As modern as it may sound, the concept of Employee Engagement was introduced in the early 1990s when various companies first forayed into motivating and retaining their employees using multiple strategies. The onset of the 21st century saw rapid advancements in the technologies being used in diverse sectors, making way for the usage of the employee engagement software as a formal tool for Human Resource Management (HRM). The companies soon came to realize that just offering free lunches, celebrating family days, or maybe initiating “Fun Friday” sessions would not suffice. They needed to do much more for their employees.
Employee engagement, at its core, is the extent to which employees feel committed and passionate about their jobs. Although as per a survey conducted by Gallup across 19 countries, India ranked quite high in terms of job satisfaction, the ground reality is quite different. Most of the Indian workforce remains far from fully engaged. Only 22% of the workforce agrees to be fully engaged. The statistics reflect the grim reality of the remaining three-fourth of the working population merely showing up at work, completely disengaged. The contributing reasons could be several and could range from a lack of adequate training to workplace stress, low employee morale, etc. In such a scenario, how should companies combat this concern and find workable solutions to engage employees in a meaningful manner?
The answer is provided by employee engagement software, which offers practical solutions to the HR department attempting to replace the traditional ways to keep the employees engaged. Let us look into the details of what exactly is an employee engagement software and how it could help address engagement issues.
How Can Employee Engagement Software Help Companies?
What is Employee Engagement Software?
An employee engagement software helps set a seamless process for the tools of HRM, which were probably always handled conventionally via methods like one-on-one meetings, surveys, goal tracking, feedback, analytics, recognition and a lot more. This software is nothing but various categories of application programs, which companies use to increase job satisfaction and employee retention. In fact, this software is now widely recognized as the most popular technique employed by the HR department to reduce turnover and address employee concerns.
Most systems today come with an integrated mobile platform to suit the needs of even remote workers or employees who prefer working from their smartphones rather than their computers. The market for employee engagement software is growing by the day. According to a report by Zion Market Research, the global market worth for employee engagement software is expected to reach close to $346 million by 2025! The reason behind this tremendous growth is the benefit that an employee engagement software brings to the table – it provides a channel for companies to elicit regular feedback from their employees and for the employees to be regularly heard.
What are some of the Essential Components of Employee Engagement Software?
Any employee engagement software will not just help a company measure employee engagement, but will also become a critical tool to track, communicate, maintain, and report employee engagement throughout its corporation. Here are some of its essential components:
Employee Feedback:
Collecting employee feedback via open-ended surveys is one of the cornerstones of employee engagement software. There are typically three types of surveys, namely Census surveys (annual), Pulse surveys (at any time) and Lifecycle surveys (at a particular workplace milestone). Several actionable tools, like text analytics and demographic slicing, help the companies better comprehend the issues which matter the most to their employees. This also helps them address concerns based on qualitative and quantitative data and not any biases.
Goal Setting and Tracking:
An employee engagement software should help a company align its goals and big-picture strategies with the individual goals of its employees. Often, such important metrics get lost in emails. However, with dedicated software, it becomes easy to set goals and track them for the benefit of all the stakeholders of the company. It gives a chance to evaluate the employees’ goals against the company’s goals, understand how the employees are performing against the set goals and provide them with any assistance if required.
One-on-One Mapping:
One-on-one meetings can never go out of style. They are most required to understand employees’ feedback and concerns in a better manner. The employee engagement software provides the ability to record notes, goals and past conversations, and suggest measures of growth and development in an organized way.
Alerts:
Software help managers and employees let their guard down and focus on more important things, as almost all software come pre-installed with an automated alert feature. This helps employees stay on track regarding any meetings and plan their day accordingly against any unprecedented schedules.
Key Benefits of Employee Engagement Software
Increase Employee Engagement:
An Employee Engagement software does just that – better engage employees – and more. It gives employees a common platform to collaborate on solutions, clarify communication, and solve problems, thereby making them feel like a part of the team. This way, they also consider themselves to be a part of the bigger picture, which consists of the company’s larger mission. It also reduces the hassle on the employees’ part of going to any online platforms like Slack or other instant messaging apps etc. to start a conversation with their peers. The employees can seek out any particular employee or even the team threads and communicate very easily.
Improves Onboarding:
New employees might, at times, feel intimidated during their initial working days at a new workplace. They might feel the pressure of learning new things and getting familiarized with everyone, especially the members of their new team. They might as well get overwhelmed taking so much information and yet having limited ways to add any real value. The software bridges this gap by letting in the new employees and seeking their feedback. It could be reassuring for them to know that their past experiences and personal opinions are valued by the team. Employee engagement software helps streamline the onboarding process and keeps a tab on the employees’ engagement levels right from their day one.
Increases Productivity:
This is a no-brainer. According to a report by HayGroup, engaged employees are as much as 43% more productive than those who aren’t. They are more committed towards their responsibilities, willing to push beyond the expectation and contribute to a higher level. They know that their work adds value and affects the company’s operations positively on a larger level and, for this, they express their willingness to participate.
Improves Retention Rates:
Why do most people leave or switch jobs? It’s either because of poor workplace relationships, lack of recognition for the job performance or a feeling of not being on the same page as the company’s vision and mission. Employee engagement software solves this problem by helping the team members, managers, and all the other stakeholders stay consistently connected. Such software help address the problems of employee recognition and even streamline the flow of regular feedback. Employees are better able to visualize their place and where they fit against the larger goals of the company.
Give Employees a Voice:
Like mentioned earlier, this software not only helps keep everyone on the same page but also understand how each employee feels. With the help of tools such as feedback collection and analysis, conducting surveys, etc., the team leaders can offer support and encouragement to their fellow workers. This lets the employees know that they are being heard by the right person and their feedback or suggestions are also understood and implemented by the management.
Employee engagement has moved from being a core HR subject to becoming central to the business strategies, as it is extremely crucial for the overall success of a business. The latest employee engagement software is a must-have tool for helping employees stay engaged via well-integrated features, like 360-degree feedback management system, employee recognition, career development, and creating programs around corporate wellness, etc.
