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With so many different employee experience software available, figuring out which is right for your company is tough. You know you want software to monitor how satisfied and engaged your employees are, as well as tools to monitor their performance and increase their motivation and productivity, but you need to figure out which tool is best. In this post, I'll help you make your choice easy by sharing my insights on the best employee experience tools to connect the dots between employee engagement, performance, and development and create a positive workplace culture.

What is Employee Experience Software?

Employee experience software are digital tools designed to help companies retain staff, increase productivity, and improve overall business performance. They aim to make team members feel valued and important, while also ensuring that concerns and ideas are noted. They typically include tools for communication, feedback, performance tracking, goal setting, personal development, and analytics.

By investing in software focused on improving your employee experience, you can expect to see additional improvements in employee satisfaction, morale, performance, communication, collaboration, and productivity. Employee experience tools also gather data on employee trends and needs to inform future HR initiatives and support continuous organizational improvements.

Overviews of the 10 Best Employee Experience Software

Here’s a brief description of each employee experience software system that showcases each system’s best use case, and their noteworthy features. I’ve also included screenshots to give you a snapshot of their user interface too.

Best employee experience software for linking employee engagement and performance

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.3/5

Trakstar is a cloud-based talent development platform for HR professionals. It's equipped with a variety of tools and features designed to help attract and retain top talent, as well as engage with and develop the entire workforce. Trakstar is comprised of different modules, including performance management (Trakstar Perform), applicant tracking (Trakstar Hire), learning management (Trakstar Learn), and workforce analytics (Trakstar Insights).

Trakstar’s performance management software has the required features to serve multiple purposes, including managing performance and engagement. With Perform, HR teams and managers can use tools like performance reviews, 360-degree online feedback, employee surveys, and goal setting tools to measure engagement, evaluate performance, and find solutions to improve their employee experience in general. Other key features include self-reviews, tracking with real-time reporting, and flexible reporting stacked with rich data to help determine the top performers. The software also comes with automated email notifications, check-ins, and note taking features.

Their 360-degree performance review module allows managers to pre-select who will have access to 360-degree feedback by incorporating it directly into the performance review workflow. With this tool, managers are able to set and update goals while keeping track of the progress and performance of employees throughout the year.

Trakstar’s employee survey software is another tool that plays a significant role in measuring and improving employee engagement and performance. It offers a library that contains a broad range of survey questions that are ready to use. HR managers can create and automatically send surveys on various topics or they can choose to create custom surveys to fulfill a specific data requirement.

Trakstar integrates with 25+ popular software systems including ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Google Workspace, Namely, Office365, Okta, OneLogin, Salesforce, Slack, UKG Pro, and Zoom.

Trakstar offers customized pricing details and a free demo upon request.

Best for incentivizing employees with recognition and rewards

  • 60-day free trial
  • From $2.70/user/month
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Rating: 4.7/5

Bonusly is an employee recognition and rewards software that's built around a peer-to-peer recognition model. It allows employees to exchange rewards credits and cash out their points for different types of rewards. It can also automate celebratory messages for employee milestones, and facilitate incentive programs. The platform has an analytics dashboard to track your of your rewards and incentives programs' success.

Rather than rely on a top-down recognition model, the software encourages employees to share peer recognition through the exchange of points. Each team member has a points budget that they can use to send recognition to their colleagues alongside a personalized message. Rewards points can be redeemed in the form of gift cards, charitable donations, cash out options, or custom rewards implemented by the organization.

The software works a bit like a social media feed, and employees can add comments and additional points to public recognition messages. This promotes a culture of recognition and celebrating high performance among peers. You can add company values hashtags to the system to make recognition more meaningful and related to your company culture.

The software integrates with workplace communication tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack, as well as various HR platforms like SAP, ADP, and BambooHR. Plans start from $2.70 per user per month, and a 60-day free trial is available.

Best for hybrid workplace optimization

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 5/5

HubStar is a dynamic workplace platform that provides a suite of tools designed to support employee engagement and performance, particularly in hybrid work environments. It enables organizations to manage office attendance and optimize workplace experience through features such as communication, collaboration, feedback, performance management, recognition, and rewards.

HubStar aims to balance the supply of workspace with the demand of a hybrid workforce, providing tools for scheduling, space management, and analytics. It integrates with existing technology systems and collects data from various sources, such as badge swipes, booking systems, sensors, and Wi-Fi, to create a unified source of information. This data is then used to help predict office occupancy and inform decisions about workplace management, with the goal of improving the workplace experience and optimizing the use of office spaces.

The platform also includes features for promoting social connections and collaboration among employees, as well as tools for university timetabling and utilization. HubStar emphasizes interoperability with other technologies, data normalization, and hardware independence, suggesting that it can work with a variety of sensor types and data sources.

HubStar integrates with Cisco, HP, Density, Tableau, PowerBI, Oracle, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Outlook, and Okta.

Best employee experience software for developing high-performance teams

  • Free demo available
  • From $11/user/month
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Rating: 4.7/5

Lattice is a cloud-based employee performance tool that helps HR teams get the most from staff. Accessible on both desktop and mobile, it is focused primarily on performance review and goal management.

Managers can set up tasks for employees then track these through to completion. They can view tasks in progress through a range of productivity graphs. Using the admin dashboard, they can also create custom questions for performance reviews and analysis.

The included reporting features allow managers to analyze review status for individuals and teams. All reports are stored to enable future study and comparison.

This tool integrates with various HR tools, including BambooHR, Personio, and Gusto.

Lattice costs from $11/user/month. There is no free trial, but a demo is available on request.

Best for its robust mobile app

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request

TriNet offers HR software designed to help small to medium-sized businesses manage their HR functions. It's best for businesses looking for an all-in-one HR platform that includes benefits administration, payroll, compliance, and employee engagement tools.

I picked TriNet as the best Employee Experience Software because it offers a comprehensive suite of features that help businesses take care of their employees, from onboarding to offboarding. TriNet's focus on compliance and benefits administration also sets it apart from other HR software providers.

As a comprehensive HR platform that includes compliance management and benefits administration, its employee engagement tools and performance management features are also great for businesses looking to improve their employee experience. While there are other HR software providers on the market, TriNet's focus on compliance and benefits administration really sets it apart.

Features include an employee perks program, global payroll solution, compliance with local tax laws and regulations, vendor perks and deals, payroll management system, custom rewards, a variety of payment options, and recognition programs.

Integrations include QuickBooks, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, BambooHR, Lattice, Greenhouse Software, Carta, and Xero

Best for holistic employee experience insights

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.9/5

WorkTango is an employee experience software that focuses on improving engagement, performance, and retention through various tools and solutions. The platform includes features such as recognition and rewards, employee lifecycle surveys, dashboards and insights, and anonymous conversations. WorkTango also provides resources for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I).

One feature that helps organizations gather holistic employee experience insights is the platform's survey functionality. Leaders and managers can conduct unlimited employee lifecycle surveys to cover the entire employee lifecycle, from onboarding to exit, to gather feedback at every stage. WorkTango also offers employee engagement surveys specifically designed to measure engagement levels within the organization. From these surveys, employers can understand themes and trends to help create action plans for improvement.

Another feature that helps improve overall employee experience is WorkTango's recognition and rewards platform. These features help organizations acknowledge and appreciate employees' contributions while incentivizing everyone to continue doing their best work. Additionally, the marketplace allows employees to redeem points they earn through recognition for various rewards.

WorkTango also offers an anonymous conversation feature that encourages employees to speak freely about their experiences without worry of retaliation. Employers can then respond to these conversations and gain insights for improvement plans. This feature helps foster a culture of continuous feedback and listening, which can subsequently improve the overall employee experience.

Trakstar integrates with ADP Workforce Now (U.S. only), 7Shifts, Google Workspace, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Access PeopleHR, Apple HealthKit, Azure Active Directory, Slack, and more.

Best employee experience software for employee surveys on job satisfaction topics

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $8/user/month
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Rating: 4.8/5

Leapsome is a cloud-based platform that offers employee performance management, engagement surveys, and personalized learning and development solutions for businesses.

Leapsome is a comprehensive HR platform that helps businesses enhance employee performance, engagement, and development. The platform offers a range of tools, including performance management, engagement surveys, and personalized learning and development solutions, that are designed to support HR teams and managers in creating a positive workplace culture and empowering employees to reach their full potential. With Leapsome, businesses can set and track goals, provide regular feedback and recognition, conduct surveys to gather employee feedback and insights, and offer customized learning and development programs.

Leapsome offers several features that make it a valuable tool for improving employee experience and engagement, including performance management tools that enable employees to set and track goals, receive regular feedback and recognition, and access personalized learning and development opportunities. Additionally, the platform offers pulse surveys and engagement surveys to gather employee feedback and insights, as well as analytics and reporting tools that enable businesses to identify areas for improvement and track progress over time. Leapsome also provides customizable employee development plans, career pathing, and skill assessments to support employee growth and development.

Leapsome offers a range of employee engagement surveys that enable businesses to gather feedback and insights from their employees. These surveys are customizable and cover various topics, such as job satisfaction, communication, leadership, and work-life balance. The platform provides pre-built templates for different survey types, including pulse surveys, employee satisfaction surveys, and 360-degree feedback surveys.

Leapsome integrates with Workday, BambooHR, Personio, Slack, MS Teams, Jira Software, calendar apps, and more.

Leapsome costs from $8/user/month and offers a 14-day free trial.

Best employee experience software for engagement surveys and performance-based rewards

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.6/5

ClearCompany is a talent management platform that helps organizations engage employees and improve their performance. It includes tools to help create better workplace experiences, enhance employee morale, measure goals and objectives more accurately, facilitate weekly check-ins, gather employee feedback, and maintain a workforce that is simultaneously cohesive and productive.

Their comprehensive software allows employers to have full visibility over the employee engagement cycle, while also streamlining data collection processes surrounding performance metrics. ClearCompany helps managers evaluate employees’ performance on an ongoing basis. Performance reviews are conducted within an easy-to-use interface, making it simple to provide feedback to each employee quickly and efficiently. Additionally, managers can use these tools to track key performance indicators (KPIs) across the organization, allowing them to gain valuable insights into how their teams perform over time.

ClearCompany includes powerful engagement and feedback surveys that help users measure how engaged employees are in the workplace. These surveys provide valuable insight into areas where changes need to be made so that businesses can create a more positive work environment for everyone. These surveys can help identify potential issues before they become major problems, saving an organization time and money in the long run.

ClearCompany's onboarding feature makes it easy for employers to create training materials tailored specifically to new hires to ensure they understand the company's processes from day one.

The software also offers recognition and reward programs that help companies celebrate their employees' successes, while incentivizing them to continue performing well in the future. Users can reward individuals or entire teams with bonuses or other incentives when they exceed expectations or achieve certain goals. This type of recognition shows employees that their hard work is appreciated and valued within the organization, which goes a long way toward improving morale and motivation levels across the board.

ClearCompany integrates with 100+ popular HR software solutions, including ADP, Absorb LMS, BambooHR, Ceridian, eSkill, HR Avatar, Microsoft Office 365, Okta, PeopleFacts, Ping Identity, Predictive Index, Skill Check, UKG, and many others.

Pricing details for ClearCompany are available upon request. You can also request a free demo through their website.

Best for communications, knowledge management, and employee engagement

  • Free trial available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.2/5

PeopleOne is a modern intranet platform that supports not just knowledge management, but also other important factors that contribute to a positive employee experience. The software has internal communications, employee recognition and feedback, and engagement tracking tools.

The intranet is the core of the product, and can be used as a centralized place for important documents, policies, and more. You can also set up an employee directory so people can figure out who's in charge of what, and how to reach them. The FAQ tool also lets you answer common employee questions. The system can even keep track of your tech stack and the SaaS products and apps your teams use!

Internal communications help you keep staff up to date and aligned. Communications are crafted like articles and shared as needed. Employees can emoji react, upvote, and comment to promote important discussions. The software's survey tool can be used to collect feedback on important decisions and employee sentiments. And finally, the recognition tool encourages people to celebrate a job well done.

PeopleOne has pre-built integrations with major email and messaging platforms, Office 365, and social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. They also have an iOS and Android app that empowers teams to communicate, collaborate and engage seamlessly, anywhere and anytime.

PeopleOne offers customized pricing upon request, as well as a free demo.

Best for aligning business & people goals

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $7/user/month
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Rating: 4.7/5

Peoplebox is a performance management and employee engagement platform that provides organizations with tools to set and track objectives, facilitate one-on-one meetings, and conduct engagement surveys. The software is designed to help managers and HR professionals align team goals with company objectives, monitor employee performance, and gather actionable insights through feedback and analytics.

Peoplebox facilitates performance management and employee engagement within organizations by providing a platform for tracking Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), goals, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in real-time. Moreover, it ensures that engagement and performance management are part of the daily workflow by providing a structured way to manage one-on-one meetings between managers and employees. It includes the ability to set agendas, track action items, and document discussions to ensure productive and focused conversations.

Peoplebox also offers analytics to measure and understand employee engagement levels, helping organizations to make data-driven decisions to improve the workplace environment. Employees can regularly update their progress on goals and receive feedback. This feature keeps teams aligned and focused on their objectives.

Other features include a strategy execution platform, OKR tracking, pulse surveys, business review meetings, and employee engagement solutions.

Peoplebox integrates with Microsoft Teams, Slack, Jira, Google Workspace, Asana, Notion, HubSpot, Google Analytics, BambooHR, and Outlook.

Pricing for Peoplebox starts at $7/user/month. A 14-day free trial is also available.

The 10 Best Employee Experience Software Systems Comparison Chart

This comparison chart summarizes basic details about each of my top employee experience software selections. You can view pricing details and the availability of free trials or demos side-by-side to help you find the best software for your budget.

Tools Price
Trakstar Pricing upon request
Bonusly From $2.70/user/month
HubStar Pricing upon request
Lattice From $11/user/month
Trinet Pricing upon request
WorkTango Pricing upon request
Leapsome From $8/user/month
ClearCompany Pricing upon request
PeopleOne Pricing upon request
Peoplebox From $7/user/month
Preview Image - <h2 class="c-block__title b-summary-table__title c-listicle__title h3" > Compare Software Specs Side by Side</h2>

Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.

Compare Software

Other Options

Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make the best employee experience software shortlist:

  1. Performance Pro

    Best for evaluating individual competencies to target future skill development

  2. Kudos

    Best employee experience software for multiple levels of employee recognition

  3. Workday Peakon

    Best employee experience software for intelligent employee listening

  4. 15Five

    Best employee experience software for a holistic, growth-focused approach

  5. Enboarder

    Best for experience driven communication workflows

  6. Qualtrics Employee Experience

    Best employee experience software for gathering continuous feedback from employees

  7. TINYpulse Engage

    Best employee experience software for continuous, transparent feedback

  8. Kallidus Perform

    Best employee experience software for integrated performance management with learning and development

  9. Fond

    Best employee experience software for creating a culture of employee recognition

  10. Workhuman

    Best employee experience software for improving employee retention

Selection Criteria for the Best Employee Experience Software

Wondering what I looked for when selecting the best employee experience platforms for this list? Here’s a summary of my evaluation and selection criteria:

Key Features

Employee Experience Software is still an emerging category on the market, so these platforms vary a bit in their core functionality. Keeping that in mind, here are some of the key features I saw coming up frequently in my research:

  1. Employee surveys: Engagement survey tools to collect employee feedback and measure employee engagement metrics like wellbeing and peer relationships.
  2. Real-time feedback: Rapid two-way communication to dig deeper into feedback and derive actionable insights for improving company culture.
  3. 360-degree feedback: The ability to collect feedback about employee performance from peers, to help inform performance reviews and goal-setting.
  4. Performance management: Some platforms offer goal tracking tools, performance evaluation structures, and other performance-related features.
  5. Recognition tools: Forums to facilitate peer recognition, kudos boards, and automated anniversary and milestone recognition are sometimes available.
  6. Employee rewards: The ability to distribute rewards like cash bonuses, gift cards, company swag, and other incentives.
  7. Employee lifecycle management: Some tools help you manage things like pre-employment testing, new hire onboarding, and offboarding. This includes tracking employee retention and turnover.
  8. Reporting tools: Analytics dashboards are typically included to help you measure and track engagement levels, employee satisfaction rates, eNPS scores, and other key employee experience metrics.

Usability

Whenever I’m testing a new software, I always take the user experience into consideration. I look for user-friendly, intuitive platforms that don’t come with too steep of a learning curve. This is particularly important with employee engagement tools because you want your HR team, your management team, and your employees to all use it effectively. Usability features like customizable templates, workflow automation, a mobile app, and high-quality customer support are all taken into account in my evaluations.

Integrations

It’s important that your employee experience solution connects with your other HR tools. I looked for integrations with human resource information systems (HRIS), employee engagement software, employee evaluation software, employee rewards platforms, employee management systems, and other common HR tools.

I also kept an eye out for integrations with popular communication tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. Many employee experience and engagement platforms also integrate with project management platforms like Jira and Asana, and intranet tools like Confluence and Notion.

Pricing

HR software can vary in price. The digital employee experience tools on this list range from as little as $2 per user per month up to $11 per use per month and more. Some also have a flat-rate structure with set user amounts. I’ve noted pricing information for each tool in my shortlist, as well as information about free plans and free trials.

FAQ: Answering Questions About Employee Experience (EX)

Here are some questions that often come up when it comes to employee experience:

What is employee experience (EX)?

Just like your company provides a customer experience to the people who purchase your products and services, you also create an employee experience for the team members that keep your business running. The employee experience encompasses several factors, including:

    • Employee engagement

    • Employee satisfaction

    • Work environment

    • Performance management

    • Employee recognition and rewards

    • Employee lifecycle management (onboarding, offboarding)

    • Peer relationships

    • Manager-employee relationships

    • Company culture

    • Company policies and procedures

    • Compensation and benefits structure

Companies have long since learned the value of improving employee engagement. But the fact is that engagement is influenced by many factors (and the biggest ones aren’t ping pong tables or kombucha on tap). The employee experience encompasses those overarching factors that contribute to high engagement levels and employee satisfaction.

Why is a positive employee experience important?

In any business, your employees are your most valuable asset and probably your biggest expense. It costs a lot to recruit and train employees, so you naturally want them to be happy, productive, and committed for the long term.

But in today’s competitive environment, retaining good staff is hard. That’s why more and more companies are turning to employee experience solutions for help. These software apps help you increase employee satisfaction, leading to employees who love their jobs—and bottom-line profits that take care of themselves.

What are the benefits of an employee experience software?

There are many benefits to using an employee experience platform at your organization. Depending on your goals and what type of solution you opt for, here are some benefits you might see:

    • Analyzing employee feedback and spotting trends in employee sentiments over time.

    • Having data to back new HR initiatives like policy updates, workspace improvements, company events, and more.

    • Automating tasks like data collection and management for your HR professionals.

    • Setting up smart notifications for when core engagement metrics fluctuate so you can take action swiftly.

Creating an Exceptional Employee Experience

Crafting the experience employees will have with your organization takes time. Using a software can help you understand what kind of employee experience you’re currently offering. From there, you can double down on what’s working really well — and address what isn’t. Hopefully you now have a better understanding of what kind of employee experience software you’re looking for, and how you’ll use it.

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By Kim Behnke

Kim Behnke is an HR Tool Expert & Writer for People Managing People. She draws on her 9 years of human resources experience and her keen eye for systematic processes to support her analyses of the top HR tools on the market. She is passionate about maximizing efficiencies and streamlining workflows to ensure internal systems run smoothly. Kim's HR experience includes recruitment, onboarding, performance management, training and development, policy development and enforcement, and HR analytics. She also has degrees in psychology, writing, publishing, and technical communication, and recently completed a Certified Digital HR Specialist program through the Academy to Innovate HR. When away from her desk, she can usually be found outside tending to her ever-expanding garden.