If you remember the 1999 black comedy movie Office Space, you will remember the main character Peter Gibbons being disinterested in his job. He has no motivation to do work. This feeling is prevalent in almost all employees. 

The lack of motivation comes from a lack of employee engagement. As you progress through the movie you see the drastic measure a disinterested employee takes to feel better. You also see that the organization is not making much effort to keep its people happy. This is mostly because the organization does not know what the employee wants.  What you need to remember, in the end, is that this is just a movie. It rarely translates into real life. 

Employee Engagement has been a top priority in any organization. Various interventions, policies, and processes are introduced to ensure employees are engaged and satisfied. To understand employees’ viewpoints, and perspectives and to seek their feedback, employee surveys are launched. 

These surveys are exhaustive and capture all the inputs that an employee might want to express about the organization. Surveys can be as exhaustive as you want them to be. The key is to measure what matters. Surveys help in the decision-making process and in setting up benchmarks for the organization.

How are Employee Survey software compared?

Employee Survey software is a tool that helps measure employee engagement through surveys. These surveys uncover the potential for employee drive and growth and hence are very important engagement tools. Many such tools are available in the market today

#1 Identifying the goal/ need

Whilst choosing the right software for your organization, one needs to know the exact need that you are planning to satisfy. How frequently are you going to run this survey? Are you looking at just a routine pulse check? Or seeking feedback on a specific engagement initiative? Or do you wish to introduce a poll to check employee views on an impending decision? Or is it just a means to capture 360-degree feedback? 

Identifying the goal will help you narrow your search. Ideally, the software of your choosing should have all the features that can be used for a long time. Be it for polls or just pulse checks or lifecycle surveys, the software should be a one-stop-shop for your engagement checkpoint!

#2 Features of the software

Once you have identified your need, check for the following features within the tool:

• Pulse surveys – These surveys are spot surveys. They help in understanding the pulse on the ground at a given point in time. They capture the perception of employees and the impact of organizational decisions on employees. 
• Polls – A very useful tool to seek views, the poll is a popular feature that is used extensively where employee opinions matter.
• Engagement surveys – These are long and extensive surveys to check the engagement levels of the employees.
• Lifecycle surveys – These surveys are designed to seek feedback at targeted moments like exit surveys, onboarding surveys, etc.
• Action plans – A good employee survey software is intuitive and provides action plans based on the observations and trends of the responses in the survey. It helps in reading and interpreting the results of the survey and understanding the next steps.
• Analytics and Reporting – Once the survey is conducted, the analytics and reporting should be robust enough to help interpretation of the responses. It should have a detailed break up of trends and patterns to support the outcome.

Choose software that is exhaustive, dynamic, and has the necessary features to satisfy the organizational goal

#3 Cost-effective Investment

Employee survey software is an investment. Any investment needs smart planning and wise decision-making. After assessing your organization’s needs and objectives and evaluating the different features that different tools have to offer, it is time to make the decision. Cost-effectiveness is a key factor in determining the right fit. 

Key Features to look for in an Employee Survey Software

Employee Survey Software is an engagement and culture assessment and building tool. It should have the right features to capture the various aspects of employee perceptions and translate them into actionable tasks that help strengthen the organizational values and goals.

The following are the key features to look for in survey software:

#1 Easy-to-navigate survey interface

You will need a tool that is simple to navigate and use. Employees do not wish to scroll through pages to record their answers. Hence, look for software that is simple to use and has an appealing interface. 

#2 Good employee experience

Employees should be able to register their feedback effectively. After an answer has been submitted, you do not want them to second guess their choice. 

#3 Easy interpretation

The questions in the survey should be easy to interpret and answer. Ideally, the questions should fit in a single line. Avoid complicating the question as this will confuse the employee while giving feedback. 

#4 Culture Assessment

The questions should be designed in a way that the responses measure the culture of the organization and the overall engagement of the employee.

#5 Encourage employee feedback

The tool should be such that it promotes and encourages honest employee feedback.

#6 Analytics and Reporting

Detailed and in-depth analytics and reports to explain the outcome of the survey is the most important feature of good employee survey software.

Top 10 Best Employee Survey Software

#1 SurveyMonkey

Trusted by 95% of the Fortune 500, SurveyMonkey is a renowned employee survey software. This user-friendly and popular survey tool helps in translating employee feedback into useful business intelligence in no time.

Features:

• Single sign-on – secured confidential survey data
• Rich dashboards
• Seamless integration with other data
• Can build Custom surveys
• Scalable solution
• Robust Analytics and Reporting

Pros	Cons
Ability to build complex surveys	Many useful features are locked behind premium subscription
Good Analytics
Quick and responsive UI
The ‘Recommended Questions’ section is exhaustive

Pricing:

Team Advantage – $19 per user/month

Individuate Advantage – $ 24/month

Team Premier – $46 per user/month

#2 Vantage Pulse

Vantage Pulse is a highly rated, powerful employee survey tool. It emphasizes getting real-time employee feedback. The tool helps uncover insights into the employee experience. This tool is intuitive, employee-friendly, and cost-effective. Vantage Pulse tracks engagement levels through the use of the eNPS alias Employee Net Promoter Score.

Features:

• Tracks engagement level using eNPS
• Helps in getting Real-time employee feedback
• Easy accessibility
• Strong Analytics and Reporting

Pros	Cons
Cost-effective	Does not support multiple languages
Scalable solution	Export feature absent
User-friendly UI
Real-time improvement solutions

Pricing: 

Starting price – $2, Detailed pricing available on request.

#3 TINYpulse

TINYpulse is a cloud-based solution for employee engagement and feedback. It specializes in providing real-time feedback through its surveys. It uses sentiment analysis and machine learning to analyze all feedback.

Features:

• Simple to use pulse surveys
• Benchmarking feature
• Negative feedback management
• Robust Analytics and Reporting

Pros	Cons
Easy to use	Not multilingual
Promotes open feedback and open culture	Navigation issues due to an overload of features
Employees feel heard	UI can be confusing as an admin

Pricing: 

Starts at $3 per user/ month for existing customer

Starts at $5 per user/month for standalone customer

#4 Workday Peakon Employee Voice

Peakon is a unique flexible survey tool that allows organizations to run multiple survey schedules and frequencies at the same time. This enables them to meet different customer demands easily. 

Features:

• 360-degree feedback
• Benchmarking

• Employee Voice module to listen to employees for real-time feedback
• Real-time swift actions
• Leads to employee retention

Pros	Cons
Easy to use	Too many features create confusion
Ready-to-use ‘Export report’
Employees feel heard

      Pricing: Pricing is available on request.

#5 SurveySparrow

SurveySparrow is one of the leading employee survey tools with native automation and feedback functionality. It provides relevant and real-time feedback to ensure engagement and open culture.

Features:

• Executive Dashboard
• APIs and integrations
• Multiple types of surveys
• Case management
• Analytics and Reporting

Pros	Cons
Intuitive and User-friendly	Slightly over-priced
Available in multiple languages	UI can be better
Customized surveys

Pricing: Starts at $19.00 per user/month

#6 Officevibe

Officevibe is a popular employee survey tool specializing in real-time feedback. Their questions are developed in partnership with Deloitte.

Features:

• Easy-to-comprehend reports
• Measure 10 key metrics of employee engagement
• Anonymous feedback
• Turn feedback into chat conversations

Pros	Cons
Easy to use	Not mobile friendly
Anonymous survey

Pricing: $4 per user/month

#7 Culture Amp

Culture Amp believes high performance starts with a Culture first approach. Its employee survey helps capture employee engagement and build a robust culture within the organization.

Features:

• Tailor-made questions
• Comprehensive benchmarking
• Robust Analytics and Reporting

Pros	Cons
Data export in multiple formats	UI can be better
Supports integrations	Features don’t have an intuitive flow to it
Visual insights

Pricing: Available on request

#8 Betterworks

Betterworks provides a powerful employee engagement tool that believes in continuous feedback throughout the employee lifecycle and learning from employee insights.

Features:

• Tailor eNPS- Employee Net Promoter Score
• Pulse surveys
• Gather insights using analytics
• Detailed Dashboards and Reporting

Pros	Cons
Good UI and UX	Reports can’t be exported
Detailed reports

Pricing: $4 per user/month

#9 Glint

With interactive employee engagement dashboards, Glint’s employee pulse captures the entire organization’s health and culture. It identifies areas that need attention and allows users deep dive into the data that helps in decision-making.

Features:

• 360-degree feedback
• Real-time feedback 
• Track engagement
• Heat map analysis
• Robust Analytics and Reporting

Pros	Cons
Easy to use	Lack of Transparency
Ongoing pulse results

Pricing: Available on Request

#10 Qualtrics

Qualtrics Employee Experience Management (EXM) gathers continuous feedback from employees to create a robust employee engagement experience. It believes in putting people first.

Features:

• 360-degree feedback
• Pulse surveys
• Benchmarking
• Analytics and Reporting

Pros	Cons
Gathers real-time insights	Expensive
Intelligent analytics

Pricing: Available on Request

Wrap up

Employee Surveys are like thermometers that check the temperature of your organization. They are extremely crucial to gauge engagement levels and assess the culture from time to time. 

It is important to hear what employees have to say about the existing state of affairs at work. These act as direct inputs in understanding the pulse of the organization and taking corrective actions if needed. 

Survey results help in effective decision-making.  They boost employee morale as they feel heard and valued.

FAQs on Employee Survey Software