30 Best Employee Survey Tools of 2024 for Staff Feedback
10 Best Employee Survey Tools Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 30 tools reviewed.
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Are you struggling to understand why your employee morale is low or having trouble grasping the root of your company culture issues? An employee survey tool can help you dig into these issues, regularly and anonymously, if needed. These tools can help you gain honest employee feedback and monitor employee engagement over time, giving you insights into a whole host of HR issues. However, with hundreds of different survey tools available, finding the right one for your needs can be overwhelming.
In this article, I'll help you make your choice easier by sharing my insights on the best employee survey tools to gather actionable feedback. I'll explain the pros, cons, and standout features of each tool to help you find the best fit for your specific needs.
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Best Employee Survey Tools: Pricing Comparison Chart
This comparison chart summarizes pricing details for my top employee survey tool selections to help you find the best software for your budget and business needs.
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Eletive | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Mitratech Trakstar | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Deel | Flat rate user pricing, with a free version for businesses with up to 200 people | Website |
| Workleap | From $5/user/month | Website |
| WorkTango | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Sogolytics | From $25/month (billed annually) | Website |
| Lattice | From $11/seat/month | Website |
| Leapsome | From $8/user/month | Website |
| PerformYard | From $5-$10/user/month | Website |
| Paycor | Pricing upon request | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare Software-
Deel
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.8 -
Rippling
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.8 -
Willo
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.8
Best Employee Survey Tool Reviews
Here’s a brief description of each employee survey platform to showcase each tool’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.
Eletive is a platform that helps businesses improve employee engagement, performance management, and self-leadership. Its performance management tools also enhance its capabilities as an employee survey tool.
Why I picked Eletive: When it comes to employee survey tools, Eletive stands out with its real-time pulse surveys, which offer immediate insights into employee engagement and feedback across the organization. These surveys are designed to be quick and frequent, helping companies continuously monitor and analyze employee sentiment. Additionally, the platform's intuitive dashboards and heatmaps make it easy to visualize this data.
Eletive Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include surveys, goal tracking, and feedback templates to empower leaders and teams and improve overall employee satisfaction. The platform also helps users create action plans based on survey results, aligning organizational goals with employee performance.
Furthermore, the platform provides employees with access to their own GDPR-compliant dashboards, where they can track their engagement and performance metrics
Integrations include ADP Workforce Now, CatalystOne, Employment Hero, Deel, BambooHR, Google Workspace, Gusto, Humaans, Sage HR, Workday, Zoho People, Paychex, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Okta, Personio, and more.
Best for combined performance management + talent development
Mitratech Trakstar is a cloud-based talent development platform for HR professionals and teams. It offers a wide range of features and tools designed for attracting and retaining talent, employee development, and workforce engagement. One of its modules is the employee survey software, which is a tool that can be used to measure and improve employee engagement and satisfaction.
Why I picked Mitratech Trakstar: With Mitratech Trakstar’s employee engagement survey platform, HR leaders and talent development teams gain the resources they need to create better employee experiences. They can start a company-wide pulse survey using questions from the integrated survey library or create custom questionnaires to match current requirements and the kind of data they want to collect. HR can also send surveys automatically, covering any topic they want.
Mitratech Trakstar Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include an auto-schedule function that helps HR professionals collect employee feedback on a preset schedule, and response tracking that uncovers the true sentiments within their workforce at any given time. Users can also prompt check-ins at any time to maintain employee engagement and make sure individual employees and team members across the entire organization can voice their opinions on the company’s future initiatives.
Other features include 360-degree performance reviews and surveys to support the performance review process. HR professionals can set who has access to the 360-degree feedback, with the employee's manager retaining full control over the type of information that will be shared with the employee, such as constructive feedback or peer feedback.
Integrations include ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Google Workspace, Paylocity, Salesforce, Slack, Zoom, and others.
Deel is a workforce management platform with integrated employee survey tools that help employers collect and analyze employee feedback efficiently. You can also create and customize Deel's surveys to suit your organizational needs.
Why I picked Deel: Their survey tools include advanced analytics such as trend analysis and demographic filters to ensure you can collect the data you need to make informed decisions. You can also automate and schedule monthly, quarterly, or annual surveys to collect employee feedback regularly. This ensures employees are consistently given an opportunity to provide feedback, which can boost your internal company culture substantially.
Deel maintains the privacy of the survey respondents to encourage honest feedback. Employees can share their thoughts openly, leading to more helpful feedback for management.
Deel Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include surveys in multiple languages, making it an effective feedback tool for multinational organizations. This removes language barriers and ensures all employees can provide feedback, regardless of their native language or location. Employees will receive the survey questions in their preferred language, enhancing their response rate and participation.
Other features include question formats such as yes/no, multiple-choice, rating scales, and open-ended questions. Its dashboard provides companies with real-time data and analytics about employee feedback, including helpful charts and graphs that simplify the trend analysis process.
The platform also offers interactive and insightful reports that help organizations take action based on employee feedback. Survey data is presented in a graphical and visualized format for easy analysis. Deel also has a filtering option that allows managers to see specific feedback data in a question, making analysis even more helpful.
Integrations include Ashby, BambooHR, Expensify, Greenhouse, Hibob, Netsuite, Okta, OneLogin, Quickbooks, SCIM, Xero, Workday, and Workable. They also have an Open API that supports additional custom integrations as well.
Workleap
Best for collecting anonymous feedback and effecting real change
Workleap Officevibe helps managers and leaders gather better, richer employee feedback thanks to intuitive survey insights and anonymous messaging tools. With easy-to-use features, organizations can identify employee needs and implement data-backed strategies to boost employee engagement and nurture a healthier workplace.
Why I picked Workleap Officevibe: I included Workleap Officevibe in this list because it offers people leaders the opportunity to get to the heart of what matters most to their teams. The anonymous feedback feature helps employees feel comfortable speaking their minds freely. After receiving feedback, team managers receive a notification so they can respond in real-time.
Workleap Officevibe Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include custom surveys with different question types, such as multiple choice, rankings out of 10, and open-ended questions for more clarity. Analytics and reporting features show how your team’s opinions can change over time. And, the platform highlights when areas see a decline in performance so you can develop data-backed strategies to make important changes. With Workleap Officevibe, you can spark genuine discussions and effect real change on your teams.
Integrations are available with Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Best employee survey tool for identifying themes and focus areas
WorkTango is an employee experience platform that provides tools and solutions designed to support organizations engage, inspire, and retain their employees. It allows you to measure engagement and ensure every employee feels heard through unlimited surveys across the entire employee lifecycle.
Why I picked WorkTango: As a survey tool, WorkTango offers various features. For example, employee lifecycle surveys cover the entire employee lifecycle, providing insights into the employee experience at different stages. On the other hand, employee engagement surveys measure current employee engagement levels and help identify areas for improvement.
WorkTango Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include robust dashboards that present data and insights into employee sentiment, enabling leaders to make informed decisions. Additionally, based on survey results, WorkTango helps you identify themes and focus areas, recommending action plans to address areas of concern and improve employee engagement. The platform even provides benchmark data to compare an organization's performance against industry standards.
Aside from its survey functionality, WorkTango also offers recognition and rewards features as well as leadership tools.
Integrations include Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, 7Shifts, Access PeopleHR, ADP Workforce Now (U.S. only), Apple HealthKit, Azure Active Directory, Google Workspace, and more.
Best for facilitating comprehensive analysis of employee feedback for improved engagement
Sogolytics is an employee survey tool that helps businesses gather and analyze employee feedback. It's a great way to understand your team's needs and concerns and to make informed decisions based on that feedback.
Why I picked Sogolytics: The platform allows you to create surveys, collect responses, and analyze the data all in one place. Plus, it's easy to use, and its powerful analytics allow you to collect responses, analyze them, and provide actionable insights.
Sogolytics Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include pulse surveys that let you send out quick, one-question surveys to your team. This is great for getting instant feedback on a particular issue or idea. And you can customize these surveys to fit your needs.
Integrations include Salesforce, Marketo, Slack, Workday, Microsoft Dynamics, HubSpot, and Zoom.
Lattice
Best employee survey tool for multiple survey types using science-backed templates
Lattice is a self-described people success platform that offers tools for engagement, employee performance management, and employee development.
Why I picked Lattice: You can create surveys to measure engagement and eNPS using science-backed templates. You can also automate pulse surveys to gather real-time feedback when it is most relevant. 1-on-1 reviews are central to the tool. You can schedule check-ins and create pre-meeting questionnaires for employees to answer, allowing both parties to come to the meeting fully prepared.
Lattice Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include employee reviews, praise, and 1-on-1 meetings to set goals based on an employee’s needs and then help push them towards meeting these targets. All this fits into the wider idea of employee development. Employees can also share peer-to-pear praise, which managers can use in reviews as evidence of areas where an employee is performing at a high level.
HR teams can also access plenty of analytics and reporting features that show responses both on an organizational and individual level. It also has a mobile app that leaders can use to give feedback and manage employee goals on the go.
Integrations include Slack, Okta, Microsoft Outlook, OneLogin, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Azure, Google Workspace, Jumpcloud, ADP, BambooHR, Namely, Personio, Gusto and others. Or you can access the Lattice API for further connections.
Leapsome
Best for connecting feedback with employee development initiatives
Leapsome is a cloud-based platform that offers employee performance management, engagement surveys, and personalized learning and development solutions for businesses.
Why I picked Leapsome: Leapsome offers a range of tools that are designed to support HR teams and managers in creating a positive workplace culture and empowering employees to reach their full potential, including employee evaluations and surveys. 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 Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include a user-friendly survey builder that allows businesses to create customized employee surveys quickly and easily, plus access to a range of pre-built survey templates that cover various topics such as employee engagement, pulse surveys, and 360-degree feedback.
Leapsome also offers customizable survey questions and the ability to create surveys that can be anonymous or identified, depending on the business's needs. Once the survey is launched, HR teams and managers can track responses in real-time and gain insights into employee engagement, satisfaction, and feedback.
Leapsome's analytics and reporting tools allow businesses to identify areas for improvement and track progress over time, enabling them to make data-driven decisions to enhance employee performance and engagement.
Integrations include Workday, BambooHR, Personio, Slack, MS Teams, Jira Software, calendar apps, and others.
PerformYard is a comprehensive employee engagement and performance management platform designed to facilitate anonymous employee surveys, engagement reporting, eNPS scores, performance evaluations, and continuous feedback. The platform is customizable, allowing companies to track engagement by employee cohort, run any performance review cycle, and measure employee engagement based on seven scientifically-backed satisfaction factors.
Why I picked PerformYard: I like that PerformYard offers a continuous feedback mechanism, which fosters a culture of ongoing communication and improvement. This feature allows employees to provide and receive feedback in real time, addressing issues promptly and enhancing overall employee satisfaction. Additionally, PerformYard supports various types of performance reviews, including annual reviews, 360 feedback, and project-based reviews. It also offers the ability to run easy, automated employee engagement surveys and display the results in a rich data dashboard.
PerformYard Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include pulse surveys, performance reviews, continuous feedback, and robust reporting and analytics tools that show engagement trends, rankings, and summary reports.
Furthermore, PerformYard’s holistic approach means all the employee engagement, feedback, surveys, and performance reviews live in one place. From there, it’s easy to create visual reports to clearly communicate trends in performance and engagement.
Integrations include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Office 365, Okta, OneLogin, G Suite, ADP, BambooHR, Gusto, Rippling, UKG, Workday, Paylocity, and many more HRIS systems.
Paycor is a comprehensive human capital management (HCM) system that combines HR and payroll software solutions for leaders and HR teams, with a focus on providing personalized and customizable services to meet the specific needs of each organization. It offers numerous resources and tools to help businesses manage their human resources effectively.
Why I picked Paycor: I included Paycor in this list because their Pulse Surveys tool provides a comprehensive solution that goes beyond traditional surveys. This tool stands out due to its ability to gather and convert employee feedback into actionable insights, which can help businesses proactively address issues such as turnover and low morale.
Features include pulse surveys, engagement insights, an employee experience index, a variety of survey templates and formats, custom filters, an attitudes overview, and sentiment analysis that uses natural language processing to uncover any concerning outliers among your data.
Integrations include Broadcast Employee Communication Suite, Millie, OurPeople, Uncommon Giving, Spark Hire, Workvivo, and numerous others through their app marketplace.
Other Employee Survey Tools
Here are a few more worthwhile options to help you collect employee feedback that didn’t make the list of the best employee survey tools list:
- CultureBot
For Slack-integrated employee surveys
- ThriveSparrow
Employee feedback survey tool with real-time actionable insights
- SurveyLegend
For real-time employee surveys and analytics
- ClearCompany
For uncovering employee sentiment using pre-built survey templates
- Jotform
Enterprise employee survey tool for mobile-friendly digital forms
- Vantage Circle
Employee engagement survey platform for customizable pulse surveys
- Empuls
Employee engagement survey tool for eNPS surveys
- Culture Amp
Employee survey tool with a template library and ready-to-implement action plans
- SurveyMonkey
Employee survey tool with prebuilt forms and automated deployment
- IntelliHR
Staff survey tool for pulse checks and sentiment analysis
- SurveyLab
Employee survey tools with a drag-and-drop survey builder
- TINYpulse Engage
Employee survey and engagement tool with meeting agendas and recognition
- Teamspective
Employee survey tool to integrate with Slack or Teams
- Beams
Employee survey tool for providing recommendations to employees
- Startquestion
Easy-to-use survey tool with a large template library
- Betterworks
Employee survey tool with additional employee engagement features
- Qualtrics XM
Employee survey tool for analyzing large amounts of survey data
- Zoho Survey
Employee survey tool for real-time insights and analytics
- ChartHop
Employee survey tool for adding organizational context to survey answers
- Guusto
Employee survey tool for targeting specific employee sub-groups
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Selection Criteria for Employee Survey Tools
Selecting the best employee survey tool is a nuanced process that hinges on matching your specific needs and challenges with the features and functionalities that will help you address them effectively. My approach to evaluating these tools is grounded in personal trials and in-depth research, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of each platform's capabilities.
I also drew on my personal experience collecting employee feedback via surveys when I was an HR administrator. In that role, I was the one preparing the surveys to send, as well as analyzing the data that came back. This helped me to pinpoint the standout features that will give you the best return on your investment and simplify the process for you.
Here’s a summary of the evaluation criteria I used to make my final selections for the best employee survey tools:
Core Employee Survey Tool Functionalities (25% of total score): To be considered for inclusion in this list, each tool had to cover the following use cases first:
- Pre-set questions, plus tools to design your own surveys or questionnaires
- The ability to collect anonymous feedback to ensure honest responses
- Tools to analyze employee sentiment to gauge workplace morale
- The ability to track changes in employee satisfaction over time
- Tools to identifying specific areas for organizational improvement
Additional Standout Features (25% of total score): To help me narrow in on the best employee survey tools out of the numerous options available, I also took note of any unique features, including:
- Advanced sentiment analysis techniques that can parse nuanced feedback
- Comprehensive benchmarking tools that offer industry-specific comparisons
- Real-time notifications for immediate action on critical feedback
- Innovative action planning modules that guide effective response strategies
- Deep integration capabilities with broader HR tech ecosystems
Usability (10% of total score): To evaluate the usability of each feedback tool, I considered the following:
- Intuitive design that requires minimal training to use effectively
- Clear, logical navigation paths through the survey creation and distribution process
- Responsive design that works seamlessly across devices
- Visual analytics dashboards that simplify complex data interpretation
- Either dedicated mobile apps or a mobile-friendly user interface that makes participation easy on both Android and iOS mobile devices
Onboarding (10% of total score): To get a sense of each software provider's customer onboarding process, I considered the following factors:
- Quick setup processes and clear guidance for first-time users
- Comprehensive training materials such as videos, interactive tutorials, chatbots, or other documentation
- Pre-loaded templates that you can customize to your specific needs, including adding your company branding, to speed up onboarding
- Support for migrating employee data into the new platform
Customer Support (10% of total score): To evaluate the level of customer support each vendor offered, I considered the following:
- The availability of multi-channel support, including email, phone, and live chat
- The existence of a self-service knowledge base or other self-help resources to speed up troubleshooting
- The overall quality, responsiveness, and helpfulness of the support team during customer onboarding and post-purchase, as inferred from customer reviews
Value for Price (10% of total score): To gauge the value of each software, I considered the following factors:
- The availability of free trials or demos to test the software before purchasing
- Competitive and transparent pricing models that reflect the software's feature depth and explain which features are included at each level
- Tiered pricing plans that cater to different business sizes, from small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) up to enterprise-level organizations
Customer Reviews (10% of total score): Evaluating customer reviews is the final element of my selection process, which helps me understand how well a product performs in the hands of real users. Here are the factors I considered:
- Whether a product has consistently high ratings across multiple review platforms, indicating a broad level of user satisfaction
- Specific praises, criticisms, or trends in customer feedback that indicate the software's strengths or areas for improvement
- Whether customer feedback specifically mentions issues with ease of use, customer support responsiveness, or lacking features
By using this assessment framework, I was able to identify the employee survey tools that go beyond basic requirements to offer additional value through unique features, intuitive usability, smooth onboarding, effective support, and overall value for price.
How to Choose Employee Survey Tools
Employee survey tools can help you collect feedback from your staff on a wide variety of issues, giving you insight into the well-being and morale of your staff. To help you figure out which employee survey tool best fits your needs, you need to pinpoint your key users and document their specific challenges first.
As you work through your own unique software selection process, keep the following points in mind:
- What problem are you trying to solve - Start by identifying the challenges you're trying to overcome. This will help you clarify the features and functionalities the employee survey tool needs to provide.
- Who will need to use it - To evaluate cost and requirements, consider who will use the software and how many licenses you'll need. For employee survey tools, you'll likely want to limit admin access to your HR administrators, with a separate level of access for your managers or other key roles. Once that's clear, it's also useful to rank the needs of your different users to identify the key priorities for your power users, managers, and employees, to ensure they're all met.
- What other tools it needs to work with - Clarify what tools you're replacing, what tools are staying, and the tools you'll need to integrate with, such as HR management systems, performance management systems, and communication tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
- What outcomes are important - Review the capabilities you want to gain or improve, and how you will measure success. For example, you may want to collect more comprehensive feedback, give your employees more of a voice, or get feedback on specific issues contributing to high attrition rates. You could compare survey features until you’re blue in the face but if you aren’t thinking about the outcomes you want to achieve, you could waste a lot of valuable time.
- How it would work within your organization - Consider the software selection alongside your existing workflows and systems. Evaluate what's working well, and any problem areas that need to be addressed.
Remember every business is different — don’t assume that a survey tool will work for your organization just because it's popular.
Trends in Employee Survey Tools for 2024
As more organizations recognize the importance of employee feedback for fostering engagement, satisfaction, and productivity, the demand for sophisticated survey tools has surged. This demand, in turn, drives innovation, leading to the development of features that are more intuitive, comprehensive, and aligned with the needs of modern workplaces.
Here are several trends that are impacting employee survey tools currently:
- Integration with Collaboration Platforms: There's a clear trend towards integrating employee survey tools with popular collaboration platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom. This integration facilitates real-time feedback and makes it easier for employees to participate in surveys without disrupting their workflow.
- Advanced Sentiment Analysis: The ability to analyze open-ended responses through natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) technologies is rapidly evolving. Many tools now offer sophisticated sentiment analysis features that can accurately gauge the mood and emotions behind employee feedback, providing deeper insights into employee satisfaction and engagement levels. This advancement indicates a move towards more qualitative analysis, allowing HR professionals to understand not just what their employees are saying, but how they feel.
- Customizable and Adaptive Surveys: Flexibility in survey design is becoming increasingly important. Tools that offer customizable and adaptive surveys—where questions can change based on previous answers—are gaining popularity. This allows for more personalized survey experiences, which can improve response rates and the quality of feedback collected.
- Actionable Insights and Recommendations: Beyond collecting and analyzing feedback, many employee engagement survey tools now provide actionable insights and recommendations. These concrete suggestions help organizations tackle issues identified through employee surveys, helping to inform strategies and future decision-making.
- Employee Well-being Focus: Another new functionality that's gaining traction is an increased emphasis on employee well-being. Some tools have introduced features specifically designed to assess and support mental health, work-life balance, and overall well-being. This includes well-being surveys, mood trackers, and resources for mental health support. The rise of this feature reflects a broader recognition of the importance of employee health in the workplace.
These trends highlight a broader evolution towards more integrated, intelligent, and employee-centric survey tools. As organizations continue to tackle the challenges of modern workplace dynamics, the demand for tools that can provide deep, actionable insights into employee sentiment will only grow.
What is an Employee Survey Tool?
Employee survey tools are a type of software that helps employers collect feedback from their staff to measure employee satisfaction and engagement levels across their workforce. There are standalone survey solutions or they may be a feature within a larger employee engagement software. You can use them to create and distribute repeatable surveys, collect and analyze the data, detect underlying sentiment, and gain actionable insights to support continuous improvements.
Ultimately, the main purpose behind employee survey tools is to monitor employee sentiment and well-being, with the end goal of improving employee retention. Employee survey tools give your staff the option to provide open and honest feedback in an anonymous format, without fearing repercussions. By giving employees a voice, they will feel more supported and cared for, improving employee loyalty.
Features of Employee Survey Tools
Beyond the basic functionality of distributing and collecting employee surveys, here are some other key features that can greatly impact a tool's effectiveness:
- Survey Builder: This feature helps you create custom surveys with multiple choice, sliding scale, and other types of employee survey questions. There may also be a bank of customizable survey templates you can draw from.
- Different Formats: Most systems support different types of employee surveys, like pulse surveys, questionnaires, assessments, feedback forms, or other formats. Some platforms provide anonymous survey options and real-time feedback tools, too.
- Benchmarks: Many tools provide benchmark data to help you contextualize your survey results based on factors like your industry, company size, location, and more.
- Survey Reports: Survey reports help you measure key metrics like employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), job satisfaction, employee well-being, response rates, etc. to help you discover insights from your data.
- Real-Time Analytics: This includes dashboards that provide real-time insights on engagement levels, and help you track trends over time to see how new initiatives and changes are impacting your workforce.
- Performance Management: Some platforms also have features to help monitor and manage employee performance, such as 360-degree feedback forms, 1-1 check-ins, and goal-setting tools.
- Anonymity and Confidentiality: Employees are more likely to share genuine feedback if they believe their identities are protected, leading to more accurate insights into workplace sentiment.
- Sentiment Analysis: This feature automatically gauges the tone of responses to help you identify the overall mood of the workforce, highlighting areas of concern or satisfaction without manual analysis.
- Multi-Channel Distribution: By allowing employees to respond through their preferred medium, whether it's mobile, tablet, or desktop, companies can increase participation rates.
- Action Planning Tools: To help you make the most out of the data you've collected, many systems include tools to translate feedback into actionable strategies. This helps organizations make concrete changes that improve employee satisfaction, which is the ultimate goal of collecting feedback.
By prioritizing a survey tool with these features, you'll be able to make informed decisions that boost employee satisfaction and, ultimately, drive organizational success.
Benefits of Employee Survey Tools
Employee survey tools can help companies enhance their workplace environment, culture, and overall employee satisfaction. These tools streamline the feedback collection process and provide deeper insights into employee sentiment, enabling businesses to make informed decisions. Here are several benefits you can expect to gain by investing in the best employee survey software for your needs:
- Increased Employee Engagement: Sending employee surveys regularly signals to employees that their opinions are valued, leading to increased engagement, satisfaction, morale, and, consequently, productivity.
- Trend Identification Over Time: By comparing survey results over time, organizations can measure the impact of changes implemented, identifying trends and areas that require further attention.
- Enhanced Communication: By regularly soliciting feedback, organizations encourage open communication, helping to build trust, openness, and a sense of community among employees.
- Enhanced Anonymity and Privacy: Employee survey tools offer features that protect respondent anonymity, encouraging employees to share their true thoughts and feelings without fear of repercussions.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: The quantitative and qualitative data gathered through employee surveys provide a solid foundation for strategic decisions regarding workplace improvements and policy changes.
These benefits highlight how impactful employee survey tools can be in cultivating a positive and productive work environment. By leveraging the right employee survey tool, businesses can unlock valuable insights into employee satisfaction, engagement, and morale, driving strategic decisions that lead to a happier, more engaged workforce.
Costs & Pricing for Employee Survey Tools
Survey tools come in various plans and pricing options, each designed to meet different organizational needs, from small startups to large enterprises. Understanding the specifics of each plan will help you select the most suitable option for your organization, ensuring you get the functionality you need at a price that fits your budget.
Plan Comparison Table for Employee Survey Tools
| Plan Type | Average Price | Price Per User | Common Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | Basic survey functionalities, limited questions and responses, and basic analytics |
| Basic | $5 - $40 per month | $2 - $5 per user/month | Enhanced survey capabilities, unlimited questions, advanced analytics, and email support |
| Professional | $50 - $150 per month | $5 - $10 per user/month | All Basic features, plus integration capabilities, custom branding, advanced analytics, and priority support |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Quote based | All Professional features, plus advanced security features, dedicated support, and custom integrations |
When selecting a plan, consider both your immediate needs and potential future requirements. Starting with a basic plan and scaling up as your organization grows and your needs become more complex is a practical approach. Remember, the right employee engagement survey tool can significantly impact your ability to gather valuable feedback and improve employee satisfaction and engagement.
Employee Survey Tools: FAQs
Do you still have some questions about what employee survey tools have to offer? These answers to frequently asked questions should get you sorted out:
How do employee survey tools work?
Employee survey tool help employers measure satisfaction and engagement levels among their staff by collecting feedback and analyzing the responses for sentiment and actionable insights. Survey tools may be a feature of a larger employee engagement software, or may be standalone solutions.
Either way, the main purpose behind this type of software tool is to monitor employee sentiment and well-being, with the end goal of improving employee retention. By giving employees a voice, they will feel more supported and cared for, causing them to feel better about remaining at your company.
Why are employee survey tools important?
Employee survey tools help you measure the employee experience throughout the employee lifecycle. You can create onboarding surveys, and measure eNPS and satisfaction.
You can use this information to spot issues and then take action to improve how employees think about your business. This can help you improve employee engagement and company culture, which can lead to lower employee turnover and a more productive team. The data can also be used to empower managers and help them prepare for performance reviews too.
If you’re a customer-facing business, you can even use the same survey tool to monitor your customer experience. For example, you could send a customer a survey after completing a business deal with your company to gather insights on their experience working with your sales team.
What type of employee surveys should I run?
The purpose of running an employee survey is to gain insight into a challenge your organization may be facing. For most companies, employee engagement surveys are the most common, because many companies struggle to keep their employees engaged. Other popular options include workplace culture surveys, surveys related to compensation and benefits, professional development surveys, and surveys that capture the candidate and new hire experience.
By using targeted employee surveys to hone in on different operational issues or functions, HR teams and managers will gain deeper insights into specific challenges. Once these challenges have been surfaced holistically through feedback, it will be easier to craft targeted actions to rectify and gaps, challenges, or shortcomings more effectively.
For more detailed advice on how to craft these surveys effectively and how frequently to run them, read our ultimate guide to employee surveys next.
How can an employee survey support inclusion and belonging?
An employee survey can support an organization’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging efforts by helping HR teams gathering feedback to identify areas where employees may feel excluded or undervalued. Here are some suggestions on how an employee survey tool can support this cause:
- A survey tool can help identify gaps in inclusion and belonging. By including questions about employees’ experiences with bias, diversity, and how they feel included in decision-making or team activities, leaders can identify gaps and take action.
- Anonymous survey tools create a safe space for employees to share honest opinions without fear of repercussions. This can encourage marginalized or underrepresented employees to voice their concerns about discrimination, microaggressions, or a lack of inclusion.
- Regular surveys can track the effectiveness of DEI initiatives by asking specific questions about employees’ experiences with these programs. Monitoring changes over time helps HR teams assess the impact of their efforts and make data-driven decisions to improve inclusivity.
- By including open-ended questions, you’ll collect more ideas for improvement from your staff to help you make your company culture more inclusive. Gathering input directly from employees can lead to the development of initiatives or policies that promote a sense of belonging across all groups.
- You can use employee surveys to gather feedback on leadership’s inclusiveness, helping managers and executives understand how their behavior and policies are perceived by different groups within the organization. This can drive leadership development programs focused on fostering inclusivity.
By combining an employee survey tool thoughtfully with employee listening best practices, organizations can gather the insights they need to ensure that all employees feel valued, included, and a sense of belonging, contributing to a healthier and more equitable workplace culture.
What are the legalities of employee survey tools?
The legalities surrounding employee survey tools can vary depending on the jurisdiction and the specific practices of your organization. However, there are some general legal considerations that apply in many cases. Here are some key legal aspects to keep in mind when using employee survey tools:
- Privacy laws: When you’re collecting personal information from employees or storing employee data, you need to be sure it’s in compliance with relevant privacy laws. Look for GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, and other compliance certifications.
- Protecting employee anonymity: For anonymous surveys, make sure specific safeguards are in place to protect employee anonymity. For example, some tools may not display anonymous feedback unless a certain number of responses are collected.
- Ensuring informed consent: Employees should be informed about the purpose of the survey, how the data will be used, and who will have access to the results. Obtaining clear and informed consent from participants is essential.
- Anti-discrimination laws: Make sure your survey questions don’t solicit information that could lead to discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, religion, or other protected characteristics.
- Retaliation and whistleblower protection: Employees must protected from retaliation for their responses. Your staff needs to feel safe to express their opinions without fear of reprisal.
- Handling survey results with care: Set up appropriate user access permissions and establish protocols for how survey results may be used at your company. Don’t share individual responses without consent, and aggregate data to maintain anonymity.
What types of analytics and reporting capabilities do these tools offer?
Most employee survey tools provide a range of analytics and reporting features to help HR professionals and managers gain insights into employee sentiment, engagement levels, and specific areas for improvement. Common capabilities include real-time feedback analysis, trend tracking over time, and segmentation by department, team, or individual responses. Advanced tools might offer predictive analytics, sentiment analysis, and customizable dashboards to drill down into specific data points.
To learn more about how you can use the data your employee surveys return, have a read through our guide to people analytics.
How can I integrate these tools with my existing HR software?
Integration capabilities vary widely among employee survey tools. Many are able to integrate with popular HR software platforms through APIs or pre-built connectors. When selecting a survey tool, look for ones that can connect to your existing HR software, either through a native integration or by using a flexible API to set up a custom integration.
Integrations between survey tools and employee management systems are important because they make it much quicker and faster to administer surveys. For example, by integrating both systems, you can quickly select the employees you want to survey, whether that’s a specific department, a distinct office, or your entire organization. This integration prevents the need for you to import recipient information into the system, saving a lot of time.
To learn more, this article offers a crash course in the benefits of HR software integrations, plus common challenges and examples.
Can I customize surveys to match my company's branding?
Yes, many employee survey tools offer extensive customization options that allow companies to tailor surveys to match their branding, including logos, colors, and fonts. This helps to create a more engaging and familiar experience for employees, potentially improving response rates and the quality of feedback.
Branding elements are also important in cases where you want to survey participants who are external to your organization, such as your customers or potential candidates. By preparing your survey in line with your corporate identity, you’ll reinforce a positive perception of your employer brand.
If you’d like to learn more, this article offers some insights on how to keep your employer branding authentic.
Other Resources to Support Employee Engagement
This list contains everything from tools with basic survey and analytics features to those that help your measure and improve engagement throughout your organization.
While the latter tools are more feature-packed, they may be overkill for small organizations and teams. In this case, you can save money by choosing a simpler tool.
To help you along in your quest to create engaged employees, check out these other related resources too:
- Why Employee Recognition is Important and How to Do it Right
- Best Employee Evaluation Software For Performance Reviews & Recognition
- 30 Creative Employee Recognition and Appreciation Ideas
- People Management Tips For New And Experienced Managers
- HR Case Management Software To Manage Issues & Risks
- 5 Ways To Give Effective Feedback
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