Employee Listening Software: 7 Best Tools for Engagement & Retention

For most teams, managing employee feedback means using third-party survey tools, emails, spreadsheets, and messaging channels like Slack. However, this creates a lot of admin overhead, reduces participation, creates confusing data for leadership, and ultimately results in fewer meaningful actions taken to resolve employee issues.

Employee listening software solves these problems by helping human resource teams gather honest feedback, understand how employees actually feel, and take meaningful action to improve engagement and retention.

These tools make employee engagement and feedback management easier by allowing organizations to:

• Collect accurate, real-time feedback through pulse surveys, anonymous channels, and research-backed question sets.
• Identify issues early, including employee burnout, morale problems, or declining trust, before they lead to turnover.
• Eliminate repetitive, manual work involved in building surveys, sending reminders, running follow-ups, or compiling results.
• Provide leaders with clearer insight through dashboards and sentiment analysis that make the data easy to understand.
• Build trust by showing employees their input leads to real change, supported by guidance that helps teams know exactly what to do next.

Put simply, employee listening software creates a single, organized system for collecting, interpreting, and acting on employee feedback. This allows companies to strengthen culture, improve performance, and retain their best people.

In this article, we’ll break down the seven best employee listening tools available today—along with their use cases, key features, and pricing—starting with our own platform, Terryberry.

 

What to Look For in Employee Listening Software

With so many ways to gather employee feedback, choosing the right employee listening platform depends on your company's specific needs. Ideally, you should look for a system that can help you collect accurate feedback, understand what it means, and take meaningful action—all without overwhelming HR teams or creating more admin work.

Below, we list some of the key criteria to use when evaluating employee listening software.

 

Encourages Honest Participation and Builds Employee Trust

Low participation rates can be a major challenge for HR teams when gathering employee feedback. And even worse, when people do respond, many hold back because they fear retaliation or doubt anything will change.

In order to actually encourage employee participation and increase trust, you'll need an employee listening platform that makes feedback feel safe, simple, and trustworthy. It's best to look for tools that offer true anonymity, clear data privacy controls, and transparent communication settings so employees know their voices are protected.

Some platforms also offer multi-channel delivery options (like Slack, email, or mobile), which makes it easier for people to respond in ways that feel natural.

When employees trust the actual feedback process, they're more likely to participate and provide useful feedback that leadership can use to extract actionable insights.

 

Offers Various Survey Options (Not Just Templates)

Many employee listening or survey tools only offer generic templates or limited question sets, making it hard to collect in-depth feedback at different stages of the employee journey. This usually results in surface-level insights that don’t tell the full story.

A strong employee listening solution should give you a variety of survey types, each designed for a different purpose. At a minimum, you should look for:

• Engagement Surveys to establish a research-backed baseline rooted in people science and measure overall satisfaction, motivation, and sentiment.
• Pulse Surveys to deploy quick, real-time check-ins that help you react faster and make data-backed decisions without waiting for annual surveys.
• Experience Surveys to measure important lifecycle moments (like onboarding, anniversaries, and exit feedback) so you can understand how employees feel from their first to their last day.

Having multiple survey types gives you a more complete picture of employee sentiment. It makes it easier to diagnose issues, track trends over time, and measure the impact of any changes you implement.

 

Provides Clear, Actionable Analytics and Insights

Employee listening is a multi-pillar process. HR teams need a way to listen, measure, and analyze continuously. The problem is that most tools stop at the “listening” stage, giving you only raw survey data or basic charts, with no real interpretation or guidance on what to do next.

The right employee listening platform must offer clear, actionable analytics via real-time dashboards, sentiment analysis, and trend reporting, making it easy to understand what employees are experiencing across departments, roles, locations, and managers.

Metrics like eNPS (which ranges from -100 to +100) should be broken down into influencing factors so you can identify which groups feel engaged, which don’t, and why.

Strong employee listening software reduces manual analysis by providing prebuilt visualizations, engagement indicators, and recommended next steps. This helps organizations move from simply collecting feedback to driving continuous improvement across the employee experience.

 

The 7 Best Employee Listening Software Tools

Now that you know what to look for in a platform, let’s walk through the top seven employee listening software tools available today:

• Terryberry
• Culture Amp
• Lattice
• 15Five
• Qualtrics EmployeeXM
• Officevibe
• Perceptyx

1. Terryberry: Best All-In-One Employee Listening & Engagement Software

 

Terryberry is an employee listening and engagement platform that helps organizations collect real-time feedback, measure sentiment across the employee lifecycle, and take meaningful action through integrated recognition and engagement programs.

Unlike basic survey tools, Terryberry combines surveys, analytics, recognition, and wellness into one connected system. These features give HR teams a more complete view of the employee experience.

The platform includes a flexible survey builder and a library of research-backed templates, making it easy to launch engagement, pulse, and experience surveys without requiring technical support.

Insights are delivered through clean dashboards that highlight trends, sentiment shifts, and areas that need attention, helping leaders act quickly and with confidence.

Terryberry's key features include:

• Engagement, pulse, and experience surveys designed using people science and customizable to fit your organization’s goals
• Drag-and-drop survey builder with branding controls and an AI assistant for generating custom questions
• Real-time analytics dashboards that surface trends, eNPS scores, sentiment patterns, and department-level insights
• Anonymous feedback options that help increase participation and build trust
• Integrations with HRIS and productivity tools to keep data connected and workflows streamlined
• Built-in recognition, rewards, wellness, and communication tools that help teams turn feedback into real engagement programs

Below, we’ll walk through how Terryberry’s listening, analytics, and engagement features work together to help organizations build a continuous feedback loop they can actually act on.

 

Create Highly Targeted Employee Surveys Instantly

Many organizations that rely on survey tools struggle to gather feedback that truly depicts the employee experience. These tools are too generic to capture specific issues, too rigid to adapt to different teams or situations, or too time-consuming to customize in a way that produces useful insights.

Terryberry solves this by offering an intuitive survey builder and a library of research-backed templates that let you create highly targeted surveys in minutes.

Instead of forcing teams to rely on a single survey format, Terryberry offers multiple listening methods tailored to different needs, scenarios, and stages of the employee lifecycle.

These feedback methods include:

• Employee engagement surveys that measure overall sentiment, attrition risk, motivation, and engagement across your organization. They help you understand how connected employees feel to the company, their work, and their leaders. For instance, you can measure whether teams feel supported by leadership, aligned with company values, or confident in their future at the organization.
• Short, focused pulse surveys that perfectly capture how employees feel right now. This is especially useful during periods of change, transition, or uncertainty. Examples of when to use pulse surveys include checking on how employees are responding to a new hybrid schedule, workload changes, or an upcoming organizational initiative.
• Experience surveys that capture feedback at the moments that matter most throughout the employee lifecycle. This could include onboarding, promotions, or exit interviews, so these surveys can help you understand how employees experience key milestones and identify areas for improvement at every stage. Companies tend to use these surveys to gauge key moments like whether new hires feel supported during their first 90 days or whether departing employees are leaving due to culture, compensation, or role fit.

Terryberry also gives organizations full flexibility to tailor each survey to their goals and team size. Leaders can adjust question sets, target specific groups, schedule recurring pulses, and create custom workflows depending on the type of feedback they need.

This allows companies to quickly gather focused, high-quality feedback that supports leadership decisions and drives measurable improvements across the organization.

 

Collect Social Feedback and Peer Recognition in One Central Feed

Employee recognition works best when it’s visible and easy for anyone to participate in. Without a dedicated place for recognition, meaningful wins typically go unnoticed because they're shared across individual messages, emails, and other channels that don't provide visibility to the whole team.

Terryberry’s social recognition feed brings all of this into one central hub. Employees can recognize peers right away when they collaborate well, solve a problem, deliver great customer service, support a teammate, or demonstrate company values in their day-to-day work.

The platform also allows employees to celebrate everyday wins and highlight behaviors that reflect company values.

 

Managers can also give more structured recognition, award points, and track team contributions through a dedicated dashboard. This provides more in-depth insights into employee performance while improving overall operations based on integrated feedback.

The platform supports global teams with multilingual functionality, customizable programs for different departments or roles, and options to tie recognition to service milestones or company values.

Employees can redeem points for rewards, experiences, and charitable donations, so not only are they listened to through feedback, but they also get rewarded for positive outcomes.

Capture Honest Input with an Anonymous Feedback Box

Employees are unlikely to share honest feedback if they’re worried their responses can be traced back to them. This is especially true if they have negative feedback to share but fear consequences for doing so.

Terryberry supports anonymous employee input by offering a protected feedback box and survey types designed to maintain privacy at every step. These tools give employees a safe, private way to raise questions, share concerns, or offer suggestions without fear of being identified.

 

 

Terryberry’s anonymity standards are intentionally strict. The platform uses permission-based access, so only approved administrators or managers can view survey results.

It also requires a minimum of six responses before any data can be displayed or broken down by demographic group. This protects anonymity even in smaller teams and reduces the risk of individual respondents being identified.

Organizations can choose between attributed surveys, which allow follow-up when needed, and fully anonymous surveys for gathering candid sentiment. Identifiable data from anonymous surveys is automatically deleted once the survey closes, and no results are shown until the system verifies there are enough responses to protect privacy.

Terryberry also protects anonymity through thoughtful question design. Research-backed templates are used for sensitive topics like engagement, leadership, and workplace culture because they are written and tested to avoid inadvertently revealing identities. Custom surveys are recommended for low-risk, logistical topics such as event planning, training feedback, or scheduling preferences.

Emphasizing trust and anonymity during employee listening is essential to gathering actionable feedback that drives real results. Terryberry offers the tools organizations need to gather honest, unfiltered input that might never surface otherwise.

 

Get Real-Time Insights and Analytics You Can Actually Act On

Collecting feedback is only the first step of the employee listening process. Leaders also need clear, meaningful insights that show what the data really means and where to focus their attention.

Terryberry’s employee engagement analytics dashboard helps organizations surface trends, patterns, and areas for improvement across the workforce with greater depth and accuracy than basic charts or analytics tools.

Our platform allows leadership to track how recognition affects eNPS, see whether highly recognized employees feel a stronger sense of belonging, and spot hidden issues like burnout among top performers.

In addition to these metrics, Terryberry provides research-backed surveys designed by PhD researchers that measure engagement across six categories: belonging, leadership, equity, purpose, empowerment, and well-being.

These indicators, paired with recognition participation stats, help you understand which groups feel supported and which may need additional attention.

For example, you can compare the engagement scores of highly recognized employees with those of employees who receive little recognition. You could also analyze whether leaders who actively recognize their teams see stronger retention. Or maybe you choose to look at recognition activity alongside wellness data to understand whether your most engaged employees are also at risk of burnout.

With this level of insight, you can create targeted recognition programs, improve manager behavior, and design initiatives that address the specific issues employees are raising.

 

Turn Employee Feedback Into Action Through Recognition and Engagement Programs

The final step in employee listening is implementing feedback so employees feel heard. With Terryberry, you can connect feedback data directly to recognition, wellness, and engagement programs. This helps organizations actually address what employees say they need.

Many companies start with simple, one-off recognition moments and eventually want a more structured, year-round program that aligns with their culture.

Terryberry can help any organization quickly scale to a fully automated, value-driven recognition system that runs consistently across the organization. You can include peer recognition, manager-driven awards, and automated service milestones to build a program that reinforces the behaviors employees say matter most.

Rewards can also be personalized. Through Terryberry’s integration with Amazon Business, employees gain access to one of the largest reward catalogs available with no markup. You can also offer premium rewards, company swag, experiential gifts, or charitable donations.

These programs drive real results when they are aligned with what employees are asking for.

For example, Freedom Financial Network learned through listening that call center staff often felt overlooked. By launching a branded Terryberry recognition program with peer-to-peer shoutouts, manager awards, and automated service milestones, they created a system where appreciation became part of the daily workflow.

The program generated more than 100,000 recognition moments, increased visibility of positive behaviors through real-time lobby displays, simplified reward administration, and helped improve retention in a workforce with typically high turnover.

 

Getting Started with Terryberry

Selecting the right employee listening software can quickly help you improve engagement, strengthen culture, and retain top talent. Terryberry brings surveys, analytics, recognition, and wellness into one connected platform, giving organizations a complete system for understanding employees and acting on what they need.

Terryberry also offers some of the most cost-efficient admin fees in the industry and operates on a pay-for-what-you-use rewards model. You only pay when employees redeem gifts, so your budget goes directly toward employee recognition rather than unused points.

 

If you're ready to build a listening and engagement program that actually drives results, schedule a personalized demo to see how Terryberry can support your team.

 

2. Culture Amp

Culture Amp is an employee engagement and analytics platform that helps organizations collect scientifically-validated feedback and understand key drivers behind employee sentiment.

It's more advanced than a standard survey tool, particularly for mid-size and enterprise teams looking to measure engagement more accurately and act on it.

Key features include:

• Research-backed engagement, pulse, and lifecycle surveys
• Extensive benchmark data across industries and regions
• Driver analysis to identify what impacts engagement most
• Heatmaps and cohort insights (department, tenure, role, manager)
• Optional performance management tools (reviews, 1:1s, feedback)
• Action recommendations based on people science

Culture Amp does not publicly list pricing. Companies must contact the sales team for a customized quote.

 

3. Lattice

Lattice is a people management platform that offers employee listening with performance reviews, OKRs, and manager development tools. The software allows companies to integrate feedback directly into day-to-day performance workflows.

Key features include:

• Engagement and pulse surveys
• OKRs, goal tracking, and performance reviews
• Manager tools for 1:1s, agendas, and ongoing feedback
• Insights dashboards to identify morale changes and team trends
• Praise and feedback tools that complement engagement data
• HRIS integrations for streamlined data management

Lattice offers modular pricing based on the features you choose. Companies must request pricing directly from the sales team.

 

4. 15Five

15Five is a performance and engagement platform that focuses on employee listening through weekly check-ins, manager coaching tools, and performance features.

The platform is designed to help managers stay connected to their teams while giving HR a clear view of engagement and performance in one place.

Key features include:

• Engagement and pulse surveys
• Weekly check-ins and talking point tools for managers
• Performance reviews and OKR tracking
• Manager coaching and leadership training modules
• Heatmaps, eNPS tracking, and trend reporting
• Integrations with HRIS and productivity platforms

15Five offers several tiers depending on features, with plans starting at $4 per user per month.

 

5. Qualtrics EmployeeXM

Qualtrics EmployeeXM is an enterprise-grade employee experience platform that specializes in advanced analytics and multi-layer feedback programs.

The Qualtrics system is expensive, so it’s better suited for large organizations that need flexible survey logic, predictive insights, and deep reporting capabilities across locations, departments, and job levels.

Key features include:

• Customizable engagement and lifecycle surveys
• Predictive analytics and AI-driven sentiment insights
• Flexible survey logic and automation for large orgs
• Role-based dashboards for executives, HR, and managers
• Benchmarks and advanced statistical modeling
• Extensive integrations with HRIS and enterprise systems

Qualtrics offers custom pricing only. Custom plans vary based on company size, survey volume, and the level of analytics required.

 

6. Officevibe

Officevibe, now part of the Workleap suite, is an employee engagement and team feedback tool created for managers looking to build healthier, higher-performing teams.

The platform primarily focuses on simple pulse surveys, anonymous feedback, and clear action steps rather than complex enterprise workflows, so it's more useful for small and mid-size organizations.

Key features include:

• Weekly pulse surveys with quick, easy-to-read insights
• Anonymous employee messaging to surface honest feedback
• Team-level dashboards and recommended action items
• Manager tools for better 1:1s and ongoing conversations
• Lightweight recognition features for day-to-day praise
• Integrations with Slack, Teams, and other HR platforms

Officevibe offers tiered pricing, with plans starting at $6.25 per user per month.

 

7. Perceptyx

Perceptyx is an AI-powered enterprise employee listening platform that helps large organizations gather feedback at scale and understand sentiment across global workforces.

The platform offers continuous listening and deep analytics, giving leaders a clear view of engagement trends, culture risks, and organizational strengths.

Key features include:

• Engagement, pulse, and lifecycle surveys designed for enterprise needs
• Advanced analytics with driver analysis and segment-level insights
• Crowdsourcing tools that gather employee ideas and surface solutions
• DEI, wellbeing, and safety surveys for targeted listening
• Expert consulting to guide survey design and action planning

Perceptyx uses custom enterprise pricing only. Companies must contact sales for a tailored quote.

 

Build a Complete Employee Listening Strategy with Terryberry

Effective employee listening requires more than occasional surveys and feedback requests. Organizations need a system that helps them collect real input, understand sentiment across the employee lifecycle, and act on what employees are asking for.

Terryberry offers it all in one centralized platform. Organizations can use the platform to:

• Gather honest, real-time feedback through research-backed surveys, pulse checks, and anonymous channels.
• Analyze engagement trends and identify the root causes behind morale shifts, trust gaps, or performance issues.
• Respond with targeted recognition, rewards, and wellness programs that reflect what employees value most.
• Measure how these efforts impact engagement, belonging, and retention over time.

Ready to gather more actionable employee feedback? Book your Terryberry demo today.