Employee engagement is the backbone of an organization’s success. Enthusiastic and engaged employee performance directly results in 21% increased profitability.
Executing an employee engagement strategy that covers all bases is a daunting task. You need the right tools to help bring the best out of your team.
This is where employee engagement software comes in. It helps in driving employee engagement and growth. It helps create a positive and inclusive culture in the workplace.
It can prove to be a boon to boost your workplace productivity. But which software is best suited to your needs? Let’s find out.
Employee Engagement Software: how to pick the right one for your business?
Employee engagement software comprises tools and programs that help engage your employees with their company in a meaningful way. They augment the growth of the entire workforce with the use of technology.
They record and measure employee performance as well to identify issues and improve on them. Whether you are just starting out or fully established — every business can benefit from the use of such software.
Different software specializes in different aspects of employee engagement. The trick is identifying what you require the most and going for it. We have prepared a handy guide to help you pick the right employee engagement software for your unique business needs.
6 tips to pick the right one for your business
Understand the different software
Many people wrongly assume that simply getting software will solve all their woes. That is not true. As stated above, there are different software to drive employee engagement in different ways. You have to pick the ones best suited to your cause.
This is why the first step in picking a software should be understanding what different software are and how they aid employee engagement. Match them with your own requirements to arrive at the final decision.
While there are plenty of software that offer a great host of services, they can be broadly categorized into four types of employee engagement software: recognition, perks and benefits, health and wellness, and engagement surveys.
Let us take a brief look at each:
a) Employee recognition
Employee recognition software are some of the most common forms of employee engagement tools. They work on the principle that appreciated employees strive to contribute more than they are asked. This in turn contributes to the performance of the company as a whole.
These software provide you with the tools to imbue positive and healthy competition amongst your workforce. They have features such as awarding efficient work, polls amongst employees, and celebrating milestones.
They also help you set criteria to identify exemplary work. You can set rewards and criteria based on your company size and need and the technology takes over from that point on. This helps create a competitive environment in your workforce.
b) Perks and benefits
Software with these kinds of features are rather exciting. They offer tangible benefits one can see and show others. This in turn helps you reduce turnover and attract top talent. The software might offer benefits that are often flexible in nature.
This essentially means that they would allow the employee to choose the kinds of perks they want. This is important because all people are different from one another. What excites and motivates one person is different from other people.
Putting incentives under one bracket distracts from the point of giving out perks. One employee might wish for a paid vacation while the other might want discounts of daily needs. Allowing them to choose boosts your cause.
c) Health and wellness
Sadly, employee health is still an overlooked topic in corporate spaces. But many employee engagement software are helping in promoting employee self-care. They are tailored to provide solutions based on your team’s needs.
These services are well-improvised to suit all kinds of setups — be it in-office or remote. Guided meditations, yoga classes, and workout videos help employees relieve stress and concentrate better on their jobs.
Such services have a direct impact on the confidence and morale of your team, knowing that you genuinely care about their well-being. They would strive to perform better and take care of themselves as well.
d) Engagement surveys
Employee engagement surveys are also a crucial form of engagement as they measure how much satisfaction one is receiving from their job and company culture. They perform two functions at once. First, they help you engage your employees directly.
Secondly, they allow a platform for employees to voice their opinions and help you perform better regarding employee management. Reviewing your efforts is crucial if you want to perform better and such software helps you do so.
You can have organizational surveys, suggestion boxes, direct contact with HR, and similar features to give a voice to your team. You can actively ask them to participate in such surveys to help you help them.
Assess your needs
Now that you understand the options you have available in the market, it’s time to look at your own company and assess your needs. This is important because you simply cannot go out and get software for your team.
Given the variety of software available, you will have to choose one that caters to the most important issue within your company. For example, perks and benefits may be what you want to go for, but if your employees suffer from confidence issues, a wellness-focusses software would be your best bet.
Sit with your top management and discuss the various needs of your workforce. List them in the order of priority. This will help give a clear idea of what to look for in the market.
Prepare a checklist
When you have the priority of your organizational needs set, the next step should be to translate them a checklist of features that you would need in your employee engagement software. This is an important step many often miss out on.
It is easy to misjudge a feature as a solution for your need when you don’t know exactly what to look for. You may have your needs prioritized, but you should also translate them into features to look for before you go software hunting to avoid confusion.
Building on the example from above, you may have listed your top issue as employee morale being down. It may seem that software that offers perks and benefits would help with that particular issue.
In actuality, software that offers wellness and health solutions would be a better solution to your problem. Knowing what features to look for beforehand helps you search better and save time as well.
Set an appropriate budget
Make budget an important constraint before you go hunting for suitable software. Knowing the spending limit in advance helps you streamline your search efforts. It saves time and effort as well.
It may seem counterintuitive, but narrowing your search pool can often help you find suitable options sooner. Make sure the budget is approved by the top management as well to avoid unnecessary confusion.
Evaluate all available options
Now that you know what you need and what you need to look for, you may start evaluating your options. When looking at various software, see what features they offer and what the provider claims they can do for you.
Then, look at what other people are saying about the product. Read reviews online, ask your friends and family for advice. And more importantly, ask around your community for practical advice.
Your peers are more likely to be using these services or at least be in the know-how of them. They can give a practical opinion about their utility, strengths, and shortcomings. Look for software that have tools that best support your goals.
Make your pick
Narrow your search to the best four to five options and weigh them against each other. The one that stands out should be your choice. Contact the provider and see if you can get a trial or demo to see how the software functions with your company’s needs.
A demo or trial will help you see how the software works and how your team responds to it. Once you are satisfied with its performance, you may place an order. If you find something that doesn’t click, you can explore the other options that made it to your final list.
If you can, try to get demos and trials for all the options in your final. Seeing them work in real-time can help you judge them better. You can also ask your employees for their reviews as they are the ones for whom the software would be working.
Conclusion
Your company’s human capital is your most valuable asset. Employee engagement should be about the well-being and betterment of your employees on an individual scale.
As you pick appropriate software for the organization, keep the welfare of your team in the forefront. Corporate success will follow.
Make your team feel appreciated and listened to.
Provide them the tools to do better and watch your company flourish with a positive mindset.
Let us know in the comments what is your number one criteria to pick an employee engagement tool and how do you think it will help your team.
