Employee feedback shouldn’t be a guessing game.
If you’re looking for a tool to actually help you gather, understand, and act on employee feedback, you’re not alone—selecting the right platform is a big decision.
But the real headache is that important feedback keeps slipping through the cracks, and that leaves you feeling stuck with disengaged people and vague next steps.
That’s exactly where People Element stands out: it simplifies the feedback loop with customizable surveys, real-time analytics, and hands-on guidance that makes acting on results actually doable—even for busy HR teams.
In this review, I’ll walk you through how People Element helps you quickly turn insights into real results across retention, engagement, and productivity.
You’ll learn everything you need: features, pricing, sample use cases, and how People Element stacks up against alternative solutions—all in this in-depth People Element review designed specifically for evaluating your next HR platform.
You’ll come away knowing which features you need to actually fix your employee engagement challenges with clarity and confidence.
Let’s dive into the analysis.
Quick Summary
- People Element is a cloud-based employee engagement platform that helps your company gather, analyze, and act on employee feedback to improve retention and productivity.
- Best for small to mid-sized organizations seeking an all-in-one solution for employee lifecycle feedback and engagement.
- You’ll appreciate its easy survey customization, real-time analytics with automated recommendations, and strong support from dedicated success managers.
- People Element offers transparent annual pricing based on employee count, with no setup fees and no free trial available.
People Element Overview
People Element is all about helping you understand and improve your organization’s employee experience. I found they’ve been laser-focused on this important mission since their founding in 2002, based in Broomfield, Colorado.
Their core focus is on organizations wanting to move beyond simply sending out annual surveys. I believe they truly specialize in making employee feedback easy to act on, turning your raw data into clear, practical opportunities for leadership teams to drive meaningful and lasting change.
As you’ll discover through this People Element review, their recent platform enhancements with AI-powered analytics and a built-in recommendations library show a strong commitment to practical innovation that helps you act.
Unlike complex enterprise tools that can feel overwhelming, their approach is far more guided and supportive. What really differentiates them is pairing a powerful platform with a dedicated success manager for every client, ensuring you actually achieve your strategic business goals.
I see them working with many mid-sized and large companies across various industries, particularly those that need sophisticated insights but don’t have a dedicated internal data analytics team to manage the program.
Their entire strategy clearly centers on closing the feedback loop to achieve tangible business outcomes. This focus on guided, actionable planning directly meets the market’s demand for real results and improved employee retention, not just another data report.
Now, let’s dig into their specific features.
People Element Features
Struggling to understand your employee’s true feelings?
People Element features focus on streamlining employee feedback to drive real engagement. Here are the five main People Element features that transform your employee experience strategy.
1. Customizable Surveys and Templates
Need to ask unique questions for unique problems?
Generic surveys rarely capture the specific nuances of your organization. This often leads to vague insights that are hard to act on.
People Element offers fully customizable surveys or pre-built templates, letting you tailor questions to specific needs like well-being or D&I. From my testing, creating a survey from scratch is surprisingly easy, and the multi-language support is a huge plus. This feature ensures you get relevant and actionable feedback.
This means you can pinpoint exact areas for improvement and gather insights that truly matter to your team.
2. Multiple Survey Delivery Options
Can’t reach all your employees with one survey method?
Limited delivery options can lead to low participation rates. This means you might miss critical feedback from a significant portion of your workforce.
People Element supports diverse delivery methods like SMS, email, kiosks, and even outbound calling. What I found impressive is how they make it easy to reach every employee, regardless of their access to technology. This feature helps maximize response rates across your entire company.
So you can ensure every voice is heard, leading to more comprehensive and representative data for your initiatives.
- 🎯 Bonus Resource: While People Element helps schedule surveys, if you’re managing patient appointments, you might find my guide on best medical scheduling software helpful.
3. Real-time Insights and Analytics
Drowning in complex survey data you can’t interpret?
Sifting through mountains of survey data manually is time-consuming and prone to errors. This can delay your ability to respond effectively.
People Element provides real-time insights through heatmaps, AI-powered analytics, and sentiment analysis. This is where People Element shines, as it automatically identifies opportunity areas and suggests action plans, making data interpretation a breeze. This feature turns raw data into clear, actionable intelligence.
This means you can quickly understand key trends and focus your efforts on areas that will have the biggest impact on engagement.
4. Action Planning and Recommendations Library
Know what’s wrong, but not how to fix it?
Identifying problems is only half the battle; translating feedback into tangible improvements is often the hardest part. This can leave managers feeling overwhelmed and unsure how to proceed.
People Element offers a built-in recommendations library and automated action planning tools to guide managers. I love how it helps managers create customized strategies and track progress, ensuring feedback leads to real change. This feature closes the loop from insight to execution.
This means you get a clear roadmap for improvement, empowering managers to take effective steps and drive meaningful change.
5. Dedicated Success Manager and Support
Feeling lost after you implement new software?
Without expert guidance, even the best software can be underutilized. This often leaves you struggling to maximize your investment.
Every People Element client gets a dedicated success manager for end-to-end support, from setup to strategy execution. What I found particularly reassuring is their responsive support via phone, email, and chat, providing a safety net when you need it. This feature ensures you’re never left in the dark.
This means you have expert help readily available, ensuring you get the most out of the platform and achieve your engagement goals faster.
Pros & Cons
- ✅ User-friendly interface simplifies survey creation and distribution.
- ✅ Comprehensive analytics deliver actionable, real-time employee insights.
- ✅ Dedicated success managers provide excellent support and guidance.
- ⚠️ Initial learning curve for advanced reporting and data uploads.
- ⚠️ Some users find sorting data for specific action items challenging.
- ⚠️ Can be difficult to clearly define action items from reports without support.
These People Element features work together to create an integrated employee experience platform that empowers you to collect, analyze, and act on feedback throughout the entire employee lifecycle.
People Element Pricing
What will your budget really look like?
People Element pricing primarily operates on a custom quote model, although some sources mention specific tiers, indicating a nuanced approach to determining your investment.
Cost Breakdown
- Base Platform: Custom quote (unlimited surveys, users, admins, reporting)
- Employee Count: Key factor for custom pricing
- Outbound Calling: May incur an additional fee
- Implementation: Included with dedicated success manager
- Key Factors: Number of employees, specific organizational needs
1. Pricing Model & Cost Factors
Understanding their cost structure.
People Element’s pricing model is custom, tailored to your organization’s specific needs, primarily based on employee count. While sources mention “Standard” ($5,000/year) and “Professional” ($10,000/year) plans, their official stance emphasizes a single, all-inclusive platform. This means your investment scales with your workforce, offering full features from day one, rather than tiered feature access.
From my cost analysis, this ensures your budget aligns with actual usage, avoiding hidden costs for core functionality.
2. Value Assessment & ROI
Is this an intelligent investment?
People Element’s all-inclusive approach provides significant value by bundling unlimited surveys, users, and dedicated support, preventing unforeseen charges for essential features. Compared to solutions that charge per survey or user access, your budget benefits from predictable annual costs. This helps you maximize ROI by focusing on employee engagement, not managing escalating software fees.
The result is your finance team gets a clear, consistent expense line without surprises from feature paywalls.
- 🎯 Bonus Resource: Before diving deeper into employee experience, you might find my analysis of virtual classroom software helpful.
3. Budget Planning & Implementation
Consider total cost of ownership.
While People Element emphasizes no setup or hidden fees, keep in mind that outbound calling services may add to your total cost of ownership if needed. Your dedicated success manager helps streamline implementation, minimizing internal resource drain and accelerating time to value. This reduces the soft costs often associated with complex software deployments.
So for your budget, factor in the core annual fee and any potential for additional outbound calling charges.
My Take: People Element’s pricing prioritizes a comprehensive, scalable solution over tiered feature access, making it ideal for organizations seeking predictable costs with robust employee experience tools.
The overall People Element pricing reflects transparent, all-inclusive value based on your employee count.
People Element Reviews
What do customers really think?
In this section, I’ve delved into real People Element reviews to uncover what actual users experience, helping you understand the software’s strengths and weaknesses.
1. Overall User Satisfaction
Users report high satisfaction.
From my review analysis, People Element consistently receives strong positive feedback, with users often praising its intuitive nature and ease of use. What impressed me about user feedback is how users frequently highlight the convenient, user-friendly design, making the platform accessible for everyone.
This indicates you can expect a smooth experience whether you’re an admin or employee.
- 🎯 Bonus Resource: While focusing on user experience, simplifying complex operations is crucial. You might find my analysis of lab management software helpful for achieving accuracy.
2. Common Praise Points
Ease of use stands out consistently.
Users frequently laud People Element’s intuitive interface, seamless setup, and robust features. From the reviews I analyzed, survey creation is consistently praised as a breeze, along with simple distribution and smart, targeted reminders for completion.
This means you can easily deploy effective engagement surveys and maximize participation.
3. Frequent Complaints
Initial learning curves sometimes emerge.
While generally positive, some reviews mention an initial hurdle with data uploads or reporting nuances. What stands out in user feedback is how sorting data and identifying clear action items can occasionally be less straightforward than desired.
However, these issues often resolve with support, suggesting they aren’t major deal-breakers.
What Customers Say
- Positive: “People Element is convenient and easy to use. It has all the features you need without being too much or too confusing.” (User Review)
- Constructive: “Initially was challenging to know how to upload information to get the correct data cuts for reporting but with support from People Element, it’s very easy now.” (User Review)
- Bottom Line: “Happy client for 5 years. People Element gets amazing response rates. They ask the right questions to give me insightful data.” (User Review)
Overall, People Element reviews highlight a strong, positive user experience, with minor complexities often mitigated by excellent support.
Best People Element Alternatives
Which People Element alternative suits your needs?
The best People Element alternatives include several strong options, each better suited for different business situations and priorities regarding employee experience.
- 🎯 Bonus Resource: While we’re discussing employee experience, understanding idea management software is equally important.
1. Qualtrics Employee Experience
Seeking highly advanced analytics and AI insights?
Qualtrics excels when your organization requires extensive survey customization, deep analytical capabilities, and AI-powered insights for complex feedback data. From my competitive analysis, Qualtrics provides significantly deeper analytical power than People Element’s intuitive reporting, though it comes at a higher price point.
Choose Qualtrics if you’re a larger enterprise needing comprehensive, cutting-edge experience management tools.
2. Culture Amp
Prioritizing a culture-focused approach with broad templates?
Culture Amp offers a user-friendly interface with a wide array of pre-built survey templates focused specifically on organizational culture insights. What I found comparing options is that Culture Amp emphasizes culture and ease of use for quick insights, while People Element offers broader lifecycle support.
Consider this alternative when a strong culture-centric approach and abundant template options are your main focus.
3. Lattice
Need integrated performance and engagement management?
Lattice combines employee engagement surveys with continuous performance management, goal setting, and career development tools in one platform. From my analysis, Lattice provides a holistic people management solution beyond just surveys, which People Element specializes in for feedback.
Choose Lattice if your organization seeks a unified platform tying engagement directly to performance and growth.
4. WorkTango
Is real-time recognition and rewards a key strategy?
WorkTango offers robust real-time feedback and integrated recognition and rewards software to foster an “active company climate.” Alternative-wise, WorkTango shines in its recognition and rewards features alongside feedback, while People Element focuses broadly on surveys.
You might choose WorkTango if employee recognition is a significant, integrated part of your engagement strategy.
Quick Decision Guide
- Choose People Element: Integrated platform for comprehensive employee experience surveys
- Choose Qualtrics: Advanced analytics and AI for large, complex organizations
- Choose Culture Amp: User-friendly, culture-focused surveys and pre-built templates
- Choose Lattice: Holistic platform integrating engagement with performance and development
- Choose WorkTango: Strong emphasis on real-time feedback, recognition, and rewards
The best People Element alternatives depend on your specific business needs and strategic priorities for employee experience.
People Element Setup
Concerned about complicated software setup and training?
People Element setup is generally straightforward and user-friendly, offering a relatively seamless deployment for businesses of all sizes, often with dedicated support.
1. Setup Complexity & Timeline
Getting started is refreshingly simple here.
People Element implementation typically takes about two months, though some clients launch surveys much faster, even the same day. What I found about deployment is that the “sweet spot” is often one month to ensure proper survey setup and participant communication.
You’ll need to allocate time for initial data uploads and survey configuration, but not an extended project timeline.
- 🎯 Bonus Resource: Speaking of management tools, if you’re looking for solutions to scale your incident resolution, my guide on problem management software might be helpful.
2. Technical Requirements & Integration
Minimal IT infrastructure changes needed.
Your technical requirements are low since People Element is cloud-based SaaS, accessible on desktop and mobile without software installation. From my implementation analysis, HRIS integration streamlines the setup process by connecting with your existing HR systems.
Plan for seamless integration with your current HR systems and consider Single Sign-On (SSO) for user authentication.
3. Training & Change Management
User adoption happens naturally with familiar concepts.
Staff training focuses on using an intuitive, user-friendly interface that simplifies survey creation, distribution, and data review. From my analysis, the platform’s ease of use minimizes the learning curve, making it simple for both administrators and employees to navigate.
Expect minimal resistance to adoption due to the intuitive design and readily available training resources from People Element.
4. Support & Success Factors
Dedicated support guides your entire journey.
People Element provides a dedicated success manager who offers expert guidance throughout the entire process, from setup to strategy. What I found about deployment is that this high level of support ensures a smooth implementation, even for organizations new to engagement software.
Plan to leverage their dedicated success manager, survey coaching, and extensive support library for optimal implementation success.
Implementation Checklist
- Timeline: ~2 months for typical setup; 1 month for survey launch
- Team Size: HR lead, IT for integration, internal project coordinator
- Budget: Primarily software costs; minimal for implementation support
- Technical: HRIS integration and SSO via SAML
- Success Factor: Leveraging dedicated success manager and support resources
The overall People Element setup offers a user-friendly and supported deployment process, making it accessible even for businesses new to employee engagement software.
Bottom Line
Is People Element the right fit for your team?
My People Element review synthesizes all insights into a clear verdict, helping you understand precisely who should use this employee engagement platform and why.
1. Who This Works Best For
Organizations focused on improving employee experience.
People Element is ideal for HR professionals, team leaders, and organizational development specialists in mid-to-large enterprises seeking dedicated tools for engagement, retention, and cultural change. From my user analysis, companies valuing expert guidance in feedback analysis will find immense value, especially if they lack in-house survey expertise.
You’ll succeed if your priority is a focused, robust solution that streamlines feedback and empowers managers with actionable insights.
2. Overall Strengths
Unparalleled support and actionable recommendations.
The software succeeds by offering an intuitive, customizable platform for surveys, real-time analytics, and automated action plans, all backed by a dedicated success manager. From my comprehensive analysis, their expert support bridges the gap between raw data and meaningful organizational change, a standout feature for users.
These strengths mean you get not just a tool, but a partner in understanding and improving your employee experience, translating directly into better retention and productivity.
- 🎯 Bonus Resource: If you’re also looking into other organizational tools, my article on tool management software covers various options.
3. Key Limitations
Learning curve for advanced reporting.
While user-friendly overall, some users might find an initial learning curve when navigating or extracting specific data cuts from the more advanced reporting functionalities. Based on this review, sorting complex data for precise action items can initially be challenging without leveraging their excellent support team.
I’d say these limitations are manageable, particularly with the responsive customer support available, and are not typically deal-breakers for the platform’s core value proposition.
4. Final Recommendation
People Element is highly recommended for focused engagement.
You should choose this software if your primary goal is to build a stronger employee experience through dedicated, expert-backed engagement surveys and actionable insights. From my analysis, this platform excels where employee feedback is paramount, offering a focused solution rather than an all-encompassing HR suite.
My confidence level is high for organizations prioritizing deep employee engagement analysis and a supportive partnership over broader HR functionalities.
Bottom Line
- Verdict: Recommended for focused employee engagement and experience
- Best For: HR professionals and leaders driving organizational change
- Business Size: Mid-to-large enterprises seeking dedicated engagement solutions
- Biggest Strength: Expert guidance and actionable recommendations from feedback
- Main Concern: Initial learning curve for advanced reporting and data sorting
- Next Step: Contact sales for a demo to assess fit for your engagement strategy
This People Element review shows strong value for improving employee experience, guiding your decision with confidence in their comprehensive approach.
