List of Best HR Tools for Employee Engagement 2020

Reading Time: 8 minutes

Employee engagement is a significant part of the HR department’s KRA/KPI now and not just a passing trend. It has become a crucial factor to help determine your business’ success. 

However, the concept of employee engagement is quite simple. As a manager/leader, you have to keep your company’s employees emotionally invested in the organization. They’ll get to improve their productivity and make more profits boosting overall efficiency.

Many companies even adopt various strategies that have successfully improved the working culture and efficiency amongst its employees. But implementing monthly employee activities or awarding recognition certificates is not enough. 

An organization also requires a technological push, which gives a certain sense of security to the employees. According to Gallup’s meta-analysis, companies that drove higher employee engagement were almost 22% more profitable than their competitors and 21% more productive than the rest of their peers.

So how can you achieve such results in your organization? By investing in employee engagement HR software programs and apps, you can empower your employees in the right direction.

We have curated the ten best human resources tools to help you enhance employee engagement and streamline your everyday business operations.

Best HR Tools for Employee Engagement

1. Namely

Namely is one of those HR tools for employee management that controls all the HR data from one place and helps the company do tasks faster. Although it mainly supports one language, it is available on both Windows and Macintosh platforms.

This HR system is exceptionally user-friendly, where the employees can update their personal information at ease. Since it’s a web-based system, it provides support even on mobile devices, making it accessible and extremely user-friendly.

Features:

• Payroll system
• Task management
• Document management
• Workforce management
• MIS reports
• 360- degree feedback
• Benefits management
• Compensation management
• Employee database
• Employee profiles
• Onboarding
• Performance management
• Self-service portal
• Time & attendance management

Pros:

• Easy to look up for information for contact and payroll
• Document portal makes it easy for employees to track their benefits
• Social features showcase a timeline of employee events

Cons:

• Technical support takes time to solve your issues and needs an improvement
• Syncing employee’s data is time-consuming on Namely
• Implementation takes time and requires technical help

Pricing

You need to contact Namely for a customized price on your requirements.

2. Keka

Keka is one of the oldest employee experience platforms that solve issues faced by every HR representative, such as attendance management, talent management, payroll management, and many more. Keka is a self-funded company and is a perfect employee management HR software for small and medium businesses.

It is designed to be employee-friendly and employee-centric. The software can be deployed web-based, on the cloud, as SaaS, Android, and iPhone/iPad. The system follows the organization’s HR policies without losing out on human consideration.

Features:

• 360-degree feedback
• Applicant tracking
• Benefits management
• Compensation management
• Employee database
• Onboarding
• Payroll management
• Performance management
• Recruitment management
• Self-service portal
• Time & attendance management
• Time-off management

Pros:

• Easy to navigate and set up
• Has a remote login feature
• Tax deductions and calculations will be made easy
• Ready technical support online and during business hours

Cons:

• Payroll information is challenging to navigate
• Difficult to operate the tax deduction section
• Document repository needs some improvements

Pricing

	Foundation	Strength	Growth
Upto 100 employees	$500/month + $5/month per additional employee	$800/month + $8/month per additional employee	$1100/month + $11/month per additional employee

3. Qandle

Considered India’s fastest growing HR solution, Qandle caters to employees, HR, and leaders alike. It is a smartly configured end-to-end HR system with over 20 plus modules and a fully functional mobile app that is compatible with Android and iOS. 

The best part about Qandle is that it supports two languages, mainly English and Hindi. Qandle is considered one of the flexible HR tools for employee engagement, which offers individual policies and makes tracking work effortless.

Features:

• Asset and expense management
• Attendance management
• Knowledge management
• Mobile support
• Document management
• Employee self-service management
• Payroll system
• Workflow administration

Pros:

• Extremely configurable and accessible to useful features
• Great UI/UX – Comprehensive 
• Good customer support

Cons:

• Does not support Mac OS
• Does not support perpetual pricing

Pricing

Free Plan	Regular	Plus	Premium
Free	$2/employee/month	$4/employee/month	$5/employee/month

4. Peakon

Peakon is an easily accessible HR System that helps effortlessly collect feedback from the employees and analyze it to make informed decisions. It also provides constant access to information to its remote employees through its online portal. 

Peakon supports iOS mobile platform and makes use of cloud-based deployment. It supports languages like English, Swedish, Turkish, and 20 more languages, making it one of the most straightforward interaction HR tools for employee engagement.

Features:

• Performance management
• Benchmarking
• Goal management
• Negative feedback management
• Pulse surveys
• Feedback management
• Employee awards
• Survey management
• Cultural alignment
• Employee alignment

Pros:

• Surveys have comprehensive features to get the best feedback
• Gives good visibility of the engagement data
• Easy-to-use and implement in the organization

Cons:

• Too many features for individuals to wrap their heads around
• Employees might need beforehand training for analysis and interpretation

Pricing

Essential	Premium	Enterprise
$3.5/user/month	$4.5/user/month	Contact vendor

5. Bitrix24

Bitrix24 has over 30 features in its HR tool that help your business grow and build an office culture that reflects everything your organization stands for. Its HR system mainly helps organize the management, keeping track of the interactions between existing/potential clients, agents, partners, managers, etc. 

Bitrix24 is compatible with over 14 languages, including English, Hindi, Chinese, French, Russian, and many more. It is currently only compatible with the Android mobile platform.

Features:

• Case management
• Contact manager
• Cloud computing
• Customer support
• Lead generation
• Invoice
• Marketing analytics
• Performance management
• Self-service and workflow automation
• Report builder
• Employee directory and management

Pros:

• Makes reporting transparent and easy to navigate
• Storage of HR documents and employee contacts made easy
• Social intranet  fast-forwards training
• Eases remote working 

Cons:

• Complicated software might take time to get hold of its features
• Limited customer support
• The user interface might feel a little clunky

Pricing

Bitrix24 has many different plans based on cloud and on-premise software. You can check their pricing here.

6. BirdDogHR

BirdDogHR system provides complete end-to-end solutions for HR and talent management. It helps improve employee engagement as well as shape leaders to lead better within an organization.

Considered as one of the best HR tools for employee engagement, it enables employees to communicate with their colleagues openly and also promotes online learning at the same time. Here, employees can share ideas, challenge different opinions, increase their involvement, and make them more productive.

Features:

• Payroll system
• Time & attendance management
• Task management
• Knowledge management
• Self-service portal
• Recruitment portal
• Email integration
• Employment branding
• Job distribution
• Candidate management
• Compliance reporting

Pros:

• Easy to post job descriptions on multiple job boards
• ATS is automatically updated with compliance programs

Cons:

• The application process is limited to only English and Spanish language
• Candidate management is available only in the English language
• The onboarding feature comes separately from the ATS with an additional cost

Pricing

You’ll need to contact BirdDogHR for a customized quote.

7. iCIMS

One of the most influential HR tools for employee engagement, iCIMS, helps strengthen the management and the employees’ capabilities by encouraging them to work hard. The HR tools of this system are equipped with modern technology and also initiates effective communication. 

It supports desktop platforms like Windows as well as web applications and the Android mobile platform. With the cloud-based deployment, iCIMS supports only the English language.

Features:

• Training management
• Electronic forms
• Employee handbook
• Job description management
• Self-service portal
• Task management
• Document management
• Virtual career fairs
• Targeted and automated text
• Email campaigns
• Manage job postings and applicant tracking
• Employee referral programs

Pros:

• Focuses on automating communication
• Engages candidates for an improved hiring experience

Cons:

• Filtering candidates is not a built-in function

Pricing

Contact their representatives for a custom quote based on your requirements.

8. Vibe HCM

Organizations that stress upon identifying and shaping their employees’ skill-sets and talents must opt for Vibe HCM as it has one of the smartest HR tools for employee engagement.

Vibe HCM is compatible with Windows and Mac, and it works only on the Android mobile platform. Its cloud-based deployment makes this system accessible even on mobile phones and is exceptionally employee-friendly.

Features:

• Onboarding
• Compensation management
• Task and training management
• Custom rating scales
• Time and attendance management
• Recruitment management
• Performance management

Pros:

• Great deal of functionality and features that help us support our employees
• Good customer support
• Highly customizable features
• Reporting feature is better than working with spreadsheets

Cons:

• Too many features make it complicated to understand at first-go
• Transactions take time to reflect

Pricing

To get a better idea of pricing, you’ll have to contact them for a custom quote.

9. Ascentis

Ascentis provides a proper web-based solution that keeps you updated with all the policies, making the HR manager’s job more manageable and less stressed. 

It is a robust HR platform covering almost all core and strategic HR operations through its six unique tools. It is an on-demand tool that gives users the ability to manage employee data efficiently.

Features:

• Applicant tracking
• Shift management
• Recruitment management
• Project planning
• Email Notifications
• Reporting
• Payroll system
• Attendance management
• Self-service portal

Pros:

• Can house many pieces of data
• Produces payroll well
• Allows employees to use a timekeeper

Cons:

• Implementation tactics have received criticism
• The interface could be more intuitive
• Navigating through reports is complicated

Pricing

Find the pricing details on its software by contacting their representatives.

10. Cornerstone OnDemand

Cornerstone OnDemand helps organizations by giving them positive and result-oriented support. This HR system pushes and motivates employees to do their best and even helps HR managers attain candidates worthy of the job profile.

Features:

• Background screening
• Internal HR
• Assessments
• Interview management
• Resume search and parsing
• Candidate tracking
• Competency catalog
• Compliance reporting
• Employee dashboard
• Learning management
• Training platform

Pros:

• Easy trend analysis for workflow management
• 360-degree review for performance management
• Easy to customize templates

Cons:

• At times, software can seem a little buggy
• Customer representatives are hard to reach

Pricing

Performance Plan	Learning Plan	Performance Plan + Learning Plan
$6/user/month	$6/user/month	$11/user/month

 

Parting Note

All these above HR tools for employee engagement have their own sets of benefits as well as drawbacks. One must understand that there is no perfect HR system that helps in increasing employee engagement. 

Depending on the company and its functions, one needs to think and then opt for a plan that their employees can access quickly and make use of it to strengthen their skills. 

Apart from adopting useful HR tools, companies must form policies and strategies to motivate their employees to work. The environment also needs to be as encouraging as the HR tools of the company.

Have you ever worked with any of these HR tools before? Do you know any other better software programs for employee engagement? Let us know in the comments below.