Employee engagement is the measure of how attached and committed your people are to their roles, colleagues, and to you as their employer. So, what is employee engagement software and what can it do for your business?
Basically, it’s a tool for measuring, monitoring and influencing levels of engagement in your business. Employee engagement technology includes features like feedback, analytics and even performance management tools to help regulate employee focus and productivity.
So, what is employee engagement software?
What is employee engagement software going to do for my business? How do I know it’s a worthwhile investment? Let’s jump in!
Employee engagement benefits businesses in a few vital ways. High engagement improves employee performance. It also helps to boost job satisfaction, since increasing engagement means removing performance blockers and addressing workplace issues.
Don’t believe us? Well, according to Gallup, compared to businesses in the lowest quartile for engagement, businesses in the top quartile showed:
- 81% less absenteeism
- 18% less turnover in high-turnover companies
- 43% less turnover in low-turnover companies
- 10% more customer loyalty and engagement
- 18% more sales productivity
- 23% more profitability
Employees are also less prone to error when they’re highly engaged. Gallup’s research showed a significant comparative reduction in the percentage of mortality and general accidents in the top quartile.
Key features to evaluate in employee engagement software
While there are many ways to approach employee engagement, there are things all relevant platforms should cover. A good one is a swiss army knife of handy features. When considering how to choose employee engagement software, make sure it includes the following:
- Surveys and feedback tools: Surveys allow you to poll people and gauge employee sentiment on key issues. Feedback software allows managers and HR to both provide feedback and receive it from employees individually.
- Performance management and tracking features: A person’s engagement is often reflected in their job performance. Tracking fluctuations in their output or error rate can help you both identify blockers and rate the effectiveness of engagement-boosting initiatives.
- Recognition and reward systems: Though easily overlooked, employee recognition and reward systems are essential features of employee engagement software. One of the most effective ways of engaging your people is to make them feel valued for the efforts they put in.
- Communication and collaboration tools: Integration with comms tools like Microsoft Teams can help you add social components to drive employee engagement as part of your workplace culture.
- Analytics and reporting functions: These functions help employee engagement software by sorting through performance stats, feedback and other engagement-related data to identify trends and patterns. After all, what is employee engagement software worth if it doesn’t help make sense of the madness?
How HR tech can improve employee engagement
It’s true that we’re all responsible for employee engagement. But there’s only so much to be done without the right tools. HR technology has the capacity to greatly improve the ways you understand and support employees at work.
Link engagement with learning and performance
Employee engagement and performance management are heavily connected with one another. For one thing, engagement is essential for high performance, as the former stems from a sense of motivation, commitment and pride in one’s work.
But you might not realize that performance management affects engagement right back. The most engaged employees are often those who:
- Feel challenged by their work
- Have opportunities for personal development
- Feel valued by their employer and colleagues
HR software allows you to develop employee responsibilities through performance conversations, support development with training and upskilling, and provide organization-wide recognition and visibility.
Reward vs recognition
While we all do our jobs for money, employee engagement software does much more than shovel rewards at people. While engagement tools can include rewards programs, recognizing employee contributions can be the better way to go.
Research shows that employees whose managers are great at recognition are over 40% more engaged than those whose managers aren’t. HR software allows managers, HR and peers to highlight employee contributions in check-ins and performance conversations.
Software vs manual engagement practices
Software tools play an essential role in modern engagement practices by automating a wide variety of key functions. Consider how long a simple engagement survey would take if you did it manually. Not to mention the time it would take to analyze.
AI-driven analytics and reporting can measure employee sentiment and find the trends in your data near-instantly. This allows HR to find actionable insights and implement them while they’re still timely.
Use software to measure eNPS
eNPS (employee Net Promoter Score) is a metric for gauging how employees feel about your business. eNPS survey tools collect quantitative info, which engagement software then turns into your final score.
Example questions include:
- On a 1-10 scale, how happy are you in your role?
- Would you consider your employer to be ethical? Yes, no, or not sure.
- On a 1-10 scale, how likely would you be to change jobs in the next six months?
- Would you recommend your employer to friends or family? Yes, no, or not sure.
Which companies do engagement well?
While every employer tries to engage staff in their own way, some do it better than others. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the best businesses for employee engagement and what they do well.
- Google: Google’s approach to engagement is refreshingly straightforward for such a major tech giant. They emphasize a work culture of transparency, wellbeing and personal development. Not to mention a bevy of enticing perks. That’s why Google ranks so consistently as one of the top companies for employee engagement.
- Microsoft: This titan of the computer industry keeps its people engaged by fostering diversity and inclusion in their work culture. They also emphasize a combination of continuous personal development and work/life balance, so people keep growing without burning out.
- Adobe: Another tech company doing well with engagement, we wanted to highlight Adobe because of their emphasis on employee check-ins over annual reviews, which is a great way to continually support employees.
What to consider when selecting software
There’s a lot more to consider than flashy software features. After all, what is employee engagement software really worth if it doesn’t meet the needs of your business?
Identify organizational needs and challenges
The best HR software for employee engagement depends on the specific challenges facing your company. Specifically, when employees aren’t feeling valued, you need recognition tools. If they’re stressed, you’ll want check-ins and wellbeing support. And, if you don’t know why your people aren’t engaged, you need feedback and analytics tools to find out.
Influencing factors
Surprisingly, even the best software isn’t right for every business. An enterprise, for example, needs something scalable, while a small start-up needs something budget-friendly. Maybe you need a mobile app for frontline workers, or an algorithm for complex sentiment analysis.
Demos and trials
Reviews can be a great start, but they’re no substitute for hands-on experience. Many software providers offer demos or trial versions, such as our own Engage365. Additionally, you can schedule a demo to try out its various features, like two-way feedback and recognition in our employee check-ins, and real-time engagement insights.
Take your time choosing employee engagement software
Now we’ve settled the whole “What is employee engagement software” issue and given you an idea of what to prioritize, it’s time you started your research. Regardless, software providers aren’t going anywhere, so don’t just pick the first one you find.
If you’re interested in Engage365, for example, reach out and book a demo. After all, you’ll never know until you give it a go!
