A recent Gallup poll showed that less than 32% of employees were engaged in their jobs, and more than 17% were actively disengaged. At the same time, LinkedIn’s recent survey of hiring trends found that 30% of workers were actively looking for new opportunities, and 45% were involved in preparatory activities like professional networking and researching companies. So not only does employee engagement help companies’ bottom line, but a lack of engagement will actually hurt companies, as talent feels unappreciated and looks for other opportunities.
We know that employee engagement is important to worker retention, staff productivity, and company profits. But employee engagement tools have often lagged behind sexier apps for marketing or social networking. As employee engagement moves from important to crucial, it should be at the top of every organization’s priorities list for 2016. Recently, several tools have appeared that make it easy to measure employee engagement — and fun for employees to participate.
RoundPegg
Think happiness isn’t quantifiable? RoundPegg delineates a company’s culture into 36 measurable values and then determines whether candidates are a good fit based on their answers to a survey. The values cover every aspect of work, from creativity to risk aversion to how employees interact with their colleagues and their superiors. The company claims that employees that pass the RoundPegg test are 27% less likely to leave and 35% more profitable. RoundPegg offers platforms not just for new hires but also for current employees, as well as workers who come to the company by a merger or acquisition, which presents unique challenges in culture integration.
RoundPegg has actually been around since 2009 and has worked with major companies like Twitter and Cisco. It also offers a great blog on engagement, management, and culture. There is no pricing on the site, but you can request a demo here.
Culture Amp does just about everything: Surveys, polls, new-hire evaluations, onboarding, exit interviews. I love that the company focuses on culture, tracking its development with “engagement, identity, and growth & sustainability surveys.” The surveys can be done on mobile as well as the web, and lets managers see the results in real time. Culture Amp also wants to keep data coming in between major surveys, allowing single-question polls that take the “pulse” of employees at random times unrelated to significant work milestone. This is a great concept and could provide a company with immensely useful information about employee engagement year-round.
The suite of tools includes email reminders for employees to take their surveys. Culture Amp even offers “survey coaching” to help companies make sense of their new data. Culture Amp’s pricing is based on the number of employees in an organization. You can see the options here.
Jostle brings a new level of employee engagement to the company intranet. The platform is based in the cloud, making it accessible from any location or device. It allows employees to interact with each other in ways similar to Facebook or LinkedIn. By combining two functions, the company claims its five times more effective at increasing employee engagement than are intranets or employee social networks alone. The software lets employees search for each other by expertise, department, or other information they provide on their profiles. It also makes documents searchable and shareable.
Jostle also prides itself on “getting employee notices and announcements out of email,” making news and success stories easy to share, thus reinforcing culture. In a similar vein, the company allows for targeted internal communications, so workers see only what’s relevant to them. Jostle offers polls and surveys and a fun peer recognition system called “shout-outs” that further engages employees. Request a demo of this robust suite of employee tools here.
Employee Engagement Emerges
All these apps show a growing realization of the importance of employee engagement.
Along with the tools listed above, Brandemix has years of experience in talent management surveys and 360s, employee surveys and focus groups, creating employer brands and employee events that boost morale, retention, and productivity. Learn how we can help you.
Jody Ordioni is President of Brandemix.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Jody Ordioni is the author of “The Talent Brand.” In her role as Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Brandemix, she leads the firm in creating brand-aligned talent communications that connect employees to cultures, companies, and business goals. She engages with HR professionals and corporate teams on how to build and promote talent brands, and implement best-practice talent acquisition and engagement strategies across all media and platforms. She has been named a "recruitment thought leader to follow" and her mission is to integrate marketing, human resources, internal communications, and social media to foster a seamless brand experience through the employee lifecycle.”
