10 best employee engagement software for 2023

In 2023, only 1 out of 5 employees reported being engaged at work; this means that in an office of 200 people, 160 are just “living for the weekend.” When employees aren’t engaged in the workplace, achieving business success becomes difficult. 

That makes choosing an employee engagement software a high-stakes decision. Maybe you're already using a tool like CultureAmp, Peakon, or Lattice and are looking for an alternative or starting out on your search and want to find the best tool to suit your needs. Using the wrong tool results in low adoption rates, unnecessary expenses, and wasted time.

That’s why, in this article, we break down the key features to look for in an employee engagement solution; compare 10 employee engagement solutions; and discuss the benefits of using the right employee engagement software for your business.*

10 best employee engagement software for 2023

Key features to look for in employee engagement solutions

The best employee engagement solutions offer robust features like:

Engagement surveys

Perhaps the most fundamental employee engagement feature, used to gather employee feedback

State-of-the-art analytics

Easily visualize feedback distribution across teams and make data-led decisions

Actionable insights

Possibility to automate Action Plans, based on survey results, to increase the ROI of employee engagement

Customizable survey templates

People Ops/HR leaders and team managers can get easily started with best-practice material

Anonymous conversations

Gain honest insights from employees while reinforcing psychological safety

Continuous feedback

Give meaningful feedback and praise without awkwardness — great for boosting employee morale

The 10 best employee engagement software

To ease the decision-making process, we’ve assessed each tool based on G2 ratings, pricing, notable features, and pros and cons.

1 Leapsome

Leapsome is a holistic people enablement platform that bridges the gap between employee engagement, learning, goal setting, compensation, and performance management.

Combining all these features allows people ops leaders to create a continuous and sustainable cycle of employee development and company growth. Additionally, the tool’s modular design means it can grow with you as your business changes.

Notable features

  • Engagement and pulse survey tools
  • Question templates
  • Sentiment analysis
  • Anonymous feedback conversations 
  • Automated onboarding and exit surveys 
  • Public praise
  • Private feedback 
  • 1:1s and team meetings allowing for continuous development
  • Performance and 360° reviews
  • Compensation and promotion tools
  • Learning features
  • Actionable analytics
  • Work anniversary reminders


Through its wide array of features, Leapsome works to increase employee engagement and give workers a sense of belonging and fulfillment, leading to better productivity and performance.

User interface of Leapsome’s people enablement software


You can collect feedback and gauge your people’s motivations, frustrations, and engagement levels with an employee engagement questionnaire, and use Leapsome’s expert insights to create action plans that improve satisfaction and reduce turnover.

Or if you’re wondering how to engage remote employees, Leapsome provides you with templates and actionable analytics to help get you started with an effective engagement strategy.

User interface of Leapsome’s people enablement software


Finally, enable continuous learning among employees and encourage them to pursue their professional goals. Set up a customized path inside Leapsome’s Learning module and create a superior learning experience. After all, employees who are given the opportunity to learn and grow are almost three times more likely to be engaged.

Pros & cons


Leapsome’s all-in-one approach makes it the perfect tool for remote, hybrid, and on-site teams alike
, as every module is designed to support the entire employee lifecycle and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

It also provides human resources professionals with continuous insights, helping onboard and enable new hires from day one. 

As an administrator, you have access to powerful visualization tools like:

  • Turnover analysis
  • Review and goal cycles
  • Tree, 9-box, timeline, heatmap, and radar views 


Another perk that makes using Leapsome more convenient than other employee management software is that it’s available in 13 languages
— including English, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, German, and Russian. This enables organizations to provide a personalized and inclusive experience for their international workforce. 

The tool is consistently growing and adding new features to support companies in creating a more engaged workforce, decreasing employee turnover, and driving business success.

Some users report that utilizing the tool to its full potential requires some initial training effort. To simplify adoption, it’s important to begin the experience with a full understanding of company goals and expectations. A clear roadmap makes it easier to stay focused and make use of Leapsome’s wide range of modules and features.

Screenshot of a 5-star review left by a Leapsome user on the G2 website. The title reads: “Powerful tool for employee engagement and feedback!”


Pricing


Leapsome’s pricing starts at US$8 per user per month. A free 14-day trial is also available.

The best places to work trust Leapsome

We have customers all over the world.
See what some of them have to say:

Testimonial Image

Leapsome is saving us lots of time during our performance appraisals and helps us build an open, value-oriented feedback culture. We’ve compared several platforms, and Leapsome stood out convincingly — it’s user-friendly, intuitive, and highly customizable. As a manager, I love how fast and openly the team at Leapsome reacts to our feedback and suggestions.

Dr. Christian Grobe

CEO
Testimonial Image

Leapsome enhances meaningful feedback and employee engagement. It’s a must-have for every company at any stage. We are growing toward 750 employees, but the rollout was easy, fast, and successful nonetheless. The great customer support helped us through the whole onboarding process.

Thore Schӓck, Head of HR & Recruiting.

Thore Schӓck

Head of HR & Recruiting
Testimonial Image

With the help of the people analytics, you can quickly understand the significance of the results. We also frequently use the 1:1 function, which, although very simple, is extremely useful.

Erica Ancobia, Head of People Operations

Erica Ancobia

Head of People Operations
Testimonial Image

We see the People team as a partner team rather than an admin team. We want to focus on our employees and not on processes. With Leapsome, we have automated the manual work around feedback and career development so that we can spend our time with our people: understanding their needs, guiding them through their very own DCMN lifecycle, and helping them find purpose in what they do.

Theresa Jasaraj, Senior Manager, Personal Relations

Theresa Jasaraj

Senior Manager, People Relations
5 star icon purple transparent
Don't just take our word forit. We're proud that our product and exceptional service have been recognized as best-in-class by the independent software review platform G2.
⭐️ Make work something your people actually enjoy

Build a healthy workplace culture and help your people feel heard and engaged with Leapsome.

Book a demo today

2 Clear Review

User interface of Clear Review’s employee management software

This software strives to manage engagement, well-being, and performance in a single system, encouraging employees and managers to address issues during check-in conversations and 1:1s.

Notable features

  • “My Mindspace” well-being measurement tool
  • Suggestion box feature
  • Custom employee surveys

Designed for mid-sized to large businesses, this tool helps facilitate internal communication and improve employee engagement using check-in and suggestion box features. Through customizable nudges and reminders, managers are consistently made aware of employee satisfaction and well-being levels.

Pros & cons


Clear Review is easy to understand and straightforward to operate. Additionally, its focus on encouraging 1:1 meetings fosters employee and manager interactions and makes it easier to improve employee recognition, which can sometimes be more difficult in larger companies.

However, beyond collecting feedback, creating objectives and OKRs, and sending out customizable surveys, Clear Review doesn’t encompass all the people enablement features a company could leverage.

Pricing


Clear Review’s pricing varies based on the number of users and plan. The minimum annual contract for the Starter plan is around US$3,345.18 — equal to a minimum of 50 licenses.

3 Elevo

User interface of Elevo’s employee engagement software

Elevo is a French HR software that integrates employee engagement, development, and performance management. The software has a pleasing UI and strives to help companies adopt a more agile management style.

Notable features

  • Agile goal tracking
  • People analytics
  • 360° reviews
  • Training management
  • Development interviews
  • Manager surveys

Elevo helps engage employees by empowering managers to provide useful and actionable insights more frequently. 360° reviews help develop a culture of collaboration and dialogue, and manager surveys allow managers to receive feedback from peers, direct reports, and employees.

Pros & cons


Elevo highlights its efforts to make sure its platform is secure and as bug-free as possible. 

But while the platform is multilingual, much of Elevo’s content is in French. It can be challenging for HR professionals to fully understand the platform and its features and make a good purchasing decision because of this language barrier.

Pricing


Elevo’s pricing isn’t readily available.

4 Glint

User interface of Glint’s employee engagement software


Primarily a feedback collection tool, Glint allows managers and leaders to send out customizable surveys on topics like team effectiveness, culture, diversity and inclusion, and employee engagement.

Notable features

  • Pulse surveys
  • Goal and challenge creation
  • Manager learning library 

Results can be visualized in real time with a dashboard and automated tools.

Pros & cons


This employee engagement software is easy to use, with a straightforward UI. Additionally, surveys are available in several languages, making it easier for international teams to share their feedback.

In smaller teams, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep surveys 100% anonymous since the format of the questions makes it easier for survey takers to identify employees through elimination.

Pricing


Glint’s pricing isn’t readily available.

5 The Happiness Index

User interface of The Happiness Index’s employee engagement software


The Happiness Index is an employee engagement and happiness management software that works with neuroscience-based pre-built surveys. What makes this tool stand out is its focused approach to helping managers listen to employee sentiment and emotions, as well as measuring engagement.

Notable features

  • Survey analytics
  • Heatmaps and sentiment analysis functions

The Happiness Index is primarily a feedback collection tool that helps managers drive action using the platform’s action-planning tools. Human resources professionals can use pre-built survey templates to easily get started with collecting employee feedback.

Pros & cons


One of the pros of the Happiness Index is its benchmarking and feedback loop features, which allow managers to compare engagement and happiness with other organizations and visualize internal trends.

However, while this tool emphasizes tapping into employee sentiment, the platform doesn’t offer as many features as similar software.

Pricing


The Happiness Index’s pricing isn’t readily available.

6 Officevibe

User interface of Officevibe’s employee engagement software


Officevibe is an employee experience platform that offers products such as Engagement, Recognition, and Alignment, adopting a young and aesthetically pleasing UI.

Notable features

  • Pulse surveys
  • Anonymous feedback
  • 1:1 meetings
  • Good Vibes recognition tool

One of Officevibe’s most notable features is its fun interface.

Pros & cons


The tool’s interface is straightforward and the software is easy to use.

However, some users report a lack of employee anonymity on surveys, a buggy UX, and generic survey questions.

Pricing


Officevibe offers a free plan for teams of up to 10 people. Paid plans cost US$3.50-5 per employee per month when billed annually.

7 Qualtrics Employee Experience

User interface of Qualtrics’ employee engagement software

Qualtrics Employee Experience is an employee engagement tool designed to help companies identify key drivers of employee productivity, engagement, and satisfaction. This solution helps provide managers with actionable insights from employee surveys and feedback using AI text analysis and predictive intelligence.

Notable features

  • 360 development
  • Benefits optimizer 
  • People analytics software 

Qualtrics’ solution offers various services to help managers increase team productivity and engagement. Its AI tools help spot themes and trends, find relationships between employee engagement outcomes, and spot problems early with automated alerts.

Pros & cons


Qualtrics Employee Experience offers several functions and capabilities and is consistently praised for its customer service.

Yet, users have reported that the tool has quite a steep learning curve and a relatively complicated UI. Despite certain advanced features, this platform isn’t suitable for everyday users looking for a straightforward and user-friendly tool.

Pricing


Qualtrics’ pricing isn’t readily available.

8 SurveySparrow

User interface of Survey Sparrow’s employee management software

SurveySparrow is a customer, product, and employee experience platform that provides integrations and tools like NPS, chatbots, and enterprise survey software.

Notable features

  • Chat surveys
  • Offline surveys 
  • 360 assessments

Pros & cons


The platform is powerful and offers integrations and automations that help users adapt the software to their needs. Additionally, users report that survey templates help managers collect employee feedback more easily.

With many bells and whistles, this tool might not be suitable for smaller organizations. It may also not meet all the requirements of businesses that need a specialized employee engagement or people enablement solution.

Pricing


SuveySparrow’s pricing isn’t readily available

9 WorkTango

User interface of WorkTango’s employee management software


Formerly known as Kazoo, WorkTango is an employee experience platform that combines surveys, employee feedback, goals and OKR management, and incentives to help organizations increase employee engagement and satisfaction.

Notable features

  • Peer recognition
  • Corporate discounts
  • Gamifying employee performance

One of WorkTango’s notable characteristics is a feature that helps incentivize employees and drive engagement by rewarding behaviors like completing workouts, volunteering activities, hosting cultural events, or being an onboarding buddy.

Pros & cons


WorkTango serves as a nice morale booster due to its gamified points and reward distributing system. It helps create a culture of gratitude and recognition by enabling coworkers to celebrate each other’s accomplishments and shout out wins.

According to users, the Incentives UX still has a long way to go, and some reported experiencing bugs, long loading times, and issues with points distribution and redemption.

Pricing


WorkTango’s pricing isn’t readily available.

10 Xoxoday Empuls

User interface of Empuls’ employee engagement software

Empuls is an employee engagement and motivation platform that focuses on corporate rewards and recognition. Users have access to different modules; the Remote and Hybrid Work module aims to provide a better experience for remote workers through engagement surveys and virtual celebrations.

Notable features

  • Employee engagement bot
  • Pulse surveys
  • Performance review and feedback surveys
  • Exclusive employee discounts and rewards for employee recognition
  • Social intranet to promote employee communication

Good performance, important milestones, and even personal occasions are rewarded with gamified points, which can be redeemed monthly.

Pros & cons


Empuls is an affordable solution for businesses looking for a relatively easy-to-use solution that offers more than the basic functionalities. Notifications and nudges that serve as event, work anniversary, and birthday reminders help make the workplace more fun.

However, many users have reported issues with the platform’s UI, and have shared that the strong emphasis on the employee reward program can cause employees to lose focus and pay too much attention to their points and redeemable rewards.

Pricing


Empuls’ pricing starts at US$2 per user per month.

The benefits of employee engagement software

The main goal of employee engagement software is to let managers and leaders understand how their employees feel at work and make data-driven decisions to create an engaging and healthy work culture. 

For example, if you’re wondering how to run employee engagement surveys or support a new hire through onboarding, your software of choice should give you the resources and tools to do that.

The benefits of employee engagement software include:

  • Measuring engagement: This means checking in on your team’s well-being and providing them with the support they need.
  • Enabling managers: Well-trained and capable managers make for happier teams and more successful businesses.
  • Creating a sense of belonging: Align employees around your company’s mission and show that their work makes a difference.
  • Delivering growth-oriented reviews: Collect anonymous or non-anonymous employee feedback to equip managers and help them best support their reports.
  • Boosting employee morale: Show your people that their voices are heard and valued by taking action on their feedback.
  • Increasing retention rates: Keep your talent at your company by supporting their professional development.

Choosing the right employee engagement solution 

A lot goes into choosing the right employee engagement software for your company since you need to pick a platform that you know your team will use and enjoy. That’s why, in this piece, we compared 10 platforms based on G2 reviews, pros and cons, notable features, pricing, and available languages.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one people enablement software that provides support throughout the employee lifecycle, scales with you, and closes the loop between performance management, employee engagement, and learning, then Leapsome is the tool for you.

Employee engagement tool comparison chart

If you’re struggling to decide between two or more options, here’s a more concise overview of each software tool and its features.

*The information above is based on our research from July to September 2022. All user feedback referenced in the text has been sourced from independent software review platforms such as G2 and Capterra in December 2022

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