How to Improve Employee Engagement: Tips and Strategies

Attracting and retaining great employees requires more than providing a paycheck. People expect the workplace, where they spend most of their waking hours, to offer meaning, growth opportunities and other truly engaging prospects.

For employers, knowing the meaning of, and how to improve, employee engagement is key to creating a vibrant workplace. Further, nurturing employee engagement will mean tangible benefits for every level of your organization.

What Is Employee Engagement?

Real employee engagement is about connection and commitment to the company or organization one works for. It’s more than showing up on time, performing well and getting along with coworkers–it’s employees who feel their employer leads with purpose and cares about their growth.

You can’t promote employee engagement with financial bonuses, productivity software and pizza parties alone. Improving employee engagement in the long term requires a culture that values employees beyond their job description.

Strategies for Improving Employee Engagement

No one method for building employee engagement will work for every person or organization. You’ll likely need to implement most or all of them to create a culture that truly connects people to your mission.

While the concept of employee engagement itself is not a strategy, the methods for increasing it are strategic. In fact, you can implement multiple strategies to raise levels of employee engagement.

1. Invest in Individual Growth

Show employees you value their talents, interests and potential by providing avenues to training or higher education. People don’t want to feel stagnant or at a dead end in their careers; offering ways for them to grow can actually increase talent retention, rather than drive it away. Consider anything from modules on increasing productivity for creatives to conferences and college classes.

2. Recruit Competent Managers

Typically, employees don’t have much interaction with the C-suite or board, but they often speak with their direct managers. If that relationship isn’t healthy, a vital connection is lost. Managers must know how to lead their team for the good of the organization while also being an advocate for individual employees’ wellbeing.

3. Establish a Collective Sense of Purpose

Be clear about your purpose and how employees are a part of it. People will quickly see it when they’re treated like a cog in machinery, rather than humans who bring a unique perspective and experience. Fair financial compensation is certainly part of feeling valued, but not feeling easily replaced is another.

4. Outline a Path to Success

Especially for younger employees, the career trajectory may be difficult to envision. They will appreciate the guidance and encouragement of a plan that assumes they will succeed. Keep in mind that the idea of success might vary from one employee to the next, and be clear that a satisfying career can take many forms.

5. Offer Incentives for Dedication

Having a goal to work toward is motivating and exciting. Just as important is having a goal that will actually be a reward. For some employees, monetary goals (raises, bonuses) are ideal. Others desire time off or flexible schedules. Another might benefit greatly from the recognition of managers and teammates. Allowing employees to choose their incentives promotes autonomy and real engagement.

6. Implement Team Building Initiatives

Provide opportunities for employees to work together in ways they don’t in their regular positions. Organize fun activities that build trust, communication and problem-solving through games, time outdoors and creativity.

7. Foster Open Dialogue

Encouraging appropriate transparency builds trust, camaraderie and positivity about the work culture. Create a welcoming, inclusive space that promotes the sharing of ideas and helpful feedback at all levels, with options to do so anonymously. It’s important for leaders to model this open dialogue by being approachable and transparent about the organization itself.

8. Facilitate Employee Development Opportunities

Every industry and field changes over time, and even highly experienced employees have things to learn. Make it easy for team members to build on the skills they already have with professional development, mentorship, self-directed learning and new challenges.

9. Promote Community Engagement

Businesses and nonprofits are their own communities within wider communities. Host a range of casual and more formal events for the entire organization to engage everyone at the same level. Take it to the next level by coordinating ways for your company to get involved with the external community through things like volunteering, collaborating with other brands and learning opportunities for local students.

10. Acknowledge Outstanding Contributions

Too often, employees feel that the work they’re so proud of goes largely unnoticed. People find fulfillment in intentional recognition, especially in fields requiring idea generation and creativity. Take the time to acknowledge great work, and encourage your employees to do the same for their colleagues.

Tips for Fostering a More Engaged Workforce

If you’ve noticed a dip in morale or see increased turnover in your organization, take steps now to turn that around. The sooner you foster healthy engagement, the sooner you’ll see the benefits of productivity and retention. Ways to improve employee engagement include, but aren't limited to:

Demonstrate your core values and mission: Show employees that you care about improving the world, not just making money.
Enhance the onboarding process: Inform new teammates of nuances and specifics about their position in their first few days.
Seek and learn from feedback: Encourage employees and managers to regularly touch base and provide feedback on each other.
Ensure active engagement of managers: When managers are engaged, their team members are more likely to be engaged.
Arrange volunteer activities: Employees believe that building community outside of work supports a healthier workplace.
Support both physical and mental health: Offering tangible health support, like healthy food in the office kitchen and group yoga at break time, demonstrates your caring for employee wellbeing.
Acknowledge and reward top performers: Those who go the extra mile because they are genuinely engaged, and are then recognized for it, can motivate others.
Conduct regular employee engagement surveys: Send out questions about things happening in your organization and encourage employees to answer honestly.
Organize company outings: Associating outside of work helps employees bond as people, bolstering trust and engagement overall. Try a few different outings to be sure everyone who wants to can participate.
Establish employee resource groups: These voluntary, employee-led groups give individuals a collective voice and purpose. Often designed for those identifying with marginalized groups, they can be a vehicle for company-wide progress.
Foster passion projects: Allow employees to contribute in ways that drive their personal passions. This strengthens the tie between the individual and organization, and highlights their value as people, not just professionals.

The Benefits of Improving Employee Engagement

The wonderful thing about implementing tips for employee engagement is that it’s a win-win. It begins with improving the culture for team members, and ultimately benefits the organization as a whole. Among those benefits are:

Self-motivated individuals: Employees work because they are engaged, rather than because a manager keeps telling them to.
A clear understanding of roles: Open communication and fostering individual growth ensure employees know what’s needed of them.
Recognizing each contribution's significance: From CEO decisions to running payroll to stocking the breakroom, every task is important and everyone benefits from understanding that.
Prioritizing future training and development: As personal and professional growth integrate into company culture, planning for them becomes the standard.
Increased profits, customer experience, brand loyalty and growth: Employee engagement supports every other aspect of your organization. Hoping to boost company productivity? Get people engaged.

Keys to Success: Employee Engagement Best Practices

As you build and execute the various strategies for employee engagement, keep a few best practices in mind:

Know where you currently stand to be sure your goals are appropriate.
Be transparent about your plans and goals for employee engagement.
Identify your most important and realistic strategies for employee engagement.
Develop an action plan for each specific goal.
Keep your employment engagement strategies sustainable.
Consider employee engagement during the hiring process.

Start the Journey to Improved Employee Engagement

True employee engagement is about the connection between your team and the purpose of your organization. Certain strategies can help you develop it long-term, especially with a commitment to the ideal from your leadership, management and new hires.

Skillshare has an excellent selection of classes designed to help you improve employee engagement and boost productivity, from using Notion for task management to boosting creative productivity to strengthening overall workplace culture.

Written By

Katie Mitchell

Katie lives in Michigan with her husband, kids and pets. She enjoys cooking, travel and live music.