Employee engagement tools

According to the Zendesk Employee Experience Trends Report 2023, 41 percent of business leaders say that a negative employee experience (EX) has led to increased turnover in the past year. Employees who feel valued perform better and stick around longer, creating a mutually beneficial, long-term relationship. Finding effective ways to engage with employees can improve EX and show employees they’re valued

Creating a workplace environment that promotes employee engagement begins with finding the right tools to help staff excel in their roles. That’s where our guide comes in. We’ve rounded up the best employee engagement platforms to help you find the right one to integrate with your employee experience (EX) solution. Discover how to connect with employees through gamification, feedback collection, collaboration tools, and more.

• What is employee engagement software?
• Employee engagement tools comparison chart
• 10 best employee engagement software
• Employee engagement software features
• Benefits of employee engagement platforms
• How to choose the right employee engagement tool
• Frequently asked questions
• Try employee engagement software for free

Employee engagement software is a tool businesses use to enhance the employee experience, increase efficiency, improve collaboration, and retain staff. The goal is to help employees feel more connected, engaged, and motivated.

Employee engagement tools have various uses, including employee feedback collection, knowledge sharing, collaboration, goal setting and tracking, employee recognition, and gamification. Depending on the solution, employee engagement software may integrate with employee experience software or exist as a standalone solution.

Whether you’re looking for something casual or a long-term commitment, our employee engagement tools comparison chart has the information you need.

Let’s take a deeper dive into the top employee engagement tools for 2024.

1. SweetHawk

Best for HR, project management, and time tracking

SweetHawk is a workflow and automation developer offering a full employee engagement app suite. With SweetHawk Suite, businesses have access to apps that can enhance onboarding, HR process automation, project management, and ITSM (IT service management) change management. Additional capabilities include service level agreement (SLA) and operational level agreement (OLA) enforcement and reporting, approval process, quality assurance and training, and customer satisfaction (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score® (NPS) survey workflows.

You can download the entire app catalog or add individual apps—like calendars, tasks, or reminder apps—to get a feel for the software’s interface and capabilities. Aside from being able to add employee engagement functionality to your customer experience software, you can also create custom pop-up notifications, conditional ticket fields, and ticketing automation. You can manage SLAs and OLAs with time measurement tools, too.

Features:

• Employee feedback and survey tools
• AI and automation
• Performance tracking and management
• Customer onboarding
• Calendars
• Time tracking

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month for light agents and sandbox (test) accounts
• Pick & Choose: Apps range from $1 per agent/month to $100 per account/month
• Super Suite: $10 per agent/month
• Enterprise: Contact SweetHawk
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Unavailable

Learn about SweetHawk for Zendesk.

2. SurveyMonkey

Best for employee surveys and feedback

With SurveyMonkey, businesses can build, segment, and distribute surveys to custom employee contact lists, create custom emails, and graph survey results in real time. It offers various APIs (application programming interfaces) and integrations, so the tool syncs seamlessly into sophisticated tech stacks.

SurveyMonkey has also introduced Build with AI, an AI-powered tool that uses machine learning to help users create custom surveys faster. Users begin by writing a short prompt, and the software uses generative AI to create the survey. The AI can also make intelligent suggestions to autofill the rest of the question.

Features:

• Employee feedback and survey tools
• Performance tracking and management
• Gamification
• Integrations
• Customizable forms
• Online polls

Pricing:

• Team Advantage: $25 per user/month
• Team Premier: $75 per user/month
• Enterprise: Contact SurveyMonkey
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Unavailable

Learn about SurveyMonkey for Zendesk.

3. QualtricsXM

Best for employee insights and analytics

QualtricsXM takes many of the core competencies of employee survey software and adds a few more layers of sophistication. Users can send and collect employee feedback and analyze results across channels like SMS, web, mobile app, and social media. QualtricsXM also features advanced tools to contextualize employee feedback, such as personalized surveys based on key stages of the employee lifecycle.

In addition to lifecycle-based surveys, QualtricsXM enables businesses to build and report on peer evaluations. A public forum also provides a place for employees to submit, comment on, and upvote ideas. This helps businesses hear their employees on topics like company policies, strategies, and more.

Features:

• Employee feedback and survey tools
• Internal communication tools
• Employee recognition and rewards system
• Performance tracking and management
• Built-in action planning
• Predictive intelligence

Pricing:

Contact Qualtrics

Free trial:

30 days

Learn about Qualtrics for Zendesk.

4. LumApps

Best for knowledge management and collaboration

LumApps is an employee engagement tool and intranet that features corporate social media, employee feedback collection, reporting and analytics, knowledge management, omnichannel community communication, and collaboration tools. It enables top-down messaging to enhance communication between management and employees.

LumApps also features AI technology that uses embedded machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to enhance employee engagement. AI can make article recommendations on the employee’s content feed or make personalized suggestions for online communities they may like to join.

Features:

• Employee feedback and survey tools
• Internal communication tools
• Employee recognition and rewards system
• Performance tracking and management
• AI-powered digital assistant
• Video management

Pricing:

• Business: Contact LumApps
• Professional: Contact LumApps
• Enterprise: Contact LumApps
• Frontline Worker: Contact LumApps

Free trial:

Unavailable

Learn about LumApps for Zendesk.

5. Pathlight

Best for employee development and goal tracking

Pathlight’s employee engagement platform combines coaching, communication, performance metrics, and quality insurance into a single platform. It empowers team members on every level—from employees and management to executives—with actionable insights and real-time transparency. Managers can lay out paths to employee success and respond to issues with real-time coaching. It also gives business leaders a high-level view to assess operational performance and make informed business decisions.

Additionally, Pathlight features native generative AI capabilities that can capture, transcribe, and analyze conversations, simplifying employee workflows. It offers AutoQA, which gamifies customer service and scores performance by channel. Pathlight also features AI coaching notes that offer guidance to agents in real time.

Features:

• Employee feedback and survey tools
• Internal communication tools
• Employee recognition and rewards system
• Performance tracking and management
• Gamification
• Conversation intelligence

Pricing:

Contact Pathlight

Free trial:

Unavailable

Learn about Pathlight for Zendesk.

6. Gamifier

Best for team building and company culture

Gamifier is an employee engagement tool that, well, gamifies aspects of the workday. From daily tasks to performance metrics, sales quotas, and more, Gamifier can motivate, boost engagement, increase productivity, and instill a positive work culture. It features quests, challenges, and competitions, allowing businesses to turn repetitive daily tasks into fun activities.

Employee engagement tools include sales and performance scoreboards that sync with your customer relationship management (CRM) platform. The scoreboards are printable so you can physically display them in the office, too. The leaderboard updates in real time, provides instant feedback, and displays a customizable rewards and incentives system. Gamifier also offers personality tests, like the DiSC assessment, to help employees learn more about themselves.

Features:

• Employee feedback and survey tools
• Internal communication tools
• Employee recognition and rewards system
• Performance tracking and management
• Gamification
• Personality tests

Pricing:

• Starter: $5 per user/month
• Essential: $11 per user/month
• Advanced: $21 per user/month
• Enterprise: Contact Gamifier
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

14 days

Learn about Gamifier for Zendesk.

7. Slack

Best for internal collaboration

Slack is a cloud-based collaboration platform that fosters employee engagement through convenient, real-time, and continuous messaging. Slack organizes communication into channels, allowing teams to have focused discussions on specific topics. It creates a dynamic and responsive work environment, allowing users to easily share files and documents and collaborate within the platform.

Slack also allows direct messages and group chats for private conversations on the side. The software lets businesses create custom emojis and reactions to match individual or brand voice and tone. This allows employees to add personality to conversations, creating engaging messaging threads and promoting a positive team culture.

Features:

• Employee feedback and survey tools
• Internal communication tools
• Employee recognition and rewards system
• Performance tracking and management
• Gamification
• Dark mode

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month (no automation tools)
• Pro: $7.25 per user/month
• Business+: $12.50 per user/month
• Enterprise Grid: Contact Slack
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Unavailable

Learn about Slack for Zendesk.

8. Intelly

Best for employee empowerment and performance tracking

Intelly is a performance-tracking software that creates engaging employee experiences through gamified dashboards. Intelly offers a desktop and mobile app, allowing users to track performance metrics and leaderboards from anywhere. The platform uses gamification as a training tool, creating a fun, interactive environment that helps employees sharpen their skills and learn new processes.

Intelly also features real-time reporting dashboards that allow employees to measure results and track rankings on the leaderboard. Businesses can create challenges for individuals and teams, boosting engagement and collaboration to obtain goals and milestones. Plus, it offers rewards and incentives capabilities to provide top performers with prizes or bonuses.

Features:

• Employee feedback and survey tools
• Internal communication tools
• Employee recognition and rewards system
• Performance tracking and management
• Gamification
• Adaptive design

Pricing:

• Team: $349 per month (up to 20 users)
• Business: $599 per month (up to 50 users)
• Enterprise: Contact Intelly

Free trial:

14 days

Learn about Intelly for Zendesk.

9. Spinify

Best for employee awards and recognition

Spinify is an employee experience platform that uses gamification and AI-powered tools to increase motivation and productivity. Its leaderboards allow employees to track progress and compare achievements, creating good-spirited competition and collaboration. The platform includes interactive elements to increase employee engagement, streamline team building, boost morale, and improve workplace culture.

Spinify enables businesses to incentivize employee achievements with virtual or tangible awards and recognitions. The software also offers point scoring, badges to display achievements, and performance tiers that work like leveling up in traditional video games.

Features:

• Internal communication tools
• Employee recognition and rewards system
• Performance tracking and management
• Gamification
• Integrations marketplace
• AI

Pricing:

Contact Spinify

Free trial:

Unavailable

Learn about Spinify for Zendesk.

10. monday.com

Best for employee development

The employee engagement software from monday.com helps encourage employee communication and transparency between individuals and management, creating a safe space where managers and employees can communicate openly. The platform also provides visibility into metrics and performance. Managers can use monday.com to enhance performance reviews and create personalized career paths and checkpoints.

HR teams can use monday.com’s human resource information system (HRIS) to store employee documents and track recruitment for potential new hires in a centralized workspace. The tool streamlines the onboarding process thanks to an engaging interface with pre-built and customizable templates. Also included are employee well-being and team building activities and a feedback tracker that helps employees see the implementation of their suggestions.

Features:

• Employee feedback and survey tools
• Internal communication tools
• Employee recognition and rewards system
• Performance tracking and management
• Recruitment pipeline
• Kanban boards

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month (up to 2 seats)
• Basic: $8 per seat/month
• Standard: $10 per seat/month
• Pro: $16 per seat/month
• Enterprise: Contact monday.com
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

14 days (only available in the Pro plan)

Learn about monday.com for Zendesk.

Let’s take a closer look at the key features of employee engagement solutions.

Employee feedback and survey tools

Capturing internal feedback and sending employee engagement surveys are crucial for enhancing engagement and listening to your employees. These features give employees a channel to provide feedback and voice any concerns anonymously, building trust and fostering transparency across the business.

Internal customer feedback tools allow you to perform regular employee check-ins by creating and distributing pulse surveys, polls, and questionnaires. Collect continuous feedback to better understand employee sentiments, job satisfaction, and opinions about company values, culture, and leadership—so you know how and where to make improvements. When employees see businesses implementing their feedback, they feel heard and valued, often making them want to engage even more.

Internal communication tools

As internal roles expand, leveraging technology—like communication tools—to enable cross-functional collaboration becomes increasingly vital. Using this kind of tech can improve teamwork and ensure that all employees align with business goals and initiatives. Communication tools can include:

• Live chat software and customer messaging software
• Discussion boards
• Online groups
• Community forums
• News feeds
• Announcement features

With these tools, you can enable seamless, real-time information sharing, knowledge management, and engagement between teammates and across departments. Effective internal communication can also be fun. It fosters a sense of belonging, promotes inclusivity, and allows employees to show their personalities.

Employee recognition and rewards system

Everyone likes getting a reward for doing something great. With an employee rewards and recognition system, managers and peers can acknowledge, reward, and show appreciation to employees for their performance, contributions, milestones, and achievements.

Employee rewards and recognition systems often include badges, points, or rewards tied to specific accomplishments. But they should also include non-performance-related recognition, like spotlighting employee birthdays and anniversaries. This feature boosts morale and motivation and cultivates a healthy business culture, encouraging continuous high performance and increasing employee engagement.

Reporting and performance tracking

Reporting and performance tracking tools provide comprehensive insights into employee performance, productivity, and engagement metrics. These systems generate detailed reports and analytics based on custom data, enabling managers, HR professionals, or other decision-makers to evaluate individual and team performance against predefined goals and industry benchmarks.

These types of tools can help identify high-performers, areas needing improvement, and relevant trends (in real time or over specified periods). Plus, these insights can help measure the impact of employee engagement programs on overall organizational success. They can also help employee experience management teams create data-driven strategies to improve EX and develop employee experience journey maps more effectively.

Gamification capabilities

With enough imagination, you can turn nearly anything into a game. Introducing gamification, with features like leaderboards, challenges, badges, and points systems, can make work more engaging and enjoyable.

Using employee engagement software gamification features, you can incentivize employees to develop their skills through interactive learning modules, encourage participation in employee health and wellness challenges, and motivate performance for sales and marketing teams. You can also customize your gamification features by adding prizes, such as time off, gift cards, digital badges, employee spotlights, and more.

Although the customer experience is often the focus of a business, creating an awesome employee experience is equally important. Implementing employee engagement solutions can help businesses achieve this. Here are a few of the top benefits of employee engagement platforms.

Boost employee retention

Engaged employees are more likely to feel valued, connected to your company's mission, and motivated to contribute to its success. With employee engagement software, businesses can increase employee satisfaction and reduce employee turnover by:

• Fostering a healthy, positive work environment
• Encouraging open communication
• Providing systems for employee recognition
• Developing personalized plans that invest in employee growth

Employee engagement systems that provide tools needed to maintain a nurturing culture of appreciation and support help businesses retain talent and reduce turnover costs.

Increase productivity and efficiency

According to McKinsey & Company research, disengaged employees can cost midsize companies between $228 million and $355 million annually. Providing employee engagement tools helps businesses avoid these unnecessary costs and can even increase profitability.

Employee engagement tools help motivate employees, align them with organizational objectives, and set them up for success—boosting productivity and efficiency. With gamification, goal-setting, performance tracking, collaboration, rewards and recognition programs, and feedback collection features, employees can become more engaged and strive for higher performance and efficiency levels.

Adapt with real-time insights

One of the key advantages of an employee engagement solution is its ability to adapt and evolve based on real-time employee insights. These solutions often include analytics and reporting tools that provide valuable data on employee sentiments, performance trends, and engagement levels.

By analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs) and objectives and key results (OKRs) in real time, organizations can quickly identify areas needing attention and shift resources to adapt to business needs. Analytics and reporting tools can also find trends in employee satisfaction, so companies can proactively address issues before they escalate.

The right employee engagement software for your business may differ from other businesses, depending on your unique needs. Here are a few things to consider to help you pick the best fit.

Define your employee engagement goals

Before choosing software, it's important to outline your employee engagement strategy and define what you want to achieve. For example, you might want to improve communication, boost productivity and efficiency, refine employee recognition programs, or create a better workplace culture.

Consider your must-have features

Based on the objectives you’ve outlined for your employee engagement platform, pick the essential features to help you achieve these goals. These employee engagement tools may include:

• Feedback and survey capabilities
• Collaboration tools
• Recognition and rewards systems
• Reporting and performance tracking
• Gamification elements

Determine whether the software integrates with your current systems and aligns with your company culture. The right features and capabilities make it easy for businesses to continuously drive employee engagement and contribute to a better employee experience.

Determine your number of employees

Some employee engagement platforms may have restrictions or base their pricing tiers on business size or number of employees. It’s important to consider an employee engagement tool that can adapt to changing business needs and scales with you as you grow. Additionally, larger enterprises might need a solution with more robust features, pre-built to handle employee communication, recognition, and feedback across multiple departments or locations.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of NICE Satmetrix, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.