Perspectives: Employee Engagement That Works in 2026
The Ultimate Playbook for Motivation, Performance & Retention
With AI disruption, economic uncertainty, shifting expectations around flexibility, and rising burnout, employee engagement is a mission-critical issue in organizations today. Teams are being asked to do more amid constant change, and while many organizations are investing in engagement, they’re still seeing “quiet disengagement,” lower discretionary effort, and increased turnover risk.
In this session, we’ll cut through feel-good tactics and focus on what actually moves engagement in 2026—things like people-forward manager behaviors, job design fundamentals, trust-building practices, and measurement that leads to action (not just more surveys).
Join us to:
- Identify the biggest drivers of engagement in 2026 and distinguish between “nice-to-have perks” vs. high-impact levers (think: role clarity, growth, recognition, workload sustainability, trust).
- Diagnose the root causes of disengagement using a simple framework that separates culture issues, manager capability gaps, and job/system design problems.
- Design an engagement strategy that’s tailored, not generic, by mapping interventions to specific employee segments and needs.
- Equip managers with practical, engagement-boosting micro-habits that improve motivation quickly.
- Measure engagement in a way that drives action and creates a culture of feedback and accountability.
Credits
Bonus for our live attendees… tune in for 1 HRCI and 1 SHRM credit!
Panelists

she/her
Chief Human Resources Officer, Sage Family of Companies

he/him
Principal Consultant, Workhuman

she/her
VP of Human Resources,
Autobell Car Wash

he/him
Vice President and The Godfather of Talent Optimization,
The Predictive Index

Hema Crockett, she/her
Co-Founder, Gig Talent

Jackie Dube, she/her
SVP of People Operations
Explore other episodes

Perspectives: Startup Speed, Established Company | How Strategic HR Leaders are closing the gap
Your CEO wants startup speed. Your people need stability. You’re the one holding both. You’re not a startup. You have an existing workforce, compliance requirements, and a culture worth protecting. But the pressure to move fast isn’t going away, and “we’re too big for that” isn’t an answer your business will accept for long. The…

Perspectives: Hiring in the Land of Make-Believe
Cut Through the Performance to Hire with Confidence To make a new hire is to participate in a performance. Post a new job, and suddenly everyone is acting as if they’re on stage. Candidates are coached, polished, and increasingly AI-assisted. Meanwhile, hiring managers are pantomiming to the ideal candidate they’ve imagined instead of addressing the…

Perspectives: Running on Empty
How HR Leaders Can Reignite Team Motivation When the World Feels Heavy Team motivation is at a historic low, and it didn’t happen by accident. Today’s workforce is absorbing pressure from every direction: economic uncertainty, AI disruption, return-to-office mandates, and the quiet weight of personal stress. While nearly 8 in 10 employees start their current…