterly awards. The award categories are sent out and everyone nominates their colleagues for different awards. Last month we had 283 nominations from a department of 400. It's then easy to shortlist and pick winners there. The winners can then be celebrated through Moments on Mo, and rewarded at the same time. It's also 1 click of a button to then send out the nominations to every nominee for each award category.
- More recently we've started using Boosts which are automated triggers set once a week, in line with our agile sprint work. They prompt people to celebrate their weekly wins in a shared setting for everyone to engage with. This also makes it much easier for senior leadership to have a presence on the platform when their time is so limited. We also use it for the start of the week's focusses and goals to keep everyone connected on our objectives.
- As the budget master I then also use the platform for any additional ad-hoc activity I run such as monthly non-performance-based incentives to further build our culture and connect people.
- I don't know if I'm allowed to share how much has been cashed in by our colleagues at the inhouse store in Mo over the last 2 years but suffice to say it's an astounding figure and all of it is people saving up what they receive from various things and spending it on exactly what they want as the store is so extensive. It gives them autonomy and choice and makes it really easy which they love. It's been particularly appreciated during the cost of living crisis to go towards supermarket shops or school shoes from Clarks, house renovations from B&Q, as well as AirBnB staycations and so, so much more.
- It saves me SO MUCH TIME!
- It's so simple to use and for other people to pick up
- Its use grows organically once people start using it
- The variety of the store gives our people huge autonomy and variety
- It makes rewarding easy and fun
- It helps drive a positive culture, a culture of recognition and appreciation
- I love just how much everyone else loves it
- The team that works there is so helpful and works with you to always deliver improvements
- It continues to deliver extra value, we're always finding new ways to get more out of it.
- It's made my life a million times easier. I could never go back.
We initially bought it to automate the plethora of manual processes that I was trying to execute manually myself beforehand. This includes managing the general reward and recognition schemes, all nomination processes, awarding, and the peer-to-peer R&R scheme we ran. All purchasing of vouchers, prizes, etc in a hybrid world which requires getting people's addresses, etc.
This range of activities took up almost all of my time and left very little to work on bigger strategic projects. It couldn't continue.
Mo automated all these processes, for example sending out the nominations sent in for our quarterly awards to each nominee. This took the best part of a day to manually send all of these emails for every nomination. Now it takes no more than 30 seconds, I click one button for each category and they all go out. This is a time saving that is replicated across multiple processes and has completely changed the scope of what my role can deliver because of the time it saves.
However, the real value has come since then. With my free time, I've been able to develop our use of Mo to be the centerpiece that everything is built around. We've learned much further on the peer-to-peer scheme and the overarching objectives of engagement are about bridging the gap and connecting people to feel part of a team where community is our culture and fun is in our DNA. Mo allows us to drive this culture shift, connecting people all over the country through positive interactions on the platform, strengthening working relationships and our sense of broader identity. We've been using it for 2 years now, and are averaging 1500 moments shared on the platform a month (each being a recognition, thank you, or award) with c1100 users. It's helped drive a 1.9 increase in our engagement score in Peakon in 1 year.
- I really can't call out things I dislike. The only feedback I get is:
- You can't edit a moment once you've sent it (but I understand why that's the case).
It wraps everything up into one easy-to-use and comprehensive platform. At the same time, it's not cluttered with useless extras. The service you get for the price is extremely good, the customer service is exceptional and the team is an absolute pleasure to work with.
It was the only platform I found that facilitated the peer-to-peer scheme I was running. I was able to completely replicate the model in Mo but have the entire thing automated. Nothing else allowed that level of autonomy for the user but control for the admin too. The store is extremely comprehensive too which makes a massive difference. Others were good but the Mo one is bang on with variety and caters to a wide range of preferences. Once or twice at the start, I had people ask if other stores could be added but I've never had it since.
The Boost functionality and how it helps support our agile ways of working has been a real leap forward and their manager assistant is a really helpful tool for our leadership population. It seems as time goes on, the more and more we can align how we work and what we do to utilize the platform to support us.
Think about what you really need, and what problem are you directly trying to solve. That's the first question. The second is what's possible. My view shifted so much once we got Mo to all these other possibilities that I hadn't considered before. Ask the what-if questions, challenge what you are doing, and think what would be the dream scenario. Also, think of it from a bigger cultural piece. What attitudes, behaviors, and cultures are you wanting to drive within your business and what's going to best support you in doing that. Also, does it automate for you? The more it automates, the more time you have to dig deeper into the bigger issues/questions.
Since we started using it 2 years ago. It introduced the Boost function and the manager's assistance. These two upgrades more specifically target the leadership population as we/they'd identified that they were the harder population to get engaged with the platform. These upgrades build in routine and simple triggers which are easy for leaders to respond to. The assistant also gives all the key information you need in one easy place (budgets, team activity, etc) but also great in-house articles to get people thinking about management approaches with a more modern and progressive approach which I know has been really well received.
I would say a more modern organization or one that wants to modernize. It's probably not good for a traditional working environment so much. It works for big businesses and small businesses too. Its functionality allows you to manage the view in a way that means you can scale as large as you like and not lose the personal touch it offers.
As explained above, a traditional working organization that doesn't really want to modernize in how it treats its employees or thinks about things like culture and engagement.
Matter
Matter is unique in that its engagement tool works right inside Slack and Teams. For a plugin-type tool, it’s notable that it enables companies to automatically reward survey completions with coins, which employees can later redeem for gift cards, donations, and numerous other rewards.
PROS
- Option to reward survey completions with redeemable Matter coins.
- Pulse Survey delivered and responded to right in Slack or MS Teams.
- Pulse Surveys use real-time data from a library of 100 questions to provide insights on cultural categories.
- Survey recipients won't see the same question twice within 90 days.
- Real-time anonymous feedback with custom notifications.
- Affordable and transparent plans with discounts for non-profits and schools.
- Option to reward survey completions with redeemable Matter coins.
- Pulse Survey delivered and responded to right in Slack or MS Teams.
- Pulse Surveys use real-time data from a library of 100 questions to provide insights on cultural categories.
- Survey recipients won't see the same question twice within 90 days.
- Real-time anonymous feedback with custom notifications.
- Affordable and transparent plans with discounts for non-profits and schools.
CONS
- To use Matter, you must have either Slack or Teams installed.
- At this time, the vendor doesn't allow the Pulse Survey questions to be editable.
- Pulse surveys are only available on the highest-priced plan.
- To use Matter, you must have either Slack or Teams installed.
- At this time, the vendor doesn't allow the Pulse Survey questions to be editable.
- Pulse surveys are only available on the highest-priced plan.
If you’re eyeing a solution that effectively engages employees within Teams or Slack, you wouldn’t want to miss out on Matter. With this tool, you can deliver your Pulse Surveys right within Slack or Teams so your employees can finish them within either of these communications platforms—no need to log in to or learn a separate app.
But that’s only part of the reasons we love this employee engagement tool. Another reason is its unique approach to encouraging survey participation. Matter is the first solution we've found that rewards completed surveys with "Matter coins," which can be redeemed for gift cards, donations, or custom company rewards. We can imagine a notable difference in how team members engage with surveys with this feature contribution.
Another big plus we found was how it handled feedback and updates. We could choose who to give anonymous feedback right away, and there's a weekly digest of company stats shared privately through Slack or Teams, which is a great way to stay connected and informed.
Matter’s Pulse Surveys provides a library of 100 questions across multiple engagement categories; however, we're hoping for a bit more flexibility here. As of now, there’s no way to edit the questions. You’ll have to stick with what the system has built out instead.
Also, a word of caution for those considering the free plan of this engagement tool: the plan barely touches the survey element and focuses mostly on recognition. It also limits historical analytics data to only 30 days. To access Matter’s pulse surveys, you'll need to upgrade to the highest-priced plan.
4,700+ organizations, including SIEMENS, Microsoft, and Sephora.
Matter pricing ranges from $0 to $5 monthly, with a 30-day free trial (no credit card required).
Best For
Matter’s employee engagement software is best for SMBs seeking a solution to engage employees within Teams or Slack.
Profit.co
With Profit.co, you can quickly conduct anonymous pulse surveys using the built-in survey builder, review the results, and see how your team members feel about their workplace. To boost engagement further, the platform also facilitates 1:1 meetings, rewards, and recognition.
PROS
- The surveys on Profit.co are customizable, anonymous, and can be deployed in multiple languages.
- Their engagement model is enhanced with features for 1:1 meetings and employee recognition.
- The support team is available 24/7 via phone and chat.
- There’s a free 30-day trial anyone can sign up for.
- The platform has tutorials available that walk you through how to use the system and guide your team onto the platform. There are also examples of different types of goals, objectives and KPIs, so it's easy to see how they work in practice.
- Profit.co offers an intuitive interface that makes it easy for teams to set goals, collaborate and track progress. The tool allows users to set up OKRs for each team member, which can be done fairly fast with the help of step-by-step instructions.
- Users can choose from several pre-defined KPIs that range from sales to customer satisfaction, which helps them visualize their progress over time with just one glance at their dashboard.
CONS
- The employee engagement module is only offered as an add-on. To use it, you need to purchase either the OKR or performance management module.
- The pricing isn’t publicly available, which means you need to book a demo to get an estimate.
- There’s a bit of a learning curve simply because of how many features there are. Mastering them all does take some time.
- While Profit.co offers a free plan for up to five users, it has limited features. The only way to unlock more features is by upgrading to another plan.
- One complaint about Profit.co is that there are too many features in one platform. While this might sound like a good thing at first glance, it can actually be frustrating for users who want something simple and straightforward – especially if they’re new to OKRs and performance management.
- As an administrator, you can create and edit tasks and goals. However, there’s no way to edit or upload tasks or goals on a mass scale. For example, if you want to change the title or description for every task, then you’ll have to manually do it one by one.
Profit.co's employee engagement module is designed to complement their flagship offering for OKR and performance management. We’ve given it a go and liked how easy it was to create and run pulse surveys. You can have these surveys be in different languages and choose to make them anonymous so employees feel at ease giving honest feedback. Once submissions are in, the built-in dashboards help you get quick insights into the results, while the export functionality allows for deeper analysis in external tools.
Profit.co also emphasizes the importance of regular 1:1 meetings between managers and their direct reports to stay connected and course-correct as needed. The platform facilitates this by allowing managers to schedule and define an agenda framework and employees to plan discussion points, review their work and results, and openly discuss any roadblocks they're facing.
Recognizing and appreciating employee accomplishments is another key strength of Profit.co. The Awards feature allows managers to celebrate their team's successes in the context of specific achievements and have this recognition showcased publicly to boost morale and motivation. And for an added element of friendly competition, Profit.co's Leader Board helps you highlight top performers across the organization, further igniting performance.
Overall, Profit.co delivers a thoughtfully designed platform that touches on the key drivers of employee engagement - from clear goal-setting and consistent feedback to recognition and organic team interactions. If you’re looking for a holistic platform to track OKRs, manage performance, and drive engagement, we highly recommend checking Profit.co out.
Over 1,000 businesses use Profit.co, including SunTec, Altheo, and CWB Financial Group.
Profit.co offers a 30-day free trial and pricing starts at $7 per user per month, billed annually.
Best For
Profit.co is suitable for mid-size companies looking for an OKR and performance management platform with employee engagement features.
Quantum Workplace
Quantum Workplace’s platform is expert-designed and comprehensive. Its validated survey, expansive benchmarks, and action-oriented tools make it a powerful solution for measuring and improving employee engagement.
PROS
- Easy to use and intuitive interface; you can find what you’re looking for and still see the most important items pinned on top.
- You can personalize surveys, make them from the best practices templates, or build them entirely from scratch.
- You can share, review recognition with your teammates in a social newsfeed format, and make it as detailed and scheduled or as succinct and impromptu as you please.
- Ever-present customer service team. Many users have complimented them 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. You can design surveys using the platform's library of validated, research-backed questions that employ a standardized Likert scale to ensure high-quality results. Open-ended questions are also integrated to gather examples of what employees think your company should start, stop, or continue doing.
Once survey data is collected, the built-in reporting and analytics provide insights into overall trends as well as breakdowns by team and demographic. Additionally, Quantum Workplace provides unparalleled benchmark data from over 10,000 organizations to add context to results.
Beyond measurement, the platform enables you to take action on engagement data through features like the action planning library, personalized employee engagement reports with recommendations and lightweight one-on-one tools for managers. The platform also makes it easy to collect data through multiple access options like desktop, kiosk, and SMS text surveys. This allows you to reach every employee, including dispersed and deskless teams.
There are lots of neat automation in place: the automated invitations and reminders significantly reduce survey administration work for HR teams, while the AI-powered Narrative Insights quickly analyzes employee comments to uncover themes, sentiments, and sensitive topics needing follow-up.
With easy-to-interpret analytics, robust benchmarking data, and built-in action planning features, we think Quantum Workplace has got what it takes for you to be on top of employee experience. If you’re looking to reliably measure and improve employee experience, Quantum Workplace’s offering is worth considering.
Quantum Workplace is used by over 10,000 companies, including Fossil Group, DSW, BKD, and Getty Images.
Quantum Workplace cost starts at $7,500 per year.
Best For
Quantum Workplace's employee engagement platform is designed for medium to large businesses that require advanced engagement and analytics capabilities.
We mainly use Quantum Workplace for surveys. We were introduced to Quantum Workplace through Oregon's Best Places to Work Survey and enjoyed the survey experience that came from that. Quantum Workplace is a great tool to measure various employee benefits and relationships consistently over time. By continuing to use the same platform, it guarantees a more accurate and consistent measuring system, so I am glad that Quantum Workplace is so easy to use. Right now, we only use it annually but would like to move to quarterly. Once we use it quarterly, the price reflected in the next question will change.
- I like that Quantum Workplace sends out reminders on surveys automatically without any action on my part.
- I love the reporting and graphs, tables, and images that Quantum Workplace gives to portray feedback. It helps to keep my leadership team attentive and engaged.
- Results and comments are easy to read. I love how it will not let you filter down job titles, comments, or feedback unless there are enough of that job title so that it remains anonymous.
Our company purchased Quantum Workplace for engagement surveys and pulse surveys. We have been using this measuring tool for over two years. In the past two years, we have specifically used the engagement surveys but will start using pulse surveys due to the positive reaction and traction around annual engagement surveys. We use this tool to gauge how our employees feel about policies, benefits, leadership, etc.
- I wish there was a way to filter terminated employees from active employees so that I could see if issues were eliminated when employees were terminated. I understand this could affect anonymity.
- Quantum Workplace is an overall really simple and easy product to use that is easy to read. I do not have any cons to say about their surveys.
I have used survey tools previously that do not allow the search of comments, making it difficult to find comments you have read previously. I have also used survey systems that are very complex due to the amount of customization included. Quantum Workplace is easy to use and straightforward, which is what I am looking for as an HR team of one.
If you are looking for ways to increase retention with honest and thorough feedback, then Quantum Workplace is a great tool. It is also easy and quick to use, with automated reminders for small HR teams that might not have much time to spend on engagement surveys.
We are a newer and smaller company, so we have only used Quantum Workplace for two years. So far, there have not been many changes. I would love to see what will be implemented over time, and I can only hope that it will remain simplistic and easy to use.
Quantum Workplace is great for small to medium organizations with HR or leadership that is looking for an easy way to gather engagement and culture feedback from their employees.
Quantum Workplace might not be a good fit for companies that are looking for highly custom reporting dashboards.
Bonusly
Bonusly helps you engage employees, celebrate their wins, and hear their thoughts on improving company culture. It does this through peer recognition, 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.
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Bonusly aims to improve employee engagement through frequent, meaningful peer-to-peer recognition and rewards. Employees can choose from over 1,200 gift cards across popular vendors, redeemable in over 200 countries. There are abundant options for apparel, food and beverage, travel, and more to match individual preferences. Bonusly also enables companies to offer unique branded swag using an AXOMO integration. Employees can browse and order items right from the Bonusly platform.
For those who prefer cash rewards, Bonusly points are redeemable for PayPal, Visa gift cards, and prepaid Mastercards. You can also create customized experiential rewards like lunch with the CEO, tickets to local sports games, additional PTO, and more. For employees passionate about certain causes, rewards can be redeemed as donations to over 50 integrated charities.
Beyond rewards redemption, Bonusly helps you put appreciation on auto-pilot through features like automated awards for milestones and integrations with HRIS platforms for automated birthday and anniversary recognitions.
Peer recognition is also simplified through Bonusly. There’s only a few steps to do it: employees receive a monthly allotment of points valued from $10-$20 to recognize fellow team members, then it’s as simple as choosing the recipient, points amount, reason, and optional hashtags or GIFs. To top it all off, all recognition shared around is showcased on a public feed, spreading and amplifying the positive vibes further.
Among Bonusly’s 3000+ customers are Hulu, InVision, SurveyMonkey, Headspace, and more.
Bonusly's Core plan costs $2.70/user/month (up to 50 users) and suits small businesses. The Pro plan ($4.50/user/month) offers more features for larger teams. The Custom plan, with premium support, is priced based on user count and feature needs.
Best For
Bonusly is best for companies between 50-5,000 employees.
We use Bonusly daily and for special occasions. Each staff member receives a set number of points per month to recognize their peers. Our managers receive additional points to reward employees who go above and beyond to support the team or company. Additionally, we provide points from the company for birthdays and work anniversaries as an extra way to show appreciation and celebrate milestones.
- Bonusly is very user-friendly.
- It easily integrates into our team’s dynamic.
- The platform allows us to customize the system to fit our needs and preferences.
- Employees can redeem their points for rewards of their choice.
We purchased Bonusly to improve our peer-to-peer recognition program. As we continued using Bonusly, we also found it highly effective for quick manager appreciation. Initially, we did not have any recognition system, and staff feedback indicated they felt underappreciated.
We evaluated several platforms to address this issue but found Bonusly to be the most user-friendly and customizable, making it feel like our own platform rather than just another application. The setup and integration of Bonusly into our teams were seamless.
- Bonusly had some initial implementation challenges.
- It does not provide sufficient resources to help teams maximize its use.
- It does not support single sign-on (SSO) with our other applications.
I have not used other recognition tools so I can’t comment on it.
- Consider how well the tool integrates into your company culture.
- Evaluate how easy it is to onboard and set up employees in the system.
- Clearly define your goals for using the platform to ensure it aligns with your needs.
Bonusly has introduced custom awards, allowing employees to redeem points for company swag.
Bonusly is a great fit for small to mid-sized companies with employees who have access to computers or mobile devices.
Bonusly may be challenging to implement in large companies.
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.
- 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 provides a robust yet user-friendly employee engagement solution that can help you boost morale, retention, and productivity. It centers on employee surveys, including its proprietary four-question Engaged Index that benchmarks engagement. You can use this Index to identify at-risk areas for turnover and presenteeism, then conduct follow-up surveys on specific topics to dig deeper. Surveys can be created from existing templates or customized as needed.
A major advantage of Reward Gateway is how effectively it turns survey insights into impact. The platform makes acting on feedback easy with digestible analytics tied to engagement drivers. Leadership teams can clearly see potential areas for investment and how interventions may influence key metrics like retention. This proves the ROI on employee engagement spend and lends credibility when proposing new programs.
All in all, there’s a lot to like about Reward Gateway as an employee engagement software solution. It offers versatile survey options, an easy-to-understand yet robust scoring system, powerful segmentation, and actionable analytics. Companies looking to boost engagement and improve culture through data-driven insights would do well to shortlist Reward Gateway.
Reward Gateway has over 4000 customers, including Ikea, McDonald's, Unilever, and Heineken.
Reward Gateway costs £6 (around $7.5) per employee per month for an annual subscription for companies under 100 employees. Larger teams receive custom quotes.
Best For
Rewards Gateway is best for organizations based in the U.S., UK, Ireland, and Australia.
While using Reward Gateway, I used it every day. The employee engagement platform was customized to our organization and enabled us to provide regular newsletters, formal and informal recognition in a public setting, and wellbeing initiatives for our staff. We customized an exit interview equivalent to understand why employees were leaving and how we could improve. The platform allowed us to engage and connect with our remote workers and included job vacancies and opportunities for staff. Management and executives appreciated the analytic function, which showed their return on investment and tracked team performance.
- The customization allows us to align the platform with our business needs and add various functions.
- It is very easy to navigate and integrate with our internal systems.
- The analytics provide transparency and the ability to drill down to see our return on investment and identify areas for improvement.
- The ability to communicate with the entire organization and engage with remote workers has been transformative.
The organization I worked for purchased Reward Gateway to improve employee engagement, organizational culture, and staff retention. There was a noticeable issue with culture and engagement, which became evident as staff left the organization and cited these factors as reasons for leaving. The executives approved funding to implement Reward Gateway as a solution to enhance the employee experience and improve culture and retention. Reward Gateway has allowed the organization to streamline communications, provide rewards and recognition, and improve overall employee satisfaction. I used this tool for one year during my tenure at the organization.
- Removing a staff member is not user-friendly and could be improved.
- Some staff reported difficulties in settling canceled retail transactions.
- More local retailers for rewards would be preferred.
Reward Gateway stood out for its ease of integration with our internal systems and data transition. The platform's customization, user-friendliness, and robust reporting capabilities made it the best choice. Other platforms were clunkier, more difficult to transition to, and more expensive with less functionality.
Consider the price for the functionality provided; Reward Gateway offers a lot at a reasonable price. Evaluate the customization options to ensure it aligns with your organization’s values and user-friendliness. The tool's ease of integration and data transition, along with outstanding customer service, simplifies the implementation process.
Yes, the reporting was of concern. However, there has been improvement in this area, and in speaking to people who currently use the platform, they have also commended Reward Gateway on the improvement in their reporting.
Reward Gateway is excellent for medium-sized organizations looking to increase employee engagement and culture. It helps set the organization apart from competitors and contributes to staff retention.
Small businesses may find the costs outweigh the benefits. Additionally, dedicated employees are needed to manage and update the platform's content.
Culture Amp
Culture Amp boosts engagement through dozens of ready-made and customizable surveys, 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.
- You can choose from multiple survey templates or create your own.
- Upon survey completion, the platform gives you insights into employee sentiment via heatmaps, trendlines, and benchmarks.
- 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.
- The pricing isn’t publicly disclosed and can only be obtained after booking a demo.
- 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 organizations with an effective system to regularly pulse their workforce, dig into key drivers of engagement, and take proven steps to create a thriving culture.
One of Culture Amp's greatest strengths is its library of 40+ customizable survey templates designed by experts in organizational psychology. You can leverage these prescriptive questionnaires to glean actionable insights around engagement, inclusion, onboarding, company events, and more. The software also benchmarks results against over 1 billion survey responses, allowing you to understand your engagement levels compared to top-performing companies.
Another feature worth highlighting is Culture Amp’s Retention Insights, which gives you early warning signs around employee flight risks. It doesn’t stop there though, Retention Insights also gives you suggestions on what you can do to bring these employees around.
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 is used by over 6,500 companies, including SoulCycle, Canva, McDonalds, Etsy, and Bombas.
The annual subscription for Culture Amp starts at $4,500, and they only accept yearly billing.
Best For
Culture Amp is designed for growing and large companies, regardless of industry and location.
I use ThriveSparrow daily to collect feedback and address internal tickets, integrating it with live chat tools for real-time interactions. This tool allows us to measure and visualize feedback effectively. I also prepare reports based on the collected feedback to share with relevant departments for review, which informs future training and improvements. Additionally, I export data from ThriveSparrow in XML format to other tools, enhancing our data management processes.
The user interface of ThriveSparrow is straightforward, making navigation simple. The customer support provided is world-class, offering timely and effective assistance whenever needed. Furthermore, the pricing structure is reasonable, making it accessible for businesses of any size.
Our organization purchased ThriveSparrow to better understand client needs and improve service delivery. Previously, gauging employees' opinions on our services and work culture was challenging, especially since we wanted to maintain anonymity in feedback collection. Survey Sparrow has enabled us to gather this feedback discreetly by distributing surveys via links. Additionally, we've integrated the tool with Zendesk to manage internal tickets, which helps us serve both clients and improve our workplace culture. I have been using this tool for three years.
Certain integrations within ThriveSparrow do not function as expected. The tool lacks support for collecting feedback via widgets, relying solely on links. Additionally, the limited payment methods available do not adequately serve our geographical location.
ThriveSparrow has maintained stable pricing since we first adopted it, unlike competitors who frequently increase their fees annually. This consistency makes budgeting easier and ensures we can continue using the tool without financial strain.
Potential buyers should consider the long-term cost implications of this tool to ensure it aligns with their expected return on investment. The limited integrations with other commonly used HR tools might also make ThriveSparrow less suitable for some organizations, so evaluating compatibility with existing systems is crucial.
Since its implementation, ThriveSparrow has undergone significant improvements, particularly in its user interface, which has been streamlined and enhanced for better user experience.
Survey Sparrow is particularly well-suited for human resource managers looking to gather and analyze employee feedback efficiently.
This tool may not be ideal for support operators, as it lacks certain functionalities tailored to optimizing support operations and real-time interaction management.
Kudos
Though it primarily focuses on employee rewards and recognition, Kudos has expanded its platform with features for understanding and driving engagement, including sentiment surveys, detailed analytics, incentive campaigns, and more.
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.
- There is no free plan or free trial.
- 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’ platform packs several modules aimed at improving employee experience. For starters, it lets you create and deploy anonymous Sentiment Surveys, enabling employees to safely provide feedback and giving you reliable insights to identify issues within the current workplace culture. All of these insights, along with trend analysis, are neatly displayed in the Kudos Dashboard.
Going beyond surveys, Kudos can help you create a culture of appreciation through its user-friendly peer recognition tools. Employees can send customizable Kudos cards to colleagues to highlight appreciated actions, from individual contributions to team efforts.
You can also use the platform to delight employees with all sorts of rewards, including merchandise, events, travel, charities, gift cards, and even custom rewards. Kudos’ rewards system is point-based, which means you give employees points as incentives, and they get to choose to redeem their accumulated points for. For the most part, we’ve found the point value assigned to rewards fair, without added fees.
Another stand-out module you’ll find within Kudos is its Culture Accelerator. Through it, you can create specialized campaigns to incentivize behaviors aligned with your company’s values and objectives. All of these campaigns can be customized to reflect your company brand and messaging, and if you need any help, you can work with a Kudos Program Designer to ensure your campaigns hit the mark.
If you’re a mid-to-large company looking to elevate employee engagement through data-backed insights and values-driven recognition strategies, we think Kudos checks all the boxes and is highly worth checking out.
Kudos is used in over 80 countries. Some of their customers include KidsPeace, Kronos, DHL, Chewy.com, and Make A Wish.
Kudos pricing starts at $3.25 per user per month with a minimum requirement of 500 employees.
Best For
Kudos is best for companies with 500 to thousands of users in practically any country and industry.
We use Kudos extensively for projects within the company. During projects, employees can lose confidence or become frustrated, so this tool helps enhance their mood and confidence. It is used to build up the team during busy times, keeping the forward momentum. Recognizing hard work and a positive attitude during chaotic times reassures employees that their efforts are appreciated and worthwhile.
Goal tracking is a great feature, making it easier to monitor employees' progress. Recognition tools motivate employees to reach their goals, which is a favorite aspect of the program. The user-friendly interface ensures a seamless process every month.
Our organization purchased Kudos to provide a seamless way to recognize and reward employees, enhancing morale and productivity. It allows recognition not only from direct managers but also from peers, ensuring employees feel valued and acknowledged. This tool helps to recognize the work and attitude of employees even when management is not always available to observe. By using this tool, we aimed to build confidence, foster a strong sense of character, and create a positive workplace environment. I have been using this tool for several months.
The limited number of kudos available each month is less than ideal, as some months require more recognition. This limitation can lead to some employees feeling their work wasn't good enough or acknowledged. The gift catalog lacks variety, which could be improved to appeal to a broader range of employees.
Kudos offers a variety of achievement levels for employees, unlike others that only have uniform levels of recognition. This differentiation helps employees feel unique and valued for their efforts. The support provided by this program is exceptional, saving time and resources for IT and HR teams by offering readily available assistance.
Consider how you plan to utilize the program within your organization. Evaluate the cost, which is reasonable and provides great value for building employee confidence. The user-friendly nature minimizes the need for extensive troubleshooting. The adaptability of the reward system is excellent, offering different levels and options for recognition. Ensure the tool helps track team wins and recognizes individual achievements, a crucial factor in its effectiveness.
Kudos has become more flexible in terms of rewards and their utilization. Its user-friendly design and comprehensive features make it a valuable asset for all companies.
Kudos is ideal for companies looking to build their employee base and drive confidence among their current employees.
Companies in highly competitive fields such as sales or cold calling might not benefit as much from Kudos. These sectors are typically driven by commission, which serves as its own reward. Additionally, in time-based structures, using this tool might encourage quantity over quality, potentially compromising customer service.
Empuls
Empuls’s engagement solution lets you run a variety of surveys, including Pulse, eNPS, and 360 Feedback surveys. All surveys are customizable and can be anonymized so your employees feel at ease giving honest feedback.
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 companies of different sizes can try out the tool and scale it up or down as needed. They also offer a 30-day free trial that anyone can sign up for.
- 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.
- There is no monthly billing option.
- 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 provides organizations with a host of tools to listen to, diagnose, and act on employee feedback to boost engagement. Central to its offering are anonymized pulse surveys which can help you elicit honest input. You can customize these surveys or choose from existing templates, thoughtfully created in partnership with HR experts at SHRM.
Another powerful tool is Empuls’ simplified eNPS surveys, which help you identify brand promoters, passives, and detractors with a single score. The detailed classification, coupled with guidance on how to engage each segment, enables you to convert detractors and passives into loyal promoters.
Once feedback is in, Empuls makes it easy to diagnose problem areas through cross-linkage insights between engagement, performance, culture, and more granular analytics. The platform detects interconnections that highlight priorities for improvement. These data-backed insights inform Empuls’ Act phase, where you are given action plans and change management recommendations tailored to addressing each engagement obstacle.
The ability to capture feedback across the employee lifecycle is another thing we like about Empuls. Right from onboarding to exit interviews, Empuls’ conversational surveys help you uncover how employees feel at each touchpoint. These staged insights along with data from pulse and 360-degree surveys, allow you to craft targeted strategies that elevate the experiences of your employees.
Empuls has over 1,000 global customers, including Prodevans, Magzter, KPIT, Quixy, and more.
Empuls pricing starts at $1 per employee per month (annual billing) depending on your chosen module:
- Reward and Recognize: $3 per employee per month
- Surveys: $3 per employee per month
- Social Intranet: $1 per employee per month
- Perks and Benefits: $2 per employee per month
Best For
Empuls is most suitable for small to medium-sized businesses who want to build a people-first environment.
Assembly
Assembly’s platform helps companies automate a host of employee engagement and recognition processes through customizable templates and workflows - eliminating manual effort and ensuring consistency.
PROS
- The platform is easy to use and customize.
- The pricing is transparent and affordable. There’s also a free plan you can sign up for without a demo.
- Make your own rewards and even set up a points system with automated incentives.
- 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
- A few users noted needing more control over their notifications to avoid notification overload.
- 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.
- 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 originally started as an employee rewards product but rapidly evolved into a comprehensive platform that facilitates employee listening, recognition, and collaboration. With the help of its customizable workflows and templates, companies large and small are able to celebrate their employees’ achievements, drive engagement among their teams, and streamline their daily operations.
Among the key workflows Assembly offers is one dedicated to engagement surveys. Designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of employee sentiments, this workflow lets you craft concise surveys, collect actionable feedback, and establish a consistent benchmark for measuring engagement over time. Another valuable workflow is centered around employee recognition. Whether it's acknowledging exceptional work, celebrating milestones, or simply expressing gratitude, the Recognition workflow can help you convey heartfelt recognition effortlessly.
Assembly also facilitates transparency and open communication through its Executive Updates and News Feed workflows. These features allow executives to share strategic decisions, company milestones, and important announcements, keeping employees informed and fostering a sense of connection to the organization's goals and successes.
There’s a lot to like about Assembly’s platform; it is user-friendly, customizable and affordable. There’s lots of other workflows you can customize and deploy within as well. If you’re an SMB looking for a flexible and budget-friendly employee engagement platform, we think Assembly is worth checking out.
Over 4,000 companies use Assembly’s solutions, including Coca-Cola, Quest Nutrition, Nesco Resource, HelloTech, and Amazon.
Assembly has four plans that are priced as follows:
- Recognition: Packs all the employee rewards and recognition features for $2 per user per month, billed annually.
- Engagement: For $4 per member per month, billed annually, this plan is designed for teams that want to maximize their employee engagement.
- Digital HQ: For $6 per member per month, billed annually, this plan packs all the necessary features for businesses to amplify cross-functional engagement, without any limits on the number of members on board.
- Custom: Designed for large organizations that need a custom and unique program, the Custom plan can accommodate unlimited members. Contact Assembly’s Sales team for a price quote.
Best For
Small and mid-size businesses across different verticals can benefit from Assembly’s solutions.
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.
WorkTango
WorkTango helps you measure engagement and collect actionable feedback easily and confidentially. You can leverage its real-time dashboards and analytics to understand employee sentiment, empower managers to act, and drive positive organizational change.
PROS
- You can run unlimited surveys, available in over 20 languages including English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Korean.
- You can use WorkTango’s research-backed and statistically validated assessments, or create your own.
- Anonymous Conversations enable managers to acknowledge and respond to open-text survey comments while protecting employee anonymity.
- You can compare your engagement survey results to internal and external benchmarks.
- Open-text responses can be summarized with Natural Language Processing (NLP). It can also bring the most used terms front and center in a word cloud.
- 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
- There isn’t a monthly billing option. You have to pay by year.
- All plans require a minimum commitment of 12 months.
- Free trials aren't available at this time.
- 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’s Surveys & Insights module is all about helping businesses measure and improve employee engagement. We like that users can customize and deploy an unlimited number of surveys to gather feedback across the entire employee lifecycle. Survey creation is made even easier with WorkTango’s library of expert-designed questions, ready to be used as needed.
Once responses are collected, WorkTango's dashboards and reporting features kick in. The sophisticated analytics help identify key themes and trends from both quantitative data and open-ended comments. Features like the Sentiment Cloud summarize the overall positive and negative sentiment within employee feedback, while easy benchmarking shows how your company compares to other players in your industry. These insights are presented through highly visual, easy-to-grasp dashboards tailored to different roles.
But WorkTango isn't just about measuring engagement. The software offers predictive recommendations and suggested actions based on survey results. Leaders can then turn these recommendations into accountable action plans with progress tracking. For developing leaders' capabilities, WorkTango even suggests relevant learning resources to build skills in areas needing improvement. It’s overall, a very well-thought-out platform.
Over 1,000 companies use Worktango’s solutions, including Kia Motors, HUB International, Rexall, and Accruent.
WorkTango starts at about $8,000 per year with an annual commitment.
Best For
WorkTango is best for mid-sized to large companies.
We used it for all employees to recognize each other for a job well done, birthdays, and anniversaries. HR would send birthday and anniversary recognition and other employees would comment wishing them well.
I liked that employees can recognize each other for accomplishments and a job well done. I like that employees can be recognized for their birthdays. I like that employees can be recognized for their anniversary each year.
We purchased WorkTango to build employee morale and encourage team building and recognition amongst peers. This is another way to provide positive reinforcement to our employees and encourage them to work hard and love what they do! I used it for 2 years.
Some employees would complain about the shop and being hard to navigate. We would receive feedback that employees didn't think it was super user-friendly. We had technical issues occasionally that would take a little while to resolve.
WorkTango is very similar to other programs out there. Not a lot of difference between the different ones I've used.
This is a great way to build morale and recognize employees. Employees love to be able to use their points towards items in the shop.
They have added unique features that make the overall experience more enjoyable.
WorkTango is good for companies that are looking for ways to recognize employees and build morale.
I think WorkTango is good for all companies that are interested in building morale.
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Deel
While Deel isn’t specialized in employee engagement, the global payroll vendor has expanded into a comprehensive system covering simple yet effective tools for managing and engaging 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.
- Excellent 24/7 customer service with fast onboarding (2-3 days) and local payroll experts in each jurisdiction.
- Deel HR is free for companies of all sizes.
- Seamless integration with platforms like QuickBooks, BambooHR, and Greenhouse, plus custom integration options.
- User-friendly, self-service features enable quick setup; identity verification often takes under 24 hours.
- Automated invoices simplify payments, provided they're in English.
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.
- Key features like onboarding automation are add-ons, which may increase costs.
- Limited flexibility in modifying contracts or service agreements; changes often require an addendum.
- Invoices cannot be generated in languages other than English.
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 15,000 businesses use Deel including Nike, Shopify, Redbull, and Zapier.
Deel’s employee engagement tool starts at $20 per employee per month.
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 serves as our HRIS system for all personnel outside the US, including contractors and employees through EOR in countries like Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, and the Netherlands. We use it for payroll processing, employee tracking, managing time off, and ensuring legal compliance in each country. Compliance is crucial, as Deel helps ensure we adhere to local employment laws. Additionally, it manages expenses and other HR processes for our non-US employees.
Deel simplifies the hiring process, particularly for contractors, making it incredibly user-friendly. The compliance features are invaluable, keeping us informed of legal changes across different countries. Moreover, the platform itself is straightforward and easy to navigate.
Our organization needed a system that would enable us to quickly hire contractors in Europe while scaling with our growth. Deel was chosen for its clarity, ease of setup, and cost-effectiveness. Initially, it was used for managing our European contractors, but as we transitioned from contractors to full-time employees, Deel's capacity to handle EOR and contractors across multiple countries proved ideal. We have been using Deel for just over a year, starting with contractors and recently expanding to include EOR services for our European employees.
Navigating the platform can sometimes be confusing when trying to locate specific features. Currently, Deel does not support adding US employees, necessitating separate HRIS systems for our US and international staff. Additionally, we occasionally encounter unexpected fees.
Deel offers a more affordable solution compared to its competitors, although it's important to consider potential hidden fees. While the platform's overall look and functionality are similar to others in the market, the differences are relatively minor.
When considering a tool like Deel, evaluate your hiring needs outside the US. Inquire about all potential costs, including benefits and administrative fees. Also, plan strategically for the countries you intend to hire in, as adding multiple countries can complicate the process.
Deel is actively developing new features aimed at becoming a comprehensive solution for US-based employers managing international hires. This ongoing evolution is geared towards creating a single platform that can accommodate a variety of HR needs.
Deel is exceptionally well-suited for SMBs to small enterprise businesses that need an efficient platform for managing contractors. It offers simplicity and ease of use that is ideal for businesses at this scale.
Larger companies may find Deel lacking in features necessary to manage a large employee population effectively, making it less suitable for bigger enterprises.
ThriveSparrow
ThriveSparrow stood out as an employee engagement tool with solid AI-driven insights, flexible survey distribution, and strong integration capabilities throughout our tech tests. Its recurring pulse surveys, sentiment analysis, and structured action plans are a big help for HR teams to gather and act on employee feedback efficiently.
PROS
- Highly customizable pulse surveys with pre-built templates and flexible anonymity settings.
- AI-powered sentiment analysis auto-categorizes employee feedback and highlights key concerns.
- Heat map visualization makes it easy to track engagement trends by department, location, or tenure.
- Action Plans help HR teams document, assign, and track engagement initiatives.
- Strong integration options with HRMS platforms and API support.
- Offers deep customization, allowing full control over survey questions, rating scales, and visibility settings.
- AI-powered sentiment analysis categorizes qualitative responses into key themes and presents insights in a visually digestible format.
- Granular data filtering by department, tenure, or location for precise trend analysis.
- Transparent pricing starting at $2 per user per month.
- Strong integration capabilities.
CONS
- Some integrations may incur additional costs.
- On-the-go usability is not yet available for HR users.
- Relatively new to the market so may lack experience compared to more established competitors.
- Some integrations may require an additional cost.
- No dedicated mobile app for admins.
- As a relatively new product, ThriveSparrow may not have the experience of more established vendors.
ThriveSparrow’s employee engagement tool offers a highly customizable, AI-powered approach to gathering and acting on employee feedback.
During testing, we found its survey system particularly well-designed, featuring pre-built templates for engagement, leadership, and culture, along with flexible customization options. Organizations can adjust anonymity settings, select distribution channels (Slack, MS Teams, email, SMS), and automate check-ins on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis—whatever suits them best.
One of our favorite features is its AI-powered sentiment analysis, which processes open-ended responses and categorizes them into key themes like leadership, communication, and workload. In our test, negative feedback on “management style” was automatically flagged, helping us quickly pinpoint leadership concerns. The heat map visualization made it easy to spot trends by department, location, or tenure, a functionality that compares well with platforms like Quantum Workplace, which also offers AI-driven sentiment tracking.
For organizations that struggle to turn feedback into action, the Action Plans feature provides a structured approach to engagement efforts. We tested this by setting up a plan to improve leadership communication, assigning tasks to managers, and setting deadlines. The system tracked action items in an interactive dashboard, making it easy to monitor progress and ensure accountability.
However, ThriveSparrow is relatively new in the market, (founded in February 2020), which may mean they might not have the same level of experience as more established companies such as TerryBerry (1918) or Quantum Workplace (2002).
Another thing we noticed is that ThriveSparrow actually does offer a free trial, but it wasn't immediately clear from their pricing page. We only found it after doing a quick search for “ThriveSparrow free trial” on Google, which led us right to their sign-up form. Also, it's worth mentioning that some integrations might cost extra, depending on your contract, so definitely double-check that before signing up.
Lastly, while employees can easily complete surveys on mobile devices, on-the-go usability is not available for HR users just yet. They still get to rely on a desktop to access the engagement dashboard.
ThriveSparrow's client list includes major companies such as Tropicana, Tesla, and Ikea, though the total number of companies using the software remains undisclosed.
ThriveSparrow's Engage module costs $3 per employee per month, billed annually. It includes automated survey scheduling, multilingual support, AI-driven text insights with sentiment analysis, action plans, and eNPS analytics.
Best For
ThriveSparrow is a strong choice for companies looking for deep employee engagement analytics, flexible survey distribution, and structured action planning.
I use ThriveSparrow to gather feedback from employees, which helps improve our service delivery. Additionally, I integrate the tool with WhatsApp to automate the collection of reviews from employees in different regions we operate in. The tool's chat system also enables real-time feedback collection from clients who visit our pages, enhancing our responsiveness and engagement.
I appreciate the user-friendly interface of ThriveSparrow, which makes navigation straightforward. The pricing is affordable, scaling reasonably with the number of users, which suits our budgetary constraints. Furthermore, I value the tool's ease of integration with other live chat tools, streamlining the collection of reviews directly from chat interactions.
Our organization purchased ThriveSparrow to enhance our feedback collection and review processes, aiming to improve service delivery within our human resources sector. Additionally, it facilitates the collection of client feedback, particularly useful when integrated with employee automation tools. I have been using this tool for over three years, during which it has significantly raised the standards of talent acquisition management at our company.
The customer care team is slow to respond to technical queries via live chat, which can be frustrating. The tool supports very limited payment options, complicating the subscription process. Additionally, some integrations, such as with Intercom, do not function properly, limiting its utility.
ThriveSparrow offers more competitive pricing compared to other tools I have evaluated, making it a cost-effective choice for our needs.
Potential buyers should carefully consider the pricing and the tool's capabilities relative to their specific needs before making a purchase. ThriveSparrow is particularly well-suited for HR departments focused on collecting employee feedback and customer reviews. Assess whether the tool's features align with your organizational requirements to ensure it adds value.
Over time, ThriveSparrow has been enhanced with a faster-loading browser extension, improving ease of use and accessibility. This development demonstrates the company's commitment to evolving in response to user feedback and technological advancements.
This tool is especially beneficial for human resource managers who need to manage and improve internal feedback mechanisms efficiently.
ThriveSparrow is not well-suited for support operators, as it lacks specific functionalities tailored to optimizing support operations.
Eletive
We’ve tested hundreds of tools in this space and have yet to come across anything that matches the way Eletive handles engagement. Seamlessly blending ready-to-use, automated pulse surveys with AI, this platform covers every stage of the employee lifecycle and offers a unique, personalized experience where the survey questions are tailored to each individual.
PROS
- Pre-made survey packages cover 11 different areas of employee engagement, ranging from onboarding to diversity and inclusion and offboarding.
- Machine learning personalizes the pulse survey question distribution.
- Tailored advice and suggested actions based on Organisational Behavior Management theory for active participation.
- The dashboard offers a clear, concise report and analysis of survey answers and trends (see screenshot).
- 40+ native HRIS integration options are available.
- 40+ languages support.
- Pre-made survey packages cover 11 different areas of employee engagement, ranging from onboarding to diversity and inclusion and offboarding.
- Machine learning personalizes the pulse survey question distribution.
- Tailored advice and suggested actions based on Organisational Behavior Management theory for active participation.
- The dashboard offers a clear, concise report and analysis of survey answers and trends (see screenshot).
- 40+ native HRIS integration options are available.
- 40+ languages support.
CONS
- AI analysis is done in English. Non-English answers have to be translated before analysis.
- The Base plan's report lacks export options, alerts for sensitive questions with low scores, and positive improvement and attrition risk insights.
- 1-on-1s, OKRs, 360-degree feedback, and HRIS integrations cost extra.
- AI analysis is done in English. Non-English answers have to be translated before analysis.
- The Base plan's report lacks export options, alerts for sensitive questions with low scores, and positive improvement and attrition risk insights.
- 1-on-1s, OKRs, 360-degree feedback, and HRIS integrations cost extra.
If you're on the hunt for an employee engagement tool that feels personal, intelligent, and genuinely designed for modern organizations, Eletive is worth a closer look.
Unlike most pulse surveys we’ve tried before, Elective’s is AI-supported—it can tailor the employee survey-taking experience by asking questions based on each individual's previous responses.
To test how this feature works, one of our editors scored a question low, and interestingly, they received a follow-up on that topic in the next survey. We can see how valuable this is for managers who want to understand their employees' feelings more deeply without spending hours reviewing responses to previous surveys in order to personalize the next ones.
Considering how important privacy is today, we were pleased to see how Elective integrated anonymity into its platform. The Chat feature, for example, enables any team member to respond to a manager’s question without revealing their identity unless they choose to do so. Moreover, allowing users to comment on any survey question—not just the open-ended ones—is a thoughtful way to collect nuanced feedback.
Unsurprisingly, as the brand is from Sweden and primarily targets the European market, it is more renowned in the U.K. and the E.U than in the U.S. Pricing-wise, Eletive’s is undisclosed and varies from user to user, but from what we've gathered, it’s pretty much in line with what you'd expect from other platforms like Profit.co or Quantum Workplace.
We like the abundance of HRIS integrations Elective offers—over 40 options. What we don’t like, though, is that these aren’t free. You must opt for their priciest plan or an integration add-on to access them. And while we’re on the topic, features like 1-on-1s, OKRs, and 360 feedback cost extra, too.
Undisclosed number. Some brands that have used Eletive include Halton, Orka, and Purmo.
Eletive has 3 plans: Essential, Standard, and Professional. All are quote-based.
Best For
Teams with at least 100 employees, ideally but not necessarily based in Europe.
Terryberry
Terryberry offers a comprehensive employee engagement solution that integrates recognition, wellness, and engagement measurement into one platform. With over a century of experience, their all-in-one approach helps mid-market organizations streamline their engagement initiatives while providing powerful analytics and insights, making them an excellent choice for companies looking to consolidate their employee experience programs.
PROS
- Advanced analytics toolkit featuring custom pulse surveys, template library, and demographic filtering for data-driven decision-making
- Comprehensive well-being features, including mental health resources, physical activity tracking, and social challenges tied to rewards
- Strategic measurement tools tracking engagement impact on retention, satisfaction, and organizational performance
- Complete integration between engagement initiatives, recognition moments, and reward fulfillment
- Mobile-first design with an intuitive interface
- They recently added Amazon Business to their rewards catalog— now U.S. users can redeem points for a massive variety of items.
- Customized physical goods as employee rewards
- Wide range of employee engagement features, including rewards, incentives, and a wellness tracker.
- Customer support and account management at Terryberry are quite good. Their reps stand out for being very responsive and attentive, which is evidenced by some of the client testimonials we read.
- The implementation process, while six weeks long, is quite comprehensive, and you get tons of help along the way. For instance, the last two weeks consist of internal and customer testing, as well as user training.
CONS
- No open API is currently available, though it's on the development roadmap
- Limited free trial options for testing the platform
- It may be complex for smaller organizations with basic engagement needs
- Interface design could benefit from modernization to match competitor offerings
- While Terryberry is easy to use, its design could look more modern and sleek.
- No open API, but on the roadmap for the end of 2023.
- No free trial at the moment.
Terryberry's engagement platform stands out for its cohesive and well-rounded approach to employee experience, combining recognition, rewards, and wellness initiatives in one system. During our recent 2024 demo, we observed how the platform effectively unites multiple engagement tools while maintaining clear visibility into program participation and cultural impact.
The platform's survey capabilities for gathering employee feedback impressed us during our evaluation. The manager dashboards provide comprehensive insights into recognition program adoption and value alignment, a feature that particularly resonated with HR leaders we consulted. We found the built-in wellbeing features effectively support both physical and mental health through team challenges and activity tracking, complemented by flexible reward options that can be tied to wellness achievements.
In our conversation with their product team, they highlighted how the platform's analytics suite has evolved to provide deeper insights into engagement metrics. We observed how organizations can track the correlation between recognition activities and employee satisfaction, providing actionable data for program optimization. The pulse survey functionality, complete with template libraries and demographic filtering, enables companies to gather targeted feedback and measure engagement trends over time.
We were also particularly impressed by how the platform integrates milestone programs with broader engagement initiatives. The system automatically triggers communications and recognition moments while maintaining personalization through configurable workflows. Lastly, while the interface could be modernized, the mobile-first design facilitates engagement across hybrid and remote workforces.
Terryberry serves over 40,000 clients worldwide, including notable names like Tesco, Epsilon, General Motors, and Trilogy Health.
Terryberry offers flexible pricing models tailored to each organization's engagement needs. Their basic subscription plans start at approximately $3 per employee receiving an award. To get an accurate quote, it's best to contact their sales team directly.
Pricing factors include:
- Subscription costs based on selected engagement features
- One-time setup fees
- Annual administration fees calculated by total employee headcount and program utilization
Best For
Terryberry's engagement platform is optimized for mid-market organizations wanting to consolidate their recognition and engagement programs into a single, measurable solution. It particularly serves companies looking to eliminate the complexity of managing multiple vendors while maintaining program effectiveness. The platform's integrated approach makes it ideal for HR teams seeking to connect recognition moments with engagement initiatives and wellness programs.
AdvantageClub.ai
If you need a mobile-friendly, feature-rich solution that goes beyond basic surveys to actively measure and improve employee sentiment, AdvantageClub.ai is worth considering—just be prepared for some hands-on vendor support and a potentially higher price point.
PROS
- Full-featured web platform with a mobile app covering benefits, wellness, and more.
- Smooth integrations with HRIS, LMS, Slack, Teams, and other workplace tools.
- Real-time sentiment tracking with Mood-O-Meter and Polls for instant feedback.
- Advanced survey and quiz tools with branching logic and AI-driven personalization.
- AI-powered engagement nudges to encourage participation and feedback.
- AI-powered messaging feature streamlines the process of giving and receiving recognition.
- Extensive global rewards marketplace with 10,000+ brands across 100+ countries.
- Flex-Benefits program allows employees to customize how they use perks.
- AI-driven engagement assistant (ADVA) nudges employees to stay active in recognition programs.
- Seamless integrations with HRMS, Slack, Teams, and Outlook for workflow automation.
CONS
- Undisclosed pricing, no free trial.
- Can be expensive for budget-conscious teams.
- Analytics and reporting tools require vendor support for full customization.
- No public pricing. No self-service free trial.
- Instead of self-configuration, users may require additional support to leverage the power of analytics and dashboard features fully.
We tested AdvantageClub.ai’s employee engagement product, and it quickly became clear that it offers a robust suite of features designed to enhance employee participation, well-being, and feedback collection.
Our experiences with the web and mobile apps were both enjoyable. While the former offers a full range of features, the latter holds its own, covering everything from corporate benefits and wellness to dining, education, gyms, entertainment, and more. We especially liked how we could filter savings and offers based on relevance and location right in the app. This made it so convenient to access key benefits on the go.
Another thing we always prioritize when assessing staff engagement tools is integration capabilities, and on this front, AdvantageClub.ai didn’t disappoint. It integrates with nearly every HRIS, LMS, and communication app we’ve known, which is a nice touch to ensure employee participation and easy data sharing across your company’s existing tools.
For those curious about this software’s real-time employee sentiment features, it has plenty to offer. The Mood-O-Meter instantly gauges employee well-being, while Polls provide an open and transparent way to gather feedback.
And we loved that for more structured engagement, there are interactive quizzes and survey tools, which support various question types, randomized answer choices (to reduce bias), and even branching logic for personalized survey experiences. This AI-driven approach allows each participant to follow a tailored survey path based on their responses, which truly sets AdvantageClub.ai apart from competitors.
However, despite its abundant features, AdvantageClub.ai isn’t very affordable, especially for teams on a budget. We’re also not fans of its pricing approach: it’s undisclosed with no free trial offered.
Additionally, while the analytics and reporting tools are robust, we found that fully leveraging them often requires extra support from the vendor. Customizing dashboards and interpreting engagement trends might take some learning, especially for teams that aren’t as data-savvy.
1,000+ companies, including TARGET, EY, Concentrix, and BCG.
AdvantageClub.ai has custom pricing only, and no free trial is offered.
Best For
AdvantageClub.ai is best for large enterprises and mid-sized companies, especially those with a global workforce, looking for a highly customizable employee recognition platform with a vast rewards marketplace and AI-driven automation to boost engagement.
Benefits of Employee Engagement Tools
There’s a lot to gain from employee engagement software. Most notably, these tools enable you to:
- Make employees feel heard: Employee engagement software provides an outlet for employees to anonymously share their opinions, voice out any concerns about the workplace and work culture, and propose suggestions for improvement. When employees feel heard and their feedback is taken into account, it leads to less turnover and higher productivity.
- Craft and deploy surveys like an expert: There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. The best employee engagement platforms are built on solid research, which often includes the input of IO psychology experts. They also often come with a host of ready-made survey templates you can deploy in minutes, with recommendations on what to ask, when to ask it, and how often.
- Automatically analyze and uncover employee sentiment patterns: One problem with traditional employee engagement surveys is that it can take a long time to analyze all the feedback gathered. A lot of what is uncovered relates broadly to the employee experience but lacks actionable next steps. The best employee engagement tools can analyze feedback as it comes and give you a comprehensive understanding of employee sentiments, preferences, and areas for improvement.
- Continuously perform culture health: Most employee engagement platforms use pulse surveys to gather small amounts of data in frequent intervals. These surveys ask only one or two questions, keeping the pressure low and the response rate high. By establishing a consistent feedback loop, you can identify trends, address concerns before they grow into systemic problems, and adapt strategies to maintain a psychologically safe working environment.
- Do a lot more than surveys: Oftentimes, employee engagement platforms bundle up their offerings with other solutions in the employee experience tech space, such as employee recognition and performance management software. Having all of these tools integrated into one platform reduces tech fatigue for your team and is easy on your budget too.
Common Mistakes When Buying and Using Employee Engagement Platforms
- Unreasonable expectations of impact: To be effective, the platform must work alongside a distinctive, authentic, and appreciative work culture. The software can supplement your efforts, but it won't “fix” company-wide problems with engagement. Employee engagement experts Mallory Herrin and Tracie Marie agree here, and Marie's experience has borne this out. She reminds us in no uncertain terms that engagement software cannot replace the power of a human connection.
- Unreasonable expectations of adoption: Affecting a company-wide change will take time. Simply put, inspiring behavioral 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.
- Underestimating the slow pace of implementation: Like the plodding, uphill struggle of behavior change, implementing a new HR tool can also be painfully sluggish. 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.
- 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 choose not to follow it), you can orchestrate a successful rollout with good planning and reasonable expectations. From 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.
The Business Case Behind Employee Engagement Platforms
Employee engagement software allows companies to have a better understanding of the health of their organization. These solutions give People and HR teams more insights into what is working and what needs to be fixed.
When used right, HR can reap benefits by increasing the productivity of their workforce and studying losses caused by employee attrition. Plus, we all got into HR to help people have a better employee experience, right?
We’ve designed this Excel-based calculator to help you calculate the basic ROI from using the best employee engagement solutions. We highly suggest you watch the video below to learn how to use this spreadsheet best.
We also have a page on our site dedicated to HR Tech ROI calculations if you want to check it out.
Key Features of Employee Engagement Software
Here are some key features of employee engagement software:
- Employee surveys: Employee surveys are a fundamental capability of employee engagement software. These include pulse surveys for regular sentiment check-ins, eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) surveys to measure loyalty and satisfaction, and more in-depth annual or quarterly surveys. Sophisticated survey builders make it easy for HR teams to craft customized question sets while choosing from preset expert-validated templates.
- Anonymity settings: The best employee engagement platforms allow admins to configure anonymity settings on a per-survey basis. For example, demographic data collection can be toggled on or off. Respondents can also opt to submit written commentary anonymously with no identifying details. Setting the right anonymity parameters helps drive survey participation and enable tracking of trends for different subgroups.
- Automated distribution: Employee engagement tools allow you to configure surveys to be sent out either via email or other internal communication apps to pre-defined audience segments at the time and frequency of your choosing. There are often automated nudges and reminders, too, which further alleviate manual intervention, freeing admins and HR teams to focus on reviewing results and implementing ideas to enhance employee engagement.
- Real-time analytics: With the help of artificial intelligence and user-friendly dashboards, employee engagement software helps you analyze employee feedback and visualize key engagement metrics like eNPS and satisfaction scores. Trends can be segmented across teams, locations, or any custom attributes captured, allowing HR professionals and leaders to respond promptly to emerging trends or critical issues.
- Reporting: Employee engagement software typically offers robust reporting tools. You can auto-generate and share reports for stakeholder audiences that showcase response rates, trends, and insights over time. You can also tailor reports by including or excluding sensitive groups and export results into various formats, such as PDF and CSV.
Questions to Ask in Demos with Employee Engagement Software Vendors
- How does your platform measure and track employee engagement? What metrics and analytics does it provide?
- How customizable are the surveys and feedback tools? Can I tailor questions and flows to my organization's specific needs?
- What methods does the platform use to gather employee feedback (e.g., surveys, pulse polls, open text, etc.)?
- Does your system integrate with our current HRIS, payroll, or other platforms?
- What types of participation tracking does it offer (e.g., survey response rates, event attendance, etc.)?
- What kinds of real-time feedback capabilities does it have? Can employees provide input anytime?
- What types of employee segmentation and filtering options are available? Can I analyze data by role, team, location, etc.?
- How are the results and data visualized? What dashboards, reports, and insights can I access as an administrator?
- Does your platform provide employee engagement action plan templates and tools and follow-up workflows based on feedback results?
- How do you ensure data security and compliance with regulations? What is your security and privacy protocol?
- What type of support, training, and account management do you provide?
- Can you explain the implementation process? How long does rollout typically take?
- What are the pricing models available? Are there options to scale up or down as needed?
- Can I see a demo tailored to our specific use cases and needs?
Employee Engagement Software FAQs
What is employee engagement software?
Employee engagement software provides tools to gather employee feedback through surveys and pulse checks, facilitates internal communications and social connections, and enables managers to coach employees and analyze engagement metrics. The software leverages data and analytics to identify areas for improving the employee experience and sparks action to nurture a highly engaged, satisfied workforce.
What is the difference between employee engagement and employee recognition?
Employee engagement refers to the level of enthusiasm, connection, and commitment an employee has toward their organization and its goals.
An engaged employee is one who is fully involved in and enthusiastic about their work. In contrast, employee recognition is about acknowledging employees for their efforts and contributions. Forms of recognition include praise, rewards, awards, and appreciation events.
How do companies use employee engagement software?
Employee engagement software serves various purposes within an organization to improve the employee experience.
Human resources teams use the software to conduct regular surveys to monitor engagement levels and pinpoint problem areas. Managers also use it to check in with their direct reports, provide coaching, and recognize achievements. The software also facilitates company-wide communications from leadership to all employees and social connections between peers.
When is the best time to use employee engagement software?
Our community expert, Christina Moran, emphasizes that there’s no exact headcount or development phase for buying employee engagement software. The right time depends on your company’s unique needs. She recommends looking for signs that indicate widespread disengagement, such as 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.”
What is a good measure of employee engagement?
A good measure of employee engagement encompasses multiple factors, such as job satisfaction, enthusiasm for work, and alignment with company values. Key indicators include high levels of participation in workplace activities, positive feedback in surveys, low turnover rates, and strong peer relationships.
When employees feel connected to their roles and company mission, they tend to demonstrate higher productivity, discretionary effort, and commitment. Engagement metrics, therefore, combine quantitative data (like retention and productivity) with qualitative insights from regular employee feedback.
Final Advice on Buying Employee Engagement Software
There are no silver bullets when it comes to tackling disengaged employees and understanding what's really happening in your business. However, having an employee engagement platform in place can help you engage your remote workers as well as in-office ones.
Given companies using employee engagement gamification are seven times more profitable than those that don't, you may also want to figure out ways to add gamification to your employee engagement programs.
Last but not least, providing proper training for your managers and teams is crucial for creating a culture of appreciation in your workplace. This list of the best employee engagement training courses can be a great starting point.
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