Employee engagement software helps keep your team emotionally invested in their work and committed to your company’s success. Engaged employees are usually more productive, have better attendance, and are more likely to stay with your business for the long haul.
Boost your team’s engagement, and you’ll also see overall profitability and performance improve. Keep reading for 10 employee engagement solutions that create a culture of productivity, motivation, and success.
9 Benefits of using employee engagement tools
According to Gallup, businesses with better employee engagement outperformed their competitors in these areas:
- 81% decrease in absenteeism
- 64% decrease in on-the-job accidents
- 58% decrease in patient safety incidents
- 41% decrease in quality defects
- 28% decrease in theft
- 18-43% decrease in turnover
Gallup noted that teams with better engagement also saw a boost in these key areas:
- 10% increase in customer loyalty
- 18% increase in sales productivity
- 23% increase in profitability
The numbers don’t lie — promoting employee satisfaction and engagement has major positive effects, including better employee retention and revenue.
PS: Arcade helps you reduce absenteeism and employee turnover. Get our complete employee engagement guide with tips and key findings from Dr. Steven Johnson, a 25-year veteran of developing corporate engagement programs.
10 Best employee engagement software
1. Arcade
Best for: Arcade harnesses the power of gamification to engage employees with real-time insights, leaderboards, and recognition.
Top features:
- 12+ different types of leaderboards to inspire friendly competition
- You choose rewards that best motivate your team and promote well-being
- Integrates with Slack, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft Teams, and more
Pros
- Easy-to-build games and contests
- Real-time KPI tracking across teams and individuals
- Integrates with communication and CRM platforms
Cons
- Limited dashboard customization
- Mobile app sometimes slow to respond
Price: Arcade offers a forever free unlimited plan for small teams and businesses, or you can book a demo to learn more about enterprise pricing.
2. Officevibe
Best for: Officevibe helps you tally up your employee net promoter score (eNPS) and whittle down individual feedback to specific areas of improvement and success.
Top features:
- Easy-to-read reports and anonymous survey results
- Real-time pulse surveys that cover 35 engagement metrics
- Integrates with multiple human resources (HR) platforms, including BambooHR, Paylocity, Workday, Zenefits, and more
Pros
- Ability to customize pulse surveys
- Simple survey and reporting tools
- Daily insights and statistics
Cons
- Some limitations to adding and tracking OKRs
- One-on-one check-ins can be clunky
Price: Officevibe offers a free plan for one team of up to 10. For larger teams and companies, pricing starts at $5 per user per month.
3. Leapsome
Best for: Leapsome provides a one-stop shop for managing and tracking OKRs, employee engagement, and professional development, including deep-dive analytics reports.
Top features:
- Assessment reports can be sorted into different views, including heatmaps, timelines, and radar
- Ability to share 360-degree feedback and track team members by skills matrix
- Integrates with multiple HR software platforms, as well as Slack, Jira, and more
Pros
- Allows creation of action items for one-on-ones
- Intuitive and user-friendly dashboards
- Colleague recognition features
Cons
- Requires full team implementation to be helpful
- No way to recover deleted meeting notes
Price: Leapsome pricing starts at $8 per user per month and adjusts based on the features your team needs.
4. 15five
Best for: 15five includes a collection of survey tools to find out what’s working (and what’s not working) on your team — plus actionable insights to improve results.
Top features:
- Customizable templates for performance reviews, career growth analysis, and development
- Clear tracking of company-wide, department-wide, and individual OKRs
- Online classrooms with practical upskilling coaching and onboarding guidance
Pros
- Enables employees to safely flag issues for team and company leadership
- High fives feature allows for peer recognition
- Creates individual, prioritized task lists
Cons
- Some survey questions could be challenging
- Potentially difficult to integrate with software like Slack
Price: Starts at $4 per user per month.
5. HeyTaco
Best for: HeyTaco puts a fun spin on peer recognition and messages of appreciation, plus you can add custom rewards for your team.
Top features:
- Easily integrates with Slack and Microsoft Teams to promote employee recognition
- Includes leaderboards and analytics for sales leaders to keep tabs on engagement
- Taco tags can be customized with company or team values
Pros
- Fun, simple, and easy to use
- Publicizes employee appreciation and recognition
- Points (tacos) redeemable for rewards
Cons
- Superficial reports
- Limited to giving out five tacos per day
Price: Starts at $3 per person per month.
6. WorkTango
Best for: Formerly Kazoo, WorkTango allows you to customize and send out research-backed employee engagement surveys to measure satisfaction across the entire employee lifecycle.
Top features:
- Predictive analytics suggest actions based on survey results
- Supplements HR software for full views across your company and team
- Robust catalog with over 10 million employee rewards available in 85 countries
Pros
- Allows peer recognition and amplified appreciation
- Straightforward survey creation and dissemination
- Supportive customer service
Cons
- App can be buggy
- Dashboard details are lacking in some areas
Price: Request a WorkTango demo to learn more about pricing options.
7. Culture Amp
Best for: Culture Amp’s performance management toolkit uses 30+ survey templates to provide goal tracking, action plans, and detailed forecasting, including turnover prediction.
Top features:
- Full performance and engagement analytics, including leadership insight reports
- Templatized review questions aim to reduce unconscious bias
- Uses self-reflections plus peer and manager feedback to generate full picture of performance
Pros
- Intuitive dashboard and interface
- Goal setting feature promotes self-accountability
- Data is filterable by role, group, or demographics
Cons
- Permissions may be difficult to set up
- App functionality is limited
Price: Culture Amp offers multiple customized plans. Contact the company to learn more.
8. Guusto
Best for: Guusto allows your team to send each other recognition and rewards and also includes wellness programs, development incentives, and performance programs.
Top features:
- Option for recipients to choose gift cards from stores like Amazon, Starbucks, Target, AMC, and more
- Ability to set a claim period and get refunded for unclaimed rewards
- Recipients can pay rewards forward if they choose
Pros
- Straightforward process for choosing and sending e-gift cards
- Enables recognition for employees in other countries
- Apps for multiple platforms
Cons
- Limited choice of gift card merchants in countries outside the US
Price: Guusto pricing is based on how many team members can send out rewards, but you can get a free single-user account. Larger accounts start at $80 per month.
9. Bonusly
Best for: Bonusly lets you incentive survey participation with points, which can be redeemed for a wide variety of gift cards, custom rewards, and even donations to well-known charities.
Top features:
- Add-on feature allows multiple people to boost recognition
- Customize shoutout hashtags with company values
- Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and multiple HR platforms
Pros
- Option to add GIFs to shoutouts
- Points redeemable to PayPal for cash rewards
- Ability to donate points to charities
Cons
- Interface can be glitchy
- Analytics and leaderboards can be confusing
Price: Bonusly pricing starts at $2.70 per user per month.
10. Kudos
Best for: The Kudos recognition platform allows teams to reward high-performing colleagues, as well as award each other points or nominate peers for programs like Employee of the Month.
Top features:
- Option to add core values as selections in shoutouts
- Behaviors and qualities prompts help craft meaningful messages
- Sentiment quizzes and reports allow you to track employee feedback over time
Pros
- Intuitive interface
- Company-wide recognition news feed
- Ability to set up reminder notifications to thank colleagues
Cons
- Rewards search can be clunky
- No way to split up the number of points awarded
Price: Book a demo to learn more about Kudos pricing and features.
From action plans to rewards, your employee engagement plan can be customized to your team’s needs and company culture. On top of the 10 best employee engagement platforms, you can boost engagement and satisfaction for new employees, remote employees, and everyone in between with these 50 additional employee engagement ideas.