High levels of employee engagement are a key factor in successful organizations, but why do many workplaces find it so challenging to achieve?
It is a concern for employers and a big opportunity missed if no action is taken especially as nearly 6 in 10 employees globally fall into the category of quiet quitting.
Improving employee engagement is easier than you think. Employee engagement apps combine digital capabilities with personalized experiences. The result is an interactive tool that boosts workplace culture, improves employee retention, and strengthens employee connection with the company.
By leveraging the power of your workforce, employee engagement apps can drive business performance to new heights. Discover why your business needs one of the best employee engagement apps available on the market today.
Contents:
1. What are employee engagement apps?
2. The benefits of employee engagement apps
3. What to look for in an employee engagement app
4. Top Employee Engagement Apps
What are employee engagement apps?
An employee engagement app is a software application for employee mobiles that is dedicated to improving employee experience. It allows employees to receive personalized, targeted communications from their organization elevated from the usual stream of information in the workplace. It’s a powerful tool to bring your workforce together, whether your company works remote, hybrid, or in-person.
By encouraging interactivity and involvement, they differ from employee communication apps which focus more on information. Communication apps provide a comprehensive hub for organizational content, while engagement apps encourage two-way participation with the content. Employee engagement software offers solutions for organizations to gather feedback, celebrate employee achievements, share employee stories and workplace culture.
The benefits of employee engagement apps
Employee engagement apps help promote company culture and values. They facilitate stronger connections and deeper engagement between employees and employers – wherever employees work, in whatever role they perform.
Apps offer a more personalized experience. Employees receive content that matters to them, in a format that attracts their interest. According to Gallagher’s State of the Sector 2023/2024 survey findings, 32% of companies think that employee disengagement is one of the biggest barriers to success in 2024.
An app helps reflect the messaging and tech preferences of today’s workforce. The growing number of tech-savvy younger workers means less resistance to downloading and using your app – provided it demonstrates value.
Mobile apps are especially important in today’s work environment of remote employees who are geographically dispersed. If your organization doesn’t use an employee app, how will you effectively engage with them?
What to look for in an employee engagement app
Choosing the right employee app for your organization can feel daunting with the plethora of options available, but there are a few things that every good app must have.
1. Target and personalize messages
Being able to target your messages to defined groups of employees means you can provide personalized content. The more relevant the content, the higher the readership. Look for an app that allows you to segment your employees into distinct groups based on role type, location, interests, etc.
2. Send surveys
To understand the mood of your workplace you need to have regular pulse surveys. Online employee surveys collect anonymized data from employees, which you can then translate into valuable insights for business improvement. Apps which include a survey capability are worth their weight in gold.
3. Social recognition
Employees want the same experience from their company apps as they get in their personal ones. Short-burst, highly visual, socially-oriented content that they can engage with. Employee apps without built-in social interactions will appear flat and boring. Every like, share, and comment on your content helps raise its profile and encourage others to do the same.
4. Search
A good search facility is important for today's digital workplaces where so much information is produced. Search makes material on any subject easy to locate. Your messages may be engaged with long after they’re first published, increasing the value of your evergreen content.
5. Analytics
With all the effort you’re putting in to produce interesting content, you’ll want to know what’s been successful and what hasn’t. Analytics provide tracking and reporting on the number of downloads by device type, views per day, most accessed content, most popular content (as measured by social interactions), and more.
Top Employee Engagement Apps
Now you know the benefits of an employee app and what to look for when researching them, let’s review 8 of the best employee engagement apps available to you right now.
1. SnapComms
Summary: SnapComms is employee engagement software that allows businesses to reach employees, connect remote employees, and engage frontline workers through a branded employee app across mobile, desktop, and digital signage.
Features: Stories present information in a bite-sized, social media style. Reactions encourage employees to interact with messages. Surveys capture employee feedback. Newsfeeds present content in a user-friendly format that’s easy to browse and read – ensuring messages don’t disappear like emails. The SnapComms app integrates with Azure active directory.
Pricing: SnapComms is available in two packages: Inform for essential channels and app newsfeed and Engage for the full platform and social interactions. Pricing varies depending on the package and the number of employees. A free trial is available, offering complete access to the whole SnapComms platform.
2. Vantage Circle
Summary: Vantage Circle is a platform for HR professionals to build winning workplace cultures. The Vantage rewards product allows for building rewards & recognition programs, Vantage fit helps keep employee wellness in focus, Vantage pulse collects employee feedback and Vantage perks allows organizations to offer corporate perks and discounts.
Features: The platform drives holistic employee engagement through a suite of engagement solutions. Vantage Circle allows organizations to integrate with other common tools like Slack, Teams, Workplace, and Yammer.
Pricing: Vantage pricing is only available on request via their website.
3. CultureAmp
Summary: CultureAmp is a comprehensive tool for creating, distributing, and analyzing employee sentiment and workplace wellbeing surveys. Employee engagement surveys can be created for regular sentiment monitoring, onboarding and offboarding employees, and more.
Features: The Culture Amp tool is very friendly with other HR platforms, allowing you to sync data between it and Bamboo HR, Workday, and others. It also integrates with Slack and Teams, making it easy to share insights across your company.
Pricing: Three pricing tiers are available, designed for different organization sizes. Lower-level tiers offer much of the basic functionality, but less dedicated support.
4. Lattice
Summary: Lattice is a user-friendly HR platform for performance management and listening to the voice of employees. Setting goals and managing performance reviews can be done easily through the simple UI.
Features: Lattice integrates with many other HR and communication platforms, including some of the others on this list! Data from employee surveys are collated and able to be analyzed in real-time.
Pricing: Lattice is offered in four pricing options, based on the number of users and products selected. These currently range from $4 to $11 per user per month.
5. Kudos
Summary: Kudos is a fun employee recognition tool, allowing employees to post praise of colleagues across a range of different levels. Points can be awarded and later redeemed for gift cards. Personalized awards highlight top achievers and outstanding contributions.
Features: The range of pre-built campaigns and ‘how-to’ support articles help organizations get up and running fast. There are also all the expected integrations with Outlook, Teams, Slack, and others.
Pricing: Kudos pricing information is available on demo request via their website.
6. Reflektive
Summary: Reflektive is a simple-to-use platform for managing a range of HR functions, including goal-setting, 1:1 meetings between managers and employees, and performance appraisals. It also allows employees to praise colleagues and recognize the efforts of teammates.
Features: The tool handily integrates with Slack and Microsoft Teams to create a recognition wall accessible throughout the company and which is interactive for everyone to see and post on. It also integrates with HRIS like Workday, BambooHR, and ADP.
Pricing: Reflektive pricing is only available on contact request via their website.
7. Motivosity
Summary: Motivosity is a rewards and recognition platform that builds culture and makes HR professional's lives easier.
Features: Build a peer-to-peer social recognition culture in your workplace with Motivosity. Build upon workplace culture and send employees rewards. Gather employee sentiment through their Employee insights add-on, with pulse surveys and eNPS (employee net promoter score).
Pricing: Motivosity pricing is available on their website either request a quote or use the calculator to determine the math yourself.
8. Bonusly
Summary: Bonusly is a peer-to-peer recognition tool with a difference. Each month employees are given a certain number of points to ‘gift’ to colleagues, with these bonuses able to be seen by everyone across the organization. There are also automated milestones to celebrate important employee dates like birthdays and anniversaries.
Features: Bonusly integrates with lots of other platforms, both HR tools and collaboration tools like Slack. It can also be used with digital signage screens to promote recognition more widely.
Pricing: There are two pricing tiers based on the number of users per month. These currently range from $5 per user per month or a custom option is also available for customers wanting a more bespoke package.
Employee engagement is the fuel that powers workplace success. Employee apps are a core part of the business management solution for forward-looking employers.
So, now you’ve got apps to choose from, how will you use them to level up your employee experience?
Find out how your communications can improve employee experience, backed up with recent research, by getting a copy of this guide now.
