11 Best Employee Survey Tools

This is an overview of 11 absolutely best employee survey tools today.

These are the very tools that help HR teams evaluate employee morale, learn about issues in the workplace, and also, gather amazing ideas from their staff.

And let’s face it; there really is no other way for you to learn all this than by asking your employees. And this, as I’m sure you know very well, is best done through an employee survey.

The problem? Well, there are hundreds, if not more, potential employee survey tools available on the market.

What’s even worse, many of these tools focus on particular use cases or offer features targeting specific HR scenarios, making choosing the right tool challenging.

That’s why I decided to gather what I personally consider the best employee survey tools in one place, and tell you more about each tool. My hope is that this information will help you select the right tool to run employee surveys in your company.

So, with that in mind, let’s get to it.

What are employee survey tools, exactly?

When we use the term – employee survey tools – we refer to a whole range of tools designed (or used) to run employee surveys, collect ideas, and gauge the overall sentiment in the workplace.

But note I said “a range of tools.” That’s because the overall term – employee survey tools – works as an umbrella term collecting different survey software platforms that companies can use for the said purpose.

And so, within that range of tools, you can find:

• Generic survey software that companies use to launch basic employee surveys.
• Dedicated employee survey tools that focus on collecting 100% anonymous feedback, and have been designed with HR teams in mind.
• Large, all-in-one HR or employee engagement platforms which offer survey functionality as one of their many capabilities, and more.

WORTH NOTING: In this guide, I’ve only included tools in the second and third category. It’s true that some generic survey tools could work as employee survey tools. However, many of these tools often lack critical functionality, such as the ability to run anonymous surveys, to truly make them ideal for HR teams.

Why companies use employee survey tools for?

Or, to paraphrase, what sort of feedback can you collect with these platforms?

Naturally, you could run a survey on any topic. However, in general, employee survey tools are best when you want to:

• Collect insights about employee engagement and learn how your employees view their work, the people they work with, the company culture, and more.
• Evaluate employee satisfaction and discover how employees find themselves in the workplace.
• Learn about issues in the workplace which is often done through confidential, anonymous employee reporting.
• Gather feedback on company policies, be it to learn how effective existing ones are and evaluate the perception of any new initiatives the company might be planning to introduce.
• Collect input on proposed changes, for example, restructuring the organization or a new technology rollout.
• Assess the effectiveness of the management and learn how employees view their management and the leadership style.
• Collect unique and powerful ideas and suggestions from employees, and more.

However, employee surveys aren’t the best strategy when you need to:

• Learn more about and resolve specific and individual issues or employee grievances. That’s because employee surveys are usually anonymous and deliver aggregated results (i.e., the % of employees who agree with a proposed policy change, etc.) Such individual issues, however, often require a direct approach and in-depth investigation with all parties concerned.
• Uncover issues in real-time. Again, this is due to aggregated nature of employee surveys. However, in this case, there is an exception – running anonymous suggestion boxes that allow to collect quick and individual insights, without compromising the person’s identity.
• Track the effectiveness of short-term initiatives. Unfortunately, surveys aren’t the most ideal solution for monitoring the impact of fast-changing programs. The survey process, the time required to analyze the data , not to mention, the follow-up process may take too long to reflect immediate program impacts.

Core features to expect in an employee survey tool

• Anonymous surveys. By far and away, this is the most critical feature of an employee survey tool. After all, many employees openly state that they’d provide feedback only if their anonymity is protected.
• Anonymous two-way conversations that allow HR teams to follow up on a participant’s responses without ever learning their identity.
• Basic distribution channels that allow HR teams to provide quick and easy access to the survey for employees. At minimum, your tool should allow you to distribute the survey via a QR code, a shareable link, and through basic communication channels, like Slack or MS Teams.
• Notifications so that you and your team know when a new feedback arrives.
• Case management allowing you to track the progress of survey results and act on whatever’s necessary.
• Keyword and sentiment analysis to quickly analyze survey results.
• Reporting.
• AI support that not only allows to process survey results faster but also, allows HR teams to streamline responding to feedback.
• Whistleblowing reporting, a dedicated employee survey type that would allow employees to notify HR of any issues or misconduct anonymously.

Best employee survey tools

Suggestion Ox

Type: Best employee survey tool for collecting suggestion and ideas from employees.

Supported survey types:

• Employee suggestion boxes
• Anonymous surveys
• Pulse surveys (coming soon)

Overview:

Suggestion Ox (note, this is my tool,) is an employee survey tool that focuses on helping leaders and managers collect get truly anonymous feedback from employees. With Suggestion Ox, you can create 100% anonymous surveys that allow employees to share great ideas, suggestions, and offer feedback on whatever issues you’d need their input.

What’s more, Suggestion Ox allows HR teams and managers to conduct fully anonymous two-way conversations, and dig deeper into the person’s suggestions without ever revealing their identity.

Suggestion Ox also offers complete case management, reporting and analytics, and utilizes AI to help you process and respond to survey feedback.

Free trial available? Yes. (Sign up here)

Connecteam

Type: All-in-one employee management platform

Supported survey types:

• eNPS
• Pulse surveys
• Standard employee engagement surveys

Overview:

Connecteam is an enormous platform that, aside the ability to run employee surveys, offers almost every feature and functionality a company would need to manage their employees. From operations, time clocking, staff scheduling, task management, to communications, training, quizzes, and so much more.

As part of its robust offering, Connecteam offers the ability to create surveys and polls and collect employee feedback.

What’s more, Connecteam offers a robust mobile survey app so that employees can access surveys, as well as other functionality, quickly and conveniently.

Free trial available? Yes.

Workleap Officevibe

Type: Employee engagement platform

Supported survey types:

• Pulse surveys
• Custom employee engagement surveys
• eNPS
• Anonymous employee feedback
• Onboarding surveys

Overview:

Officevibe is another all-in-one platform that features the capability to run employee surveys and collect their feedback.

And needless to say, this particular part of Officevibe certainly ticks all the boxes.

With Officevibe, you can run quick Pulse surveys, collect anonymous feedback, conduct eNPS surveys, respond to employees and discuss their feedback, and review a trove of data based on the information you’ve collected.

What’s more, Officevibe includes full case management, allows you to conduct 2-way anonymous conversations, run reports, and more.

Free trial available? Yes.

15Five

Type: Employee performance management platform.

Supported survey types:

• Employee engagement surveys
• Employee feedback

Overview:

15five is an all-in-one employee performance management platform that provides features and capabilities to help companies (and their HR teams) to continuously improve performance, increase managers’ effectiveness, and boost engagement and retention.

It’s a bold promise, I agree. But 15five offers an incredible range of features to deliver on it, including an HR outcome dashboard, Spark AI, weekly check-ins, templates for 1-on-1’s for managers, and, most importantly, real-time employee feedback tools and employee surveys.

Free trial available? Unknown. Requires prospects to book a demo with the company’s sales team to begin.

Worktango

Type: Employee engagement and retention platform

Supported survey types:

• Employee lifecycle surveys
• Employee engagement surveys
• Anonymous feedback

Overview:

WorkTango is another large, all-in-one platform on my list. In its case, the main focus is to help companies understand and then, improve employee engagement and boost retention.

To meet that objective, Worktango offers quite a range of tools that, among others, include various survey types. But leaving surveys aside, Worktango can help you boost recognition in the workplace, improve performance, and make it easy for you to stay connected with you teams and gauge real-time sentiment.

Free trial available? Unknown. Requires prospects to book a demo with the company’s sales team to begin.

Eletive

Type: People success platform

Supported survey types:

• Employee engagement surveys
• Pulse surveys

Overview:

Eletive refers to its tool as “the people success platform.” But this, basically, translates as employee engagement. And Elative offers quite a number of tools and capabilities to help increase engagement and performance, and strengthen the overall company culture.

Elative’s tool consists of three main capabilities: Engagement (which allows companies to run pulse and employee engagement surveys,) Performance Management (goals tracking, performance evaluation, etc.), and Self-leadership (employee experience.)

Free trial available? Unknown. Requires prospects to book a demo with the company’s sales team to begin.

Leapsome

Type: Employee engagement survey software

Supported survey types:

• Pulse surveys
• Employee engagement surveys
• Anonymous feedback
• eNPS

Overview:

Another all-in-one employee engagement platform on the list featuring capabilities like Goals and OKRs management, performance reviews, and learning and employee development.

As part of its impressive feature set, Leapsome offers employee survey tools, include the ability to run company-wide, leadership-only, and team-specific surveys.

Free trial available? Unknown. Requires to request a demo with the sales team to begin.

ThriveSparrow

Type: Employee success platform

Supported survey types:

• Engagement surveys
• eNPS
• Pulse surveys

Overview:

Like most all-in-one platforms, ThriveSparrow includes several distinct capabilities that help companies boost employee engagement and performance. Among those is the Engage capability, which is basically an employee survey tool allowing companies run various kinds of surveys to get the pulse of the workforce. On top of that, the tool offers sentiment analysis that processes employee feedback quickly, a whole range of templates to base surveys on, dynamic reporting tools, and more.

Free trial available? Unknown. Requires to request a demo with the sales team to begin.

FridayPulse

Type: Pulse survey tool

Supported survey types:

• Pulse surveys

Overview:

I called FridayPulse a pulse survey tool but there is actually a slightly more to it. FridayPulse focuses on helping organizations ensure that their teams are happy and productive. And naturally, a major part of that is running regular employee surveys and analyzing the data. In the case of FridayPulse, this is done through regular and automated pulse surveys. On top of that, FridayPulse offers predictive HappinessKPIs that predict performance, retention, and innovation among your teams.

Free trial available? Yes.

CultureAmp

Type: Employee experience platform

Supported survey types:

• Employee engagement surveys
• Onboarding and exit surveys
• Pulse surveys

Overview:

CultureAmp is all about improving employee experience and engagement: From uncovering what your employees think about the workplace, digging deeper into their overall experience, planning their development, evaluating performance, and more.

Free trial available? Unknown. Requires to request a demo with the sales team to begin.

TINYPulse

Type: Employee engagement platform

Supported survey types:

• Anonymous feedback

Overview:

TINYPulse’s name might suggest that it’s a simple employee survey tool focusing on pulse surveys. But actually, nothing could be further from the truth…

TINYPulse is a comprehensive employee engagement platform with a feature-set spanning tools for managers, recognition programs, and yes, employee feedback too.

Unfortunately, the company’s website doesn’t explain survey and employee feedback collection capabilities in any greater detail. It does confirm that you can run anonymous surveys with it, and conduct feedback analysis to extract actionable insights from the data.

Free trial available? Unknown. Requires to request a demo with the sales team to begin.

And that’s it

These are the best employee survey tools on the market today.

All that’s left for you now is to review them clearly and inquire about those you feel match your requirements the most.

Good luck!