Employee Retention Software: How the Right App Can Reduce Staff Turnover

If the only thing you're concerned about when it comes to employee retention is the cost, then it's no surprise that your staff turnover rate is so high. The price of replacing your staff is astronomical, but stopping your employees from marching out that door starts with putting greater importance on what you can do to make them thrive in the workplace. This is where employee retention software can help.

We've picked a range of HR apps to help reduce staff turnover by understanding what your employees are looking for and how they feel about work life (and life in general). This will then allow you to pinpoint issues and create action plans to help overcome these problems, and create a happy, healthy workforce that'll stick around.

The employee retention software below is listed in alphabetical order.

It's important to find out how your employees are feeling on a regular basis to reduce turnover, but not in a way that is going to significantly add to their workload. CompanyMood allows employees to record their mood at work every week with just a few clicks of a button, with the option of adding comments.

This data is then analyzed in real time by mood and topic, allowing you to create action plans based on feedback collected. There is also a suggestion box where employees can submit feedback, or offer praise to their co-workers (recognition is also key in reducing staff turnover)

What makes CompanyMood different?

If your employees don't have access to a computer, CompanyMood allows you to install the app on Android and iPad terminals so that multiple workers can record their mood from one, stationary machine. This benefits industries such as manufacturing and retail where there are many so-called deskless workers.

Profile

Existing customers:GoHiring, Reko

Company headquarters: Saarland, Germany

Founded: 2014

Key features:

• Employee mood reviews

• Surveys by topic

• Automated reports

• Industry benchmark insights

• Mobile and terminal apps

Pricing model: There are currently three plans: starter, basic, and pro, with the cheapest plan being free.

Integrations: CompanyMood has an open API

Your strategy for retaining employees should start from the very first moment you decided to hire a candidate. Culture Amp's Employee Engagement solution helps by providing surveys for onboarding, engagement, manager feedback, exit interviews, and more.

It allows companies to select from a library of questions that have been designed by psychologists and data scientists. From the results of these questions, managers can build a plan to ensure better engagement, or ask for insight from Culture Amp's "People Geek" community.

What makes Culture Amp different?

Culture Amp has a strong analytics offering, with a team of data scientists and psychologists creating the questions. Not only does it surface potential issues within teams, it also benchmarks these results against your competitors and similar companies.

Profile

GetApp review rating: 4.73/ 5 (from 26 reviews)

Existing customers: Slack, Airbnb, Pinterest

Company headquarters: Victoria, Australia

Founded: 2011

Key features:

• Anonymous surveys

• Onboarding and exit survey templates

• Real-time reporting

• Filter data by demographic and location

• In-app support community

Pricing model: Culture Amp's Employee Engagement plans also come with its Employee Experience model. There are three different subscription pricing plans that are currently billed annually.

Integrations: Culture Amp integrates with leading apps from different company areas, such as business intelligence, collaboration, and general HR.

To reduce turnover, STAYview - cloud-based employee retention software from HRsoft - helps you conduct what it calls "stay interviews" and create "stay plans" for employees. The idea is that by conducting these interviews, companies can address areas that are thought to lead to flight risk (in plain English: reasons why your staff leave, not a fear of them skipping bail).

What makes STAYview different?

STAYview provides pre-built templates and action plans which both the manager and employee can carry out. It provides reporting on how well these plans have progressed and whether they helped reduce employee turnover, as well as forecasting which areas you need to improve on.

Profile

Existing customers:Smokey Bones Restaurant

Company headquarters: Maitland, Florida

Founded: 2000 (HRsoft)

Key features:

• Customizable interview templates

• Reporting tools

• Employee turnover forecasting functionality

• Video tutorials

• Status updates

• Ability to input performance data

• Interview scheduler and wizard

Integrations: Integrates with ERPs and HR systems

Pricing model: Pricing information available on request

There's no point in buying a ping pong table if all your employees want is flexible working hours - it won't help reduce turnover. TINYpulse helps you find out what your workers care about by sending a one question survey to employees each week.

The results of the survey are displayed in a live feed, and staff can upvote the issues that matter to them most (although whether this is at risk of being gamed remains to be seen) . Sentiment analysis and machine learning then highlight recurring trends.

There is also the option to give peer-to-peer feedback.

What makes TINYpulse different?

The results of the surveys can be shared with employees in real time (if you choose that option), and workers can anonymously comment on the results. While the results are anonymous, managers can send private messages to respondents to find out about issues, without ever knowing who that respondent is.

Profile

GetApp review rating: 4.94/ 5 (from 17 reviews)

Existing customers:One Click Ventures, FindTheBest

Company headquarters: Seattle, Washington

Founded: 2012

Key features:

• One-question surveys

• Mobile friendly

• Peer-to-peer feedback

• Live feed of survey results

• Customizable survey schedule

• Anonymous surveys and commenting

Pricing model: Contact for information on pricing

WeThrive employee engagement software taps into another key factor in reducing turnover - wellness. To find out what your employees' issues or priorities are, the app provides anonymous pre-built surveys that you can deploy at any time, to any level or department of your organization. You can filter the results of these surveys by department and location.

What makes WeThrive different?

WeThrive emphasizes the scientific approach behind its survey: it uses something called the 4c model, which covers four different areas of work life: psychosocial, emotional, cognitive and practical. The overall survey is comprised of 16 top level questions from these four areas, which can be customized and supplemented by your own questions.

To ensure anonymity and that staff are comfortable filling the surveys in, managers can only see results when there are four or more responses.

This app is useful in finding out what your contractors or freelancers think about your company, as it generates a unique link for each survey that you can send via email to any domain, or by SMS.

Profile

GetApp review rating: 4.63/ 5 (from 19 reviews)

Existing customers: Cardiff City Airport, NHS Foundation Trust (Salisbury)

Company headquarters: Brighton, UK

Founded: 2012

Key features:

• Automated surveys

• Real-time reports

• Filter by department and location

• Customizable questions

• Export to Excel

• Company branding.

Integrations: WeThrive currently integrates with breatheHR and People, with Oracle HCM and Xero integrations coming soon.

Pricing model: Subscription (pay monthly or annually with a free trial available).

If you use employee retention software to help reduce staff turnover, then let us know in the comments below.

It's also important to note that these apps are just the first step in helping you retain top talent. When you've understood the issues your business faces and what matter to your staff, this software can also help you create an action plan which should include areas such as:

• Learning and training management

• Performance management

• Employee wellness

If you need more help selecting which solution to choose, here is some further reading

Top Employee Wellness Apps to Improve Worker Wellbeing