Employee engagement software is taking the world by storm. 2019 was predicted to be the year that employee engagement software really took off, and if the number of programs available is anything to go by, that prediction has proved accurate.
Employee engagement software allows you to turn in cumbersome surveys for models and methods that the modern employee can relate to and have fun engaging with. But as mentioned, there are now a great many platforms and pieces of software out there which offer you employee engagement and eLearning experiences. So, with that in mind, what should you look for in employee engagement software? Continue reading to discover everything you need to know about this, shedding some light on the different ways that this type of software can be used.
Engineering your Employee Engagement Platform
The key thing to remember is that your employee engagement platform should be right for you. This can mean any number of things depending upon what you are looking for. What do you want the core of your strategy to be? How much peer to peer interaction do you require? How much freedom do you want over discussion boards, to-do lists and reward systems? Then come the specifics of the employee engagement software, you need to have a degree of control over the content. Of course, this is the key: the tools for employee engagement which you choose need to be customizable.
A very important thing to look out for when shopping around for employee engagement tools is the freedom of control you have over authoring the specifics. With regards to recognition schemes, does the software allow you to author different levels, scoring and badges? Can you be involved in the authoring of to-dos and discussions? A piece of software might already be fantastically designed, but no software will come ready-made and perfect for your specific usage. An efficient and usable authoring suite must be at the managers’ disposal. If you can’t author the software to some extent, give it a miss.
Employee Training Tracking Incorporated Into Your Software
Employee training tracking software is an important aspect of employee engagement software. This is one of the key areas in which such software has really changed the game. In the olden days, you had a training brochure, or video, and then you assessed individuals on a question and answer basis. This practice now seems utterly outdated. For one thing, there is no room to engage with individual employees beyond the quarterly evaluation, or whichever method was in practice. Software now allows you to track employee training in real-time, whether you have delivered training via virtual events or in-person. The capabilities of this kind of software are endless, and have long been utilized in education and language learning industries.
The best education institutions have learned that being able to tailor a training program to individual needs is the most utilitarian method of ensuring qualified individuals. If an employee is struggling, you can adjust accordingly. And moreover, knowledge is power; behaviour tracking software gives you the wealth of data you need to carry out reliable analytics. With training tracking, learning takes on a social and interactive dimension. Tracking performance allows you to inspire your employees when and as they need inspiration. This also means that employees stay engaged because they know their performance in training situations actually matters. Look for software which offers real-time capabilities for training tracking.
Employee Engagement Software as a Social Learning Platform
The social dimension of employee engagement software should not be understated. When looking for such software, you should make sure it functions effectively as a social learning platform. Essential to efficient learning is the studied application of social learning tools. Again, proven by the education industries, is the observation that solitary learning is ineffective when compared with group collaboration. Allowing employees to work together on a project means that they are far more likely to recall information that has passed to them in training.
A survey found that traditional methods of training saw as little as 10% of what was learned actually applied in day to day work situations. Group collaboration necessitates more of a hands-on approach to learning, and also gives employees the opportunity to learn from one another. When looking for employee engagement software, you should make sure that the social eLearning element is strong. You want to be able to see a well thought out network section where employees can view and access everyone in their program or community. This network should be integrated with to-do lists and tasks, and there should be a wide scope for interaction between team members. The interface should be appealing, as this is the element employees will most commonly use.
Driving Competition
Employee engagement software also offers greater possibilities for driving competition and encouraging a sense of employee self-value with employee recognition software. Numerous studies on human psychology have shown that recognition is one of the most important factors in employee productivity.
Aside from financial remuneration for services given, actual social and specific recognition is essential to cultivating a healthy attitude in the workplace. If an employee feels undervalued, they are more likely to make mistakes, to perform inefficiently, and of course, ultimately be unhappy. Employee recognition tools deal with this problem by allowing an integrated system which enables real-time and widespread recognition of good work. With software this happens in an organic fashion and can be more peer to peer focused, allowing social validation as well as managerial approval. You should look at the software that has a leader board feature as well. The psychology of motivation shows that a healthy level of competition is good for higher collective achievement.
Many an employee recognition platform offers a method whereby relative progress and performance can be displayed among team members. As mentioned, you should look for employee engagement software that offers a customizable rewards scheme, so that you can adjust the rewards to your specific work culture.
