As much as we would love to see every company in America get serious about employee engagement and invest in the tools necessary to support and sustain it, we realize that not every organization is not ready to make that decision. However, there are some tell-tail signs that an organization is poised to benefit significantly from making a concerted effort to improve engagement. If some or all of these conditions apply to your business, it is very likely time to invest in employee engagement software.

Energy is Low

It may be that everyone is performing their jobs as expected, but is that really enough? In order for a company to innovate and truly delight customers, there must be a spark of energy among employees. People need to be willing to do a little extra and they must be encouraged to identify opportunities for improvement. Low energy is a sign of disengagement. It’s tough to measure objectively, but symptoms include high turnover, absenteeism, sagging performance, and unmet corporate objectives.

Low engagement is not the fault of employees; it's something that has to be solved by management creating a new, better culture. A well-executed employee engagement program helps bring life back into the organization, generating enthusiasm and increased expenditure of discretionary effort.

Cross Functional Collaboration is Rare

Many organizations operate in silos with one team rarely interacting with another. Although this may be sufficient for achieving the same results you’ve always experienced, moving the organization forward requires a new approach. Cross functional collaboration fosters new thinking about old challenges. Employee engagement software helps by creating an open platform for organizing ideas and teams around solving problems across department borders.

You Have Limited Resources

This may seem contradictory. Most companies face significant resource strain. We’re all having to do more with less and adding another software program may seem like too much of a burden. However, one of the benefits of employee engagement software is to get people excited about making the company more efficient and reducing waste. Doing so eases the mental strain on people and creates room for innovation and improvement.

You Have a Distributed Workforce

Companies with multiple locations and remote workers face particular challenges when it comes to engagement. It is more difficult both to sustain engagement across those distances and to monitor it. Employee engagement software addresses both challenges by giving leaders insight into how each person is contributing to the improvement of the organization. Employees are able to participate from anywhere and their managers have a clear view of engagement levels over time.

Past Programs Have Failed

Most companies have tried an employee engagement program or activities at one point or another and many of those efforts have failed to produce the desired results. This happens for several reasons, but two very common ones are a lack of real commitment by top leadership and a lack of a supporting infrastructure. When leaders invest in employee engagement software, they attack both problems by signaling to the organization that they are serious about engagement over the long haul and by providing the supporting platform that sustained engagement requires.

If your organization does not face any of these challenges, then employee engagement software may not be right for you. On the other hand, if they sound somewhat familiar, why not take a hard look at what a comprehensive approach to employee engagement might do for your organization?