You’ve likely heard about employee engagement and its benefits, from increased retention to improved collaboration in the workplace. However, boosting engagement is not as simple as implementing additional strategies on the fly. Last year, employee engagement dropped to an all-time low over the past decade, with 3.2 million fewer employees engaged in 2024 than in 2023.
Your company may be actively trying to engage its employees, but you may need some help in appealing to their diverse needs, preferences, and expectations. Rather than spreading your leadership, HR, and management teams thin, look for tools that allow you to do more for your employees with less complexity.
Let’s explore four tools to enhance your employee engagement strategies and build a vibrant, thriving workplace at your company.
1. Employee Giving Software
What inspires your employees to give it their all every day? In today’s workforce, a good paycheck often isn’t enough. Many want to feel they’re contributing toward something greater in their day-to-day work. In fact, 93% of employees believe companies must lead with purpose, and 71% think it’s important for employers to offer giving and volunteering opportunities.
With workplace giving software, your company can easily provide these opportunities to make a difference and encourage employees to give back.
According to Uncommon Giving’s guide to employee giving, the most common corporate philanthropy programs you can host with workplace giving software include:
- Matching gifts. When an employee donates to a nonprofit, your company matches that donation, typically at a 1:1 ratio (for example, you would match a $50 gift with another $50 from the company). This giving opportunity allows employees to double their impact on causes they care about.
- Volunteer grants. When an employee volunteers with a nonprofit for a certain number of hours, your company donates to that organization. For example, you might give $400 for every 25 hours an employee volunteers.
- In-kind gifts. Your company collects item donations from employees to support a local nonprofit. For instance, you might invite employees to contribute canned goods to help out a hunger relief organization in your area.
- Employee grants. Your company awards employees with grants that they can give to an eligible nonprofit of their choice. You might provide small annual grants to all employees or give larger grants as rewards for top performers.
- Payroll deductions. Your company allows employees to automatically deduct a portion of their paychecks to donate to a nonprofit of their choice. This opportunity allows them to regularly and easily support organizations close to their hearts.
The best employee giving software centralizes giving and engagement data so you can manage all your programs from a single platform. For instance, you can run donation matching, employee volunteering, and payroll deduction programs from a single solution. From there, it’s easy to compile comprehensive impact reports that consolidate employee participation data and corporate social responsibility (CSR) results.
2. Learning Management System
To nurture long-term employee engagement, show ambitious employees that their future at the company is vibrant and full of future opportunities. Whether the employee is a new hire or a seasoned team member, a learning management system (LMS) allows your company to provide them personalized training paths tailored to their roles and responsibilities.
With an LMS, you can:
- Support employees with microlearning. Your employees are busy people. To respect their time while promoting their growth, offer microlearning activities that take 15 minutes max to complete. For example, they could listen to short podcast episodes, work through brief interactive scenarios, or review some online flashcards.
- Gamify learning to boost participation. Build a sense of community and excitement around your training program. Set up a leaderboard to inspire friendly competition among employees and award badges they can proudly display in their learning profiles.
- Help employees earn relevant certifications. Make it easy for your employees to stay at the forefront of industry trends and best practices by allowing them to complete a certain set of courses to earn certifications.
When researching and implementing an LMS for your company, ask for employee feedback throughout the process. Use their input to guide your decision-making so you can find tools that align with their specific interests and training needs. For example, you might discover that employees want the ability to discuss learning insights and questions in discussion forums with their peers.
3. Event Management Platform
Employee events help team members meaningfully connect with your company and one another. Since events often require complex coordination, consider using a dedicated event management platform to plan company retreats, fitness challenges, holiday parties, and more.
Some of the top event management platforms for companies facilitate:
- Event schedule and agenda creation.
- Streamlined employee registration.
- Automated event reminders.
- Engaging mobile app games, like scavenger hunts and photo contests.
- Event data tracking to measure performance.
If your company has remote or hybrid employees, an event platform that supports virtual events is a must. These types of events are key to building a sense of community among employees who don’t often get the chance to interact face-to-face. Plus, they can help you cut costs since you won’t have to pay for a venue or decorations.
4. Employee Recognition Software
Showing employees gratitude for a job well done helps them feel more personally fulfilled and boosts their loyalty to your company. While you may not be able to give each of your employees highly customized appreciation, recognition tools help you ensure that no one’s hard work goes unnoticed.
For instance, eCardWidget’s employee recognition software guide highlights options that allow companies to design branded recognition eCards and create group appreciation boards so employees can shout out their peers’ contributions.
Additionally, many of these recognition platforms come with survey tools to make your employees feel heard. Send regular surveys to collect input on company events, training programs, benefits, and more. These surveys can yield new insights to inform your employee engagement strategies going forward.
5. Employee Gifting Tools
If you are interested in providing more personalized, tangible tokens of your appreciation for employees, consider investing in an employee gifting tool to level up your rewards program. When a team member reaches a milestone, someone goes above and beyond, or the team hits a major quarterly goal, this software enables you to send them custom gifts as rewards.
For example, you can use employee gifting tools to:
- Send snack boxes to reward employees for their contributions to the company.
- Instantly deliver virtual rewardslike gift cards and digital subscriptions.
- Create remote employee welcome kits that include company-branded merchandise.
- Reward top performers with high-end wellness items.
Some platforms even allow employees to choose their own rewards from a personalized list of suggestions or an entire catalog. Many gifting tools handle distribution for you, too, so your company won’t have to worry about packaging or shipping.
No matter which tools your company decides to use, from workplace giving software to recognition eCards, remember that implementing new technology is a significant undertaking. Don’t feel as though your company needs to add all these solutions to your toolkit at once. Start by prioritizing the ones that align most with your employee engagement approach, and gradually build from there. Before long, you’ll be able to reap the benefits of your new technology!
Author Bio
Andy Howell, CEO of Uncommon Giving
Andy Howell is the CEO of Uncommon Giving, a Charleston-based social impact platform that helps companies engage employees in workplace giving and volunteering—think of it as “generosity-powered” employee engagement. Uncommon Giving provides modern, cost-effective tools for employers to live their corporate values, improve employee morale, and enhance brand reputation.
Andy has spent the majority of his career working with SaaS companies serving the nonprofit, HR, and social impact spaces, including Blackbaud, Benevity, Benefitfocus, and Bloomerang. In his role today, he brings a distinct point of view to the meaningful connection between corporate social responsibility, employee engagement, and the desire to make the world a better place.