Free Employee Engagement Software
Employee engagement software combines the key components of task management, data analytics, gamification and feedback tools to provide meaningful insights into employee retention and engagement.
This software category is designed to help businesses and organizations improve company culture and promote a positive work environment for employees. It is often used by human resources departments for a variety of reasons, such as gathering employee feedback, recognizing individual and team achievements, as well as promoting the health and wellness of the entire workforce. The software allows HR departments and managers to find new and more effective opportunities to engage employees and drive professional growth and development. Employee engagement solutions are vital in providing better experiences and maintaining high engagement and satisfaction throughout the entire employee lifecycle.
Free employee engagement software is no different from any premium employee engagement platform in the sense that they all serve the same purpose, to improve employee engagement by providing multiple channels for them to share their sentiments, ideas and opinions. Obviously, the free versions of employee engagement solutions will come with a few limitations depending on the vendor or service provider. Some free software products come in the form of a limited free trial where you’ll have limited use of the software with access to all of its features; it’s usually 7 to 14 days with others up to 30 days of free trial. There are also software products that are free forever but are limited in terms of features and/or seats.
The ideal employee engagement software should come fully equipped with a variety of features and capabilities, such as training tools, employee recognition and incentives, employee feedback and pulse surveys, an automated notification system, employee performance management tools and system integration with a number of relevant business process technologies like core HR tools, CRM and email marketing software.
Free employee engagement software is not exactly what you would consider as ideal, but this does not mean you can’t find value in a free software solution, especially if you’re running a small business or a startup with limited budget and resources. If you have employees and you rely on them for business growth and development, then you’ll find some use for a free employee engagement platform.
Free employee engagement solutions are not entirely useless, especially when they’re packed with useful features and tools that you can easily implement on an employee engagement program for your small workforce. Keep in mind that employee engagement is all about the connection your employees feel with regards to their role in the company and the organization as a whole. An employee engagement solution is merely a tool that you can use to improve employee experiences in the workplace, thus increasing employee satisfaction and engagement.
The ideal free employee engagement software, at the very least, should give you the ability to collect feedback from your employees through tools like pulse surveys. It should also help you analyze the responses and gain actionable insights that you can later use to set goals and objectives for improving employee engagement. An employee engagement platform doesn’t have to be equipped with sophisticated features and capabilities for it to be useful, especially when it comes to basic small business requirements.
As mentioned, a pulse survey tool is perhaps the most basic feature in any good employee engagement software, even the free-to-use ones. This is a type of survey that enables HR teams and managers to conduct concise surveys at regularly scheduled intervals in an effort to measure key metrics throughout the employee lifecycle. Pulse surveys are more effective compared to continuous feedback, especially for small businesses and startups, since the latter can produce too much data for your HR team members to go through. Remember that the main objective for conducting surveys is to gain actionable insights that you can use to keep your employees highly engaged and motivated.
Customization and segmentation tools are also popular features in many best-of-breed employee engagement solutions, although these aren’t always available in some of the free alternatives. However, if you do have free employee engagement software that offers survey customization and segmentation, you might just find the function very useful for creating targeted custom surveys. A lot of the employee engagement surveys available in the market will often come with a set of free response questions, but they also allow you to write your own questions for a more customized survey.
The way employees respond or answer the questions may vary, depending on what type of survey you created and how it’s set up. They can be answering survey questions by choosing on a scale of 1 to 5, by selecting a range of dissatisfied to very satisfied, or by entering custom responses. In addition to customization, the segmentation aspect allows you to segment your surveys by team or by department for a more precise feedback from employees and team members. This feature can be useful even for small businesses and startups as it allows them to create custom surveys that will gather well-defined and insightful responses.
Employee recognition and appreciation is another feature that you may find in your free employee engagement software. This allows for everyone in the company to recognize an individual’s achievements by having them posted, usually, in a company-wide social media feed for all to view, acknowledge and celebrate. Some tools use internal communication that is accessible by everyone within the organization. In most premium employee engagement software, this function is often automated, allowing for real-time recognition of milestones and achievements. This makes it easier and more efficient for businesses to build a culture of appreciation.
Employee recognition and appreciation can also be used to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries of individual employees. Plaques, awards, certificates, badges and incentives in physical or digital form can be used to represent employee recognition and appreciation. Employees who feel appreciated and recognized by their peers are often more engaged and motivated. Motivated or engaged employees are more productive and effective in their jobs.
Employee engagement software is a tool that is capable of measuring the level of commitment that employees have toward their jobs. Having that ability as a small business owner or a startup offers a lot of benefits that have serious implications on employee retention, which is crucial if you’re a small business. However, for most small businesses and startups, investing in best-of-breed employee engagement solutions might be too much in terms of budget. This is where free employee engagement software comes in. Even with its limitations, there are still a few advantages that it can offer.
Perhaps the most fundamental benefit a free employee engagement solution can provide is greater workforce insight. Even though it’s free, the surveys that you can create and the feedback that you should be able to receive and analyze can provide you with meaningful insights that you can use to improve employee experience, increase engagement and satisfaction and ensure retention.
In most cases with these types of tools, the survey responses are usually anonymous to ensure honest and precise answers. The anonymity gives employees a sense of security and the freedom to share their true opinions about their work environment. This is ultimately what you want so the appropriate actions can be taken to alleviate or completely remove the organizational pain points that they might bring to your attention. There are just some things that employees are not comfortable sharing or communicating with their superiors face-to-face. Anonymous pulse surveys are the best and most effective way to do it.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of using free employee engagement software is how it can help increase productivity and improve your employee retention rate without breaking your budget. The software allows you to capture employee sentiments and gain insights that you can use to motivate your employees and boost their engagement. Engaged employees are more likely to be productive in their jobs. Additionally, engaged employees are also more likely to stay with your company. This means that you don’t have to constantly undergo a tedious hiring process to fill crucial positions, which can be even more costly.
Ultimately though, the biggest advantage that a free employee engagement tool can provide is a voice, more specifically a voice for your entire workforce. Through anonymous pulse surveys, your employees have the freedom to air out their sentiments about their peers, their superiors and the organization they work for without getting backlash or worrying about losing their jobs. In turn, you get honest insights into their workplace environment where you can actually do something to make a difference. The software allows you to improve the culture of your company and the experiences of your employees to keep them highly engaged, motivated and productive.
Free employee engagement software can provide value to any organization, especially small businesses and startups. Whether premium or free, a good employee engagement solution is equipped with the basic tools and functionalities that will enable you to improve employee engagement, job satisfaction and talent retention. The goal is to leverage the power of such software solutions to increase productivity and efficiency in a more quantifiable manner.
If you’re opting for free employee engagement software, it should include a few basic features and capabilities such as survey and feedback tools, employee recognition and appreciation, reporting and analytics, alerts and notifications, as well as seamless integration.
