Employee engagement refers to an employee’s emotional connection to and involvement in their organization’s goals. It’s a constant journey—one with no real endpoint, yet plenty of opportunities to go awry. Many organizations fail to embark on that journey, and as a result, they’re setting their people and their bottom lines up for failure.
Organizations with an effective engagement strategy can better realize their employees’ potential, resulting in improved performance, higher retention rates, and stronger profit margins. Engaged employees don’t just show up—they contribute discretionary effort, drive innovation, and stay with companies longer.
Why is workplace engagement important? How do you measure it, let alone improve it? This article will dive deeper into employee engagement best practices you can implement to build a best-in-class culture and improve your company’s profitability.
What is employee engagement?
Most leaders recognize that employee engagement plays a critical role in organizational success. But far fewer can actually define what engagement is and why it matters.
Employee engagement is the degree to which a person is emotionally committed, involved, and enthusiastic in their job, team, and organization. When someone is highly engaged, they’re invested in their work, energized by their peers, and committed to their company’s long-term mission and vision.
Employee engagement is not the same as job satisfaction or happiness. Satisfaction measures contentment—whether someone likes their job or finds it tolerable. Happiness reflects moment-to-moment mood. Engagement goes deeper. It captures whether employees bring discretionary effort, advocate for the organization, and actively contribute to its success.
The three core components of engagement are:
- Emotional commitment: Employees care about the organization’s mission and feel personally connected to its success.
- Involvement: Employees actively participate in their work, collaborate with colleagues, and contribute ideas beyond their basic job requirements.
- Enthusiasm: Employees approach their work with energy and optimism, viewing challenges as opportunities rather than obstacles.
Engagement measures a person’s experience at a given point in the employee lifecycle. The higher the engagement, the more likely that person is thriving at work—and the more value they’re delivering to the organization. By engaging both high performers and those who are struggling, you create an environment where everyone can show up energized and do their best work.
Benefits of high employee engagement
When employees feel disconnected from their work, that work begins to suffer. They’re less likely to go the extra mile for their team members and more likely to do the bare minimum to stay afloat in their role. When they decide their organization can no longer support their growth, whether professionally, monetarily, or otherwise, they’ll leave for a company that can.
Now imagine that effect multiplied across an entire workforce, and the dangers of disengagement become clear.
Employee engagement levels directly influence productivity, culture, profitability, and employer brand. When someone is engaged, that inner fire tends to spread. Others feel the energy, spend more discretionary effort, and aspire to be better team players. According to Gallup, organizations with high engagement levels experience measurable improvements across multiple business outcomes.
Increased productivity
An engaged workforce is pivotal to productivity—and by extension, profitability. Gallup found that highly engaged teams are 14% more productive than teams with low engagement. Engaged employees contribute ideas, optimize processes, and consistently deliver high-quality work. Disengaged employees, on the other hand, may only do the bare minimum, miss deadlines, and underperform—costing the world economy $438 billion annually.
Lower turnover and absenteeism
A rising tide lifts all boats. When workforces are engaged, job longevity and employee retention increase. Engaged employees look forward to coming to work, show up consistently, and stay with organizations longer. That means fewer dollars lost to turnover and recruiting costs, and more money to reinvest in the business. Gallup’s research confirms that high-engagement organizations experience significantly lower turnover and absenteeism rates.
Enhanced customer satisfaction
Improvements to the employee experience carry over to the customer experience. Engaged employees provide better service, solve problems more creatively, and represent your brand more authentically. If you’re taking steps to improve employee satisfaction, your customer satisfaction ratings will likely get a boost, too.
Improved workplace culture and employer brand
Engaged employees reinforce company values, contribute to initiatives, and look for ways to motivate and develop others. They may serve as team leaders or role models throughout the workplace. This positive energy shapes your organization’s culture and strengthens your employer brand.
Conversely, disengaged employees can negatively affect morale, damage your reputation through poor word of mouth, and contribute to a culture of mediocrity.
Stronger business outcomes
Employee engagement influences critical aspects of business performance, such as work quality, talent retention, profitability, customer loyalty, and long-term shareholder value. These factors, in turn, affect business growth and expansion, employee wellness, leadership effectiveness, and competitive advantage.
Look at it this way: Do right by your people, and you’ll experience better business outcomes—full stop. Employee engagement can transform your business. But the above is only true when engagement is done right.
Make no mistake: A ping-pong table and office snacks aren’t enough to entice today’s talent. More than ever, people want a psychologically safe environment, an environment where they can be their authentic selves and work in a way that’s both stimulating and sustainable.
Strategies to improve employee engagement
Any company can benefit from improving its employee engagement strategy. And yet, it can prove difficult to actually do so—especially if you don’t know where to start.
Don’t try to boil the ocean. Focus on practical, actionable employee-engagement ideas that address one or more key drivers of engagement. Here are employee engagement strategies that make a measurable impact.
This is how to improve employee engagement.
Effective communication
Open, transparent communication between management and employees builds trust and alignment. Share company updates regularly, explain the reasoning behind decisions, and create channels for two-way dialogue. When employees understand where the organization is heading and why their work matters, engagement follows.
Encourage managers to communicate the bigger picture, establish clear goals and expectations, and tailor their communication style to each employee’s preferences. Some team members prefer face-to-face conversations; others communicate better via email or Slack. Understanding these preferences can transform relationships between managers and employees.
Recognition and appreciation
Employee recognition is one of the most powerful—and cost-effective—tools for boosting engagement. Acknowledge accomplishments consistently, whether publicly or privately, depending on the individual’s preferences. Employees with high extraversion drives may appreciate public recognition; those with lower extraversion may prefer a private note or email.
Recognition doesn’t require elaborate programs or expensive rewards. Write personalized thank-you cards, celebrate wins in team meetings, or simply acknowledge a job well done in the moment. What matters is consistency and sincerity.
Professional development
Employees stay engaged when they see a path forward. Offer training, learning opportunities, and clear career advancement possibilities. Have regular career pathing discussions to understand where employees want to go and how you can help them get there.
Explore which roles would play to employees’ natural strengths, then set development plans in motion. This improves engagement in current positions while turning struggling employees into star performers over the long term.
Employee feedback
Regularly solicit feedback through surveys, one-on-one meetings, and open forums, then act on what you hear. Employees are more likely to be engaged when they feel valued and heard. Even when you can’t accommodate every request, demonstrating that you’re trying to meet their needs builds trust.
Use tools like the PI Employee Experience Survey to measure engagement across your organization, identify the biggest areas for improvement, and get prescriptive recommendations for improvement.
Work-life balance
Promote policies that support employees’ well-being and allow them to integrate their personal lives with work. This might mean offering flexible schedules, remote work options, or simply respecting boundaries around after-hours communication.
Encourage a healthy work-life balance and lead by example. When leadership demonstrates that it’s possible to perform at a high level while maintaining personal well-being, employees feel permission to do the same.
Remove obstacles
When employees repeatedly flag inefficient processes, cumbersome workflows, or outdated policies, listen. These obstacles create disengagement because employees feel the company doesn’t care about making their jobs easier. Remove barriers that prevent people from doing their best work, and you’ll see both productivity and engagement improve.
Encourage personal projects
Give employees opportunities to spearhead projects they’re passionate about, whether it’s a new product idea, a process improvement, or a marketing initiative. Personal work projects make employees feel valued and often result in innovative solutions that benefit the business.
Build strong teams
Use behavioral assessments to foster self-awareness and improve team dynamics. When team members understand how they each work and communicate, collaboration strengthens. Tools like the PI Relationship Guide help managers and direct reports interact more effectively based on their unique behavioral drives.
That’s just the first rung of the engagement ladder. Once you’ve implemented these practices, think more broadly about your strategy. Take a proactive approach by surveying your employees about their experiences, identifying the largest areas for improvement, and acting swiftly on their feedback.
Measuring employee engagement
Employee engagement is typically defined as an emotional connection and commitment to the company, its reputation, and its goals. Since it can be difficult to associate hard numbers with emotions, companies often rely on qualitative analyses to determine engagement levels.
To measure emotional participation from workers, businesses can assess factors including job satisfaction and personal development, feedback and recognition, relationships with coworkers and management, happiness and wellness, alignment with organizational values, and whether employees would recommend the company to others.
This type of qualitative analysis can be conducted through interviews, engagement surveys, and employee net promoter scores (eNPS). The key is continuous monitoring and improvement. Engagement isn’t a one-time measurement but an ongoing process.
One-on-one interviews
Interviews are an excellent way to collect employee feedback in a private, safe, yet professional setting. Managers and HR personnel can gather valuable information about an employee’s attitude toward their responsibilities, workplace relationships, and overall company culture.
Conduct these interviews one-on-one and in person whenever possible. Beyond onboarding and exit interviews, hold regular feedback sessions with direct reports—ideally weekly or biweekly. Structure the conversation informally to help employees open up. Let them do most of the talking while you ask open-ended questions and actively listen. This helps you understand what makes them feel engaged and supported, as well as what conditions might lead to decreased participation or burnout.
Engagement surveys
Employee engagement surveys help you check the pulse of the workplace. They assess factors like communication quality, workplace relationships, workload distribution, and confidence in company goals. Prioritize five to 10 questions most pertinent to your organization.
Tools like the PI Employee Experience Survey let you measure and act on engagement. Poll your team or entire organization with questions custom-tailored to address feelings of disengagement, discuss the results with your team, and create an action plan to improve engagement and foster a healthy, trusting, and productive culture.
Engagement surveys come in multiple forms. Traditional large-scale surveys gather feedback across entire departments or organizations, typically administered annually, semi-annually, or quarterly. Pulse surveys, which have gained prominence in recent years, are smaller, more focused surveys that can be sent quarterly, monthly, or even weekly to gather data on specific areas like job satisfaction or diversity and inclusion.
Conduct surveys at regular intervals and incorporate them into a larger engagement strategy. Goal setting and improvements should be ongoing so employees don’t view surveys as mere formalities. When participants feel their voice counts, they’re more likely to invest in their work.
Survey best practices:
- Ask questions that are relevant, timely, and specific
- Avoid vague or unclear questions
- Be careful with demographic questions that could compromise anonymity
- Pay attention to the average survey-response time
- Don’t overwhelm employees with too many surveys
- Personalize action plans by pairing engagement data with behavioral data
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
An Employee Net Promoter Score is a powerful tool for determining the success of an engagement program. Similar to a customer loyalty NPS, an eNPS provides instant, clear information about the employee experience within your company.
Your most engaged workers are most likely to recommend your products, services, and workplace to others. The more promoters and fewer detractors you have, the better your score. Generally, a score between 10 and 30 is considered good.
Regardless of which measurement methods you use, what matters most are the actual results. Analyze findings to identify the biggest trends—both positive and negative—and craft an appropriate action plan. Then measure again. Engagement isn’t static; it requires continuous monitoring and adjustment to maintain high levels over time.
Leveraging The Predictive Index for employee engagement
Employee engagement levels directly impact individual and organizational performance. Neglecting company culture can result in disengagement and stifle personal and professional development. On the other hand, nurturing shared values and implementing strategies to increase engagement can create a strong, reliable, and productive workforce.
The Predictive Index is a talent optimization platform that can help managers attract the best talent, design high-performing teams, inspire workers, and measure engagement. By leveraging PI’s tools, resources, and ongoing support, organizations of all shapes and sizes can get on the right path to optimizing job satisfaction and performance.
