How to Choose an Employee Engagement Software - 10 Tips

Employee Engagement software is a technology designed to assess and enhance employee engagement at work. It usually consists of tools to carry out surveys, obtain feedback, recognize employee successes, and make suggestions for improving engagement.

Features of Employee Engagement Software

The major features of Employee Engagement Software include:

Survey and Feedback

This helps to obtain information on how engaged employees are. With surveys, you can assess employees and get insight into thorny issues affecting them at work which they might not normally discuss.

Recognition

The recognition feature allows team members to acknowledge the contributions made by every employee. This is a great way to motivate them because they get to see how their work contributes to the company's overall success.

Analytics

Analytics is a major feature of any Employee Engagement software. Metrics to be noted include the frequency of employee interactions with the software and the quality of data obtained from employee feedback, such as comments, and posting frequency. The data analytics should be presented in a dashboard that gives an overall view of how employees relate to the software.

Collaborative spaces

Another important feature is a collaborative and interactive space such as a chat room. Employees can communicate, ask questions, provide feedback, and follow up on issues.

Other features that could be included are:

Pulse surveys

These quick surveys contain not more than five questions and can be used to “feel the pulse” and be a source of continuous feedback.

Employer Net Promoter Score (NPS)

This feature helps to measure job satisfaction and loyalty among employees. The feature can ask all employees a question that shows employees who are engaged and those who are not.

Notifications

Push notifications are a useful feature with which employees can be informed all at once whenever there’s an important message to be passed.

Importance of Employee Engagement Software in Modern Workplaces

Employee Engagement software is a must-have in today’s workplace because companies cannot afford a disengaged workforce. According to a Gallup estimate, a disengaged employee costs a company approximately $3,400 for every $10,000 of salary, or 34%. Employees who are disengaged are also very likely to leave, leading to high turnover rates if not checked.

The Employee Engagement software helps organizations in the following ways:

Give employees a voice

Employee Engagement software allows employees to voice their opinions and make contributions in a way that may not be possible in physical meetings. The software’s platform facilitates team discussions in which everyone can communicate, share ideas, and air their views, which creates a strong sense of belonging among employees.

Provides continuous feedback

Managers can obtain continuous feedback from Employee Engagement software and monitor the progress of team members. This also ensures that employees stay aligned with their goals and get the support they need to achieve them. Managers can thereby easily identify skill gaps and recommend the required development programs for employees.

Improve recognition

A survey by Gallup revealed that employees who received great recognition are 20 times more likely to be engaged than those who received poor recognition. Employee Engagement software helps to improve recognition by automating processes that recognize and reward the achievements of employees, which motivates and makes them more productive.

Increases retention

Improved engagement means there’ll be better retention of employees. An effective Engagement software helps to improve employee engagement, making employees more likely to remain with the company and contribute to the company culture.

Better productivity

When employees are highly engaged, they are more likely to be productive. They are more likely to go above and beyond their job description to achieve goals, which impacts the company positively. Studies have shown that companies with more engaged employees usually outperform their competition.

Boosts creativity and drives innovation

When engagement is improved, employees are more likely to think creatively and bring unique solutions to solve problems. Data has shown that employee engagement is highly correlated with innovative thinking among employees. An effective engagement software will therefore bring about more creativity and innovation in the organization.

Offers insights into HR Data

One of the most important features of Employee Engagement software is the collection and analysis of data. From this data, managers obtain valuable insights on trends, patterns, areas of strength, and opportunities that will help in decision-making to improve the company’s business.

What are themost commonly used tools to measure employee engagement?

While there are several tools, surveys are the most commonly used tool to measure employee engagement. The main aim of surveys is to obtain information and discover how employees truly feel about various aspects of their work and workplace. Some surveys used to measure engagement include surveys about onboarding, job satisfaction, employee motivation, commitment, employee’s sense of purpose, perception of career development opportunities, and culture fit.

Overview of employee engagement surveys

Employee engagement surveys are designed to measure how engaged employees are at work. From the survey feedback, you can determine how employees feel about their jobs, colleagues, and the workplace in general. Some of the metrics that employee engagement surveys often measure include: absenteeism rates, eNPS, retention rates, survey participation, and utilization of benefits and perks.

Popular tools and platforms

Some of the tools used to measure engagement are:

1. Surveys: aimed at obtaining feedback from employees to measure their engagement levels.

2. Rewards and recognition: recognition programs can help to discover the most engaged employees through their performance

3. One-on-one: Managers can have one-on-one discussions with their team members to assess the level of engagement.

4. Interviews: Interviews conducted with employees can help to measure engagement and find the problems causing them to be disengaged.

5. Productivity and retention rates: The rate of productivity and employee retention can indicate how engaged employees are.

Platforms for Employee Engagement:

1. PerformYard
2. CultureAmp
3. Empuls
4. Kudos
5. Lattice
6. Leapsome
7. Motivosity
8. Bonusly
9. working
10. Workvivo

How much does employee engagement software cost?

Engagement Software Pricing Models

Employee Engagement software usually follows the model of pricing of other kinds of HR software. These include per-user pricing, monthly annual, subscription-based, usage-based, tiered pricing, and other models. PerformYard uses a per-person, per-month pricing model for its engagement software.

Factors that affect software costs

1. Software features and functionality: More features of the software means more work will go into its development and this will affect the pricing. 

2. Custom design: The user interface (UI/UX) design is important in any type of engagement software. The pricing will likely go up when there are more screens and pages to be designed.

3. Use of open-source or third-party tools: When there’s pre-existing code and other resources developers can leverage on,  rather than starting from scratch, the pricing is likely to reduce.

4. Maintenance and support: The software will require ongoing support, such as training and additional features. This will be factored into the pricing.

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Comparison of Free and Paid Tools - Pros and Cons

Free Tool Pros

• They come at no cost and are very suitable for small and new businesses.
• They come with basic, essential features such as surveys, feedback mechanisms, and basic reporting. These are often sufficient for small businesses.
• They are easy to deploy as they usually require a simple setup process and don’t need extensive training or IT support.

Free Tool Cons

• They come with limited features and lack advanced functionalities such as analytics and integration capabilities.
• They are not usually scalable as demands increase or change.
• They have limited support and fewer updates.

Paid Tools Pros

• They usually have advanced features, including detailed analytics, personalized employee experiences, extensive integration capabilities, and gamification elements.
• There’s access to more support and updates that ensure that the tool keeps up with the latest technological trends.
• Paid tools get a higher level of customization and scalability, which allows organizations to tailor the software to their specific needs.

Paid Tool Cons

• They are usually costly, both in implementation, training, and maintenance costs, especially for small businesses with limited budgets.
• They are more complex to implement due to advanced features and customization options.

Criteria for selecting an effective platform to support employee engagement programs 

Customization and scalability

When selecting an engagement software, you need to consider the problems you want to meet in your employee engagement strategy and choose the software that can be customized to address those problems. The application should also be scaleable, that is, it should be able to handle increasing and changing demands without compromising its performance. 

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User interface and experience

The user interface of the engagement software should be easy to use and employees should be comfortable using it. You should select a tool that has an intuitive interface and guarantees a seamless user experience.

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Integration with existing systems

Ensure that the engagement software can smoothly integrate with your previous HR software and other systems you already have.

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Analytics and reporting features

Data analytics and reporting features will give you valuable insights that will help to understand trends and patterns that come up in reports. These features are a must-have in your engagement software.

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Customer support and resources

Reliable customer support is important. You need to select an engagement software that guarantees efficient customer support when required.

Conclusion

The importance of employee engagement software cannot be overemphasized, as it plays a huge role in improving employee engagement, which boosts retention, motivation, and productivity. 

The decision to choose employee engagement software must therefore be taken with a lot of considerations. Factors to be considered include costs, required features, scalability, user interface, integration capabilities, and options for data analytics. In choosing the right software, you must assess several options and select the one that most suits the needs of your organization. 

When you choose an employee engagement software like PerformYard, you will significantly enhance employee engagement by streamlining various HR processes and fostering a more connected and supportive work environment.