Engagement tools for employees range from a survey link to an app with nudges and dashboards, and they are bought with the hope that the tool will raise engagement by itself. It will not. What raises engagement is what a manager does with the answers, and a tool helps only if the answers and the actions are kept where that manager will read them. This guide separates the part of the job that needs a tool from the part that needs a record, and points at the free worksheets that keep the record.
The part that needs a tool
Delivering the questionnaire to everyone, including people without a desk or an email address, is a delivery problem and a tool solves it: a form tool, a survey app, a shared device at the shift briefing. The tool should report counts per team, because the team is the unit anyone can act on. Beyond delivery, a tool's dashboards are a convenience, and a convenience that hides the arithmetic behind a score is a number you cannot defend in the room.
The part that needs a record
The plan (which teams, what cadence, which questions), the results worked into an eNPS per team with the count behind each figure, the comparison with the last cycle, and the actions dated with owners: this is the record, and it has to survive between cycles. On Orgplanly it lives on the org plan the teams are staffed from. The free engagement plan template and the eNPS worksheet work the first three on the page; Orgplanly Pro keeps them and the actions as records.
How the two fit together
Deliver with the tool, enter the counts into the record, report per team, act per team, and reopen the record before the next cycle. The US Office of Personnel Management runs the largest employee survey in the country on this cycle, publishing results and holding agencies to action plans, and the mechanism is the same at a company of forty. The tool changes; the record is what makes the tool worth having.
Questions people ask about engagement tools for employees
Which engagement tool should a small company buy?
Whatever delivers the questionnaire to everyone and reports counts per team. The record is here and is free to work.
Do I need an app?
Only for reach: people without email or a desk. The record does not need one.
What does the engagement record cost?
The worksheets are free; keeping the cycles and actions is part of the $90 a month Orgplanly Pro plan.