Employee engagement is more than a buzzword — it’s a non-negotiable aspect of a thriving team.
The numbers don’t lie: The Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) recent State of the Workplace Report found that HR professionals’ top 2024 priority was to maintain employee morale and engagement.
However, increasing employee engagement requires much more than planning another happy hour. Sustaining a happy, healthy, and motivated team calls for a genuine investment in and with your people.
Below, we’ll go over how to improve employee engagement at your organization to help your team thrive.
What is employee engagement and why is it important?
Employee engagement measures an employee’s investment and enthusiasm in their work, the people they work with, and their organization. Your team can feel more motivated to do great work and thrive in their role when they feel connected to their job.
According to ADP Research Institute’s global People at Work survey, only 19% of workers worldwide feel fully engaged. The study also found that workers from high-performing teams were more likely to report full engagement than those from average teams (52% vs. 10%).
When put into practice, engaged organizations will typically have:
- Strong and genuine company cultures
- Positive work environments
- Trust and fairness based on mutual respect
- Two-way commitments between employers and employees
Here are a few of the benefits of improving your employee engagement strategies:
- Improved employee retention and well-being
- Reduced hiring and onboarding costs
- Boosted employee productivity
- Better team collaboration and overall company culture
11 Steps to improve employee engagement
Creating a truly engaged team takes time and hard work from every person. Below, we’ll go over how to improve employee engagement to help you help your team feel more invested and passionate about their work.
1. (Re)align the team’s values and goals
Engaged employees want clear value and meaning in their work. Otherwise, they may struggle to stay motivated due to a lack of understanding of their goals or grasp of how they fit into the organization’s goals.
Goals throughout your organization should support one another. Here’s an example of cohesive organizational, team, and individual goals:
- Organizational goal: Increase online sales revenue by 10% within the next six months.
- Team goal: Increase the average online order value by 5% within the next quarter through strategic product bundling and upselling methods.
- Individual: Complete training on upselling methods and successfully use three methods per customer interaction by the end of next month.
To help your team understand these elements, schedule time to review the organization’s goals and each team member’s role in reaching those goals.
For example, you can check in with teams during:
- New hire onboarding to introduce the organization’s vision and goals and determine their short- and long-term goals.
- Team check-ins go over targeted team goals and how they contribute to the organization’s goals as well as gather feedback.
- Individual 1v1 meetings to check in on progress toward individual goals, how you can support those goals, and remind them of how they contribute to the organization’s goals.
- Town hall meetings to share progress towards goals at a high level, acknowledge the team’s contributions, and open the floor to questions or feedback.
Goal alignment helps everyone see the big picture and their role in the company’s success.
2. Have a strong employee onboarding process
The employee onboarding process can create the foundation for better long-term employee engagement and retention.
To help set the tone with new employees, you can build a slide into your welcome deck or create a quick one-pager that goes over your company’s vision, mission, and goals. It’s also helpful to share training expectations and milestones to visualize their path for growth and how the team will support them.
Once they’ve grasped your team’s culture, you can also have your newest team members set goals that align with the team’s goals and personal career aspirations.
3. Offer career growth and training opportunities
Gallagher’s Workforce Trends Report revealed that career development was the top driver for employee engagement and retention for organizations. Career development goes deeper than pay raises or a change in job title.
Effective professional growth starts by mapping out an employee's growth path and what the organization can do to help them achieve this.
For example, if you have someone eager to move into a management role, you may connect them with a mentor who can advise them on their growth.
Another team member may be your go-to team member for data analysis. You can help them share their knowledge and develop their leadership skills by having them lead a training on the newest software.
In addition to tailoring training topics, you can also offer flexible training opportunities to align with your team’s availability and learning styles. Resources like process documentation, videos, and live training all contribute to a strong learning and development strategy for your team.
Below are the types of training opportunities to add to your roster:
- Self-paced opportunities like process documentation, e-learning modules, and recorded webinars
- Live opportunities like live demos, in-person seminars, role-playing exercises, and Q&A sessions
- Collaborative opportunities like job shadowing, mentoring programs, and coaching sessions
- Experiential resources like upskilling or reskilling programs, job rotations, and assigning advanced projects (commonly called stretch assignments)
4. Look for ways to improve the ways your team works
Keeping your team motivated can be challenging if they constantly struggle with outdated processes, poor communication, and an overall lack of organization.
Start by finding the most time-consuming or most complained-about issue. Find insights by looking into time tracking data (if applicable), employee survey results, and analytics from your project management platforms. You can also check in with the team for real-time feedback.
Then, ask these questions to identify the impact of the issue and potential next steps:
- What is the specific issue?
- What roles are involved in this issue?
- How does this issue impact our goals? Our team?
- What have we already tried?
- What solutions would we like to try?
- How long should we test the solution?
- How much effort and budget should we dedicate to this solution?
- What outcome can we expect with this solution?
These improvements may involve adopting new technology or changing a longstanding process. You can get everyone on board by cultivating a culture of continuous improvement and empowering everyone to constantly look for improvements and share observations and ideas with the team.
Encouraging upward feedback — and sharing how you’ve implemented that feedback — builds trust, shows that you value their opinions, and demonstrates how their contributions impact the wider team.
You can solicit this type of feedback at many touchpoints:
- Post-meeting/training/project reflections
- 1v1 meetings
- Suggestion boxes
- Surveys
- Performance reviews
- Exit interviews
You can also use employee feedback tools to continuously collect your team’s opinions. That way, they don’t need to wait until the end of a project or a specific date to share what’s on their mind.
5. Create team-building opportunities
Team-building opportunities allow everyone to get to know each other and build better relationships. Depending on the activity, they’re also a great way to build trust and improve overall collaboration between your team.
Team-building activities can range from lunch and learns to quick trivia competitions between departments. Below are a few types of employee engagement ideas you can try:
- Formal team-building activities directly relate to organizational goals and help teams improve their workflows. For example, HR may host a workshop on mental health to help the team better manage stress.
- Informal games may not directly contribute to your goals, but they can help break the ice between team members and encourage everyone to flex their teamwork and problem-solving skills. For example, you can have them solve a brain teaser together as a fun way to think creatively and strategically.
- Social events create a more casual atmosphere to build relationships. For example, you can host a themed snack day so everyone can share their favorite treats and take a quick break.
6. Prioritize employee wellness and happiness
Burnout or a lack of work-life balance can make it challenging for your team to stay focused at work. Manageable workloads are a major factor for employee wellness and an aspect employees highly prioritize.
According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s Workplace Wellness Survey, 56% of workers say that work-life balance is one of the top three benefits valued the most, ahead of flexible work schedules (48%) and quality health care coverage (37%).
When asked about the top three contributors to their sense of workplace well-being, 56% also chose work-life balance. However, only four in 10 say that their work-life balance is excellent or very good.
There are many ways you can support employee wellness and work-life balance. Some examples include:
- Benefits and time off: Provide comprehensive health coverage and ample vacation, sick, parental, and other types of time off
- Balanced schedules: Regularly review workloads to ensure a balanced schedule and encourage the team to unplug after-hours
- Health and well-being: Invest in ergonomic workstations and offer wellness programs to incentivize healthy habits (like organizing a walking challenge)
- Supportive work environment: Encourage open communication and consistently recognize and reward your employees’ hard work
- Flexible work arrangements: Offer employees the autonomy to adjust their working hours and arrangements (within reason)
- Employee development: Set up relevant training opportunities and resources to help employees reach their goals
If you’re unsure where to start, you can include employee benefits questions in your next engagement survey to learn what your team wants.
7. Promote inclusivity
An inclusive workplace helps everyone thrive and continue their best work. Inclusivity means valuing and respecting everyone for who they are.
The following are a few ways you can promote inclusivity in your company:
- Employee resource groups (ERGs) allow team members with similar identities or experiences to connect and advocate for improvements related to their community.
- Diversity and inclusion training educates team members on topics like inclusive communication and provides the tools to create a stronger sense of belonging for everyone on the team.
- Inclusive hiring and recruitment attracts diverse talent by expanding recruitment to reach underrepresented groups and using bias-free processes (for example, having diverse hiring panels for each candidate).
- Improved accessibility by providing assistive technologies and reasonable accommodations for those with disabilities.
8. Recognize and reward employees
The simplest way to help your team feel included is to thank them for their hard work. Expressing your gratitude confirms that their work is valued and helps them understand the importance of their contribution.
That “thank you” can be as simple as a Slack message or as significant as a formal award or improved benefits. Here are a few ways you can recognize and reward your team:
- Shout-outs during meetings, via email, or on your team communication platform
- Plaques or trophies
- Fully-funded training or professional development opportunities
- Catered lunches
- Bonuses
- Salary increases
- Additional time off
- Better benefits (e.g., improved health insurance coverage)
9. Share continuous feedback
Employee feedback is not just a way to recognize your team’s hard work, but it also helps them understand how their contributions affect team goals, targets, and objectives.
Sharing consistent feedback helps your team understand where they’re at, what steps to take to improve, and what goal they’re striving toward.
For example, if someone is consistently missing deadlines, this may be a sign of a bigger issue. Below is an example of steps you can take to find the root of the problem and create a plan with your employee:
- Identify the issue: “I noticed you missed several deadlines for [project.]”
- Ask for more information: “What obstacles have you been facing when meeting these deadlines?”
- Chat through solutions: “What steps will you take to ensure you’re meeting deadlines in the future?”
- Provide support: “How can I support you with meeting these deadlines?”
- Set a goal and follow-up: “Let’s implement this plan for the next project and aim to turn it in on time. We can touch base next week to see how this new plan is working so far.”
10. Train leaders on employee engagement best practices
Managers and senior leaders are crucial in improving employee engagement within their teams. Providing formal training on employee engagement best practices can give leaders the tools they need to connect with their teams.
Training topics can include:
- Effective and inclusive communication helps leaders learn how to share ideas and information clearly, provide constructive feedback, and run efficient meetings.
- Trust-building and psychological safety help leaders learn how to build rapport with their team, create a safe space to give and share feedback, and actively listen to their team members.
- Employee growth and development help leaders learn how to identify and provide relevant growth opportunities, delegate tasks to their teams, and develop their teams’ skills.
- Employee recognition to help leaders learn how to regularly show their gratitude and how they can reward their team members.
- Diversity and inclusion help leaders learn how they can help their team members feel like they belong and give equitable access to growth opportunities.
Leaders must also understand the role they play in improving employee engagement. Below is an example of how different levels of leadership contribute to an employee engagement strategy:
- Executives (C-suite) create the organization’s employee engagement vision and strategy.
- Senior managers (VPs, directors) implement the C-suite’s vision by creating an actionable plan and supporting leaders with implementation.
- Department leaders and mid-level managers provide upward and downward feedback and help oversee engagement strategy implementation.
- Supervisors and team leads support teams in their day-to-day work.
- HR and operations leaders create employee engagement programs and policies and measure effectiveness.
11. Continuously measure and evaluate engagement
If you want people to be passionate about working for your organization, you have to give them the opportunity to voice their opinions and let them feel like their opinions matter.
Running regular surveys lets you ask employee engagement questions and gather actionable insights. By allowing your employees to give honest and well-thought-out opinions, you will learn what engagement levels look like, what needs to be addressed immediately, and what aspects of your organization are working well.
To make the most out of your employee surveys, follow these best practices:
- Establish metrics that link back to your team’s engagement goals. For example, if your team is interested in improving teamwork, you should consistently ask the same teamwork-related questions each time to easily compare changes over time.
- Avoid survey fatigue by limiting the total number of questions in each survey and the total surveys sent in a year.
- Be transparent about results by clarifying how you’ll use and share feedback.
- Use employee engagement tools to streamline collection and analysis and expand how your team can engage with each other.
What does an engaged employee look like?
Engaged employees can look different depending on the person, team, and company culture.
Think of employee engagement in three levels: actively engaged, not engaged, and actively disengaged.
Speaking generally, engaged employees:
- Have positive feelings about their role and the company
- Often go the extra mile to fulfill projects, develop skills, and seek ways to improve
- Know their goals and have a solid understanding of their role and how they contribute to both the team and the company
On the other hand, not engaged employees:
- Feel neutral about their role and the company
- Meet their job expectations but typically don’t go above and beyond
- May not understand how they fit into the organization’s wider goals
Lastly, actively disengaged employees:
- Often feel negative about the company
- Typically do the bare minimum and are less likely to put effort toward career growth
- Likely don’t understand how they fit into the organization’s goals or acknowledge that their personal goals don’t align with the organization’s
Engagement can also change over time depending on external or personal factors. For example, your best employee may be considered “not engaged” if they struggle to focus or are worried about a sick loved one. For extenuating circumstances like these, it's best to give your team the benefit of the doubt, encourage open communication, and support them as best you can.
However, if you notice that an employee is actively disengaged, that may be a sign to dig deeper. Start by gathering feedback and diving into the root of the problem. Tools like Mentimeter can help you gather valuable insights to make more informed decisions.
Improve employee engagement with Mentimeter
Learning how to improve employee engagement starts with understanding your team. That includes discovering where they struggle, what opportunities they wish they had, and how you can support them.
When you use Mentimeter at work, you can create surveys, polls, Q&As, and more to get better insight in and outside of meetings. You can also use our AI-enhanced analysis tools to quickly review responses and put feedback in action.
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