Sentiment analysis converts unstructured employee communication into actionable insights for higher engagement. In this article, we look at the fast-evolving sentiment analysis market and share our roundup of seven useful tools for 2020.
Textual communication often carries underlying information on how your employees feel about their workplace. Do they feel a sense of belongingness? Are certain employee groups facing interpersonal conflicts? How are these forces affecting their work, their satisfaction, and their engagement?
By applying analytics models, you can scan different types of text (emails, social media comments, digital memos, etc.) to extract these insights. This is where sentiment analysis tools come in.
They convert the unstructured information available across various communication channels to generate structured data, accessible via dashboards. These tools use natural language processing (NLP) to understand exactly what employees mean, and they can seamlessly be integrated with your HR technology stack. Some of them are also compatible with multiple languages to handle global workforces, and they can decipher abbreviations, slang/colloquialisms, and even emojis.
If you’re looking for a sentiment analysis tool to gauge employee sentiment and improve engagement in 2020Opens a new window , the following seven solutions should be on your radar.
Learn More: Employee Engagement vs. Job Satisfaction: Key Differences and MetricsOpens a new window
7 Sentiment Analysis Tools for You to Consider
Sentiment analysis technology is primarily applied in a marketing context, frequently in conjunction with social media. Companies use it to scan social media for brand mentions, identifying the positive or negative connote behind customer comments.
But in an employee-centric world, leading employers treat their workforce as internal customers. So it makes sense to apply sentiment analyticsOpens a new window to engage the workforce and improve your people outcomes.
Do keep in mind that sentiment analysis is still at a nascent stage and not all of it may be efficient at accurately gauging employee sentiment. Having said that, they can eliminate at least some of the guesswork involved in what employees are feeling about the workplace.
Here’s our list of recommendations for 2020, arranged in no specific order:
1. Intellica.aiOpens a new window
Intellica.ai offers machine learning technology to enable business intelligence in various verticals. Its capabilities include natural language processing, data visualization, predictive analytics, conversational artificial intelligence (AI), and recommendation engines. Intellica.ai has worked with companies to drive sentiment analysis-based employee engagement initiatives.
The company provides the foundational technology, giving you the flexibility to build a custom application on top of its core architecture. Intellica.ai works on a customized pricing model. So head to its contact us pageOpens a new window to get a quote.
2. Jive InsightsOpens a new window
Jive is an HR SaaS provider specializing in workplace communication and collaboration. Its flagship product is Jive Interactive Intranet, which comes with an advanced analytics module. This gives you visibility into a wide range of workplace trends, including the progress of different initiatives, popular topics of discussion, hidden talent/internal influencers, and of course, sentiment analysis.
Communication is categorized into positive, negative, and neutral posts, along with day-wise post frequency mapping. Like Intellica.ai, Jive tailors its pricing your business needs, so drop in a query on its contact us Opens a new window page for a quote.
3. KeenCorp Opens a new window
KeenCorp is among the leading sentiment analysis tools providers out there. It comprises two dashboards:
- MoodMetrix to map periodic employee sentiment trends
- Attitude Heatmap to prioritize management decisions based on the findings
KeenCorp has a host of features, including cloud/on-premise deployment, integration with popular communication channels like Office and G-suite, visualization dashboards, and data anonymization. The tool is available at an annual pricing model, starting at €15 per participant per year for companies with over 10,000 participants.
4. Lattice Sentiment AnalysisOpens a new window
Lattice has two products in its suite: performance managementOpens a new window and employee engagementOpens a new window . The AI-powered sentiment analysis tool in Lattice can be embedded in either module, continually scanning open-ended comments to understand employee sentiment. Lattice’s NLP assigns a sentiment score between 1 and 10 to every employee comment. But the solution’s USP is its ability to link employee sentiment to performance, giving you genuinely actionable insights.
Sentiment Analysis by Lattice is available as part of its Performance & Engagement package billed at $12 per person per month.
5. MeaningCloud Opens a new window
MeaningCloud’s sentiment analysis tool is available as a free API that can be integrated with virtually any software application. This gives you incredible flexibility, as you can add MeaningCloud to your homegrown HR systems. But it would require a degree of technical skills, as this is not an out-of-the-box solution.
MeaningCloud performs multilingual sentiment analysis to understand positive, neutral, or negative sentiment. It achieves this by identifying individual phrases and evaluating their relationships to arrive at a “global sentiment.†As mentioned, the API is available free of cost, and there is an impressive library of documentation to aid developers.
6. RepustateOpens a new window
Repustate is another popular sentiment analysis tool used in both customer and employee-facing scenarios. It tags different parts of speech, identifies prior polarity, factors in negations and amplifiers, and assigns a sentiment score to single sentences or an entire paragraph. This is an advanced sentiment analysis tool that can be customized based on the lexicon and requirements of your workforce.
The Business edition of Repustate starts at $699 per month with support for all languages. However, it doesn’t have customizable entity models and semantic classification models, which you can get as part of the Enterprise edition ($1699 per month).
7. UltiPro PerceptionOpens a new window
Ultimate Software is a recognized leader in HR technology, and the company has a pretty powerful sentiment analysis tool as well. It is powered by Xander, Ultimate’s suite of AI technologies. UltiPro Perception can be embedded in your employee engagement surveysOpens a new window to gain a deeper understanding of the emotions, motivations, and key drivers behind survey responses.
Unlike MeaningCloud, which is an open API, or Repustate and Intellica.ai that are built for customization, Perception is available as a ready-to-deploy employee engagement tool by Ultimate. Perception follows a bespoke pricing model, and you can schedule a demoOpens a new window to know more.
Learn More: 20 Fresh Employee Engagement Ideas for 2020Opens a new window
Factors to Consider When Purchasing a Sentiment Analysis Tool
The global sentiment analysis market is rapidly expanding, giving you a lot of options to explore. But there are a few features that belong in any effective solution:
- Compatibility with multiple languages so you can scale
- Integration with homegrown and third-party systems, simplifying data connectivity
- Coverage of slang, colloquialisms, and even emojis for accurate sentiment scoring
- Enriched data visualizationOpens a new window for business user comprehension
- Robust employee data privacy compliant with GDPR and now the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
Remember, sentiment analysis is still a nascent and rapidly evolving space. These are only some of the options out there, and we expect many more to join the ranks in 2020. As the amount of data feeding into sentiment analysis engines increases, the algorithms will only get smarter and more accurate. Over time, this will be an invaluable tool, making its impact felt in nearly every HR context.
Did we miss an exciting new sentiment analysis tool in this roundup? Tell us on FacebookOpens a new window , LinkedInOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We’d love to learn from you!