Employee engagement and happiness platform review: 10 software solutions

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is all about how connected people feel to their work. Our neuroscience model shows us that there are four main neuroscience themes that link to engagement: meaning  & purpose, clarity, personal growth and enablement. The four neuroscience themes linking to happiness can also have an effect on engagement, as the two are closely linked, they are: safety, relationships, freedom and acknowledgement. Read our article which covers everything you need to know about employee engagement.

What is employee engagement software?

Employee engagement software helps organisations to build on their employee engagement, whether through directly addressing one of the neuroscience themes that builds engagement, or by allowing you to understand and build engagement strategies for your team. 

What qualifies software to be on our list?

We’ve looked at best-in-category software that is perfect for organisations of any size or shape looking to build employee engagement. As employee engagement and software experts, we’ve looked for organisations that apply best practices for engagement programmes, and are accessible not only to all organisations but also to everyone within a team.

What should you look for in employee engagement software?

As with any supplier there are a couple of things we suggest considering when it comes to employee engagement software: 

• What problems are you trying to solve and how does the platform address it? Really understanding what is missing in your HR software stack and what you’re looking to achieve will help you find the perfect provider. 

• What support, onboarding and training will you need? Thinking about what expertise and resources you already have within your HR team will really help you to understand how much support you will need to get up and running on your new software. Some options will need more expertise than others. 

• What other technology will you need to be able to integrate? Knowing what software you already have in your stack and what API integrations you need or will support your onboarding will help streamline the process. 

• Does the employee engagement platform provider align with your values? Last but not least, in a world where ESG is increasingly important, it’s vital you choose providers that align with your sustainability goals and values more generally. 

• Does the provider apply best practices for employee engagement surveys and programmes, for example have they considered accessibility, anonymity and action planning?

The 10 best employee engagement aoftware platforms:

1. Best for building an engaged and happy workforce: The Happiness Index

The Happiness Index is an award winning platform that allows you to understand not only how engaged AND happy your people are, but also get to the bottom of how to improve happiness and engagement across your team. The platform allows you to supercharge your people strategy, boost cultural health and improve performance. It takes you from feedback to insight to action, all in one place!

Take the guesswork out of building your engagement by truly understanding what your team want and need to improve their engagement levels. This will allow your organisation to build a stack of tools and programmes that supports the individuals within your team. The Happiness Index provides the bedrock for any employee engagement programme, allowing you to build, measure and assess changes made and see real ROI from any further tools you choose from this list. 

Key features to support employee engagement

• Understand all the neuroscience themes linking to engagement and happiness across your entire employee lifecycle, from onboarding to exit. 

• Employee surveys designed by neuroscience experts built to get true insight into your employee engagement. 

• Accessible to all, the employee centric design lets people give feedback whenever and wherever they want on a variety of different devices. 

• Guaranteed anonymity within the platform, meaning that all data collected is candid, accurate and secure. 

• Advanced reporting at the touch of a button from at-a-glance overviews to in-depth customisable reports, all data is linked to tangible action planning with in-platform learning opportunities. 

• Communicate directly with employees within the platform to close the feedback loop, allowing you to gain clarity, signpost resources or support individuals all with complete anonymity. 

Pricing

• Pricing is dependent on your organisation size and needs, get in touch with one of our experts to find out how we can support your people goals. 

Find out more

• Discover more about the platform and its key features. 

2. Best employee benefits and recognition solution: Pluxee

Recognition is a key area for employee happiness and engagement, and this is where our friends at Pluxee really excel. They combine nearly 50 years of experience with the energy of a start-up to bring something exciting and new to the table. Their offering gives access to a mix of products that give employees more freedom in the choices they make every day across 31 countries – from restaurant meals to culture, incentives and gift vouchers.

Key features to support employee engagement

• Give your people recognition and freedom, supporting two major neuroscience themes and engaging with what inspires the individuals that make up your team. 

• A strong sustainability angle within the organisation aligns to values and gives your programme meaning and purpose. 

• Completely customisable to your market, your organisation and most importantly the individuals in your team.

• Provide support for your employees’ physical wellbeing, give essential financial advice or protect and improve your employees' mental health.

Pricing

• Will depend on the packages and services you’re looking for, so get in contact with their team to create the perfect plan for your organisation.

Find out more

• Dive deeper into all Pluxee’s offerings and partners here. 

3. Best for building engaged talented teams: TestGorilla

When building an engaged team, starting from the ground up means getting hiring right. Once this is in place, workloads, resources and personal growth are all set in motion. Ensuring that the team you hire are able to meet your requirements, have the desired organisational impact and have a suitable level of challenge within their role is key. This is where TestGorilla comes in. They support you in making unbiased hiring choices based on skills and allow you to make data-driven hiring choices. 

Key features to support employee engagement

• Incredible employee experience from the off with professionally designed tests to inspire candidates. 

• Automation to decrease workload in the hiring team and to support you in getting the right people in place for quality interviews. 

• Tests available for culture add and motivation to find candidates who align with your organisation’s meaning and purpose. 

Pricing

• A free plan is available, but pro plans start from $500 per month.

Find out more

• Discover all the features and tests available here. 

4. Best for performance management: Bamboo HR

We love Bamboo so much we use it ourselves! They offer a variety of HR services which link seamlessly with a number of the other offerings on this list, so could be the perfect addition to your HR stack. Where they really excel in our opinion when it comes to engagement is performance management. Development and progression are important parts of the personal growth neuroscience theme which links directly to increased engagement. So getting this part right can work wonders for your employee engagement. 

Key features to support employee engagement

• Regular feedback to support development and progression throughout the year not just at set times. 

• Automated reminders give everyone on your team clarity about frequency of assessment and reduce workload from management teams. 

• Freedom to tailor your programme based on the needs of your organisation or the individuals within your team. 

Pricing

• Prices depend on team size with a flat rate for teams under 25 and price per employee for teams over 25. 

Find out more

• Discover Bamboo’s performance management and other offerings here.

5. Best for employee development: Learn Amp

In our study of millions of humans across the globe we found that personal development is an area that many organisations fall short on. Learn Amp is a best-in-class platform that will help you to address this. By creating fully customised learning experiences within their platform, you’re able to improve information flow from day one - streamline processes from pre-boarding to progression. 

Key features to support employee engagement

• Build community and collaboration through your learning environment building engagement throughout your team. 

• Professional design helps make training modules available and accessible to everyone minimising input from management teams and empowering your people. 

• One central platform breeds familiarity helping your people to know what to expect and be able to find relevant modules easily allowing them to take ownership of their own progression. 

Pricing

• Pricing from £17,500 per year

Find out more

• Discover the full impact Learn Amp could have on your organisation here. 

6. Best for gamification: Centrical

Boost collaboration, community and personal growth with gamification. Centrical allows you to create a bespoke programme that inspires your team, encourages progression and promotes collaboration. It injects fun and a competitive spirit into your team and facilitates energetic connections. 

Key features to support employee engagement

• Self paced learning with in built repetition and spacing, allows your team to develop in a way that suits them and builds real progression.

• In-built feedback throughout the process enables your team and ensures your programme meets their requirements and inspires them to improve. 

• AI features create personalisation without increasing workload and resource intensification from your HR or leadership teams. 

Pricing

• Dependent on licencing type and number of users, get in touch for a personalised quote. 

Find out more

• Discover the full suite of solutions here. 

7. Best for employee reviews and feedback: Employment Hero

Employee feedback is key for acknowledgment which builds happiness within your organisation, but the impacts are also felt on personal growth and clarity for your people. This is why we recommend Employment Hero as an excellent option when looking for a platform to manage performance reviews. Their integrated platform keeps many HR tasks in one place and their clean design is accessible to all your employees. 

Key features to support employee engagement

• Feedback loops, key performance indicators and goals all in one place, helping inspire development within your team. 

• 360 degree reviews to gain valuable feedback from managers and colleagues, allowing everyone to feel listened to, and facilitate collaboration. 

• Automated tools decrease workload for both your people and management teams and empower everyone to take ownership over their own employee journey. 

Pricing

• Although free packages are available, performance reviews are included in their HR premium package which starts at $12 per employee per month. 

Find out more

• For full information about all the solutions Employment Hero offers click here. 

8. Best for recruitment and team development: Workable

Another platform that we use and love ourselves, Workable is a great recruitment solution, allowing you to grow your team in a way that’s sustainable and data-led. This supports the workload and resources of your whole team, supporting the enablement neuroscience theme and employee engagement. Not only this, but their clever features are less demanding of time within the HR and recruitment functions supporting work-life balance for your team. 

Key features to support employee engagement

• Internal mobility and recommendation features support development and progression within your team.

• Improve collaboration and communication with email and calendar sinking within the platform. 

• Interview kits to provide clarity to both hiring teams and interviewees. 

Pricing

• 15 day free trial, followed by a plan based on team size between $149-599 per month.

Find out more

• Dive into all the features here.

9. Best for collaboration and resource sharing: Google Workspace

Sometimes we don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to employee engagement. It’s not always about the most unusual or out there tools. We use the Google business suite everyday, and it’s invaluable for our organisation’s engagement. Not only does it allow you to collaborate seamlessly, but it also facilitates personal connections and team dynamics through communication tools. 

Key features to support employee engagement

• Work collaboratively in documents, share resources and monitor workload through shared documents, files and folders.

• Increase information flow using helpful communication functionality including chat, video and voice call, plus scheduling within the calendar application. 

• Accessible to anyone on any device, with a range of apps, subtitles, and text to speech functionality available. 

Pricing

• £5-15 per user per month depending on needs. 

Find Out More

• Discover all the options available to you here.

10. Best free solution for instant results: Survey Monkey

Survey Monkey is a great free solution that allows you to survey your people on anything you like. It’s not developed specifically with employee engagement in mind, so while it offers plenty of flexibility you will need internal expertise to plan, create, execute, report and follow up on any surveys. 

Key features to support employee engagement

• Easy to create, personalise and respond to surveys.

• Full flexibility means that you can use the same tool for surveys in a variety of different contexts, for example 360 feedback, team or workload planning or purely engagement assessment. 

• Your people may already be familiar with the tool which can help support feedback rates. 

• Anonymous options available. 

Pricing

• Free to use, although paid plans with additional analytics support are available. 

Find out more

• Discover the available options here.