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People Management

Best Employee Engagement Apps (2022 Roundup & Comparison)

August 9, 2022
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12 minutes

Employee engagement apps can supercharge your efforts to build a great workplace. These are the best engagement apps for you to consider in 2022.

Nouran Smogluk
Employee engagement apps can supercharge your efforts to build a great workplace. These are the best engagement apps for you to consider in 2022.

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The COVID pandemic has driven some positive changes in the workplace, like more opportunities to work remotely and higher flexibility for employees. But it also introduced huge challenges for employers to navigate. 

Employees today expect more from their work. 

They’re looking for job stability and good pay and benefits, but they also want a value-driven work environment and a people-first culture. They want to learn and grow in their roles. They want to have a positive influence in the world.

Some of these changes were driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. Periods of uncertainty always bring change. But some of these changes are also generational, and as millennials and Gen-Z become the bulk of the world’s working population, employers need to adapt if they want to fourish

Building a healthy work culture and an engaged workforce is more important than ever before. And that’s why you need employee engagement apps. 

Here’s a roundup of the best engagement apps to consider in 2022. 

What’s an employee engagement app?


Employee engagement apps are software that enables you to measure, track, and influence employee engagement over time. They usually include features that allow you to conduct surveys, gather employee feedback, and track progress towards engagement goals, resulting in a more engaged workforce and healthier company culture.

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Benefits of employee engagement apps


Every senior leader and human resources team wants engaged employees. Engaged employees are excited about their roles and your company. They show up every day prepared to do a great job. They’re forthcoming with feedback and try to push for improvements when they see opportunities. They’re great teammates and employees.

Employee engagement apps act as an extension of your HR or People team. They also equip your managers to be better people leaders. Through fostering engagement and gathering feedback, employee engagement apps help your whole organization flourish. Some of the key benefits of employee engagement apps include:

  1. Engaged employees do not look for other jobs.
  2. Keeping employees engaged prevents burnout.
  3. Engaged employees build a world-class work culture. 

1. Engaged employees do not look for other jobs

Retention is the ultimate measure of how engaged your employees are. If employees disengage long enough, they either begin to suffer performance issues or they leave. 

63% of companies say that retaining employees is harder than hiring them. Churn is not only costly for your business, but it also impacts employee satisfaction across the whole company. High turnover makes it hard to preserve a culture and sense of connection. If your employees feel like there’s a flood of people leaving the organization, they’ll naturally start to wonder if there’s something amiss.

In contrast, high retention–especially of your best employees–will maintain the culture that you’ve worked so hard to develop. Employee engagement apps make it easier for you to gather and take action on employee feedback long before they’ve started thinking about looking for a different job. 

2. Keeping employees engaged prevents burnout

Burnout is a recurring and growing problem today, even among leaders

Employees struggling with burnout are exhausted, ineffective, and cynical about your company. Contrast that with engaged employees, who are more productive, enthusiastic, and excited about their jobs. 

Employee engagement apps help you take a proactive stance towards employee burnout. By using an engagement app to proactively foster more engagement, you’ll be reducing the likelihood of burnout occurring. On top of that, employee engagement apps also make it easier to recognize the signs of burnout early, enabling you to quickly intervene and reduce burnout’s impact. 

3. Building a world-class work culture

76% of employees believe an empathetic organization inspires more motivated employees. Yet only 50% of CEOs agree that empathy drives productivity and motivation. That’s an interesting disconnect–especially when you pair it with the fact that the majority of jobseekers say culture matters more than salary.

Your company culture is a significant driver in attracting—or repelling—the best talent. Engaged employees love their jobs and your company. They’re your biggest fans, and they’re the ones leaving five-star reviews on sites like Glassdoor.

Employee engagement apps foster two-way communication that helps you create a better company culture for both current and future employees. 

Best employee engagement apps for 2022


There are a ton of employee engagement apps out there. While there’s some overlap in their features, many of them target employee engagement from different perspectives, which means having a high-level understanding of each is important. Before you can choose the right solution(s) for your company, you need to get the lay of the land.

Kona

Best for: Remote teams
Price: Free
G2 rating:
4.6/5

Kona is a wellbeing and burnout prevebntion platform for people-first remote teams. Kona’s easy-to-use Slack app that powers daily wellbeing check-ins with one simple question — how are you feeling today?

The insights from the responses to this simple question help remote managers understand and improve employee engagement, foster trust and connection, and prevent burnout across your team.

Engagement Multiplier

Best for: Employee surveys
Price:
$5 per person/month
G2 rating:
4.3/5

Engagement Multiplier gives you an easy way to send employee surveys and create a baseline for engagement across your company. It also provides you with the tools you need to follow up on those results by creating an action plan and setting employee engagement goals.


In addition to their app, Engagement Multiplier provides a framework and program that you can systematically implement to improve engagement over time. 

Blink

Best for: Frontline or deskless workers
Price:
$6.18 per person/month
G2 rating:
4.6/5

Blink is built for frontline workers who don’t work at a desk. Through functioning as a social tool, Blink helps keep employees who are on-the-go engaged with each other and your company.

Blink is an all-in-one solution to manage internal communication and collaboration. It provides a way for those workers to keep in touch with each other throughout the work day and can fulfill various functions, including communication, intranet, and task management.

Bonusly

Best for: Recognition & rewards
Price:
$2.70 per person/month
G2 rating:
4.8/5

Bonusly empowers anyone to run a recognition and rewards program. This app boosts engagement by making it easy for every employee to send praise to their colleagues and to celebrate achievements collectively. 

As a leader, you can use these kudos to reward high-achievers with gift cards to dozens of retailers. And since Bonusly integrates with a variety of communication tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, it’s a breeze to implement into your teams’ existing workflows. 

WeThrive

Best for: Collecting actionable feedback
Price:
$9 per person/per month
G2 rating:
4.5/5

WeThrive is an app to collect actionable feedback. It provides you with ready-made surveys that are designed by psychologists, so you can launch one immediately after signing up. Survey results are matched up against a list of 1000+ recommended engagement goals and actions, giving you a clear path towards improving engagement over time.

Officevibe

Best for: Pulse surveys & 1:1s
Price:
free for up to 10 people
G2 rating:
4.3/5

Officevibe is a great app for pulse surveys and eNPS scoring. You can use it to send out surveys, collect feedback, and analyze results. As an employee experience platform, Officevibe also includes features to help across the broader employee lifecycle, such as managing 1:1s meetings and tracking progress on development goals. |

Officevibe might be a good option for you if your managers could benefit from additional help. Its 1:1 feature includes conversation starters, career development templates, and feedback guidance to help managers support their teams. 

ProofHub

Best for: Project planning
Price:
$45/month flat
G2 rating:
4.5/5

ProofHub is an all-in-one project management and collaboration tool. While not specifically meant for employee engagement, its wide feature set enables better collaboration and communication across your team. This means it’s easier for you to communicate and recognize great work, which are both fundamental to creating a highly engaged workforce.

Culture Amp

Best for: Culture building
Price:
$3000/year
G2 rating:
4.6/5

Culture Amp is all about creating a great company culture (it’s even in its name!). With Culture Amp, you can send out engagement surveys, manage 1:1s and long-term development, and coach your employees’ performance over time. 

Culture Amp empowers you to create an employee experience that works for your employees and company. It contains a few neat features, such as a turnover prediction algorithm and science-backed development tips.

EngageWith

Best for: Employee retention
Price:
free up to 50 users
G2 rating:
4.9/5

EngageWith helps you improve employee retention and engagement. This engagement app includes a full suite of features, including employee engagement and pulse surveys, eNPS scoring, anonymous feedback, and rewards and recognition. 

EngageWith is also a great tool for fostering two-way feedback. Their manager feedback survey means you can provide your managers with a constant stream of feedback and analytics to help them grow as people leaders.

TINYpulse

Best for: Quick pulse surveys
Price:
$5 per person/month
G2 rating:
4.3/5

TINYpulse is an app that’s perfect for sending out quick pulse surveys. These short surveys create regular opportunities for your employees to give feedback. You can then use their data-driven recommendations to build out your employee engagement strategy and measure your progress over time. 

TINYpulse also includes extra features to help foster employee engagement, such as 1:1 agendas, goal tracking, and recognition.

What’s the best employee engagement app for your team?

Employee engagement isn’t a mystery. Consistently investing in creating a great work culture will lead to a more engaged team over time.

This means any employee engagement app can positively impact your company.  The above apps are the best of the best, and you should think carefully about the challenges you’re facing and the specific features you need—both now and over the next few years. Add Kona to Slack for free, then keep a close eye on the effects you see on employee engagement as your team integrates the app with their daily routines. 

Meet the Author

Nouran Smogluk

Nouran is a passionate people manager who believes that work should be a place where people grow, develop, and thrive. She writes for Supported Content and also blogs about a variety of topics, including remote work, leadership, and creating great customer experiences.

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