Workforce engagement management software is now a crucial investment for today’s business leaders. Companies need to do more than simply manage their resources in today’s world; they need to ensure they’re investing in the productivity, efficiency, and satisfaction of their staff.
Gallup found a highly engaged workforce leads to lower absenteeism, higher performance scores, and reduced employee turnover.
With workforce engagement management (WEM) software, business leaders can optimize everything from employee onboarding and training to resource allocation and operational costs. With so many excellent solutions to choose from, how do you know which to pick?
Here’s your guide to comparing WEM software in 2024.
Step 1: Assess Your Needs, Goals, and Challenges
Ultimately, the best workforce engagement management software should align with your business needs. Business leaders need to gather feedback from stakeholders, employees, and HR managers to determine what kind of technology to invest in.
Find out which roadblocks and challenges your company is currently facing. Are you struggling with staffing, scheduling and resource management? Are you having a hard time keeping hybrid employees engaged and motivated? Do you need a solution that can boost morale and performance with real-time feedback, training, and recognition tools?
Don’t just consider your budget and how much each tool costs; think about the potential impact having more engaged employees could have on your organization. Identify which metrics you’ll track to ensure your software is delivering the right results, such as absenteeism or turnover.
Step 2: Look at Workforce Engagement Management Software Features
Most Workforce Engagement Management software solutions include similar feature sets, such as tools for performance management, which allow you to track crucial metrics and KPIs in real-time, and historically. They usually feature quality assurance tools, call recording capabilities, and staffing and scheduling solutions. However, there are other key features to consider too.
For instance, you might want to invest in a WEM solution that comes with AI capabilities, which can improve your forecasting strategy, and scheduling efforts. Some include AI assistants that can support and coach team members in real-time.
Some solutions even allow team members to create custom dashboards they can use to monitor their own performance metrics and track strengths and weaknesses. Other features to consider include solutions for voice of the employee feedback, pulse surveys, employee recognition tools, gamification software, and collaborative spaces for team communication.
Step 3: Choose Flexible Workforce Engagement Management Software
Choosing flexible WEM software doesn’t just mean ensuring your solution can scale as you employ new team members. It’s also important to ensure your technology can connect with the existing resources your staff members already use. Aside from choosing solutions that can integrate with your contact center software, think about the benefits of other integrations.
You might want to connect your WEM technology with the HR tools you use to distribute employee rewards and perks or manage payroll. A WEM solution that integrates with your CRM software can help you understand how employee engagement and morale affect customer satisfaction.
Other integrations to think about include meeting room management tools, calendar and scheduling software, and even your unified communications tools like Microsoft Teams. Bringing all of these solutions together with integrations will help you to gain a more holistic insight into your workforce. Plus, it will ensure you can streamline and optimize your operations.
Step 4: Consider the Employee Experience
Whenever you’re investing in new technology for your workforce, considering the user experience is crucial. The more straightforward and intuitive your workforce engagement management software is, the more your team members will use it. Think about how easy it is for your team members to access self-service solutions for scheduling time off, or tracking payroll.
Consider how team members can customize their user experience. Giving staff the opportunity to choose which metrics they want to track, and monitor can significantly improve morale and motivation levels. Make sure it’s easy to understand reports and analytics and access gamification features or collaboration capabilities.
It’s also worth ensuring that the experience for supervisors and managers is convenient, too. The easier it is to onboard and offboard staff members, track schedules, and monitor performance metrics, the more value your business will get from your WEM software.
Step 5: Look for In-Depth Analytics
One of the biggest benefits of workforce engagement management software is that it offers incredible insight into your business operations and performance. The more you can dive into essential metrics and KPIs, the more you can optimize business outcomes.
However, not all WEM solutions come with the same analytical capabilities. Some cutting-edge solutions make it easier to dive deeper into your data, with artificial intelligence, and automated systems for quality assurance tracking. There are solutions that offer insights into employee and customer sentiment simultaneously and even enable dashboard customization.
Some of the best solutions will also help companies to keep track of the voice of the employee, automating surveys and feedback requests. Plus, these tools can use AI to deliver instant recommendations to business leaders on how to enhance resource allocation.
Step 6: Remember Security and Customer Support
Finally, when choosing the ideal workforce engagement management software, remember to prioritize security and customer support. Most leading WEM platforms will help you to enhance security and compliance by making it easy to track how your teams follow best practices. They can also record conversations automatically for compliance purposes.
However, you’ll need to ensure your solution has the right tools in place to keep data protected, from end-to-end encryption to access controls. At the same time, it’s worth ensuring your solution provider can offer the support and guidance you need to make the most of your new software.
A leading vendor can offer access to training resources, as well as troubleshooting support and assistance going forward. Some can even help you integrate your WEM platform with other solutions, helping to boost your return on investment.
Comparing Workforce Engagement Management Software
Workforce engagement management software empowers companies to optimize resource allocation strategies, reduce operational costs, improve employee experiences, and enhance customer service. The right technology can have an impact on everything from your company’s profitability, to staff turnover rates.
With the steps above, you should be able to find the WEM solution best-suited to your needs. Just remember, as the workforce continues to evolve, your solution will need to evolve too. Look for technology that’s scalable, feature rich, and flexible enough to adapt to your needs.
