Employee engagement has become a hot topic lately. There’s a good reason for that. According to Gallup, organizations with fully engaged employees are 17 percent more productive and 21 percent more profitable. That’s the good news. The bad news is that only 33% of US employees are engaged in their jobs. Leaders are starting to recognize that enormous opportunity for improvement and do something about it.

One solution that is gaining traction is employee engagement software. It is designed to get people involved in improving the processes they operate and align individual goals to the strategic objectives. When people develop a more profound sense of purpose and realize how their work fits into the bigger picture, they become more emotionally invested in outcomes and willing to engage in voluntary efforts that go beyond the tasks outlined in their job description.

Could such a solution benefit your organization? You might need employee engagement software if …

You Don’t Know if Employees Are Engaged

Many organizations do employee surveys to gauge the level of engagement. That’s fine, but it only gives you a snapshot and isn’t a great tool for measuring engagement over time. With employee engagement software, you get real-time reporting that gives you much more in-depth insight into what you need to know. Activity reports let you know what is happening. How many projects are being started and completed? Engagement reports tell you who is actively working on improvement projects. And impact reporting lets you know how those efforts are paying off. Managing engagement isn’t a once-in-a-while proposition, so a dedicated platform makes a lot of sense if you don’t have another way to gain this knowledge daily.

People are Working in Silos

People get excited and energized when they are allowed to innovate and learn new things. One excellent way to get there is to introduce more chances for cross-functional collaboration. If you have a siloed organization where people see the same faces and repeat the same tasks every day, you might consider implementing software to help make cross-team cooperation easier to do. The platform creates a common language and allows people to collect communications about projects in one universally accessible location.

Resources are Limited

It may seem strange to tell you to invest in technology because your resources are limited, but it could be a brilliant move. The more stretched thin your team is, the more critical it is to gain that 17% improvement in productivity that comes with engagement. In addition to helping employees become more engaged, software of this type also makes it easier for them to report incidents of waste and potential opportunities to make processes more efficient.

The Workforce is Distributed

These days, more and more people are working from home or small remote offices. That’s great because it can cut costs and allow organizations to hire the best workers, not just the closest ones. One drawback is that it is harder to feel like part of the team and to collaborate when you don’t see your co-workers every day. Employee engagement software helps by giving people an easy way to get involved in projects from wherever they are. All of the information and updates are available online. Remote team members can participate in daily huddles or other meetings with real-time data and visual management capabilities right on their screen.

Goals Are Not Aligned

Can every person in your organization draw a direct line from the work that they do to the strategic objectives of the organization? If not, it will be difficult to achieve full alignment. People need to know precisely how they can have an impact that matters. Aligned goals improve decision making at every level and ensure that those employees who are engaged are doing the things that will move the organization in the direction that you want to go. An employee engagement software platform that allows leaders to cascade goals from the top to the individual level forces this discipline and makes the strategic plan operational.

Past Attempts at Increasing Engagement have Failed

Most organizations have taken a shot at an employee engagement program or rolled out some activities at some point or another. Many of those attempts have not been successful. There are two common reasons this happens. The first is a lack of commitment by leadership. The second is the lack of supporting infrastructure. By investing in employee engagement, software leaders attack both problems. They signal to the organization that the dedication to engagement is not just talk, and they give everyone a valuable tool for engagement.

If you are like most organizations, one or more of these circumstances apply. It’s up to you to determine if employee engagement software is the right move, but we know from our client’s experience that it can have a substantial positive impact.