Employees who feel valued perform better and stay with the company longer, creating a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. Finding effective ways to engage employees can improve their experience and show them that they are valued.
Creating a work environment that fosters employee engagement starts with finding the right tools to help staff excel in their roles. This is where our guide comes in. We’ve rounded up the 10 best employee engagement tools of 2024 to help you find the right one.
1. Culture Amp
Culture Amp is an end-to-end employee experience platform that enables companies to recognise and reward employees, manage performance and foster employee development. It is suitable for businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large corporations.
Advantages:
- Supports a wide variety of language options, ideal for global teams
- Very complete platform with many features
Disadvantages:
- Not as customizable as other options
- Not sending enough notifications about upcoming tasks
2. Lattice
Lattice is a people management platform that helps companies create a more engaged and fulfilling organizational culture by connecting performance with engagement. It combines performance management, compensation, engagement surveys, and career development tools into one easy-to-use solution for HR teams.
Advantages:
- Excellent customer service
- Regularly adds new features based on user feedback
Disadvantages:
- The interface is not very intuitive
- Lacks AI features to integrate performance data in one place
3. Coolaleaf
Coololeaf is an employee engagement solution that helps you create a company culture based on your core values, where employees enjoy coming to work every day because they are recognized and rewarded for their hard work. With great employee rewards, an intuitive and easy-to-use platform, and quick survey capabilities, you can start improving the employee experience today.
Advantages:
- Very intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it fun for employees
- Gamified activities and challenges to encourage frequent use
- New employee onboarding tool built into the platform
Disadvantages:
- Does not include performance management tools
- A one-stop engagement solution may not be ideal for small teams (<100 employees)
4. Bonusly
Bonusly is an employee recognition and rewards program that helps organizations create a genuine culture of recognition and appreciation. It focuses on peer-to-peer and social recognition and offers a large catalog of rewards for employees to choose from.
Advantages:
- Robust analytical capabilities to easily access actionable data
- Great rewards options, including the ability to make charitable donations
Disadvantages:
- It can be difficult to customize the platform for your business
- Sometimes popular rewards sell out
5. Workvivo
Workvivo is an employee experience platform that focuses specifically on internal communication and helping employees make their voices heard through feedback mechanisms.
Advantages:
- Very intuitive and easy-to-use interface, which encourages more frequent use by employees
- Seamless integrations with a wide range of systems
Disadvantages:
- Sends too many email notifications, which can be distracting
- The mobile app doesn’t have as many features as the desktop version
6. Qualtrics EmployeeXM
Qualtrics EmployeeXM is an employee experience technology platform that helps companies collect, organize, and act on employee experience data. Its employee survey tools are especially robust, allowing organizations to measure engagement in real-time.
Advantages:
- Excellent privacy options for survey users, allowing for truly confidential and anonymous feedback
- Excellent educational resources available for users
Disadvantages:
- Limited integrations and the ones you have can be quite complex
- Not easy to use for beginners
7. Achievers
Achievers is a cloud-based employee recognition solution designed for global enterprises. They offer advanced technology along with a high level of support and customer service to help their users increase employee retention, engagement, and recognition.
Advantages:
- Very intuitive user interface, similar to a social media platform
- Great onboarding resources to get users up and running quickly
Disadvantages:
- Launching the platform from an administrator perspective can be challenging
- Reporting tools could be more sophisticated
8. Kudos
Kudos is an employee engagement, culture and analytics platform that enables companies to recognize and reward employees, and employees to recognize their peers. It also offers deep analytics capabilities to measure employee satisfaction and engagement.
Advantages:
- It has an easy-to-use mobile app, so recognition is always within reach for employees.
- Encourage peer recognition with simple peer recognition capabilities
Disadvantages:
- There is a learning curve to redeeming points
- Login functionality sometimes fails
9. WorkTango
WorkTango is an employee engagement platform that helps companies build a better workplace culture and improve employee experience. It also offers goal and performance management capabilities, as well as a rewards and recognition feature.
Advantages:
- Great way to connect remote employees and build community
- Good gamification features that make giving and receiving recognition fun
Disadvantages:
- The user interface could be more simplified and intuitive
- Sometimes it has technical problems in the backend
10. Motivosity
Motivosity is an employee experience platform that helps companies improve the entire employee lifecycle with recognition, rewards, and actionable employee experience data. It also helps managers connect with their direct employees in a more intentional way.
Advantages:
- User-friendly interface that encourages regular peer recognition
- Recognition for work anniversaries and birthdays can be automated, ensuring they are always celebrated on time.
Disadvantages:
- Visibility of recognition within and between teams is not the best
- It can be difficult to review previous rewards easily
- Lacks an engagement strategy to maintain platform adoption
How to choose the best employee engagement tool
Selecting the perfect employee engagement tool can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. To make the process smoother, consider your team’s specific needs and prioritize features that align with your goals.
Here are some key features to look for when evaluating tools:
Integration with performance management (optional): If applicable, consider platforms that integrate with your existing performance management system for a holistic approach.
- Survey and feedback analysis capabilities: A great employee engagement tool should allow you to collect feedback through surveys and provide actionable insights.
- Recognition and rewards features: Showing appreciation is crucial. Look for platforms that offer different recognition and rewards options.
- Communication and collaboration tools: Every high-performing team thrives on communication and collaboration. Choose a tool that fosters connection and teamwork.
- Analytics and reporting features: Data-driven insights help you measure the impact of your engagement initiatives.
- Ease of use and mobile accessibility: An easy-to-use platform with a mobile app can increase adoption and engagement.
