Employee Engagement Software: Have a Real Impact on Your Team With These 9 Tools

Engaged employees are more productive, motivated, and driven. On the other hand, disengaged employees can cost your company tens of thousands, if not millions, of dollars every year. In fact, Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workforce report states that disengaged employees cost global companies $8.8 trillion dollars in lost productivity.   

As more and more employees value their well-being and satisfaction at work and are ready to quit or “quiet quit” when these conditions aren’t met, companies realize that employee engagement is critical to their growth and success. 

There are many strategies you can implement to increase employee engagement, and there are also numerous employee engagement tools you can use. The key is to find the tool that aligns with your unique strategy.

In this article, we’ve compiled a list of the top 9 best employee engagement software. 

These tools are designed to improve various areas of employee engagement and create a better work environment. 

What Is Employee Engagement Software?

If you’re reading this article, it’s because you’re on the lookout for the best employee engagement software. But what is it, really? 

Employee engagement software isn’t a one-size-fits-all tool you can use to boost employee engagement in your company. This software comes in various forms and addresses different aspects of employee engagement. 

For instance, one employee engagement tool can focus on enhancing communication and collaboration within teams, while another may concentrate on recognizing and rewarding employee achievements.

There are numerous areas to consider, and no single tool can magically address all of them. These areas include: 

• Improving communication between employees and managers, 
• Ensuring employees feel safe and comfortable at work, 
• Encouraging work-life balance, 
• Promoting personal development, 
• Creating an inclusive environment that provides opportunities for employees to voice their ideas and give feedback, 
• Fostering company culture to create a sense of belonging, 
• Building stronger connections between colleagues and leaders, and 
• Rewarding and recognizing your employees for their efforts. 

The key is to opt for the tool that best aligns with your unique strategy. 

If you find yourself wondering which tools can help you improve employee engagement, refer to our list of the most impactful employee engagement software.

Top 9 Impactful Employee Engagement Software

Wondering what’s the best employee engagement software for your company? In this section, we share the 9 most impactful tools to help with different aspects of your employee engagement strategy. 

Short on time? Scroll to the end to find a concise comparative table. 

Best to Promote Employee's Ideas: Ideanote

One way to boost employee engagement is by giving your employees an opportunity to voice their opinions and share their ideas. However, using idea collection as part of your employee engagement strategy is more than simply encouraging employees to share their feedback or ideas. 

You also need an effective way to collect their ideas and make sure that each idea is taken into consideration. The best way to do that is with an idea management platform like Ideanote. 

Ideanote is an innovation-led solution for collecting and managing ideas to solve company problems and challenges. With Ideanote, you can take your employee ideas through every step of the idea management workflow, guiding them from collection through evaluation and selection towards implementation.

💡 Build a culture of innovation in your organization with Ideanote

Ideanote is more than an idea collection tool. It’s an innovation-led platform that helps you encourage your employees to contribute their ideas anytime, creating a company culture of continuous growth and innovation.  

⚠️ What you should be aware of 

Collecting employee ideas is a great way to make them more engaged. But simply having an idea management tool alone won't get you the results you're looking for. What truly matters is turning idea collection and management into an ongoing practice at your company and creating a culture of continuous innovation. 

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Free plan available (limited to 10 members)
• Business plan starts at $49/month for 15 members and $289 for 100 members
• Free trial available for the business plan (no credit card required)

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.7/5

Capterra: 4.9/5

Best for the Intranet: Hub

Open communication builds trust and creates a sense of inclusion, making your employees feel like they are part of the company and, thus, boosting their engagement.  

Hub is an intranet solution that serves as a centralized hub where employees can access company news, updates, and internal resources. It also allows them to collaborate and share ideas with their colleagues, fostering stronger connections and creating a sense of belonging to a tight-knit community. 

Overall, Hub is an excellent tool for improving internal communication. It can also help you improve collaboration with discussion boards and project management features and measure employee morale via integrated surveys. Plus, it offers employee recognition features like badges and leaderboards.

✅ Pros

• Easy to implement, use, and maintain 
• Promotes connectivity among different branches of the company
• Responsive and helpful technical support
• Straightforward and intuitive interface
• Good value for money as compared to other similar tools 

❌ Cons

• A somewhat misleading cost structure that may impose hidden fees 
• No transparent pricing (you need to email the company to get a quote)
• Some features don’t perform as expected 

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Request a quote

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.2/5

Capterra: 4.5/5

Best for Employee Surveys: SurveySparrow

Employee surveys are one of the most effective tools to measure current levels of engagement within your company and determine which areas must be improved to increase employee engagement. 

You can use a digital survey platform like SurveySparrow to conduct employee surveys. 

SurveySparrow is an all-in-one omnichannel experience management platform. Simply put, it allows you to create professional employee surveys and distribute them across multiple channels.

Then, it lets you analyze the responses to gain actionable insights into what’s working and what isn’t.

✅ Pros

• It lets businesses use their own branding
• Its conversational style engages respondents
• Flexible and reasonably priced
• The support team is quick and effective
• Intuitive and visually appealing design 

❌ Cons

• Higher pricing compared to similar platforms 
• Not suitable for smaller businesses due to cost and complexity
• A steep learning curve
• Limited report export options in the free plan
• Although intuitive, the user interface can be hard to understand for first-time users

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Free plan available
• Paid plans start at $19/month
• Free trial available on all plans

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.4/5

Capterra: 4.4/5

Best For Employee Recognition: Kudos

Making employees feel heard, valued, and rewarded for their hard work is essential to every employee engagement strategy. To implement this strategy effectively, you can use an employee recognition platform, such as Kudos. 

Kudos is an employee recognition and rewards tool that can help foster a culture of appreciation within your company. It enables employees to give peer-to-peer recognition through personalized messages, digital badges, and points, which can be redeemed for rewards. 

With Kudos, users can exchange their points for rewards like merchandise, events, hotel stays, charity donations, and gift cards. You can also create custom rewards, like a lunch with the CEO or an extra day off. 

What's more, Kudos offers people analytics for tracking the impact of recognition efforts and often features social recognition feeds. It can be integrated with other tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack. 

✅ Pros

• Easily accessible on all devices (desktop, mobile)
• User-friendly with an intuitive interface.
• Offers adjustable recognition levels.
• Allows users to convert collected points to gift cards and prizes

❌ Cons

• Limited recognition customization options 
• Rewards are limited based on geographical location

💲 Pricing

• Subscriptions start at $5/user/month according to SaaSworthy

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.8/5

Capterra: 4.8/5

Best to Measure Employee Engagement: 15Five

Ineffective management can quickly drive employee engagement to the ground. In fact, uninspiring and uncaring managers are one of the top reasons why employees quit their jobs.

A software like 15Five is designed to help you avoid just that by allowing your employees to provide regular feedback to their managers and leaders in just 15 minutes a day (hence, the name 15Five). 

15Five helps bring employees and their managers on the same page with regular check-ins and performance reviews and make a real change with goal tracking and skill training. 

✅ Pros

• Great features for improving employee engagement, like check-ins and high-fives 
• Offers solutions for performance management 
• Effective for tracking OKRs and summarizing weekly progress
• User-friendly interface that’s easy to use for employees and leaders

❌ Cons

• Offers so many features that it can be overwhelming to use
• Some users may find the UX slightly outdated
• Onboarding can be challenging and requires careful planning
• Users may need support during the onboarding and initial stages 

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Pricing starts at $4/user/month

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.6/5

Capterra: 4.8/5

Best to Track Employee Performance: PerformYard

You can’t improve employee engagement unless you continuously monitor it. PerformYard is an HR performance software designed to help you track employee performance through goal setting, feedback collection, and performance reviews. 

PerformYard allows you to evaluate your employee’s experience performance in detail and from multiple angles with specialized reviews, such as annual reviews, competency-based reviews, and project-based reviews, so you can get a 360-degree picture of their experience. 

✅ Pros

• Can be customized to fit the company’s performance cycle
• Intuitive and easy to navigate
• Friendly interface that encourages employees to self-review
• Responsive and helpful customer service

❌ Cons

• May come with a learning curve for first-time users
• Limited accessibility settings

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Pricing ranges between $5-$10/user/month

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.8/5

Capterra: 4.8/5

Best for Social Media: Workvivo

What’s better to make employees feel more connected to the company if not an internal company social media feed? You can set one up with Workvivo - a modern internet platform designed to replace traditional intranet employees barely use.

With Workvivo, you can create a digital hub where employees can share updates and stories, comment on each other's achievements, and stay informed about company news and events. 

With features like a social feed, recognition tools, and real-time communication channels, your employees can feel more connected to the company and their coworkers.

✅ Pros

• Intuitive and easy-to-use interface 
• Visually pleasing design and friendly UX
• Seamless integration with other software
• A well-chosen feature suite to improve employee experience

❌ Cons

• Initial setup might be challenging
• Mobile app issues may be present 

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Request a quote

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.8/5

Capterra: 4.7/5

Best for Employee Learning: Leapsome

Employees who are given the chance to develop and grow in their roles tend to be more engaged. That’s why providing your employees with learning experiences can be one of the most effective employee engagement strategies. 

Leapsome is a comprehensive employee engagement platform that enhances employee engagement through a combination of performance reviews, employee feedback surveys, and personalized learning experiences. 

Among the many features of Leapsome, the most noteworthy is its personalized learning tool. This feature is designed to help new hires learn the necessary skills to perform well in their roles and to help existing employees improve their skills. 

Leapsome allows companies to create dynamic learning experiences for their employees with features like learning paths, learning libraries, and free courses. 

✅ Pros

• A dynamic platform that encourages employee reviews and learning
• Intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface for most 
• Great UX
• Highly customizable to fit the company’s needs

❌ Cons

• Can be challenging to set up, but provides helpful guides
• Customization of the platform may require additional support
• Cost may be a concern for smaller businesses 

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Request a quote

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.8/5

Capterra: 4.7/5

Best for Goal-Setting: Lattice

Lattice is an innovative goal-setting software that helps you align your teams around objectives, encourage cross-functional collaboration, and accelerate business growth. 

More specifically, it helps you create objectives and key results (OKRs) to bring your team on the same page. Then, you can easily track these goals and measure progress by keeping everyone in the loop with visual dashboards.

Aside from goal-setting, Lattice offers performance reviews, productivity and compensation tools, employee feedback surveys, and HRIS. 

✅ Pros

• User-friendly and well-built interface 
• A variety of features across performance management and goal-setting
• Integration with other tools like Slack and Salesforce
• Constantly adding new features and improving the platform

❌ Cons

• Setting goals can be confusing at times 
• Some features may be limited 
• First-time users may need assistance

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Minimum annual agreement of $4,000

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.7/5

Capterra: 4.4/5

Honorable mentions 

There are too many great employee engagement tools to cover in this list. While we chose the top 9 according to our criteria, there are other tools that may be worth your attention. 

So, here are some honorable mentions of 4 extra tools that are also great but didn’t make it to our top 9 list: 

• Humaans.io: an HRIS (human resources information system) platform that simplifies HR tasks with integrations and automated workflows. 
• Kumospace: a virtual office for remote teams that offers customizable and interactive online spaces where users can host events and conversations. 
• CultureBot: a Slack bot that helps teams build a more inclusive and engaged company culture.  
• BirthdayBot: another Slack bot that helps teams become more engaged by celebrating each other’s birthdays and work anniversaries in Slack.

How to Choose an Employee Engagement Platform 

The secret to choosing the most effective employee engagement tools is ensuring they support your overall strategy. 

So, before you set out on a journey to find the right tools, you must have a detailed employee engagement strategy with clearly defined goals. Without it, you won’t be able to choose the tools that can help you achieve your desired results.

Then, set a reasonable budget and keep in mind that many employee engagement platforms follow a per-user pricing model, where the cost rises with the number of users. To avoid surprises, estimate your potential user count as your company grows. 

Lastly, pay attention to the ease of use of every tool you select. If it’s too complex, your employees will likely feel reluctant to go through the learning curve. 

The easier and more enjoyable it is to use, the higher the chances your employees will willingly implement it in their daily routines.  

Best Employee Engagement Software: Comparison Tab

	🏆 Best for	💸 Pricing
Ideanote	Large and mid-sized businesses looking to create a culture of innovation to boost employee engagement.	Free plan available. Starts at $15 per month for up to 15 users.
Hub	Companies seeking an all-in-one platform for employee communication and collaboration.	No free plan. Request a quote via website.
SurveySparrow	Companies looking to gather feedback and conduct professional surveys to improve employee satisfaction.	Free 14-day trial. Pricing available upon signup.
Kudos	Businesses looking to recognize and reward employees to boost their motivation and engagement.	No free plan. Request a quote via website.
15Five	Facilitating regular feedback and performance reviews to measure and improve employee engagement.	Free 14-day trial. Between $4 - $16 per user/month.
PerformYard	Tracking employee performance through goal setting, feedback collection, and regular check-ins.	No free plan. Between $5 - $10 per person/month.
Workvivo	Improving company culture and creating a company news hub through social and communication features.	No free plan. Request a quote via website.
Leapsome	Improving performance and development through personalized learning experiences.	No free plan. Request a quote via website.
Lattice	Goal-setting to align teams and encourage collaboration.	No free plan. Starts at $4 per user/month.

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