10 Employee Engagement Strategies for Success in 2025
Table of contents
- Understanding employee engagement
- How to develop an employee engagement strategy
- Role of the 4 E’s of employee engagement in developing a strategy
- Examples of unique employee engagement strategies
- Common obstacles to enhancing employee engagement
- The importance of employee engagement strategy
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
Employee engagement is on the decline. For the first time in a decade, the engagement rate of employees droppedOpens in a new tab in 2021. Then it dropped again in 2022.
During that time, two massive phenomena swept through the workplace: the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting. And it made clear something that was once given is now something that companies need to plan for. It's not enough to expect employees to be engaged. You need employee engagement strategies to ensure it.
In this post, we're going to discuss what employers can do to help employees more engaged and how recognizing and rewarding not only boosts engagement but your entire culture.
Understanding employee engagement
Employee engagement refers to the dedication and enthusiasm of workers for their jobs. It describes the feeling of importance and value the employee assigns to their tasks.
An engaged employee genuinely cares about their work and the company’s performance. They feel the purpose of their role and invest efforts for more than just receiving paychecks.
In managing businesses and companies, you’ll typically hear about customer engagement. While having a solid relationship with your customers is good, you shouldn’t forget about the other side of the equation.
An excellent employee engagement strategy molds more motivated workers. In fact, an employee engagement survey by Gallup revealed that it increases morale, fosters creativity, boosts productivity, improves customer satisfaction, and betters profitability.
Here are six more ways to increase employee engagement, regardless of the external challenges an organization may be facing.
So, here comes the most challenging question: “How do you improve employee engagement?”
How to develop an employee engagement strategy
Maintaining a highly engaged workforce is an effective way to revamp your organization’s productivity. However, it's easier said than done.
Additionally, engagement has become increasingly challenging with the introduction of hybrid working setups. Can you even engage with workers from hundreds of miles away? The short answer is yes.
Here are some proven approaches to developing effective employee engagement strategies in your organization, inspired by discussions at leading employee engagement conferences, no matter where your employees are working::
Maintain a realistic approach
The first thing to remember is that creating a culture of engagement takes time. So, don’t expect instant results when implementing engagement strategies.
Keep a realistic approach. For example, if you want to minimize your company’s turnover rate, start by aiming to reduce it by 10% or 15% in the first year.
Ensure clarity regarding responsibilities
Setting clear expectations is a vital aspect of engaging with your employees. As a matter of fact, research shows that employees are less invested in their work when they don’t have a clear understanding of their responsibilities.
To combat this hitch, managers should communicate goals and expectations as clearly as possible.
And don’t simply throw responsibilities at employees. It's a manager's job to help employees understand the workload of team members and tailor expectations accordingly.
Embrace flexibility in your approach
Flexibility is an important quality when managing workers. Studies have shown that it’s one of the clearest markers of employee satisfaction and drivers of employee engagement.
Don’t try to make a strategy, and then expect your team members to follow through without question. It’s an ongoing process, and employee feedback plays a vital role in fine-tuning it.
Foster clear and effective communication
No matter how well-planned your engagement strategy is, it won’t lift the ground without transparent and effective communication. Therefore, as a manager, you’ll want to establish this aspect of the strategy first.
Aim for two-way employee communication and not merely disseminating information. Encourage employees to develop relationships with peers and co-workers across the company.
Prioritize the well-being of your employees
Life and work will consistently blend for your employees. And it’s in your employees' best interest if you consider the demanding life inside and outside the workplace.
While designing a strategy, devise a way to show concern for their physical, emotional, and social lives. Wellness programs like these can encourage employees to change to healthier lifestyles and improve their job satisfaction.
Role of the 4 E’s of employee engagement in developing a strategy
The 4 E's model identifies four fundamental elements of employee engagement: enablement, energy, empowerment, and encouragement.
Enablement refers to the resources available to your team members. Providing employees with the necessary tools is your goal here. For example, if a team member needs a particular device to work efficiently, it’s in your company’s best interest to provide it.
Energy sounds like a subjective experience for every employee. However, the truth is that it’s heavily dependent on the work environment. Your organization should give the needed support to manage and sustain the energy of your workforce. It goes for physical, emotional, and mental energy.
Empowerment is a recurring word in the human resource. And it sits at the heart of every long-term engagement strategy. Experts agree that workers find their jobs more satisfying and engaging when they have more control over their tasks.
Encouragement is another crucial driver for engaged workers. The issue is that managers and employees often overlook its importance. Remember, an extension of appreciation and support can make a worker feel valued. It doesn’t cost anything, and it makes an immensely positive impact.
Examples of unique employee engagement strategies
You’ll want to explore illustrative examples of the best employee engagement strategies before making your own. Here are some of the most popular ones and how you can implement them:
Embrace a collaborative approach
Collaboration is almost synonymous with engagement. Thus, embracing a collaborative approach is one surefire way to nurture high employee engagementOpens in a new tab.
But how can you do it?
Foster cross-department collaboration
For one, you’ll want to create opportunities for cross-department collaboration. Allow your team employees to cooperate and work with others, crossing team lines.
Encourage teamwork and idea-sharing
Encourage an environment where employees work toward shared goals and objectives. Let them share their ideas, suggestions, and concerns to achieve the best possible outcomes.
Nurture a culture of continuous learning
An organization’s lackluster attitude toward career growth makes workers leave. Provide them with opportunities to develop their skills and competencies to their and your organization's benefit.
Invest in training and development programs
Training and development programs are fantastic examples of skill development opportunities. These initiatives create an excellent chance to cultivate team engagement as well.
Promote knowledge sharing and skill enhancement
Promoting a knowledge-sharing culture is another terrific method of engagement. It allows employees to build trust while walking toward skill enhancement together.
Empower employees with autonomy and ownership
Empowering your employees has a lot to do with their level of engagement. If you can incorporate empowerment in your workplace, you can expect your employees to have a tangible purpose and drive.
Here are a couple of ways to do it.
Delegate responsibility and decision-making authority
Share the decision-making responsibilities with your team members by deliberately delegating tasks. In the process, define their duties and objectives as clearly as possible.
Set up transparent standards of accountability
Aim for thoughtful accountability for employees through consistent follow-up and review. Give employees autonomy but create structures and guidelines to hold them accountable for their work.
Foster meaningful relationships and connections
Your employees' relationships with each other considerably influence their commitment and engagement. Workers are simply more committed to a job when they appreciate the people they’re working with.
Facilitate mentorship and peer support programs
Mentorship and peer support programs are valuable ways to support workers and foster meaningful connections. These programs help bridge your employees, old and new, to develop relationships in and out of the workplace.
Organize networking events and social gatherings
Another way to build social connections within your workplace is to organize events and gatherings. Shared occasions like these provide an excellent opportunity to create strong bonds between team members outside the confines of work.
Promote work-life integration and flexibility
A healthy work-life balance is crucial for long-term commitment and engagement. Your employees should be able to disconnect from work in their free time and pursue personal interests.
Implement flexible working hours and remote work options
One way to promote life-work balance is through implementing flexible working conditions. Employees are more likely to feel engaged and energetic when they have a say in their work scheduling. It's also a massive benefit for parents who are at the mercy of school schedules.
Support work-life balance initiatives and wellness programs
Invest in on-site wellness programs and initiatives supporting work-life balance. Examples include offering flexible working hours, friendly leave policies, and other programs advocating health and wellness.
Recognize and celebrate employee achievements
Recognizing performance and celebrating successes are the best ways to let employees know they matter. Recognition boosts engagement but also improves morale, loyalty, and performance.
Establish a comprehensive recognition and rewards system
Start by establishing comprehensive guidelines and criteria for your organization’s reward system. Rewards don’t have to be grandiose—simple gestures like a public shoutout, handwritten notes, or a gift card can go a long way.
However, for a more comprehensive and lasting solution, a program like Workhuman's Social Recognition® standardizes recognition and begins to infuse gratitude into the organization's culture.
Celebrate milestones and successes as a team
Celebrate team successes and milestones, regardless of their size. Utilize tools like Workhuman’s Community Celebrations® and Service Milestones® to follow important events for your team.
Foster a sense of purpose and alignment
Fostering a sense of purpose is your secret weapon when outlining your employee engagement strategy. It goes for all of us: we become more engaged and committed when we see clear direction and alignment in our roles.
Communicate the company's mission and vision effectively
Relay your company’s mission and vision in the most transparent possible way. This step creates a solid foundation for an employee’s sense of purpose, conveying how their role contributes to the overarching company goals.
Allow your employees to ask questions
Allow your team members to ask questions about your company’s vision. Leaving them in the dark only fuels frustration and the lack of clear direction. Asking employees for input can also bring new ideas to the table that further grow the business.
Encourage innovation and creativity
Work engagement, innovation, and creativity have a profound connection. When companies allow workers to innovate and be creative, their willingness to do more increases.
Provide resources and support for new ideas
Encourage employees to be creative and innovative by giving them the autonomy to experiment with fresh ideas and provide the necessary tools.
Foster a safe environment for risk-taking and experimentation
Innovation always comes with risks. But don’t let that stop your team from exploring. Instead, reward them for taking risks and foster a supportive environment. A huge factor in suggesting a new idea is for employees to feel psychologically safe doing so. If they think speaking up may have a negative effect, they won't do it.
Prioritize employee well-being and Mental health
If you want to keep employees from leaving, prioritize their well-being. Employers who support worker well-being experience lower turnover rates, less employee stress, and fewer absences.
Offer wellness programs and mental health support services
Begin by offering initiatives targeting their health and wellness. These programs can include physical activities, smoking cessation, and mental health support.
The idea is to provide initiatives that meet the needs and interests of your team.
Foster a culture of open communication and feedback
Successful employee engagement models have one thing in common: they value honest feedback and open communication.
Establish a platform for consistent feedback
Before anything else, you’ll want to establish a platform or system enabling your team to share their ideas, feedback, and thoughts. Use intelligent tools like Workhuman’s Conversations® to provide a platform for consistent feedback and assessment.
Create a safe space for honest and constructive dialogue
Most importantly, you need to let your employees know it’s safe to express their thoughts. Open communication and honesty are both equally crucial to nurturing engagement.
Common obstacles to enhancing employee engagement
Below are some challenges that hinder employee engagement strategies you should consider.
Difficulty in measuring employee engagement
Measuring intangibles like engagement and motivation is challenging. As such, learning how to measure employee engagement should be one of your first priorities.
The most common method of measurement is through surveys. Hearing directly from your employees about whether new initiatives are motivating or facilitating productivity will help you figure out what's working and what's not.
Lack of support or direction from leaders and management
Solid leadership is a much-needed recipe for successful employee engagement initiatives. Leaders in your company should know their roles in kickstarting this positive change.
A leader should remember that engagement and a sense of purpose aren’t the employees’ jobs alone. Unfortunately, only 22% of employees think their leaders have a clear direction for their companies.
Communication gaps between managers and workers
Most companies and their employees have a vast communication gap. This issue considerably affects an employee's enthusiasm and commitment to their job.
In the U.S., a survey revealed that only 34% of Americans think they engage well with their work. It means nearly two-thirds of the working population feels unsatisfied or uninvested in their workplace.
The importance of employee engagement strategy
Employee engagement affects employees, teams, managers, and the company as a whole. Here are some of the major business outcomes an employee engagement strategy can have an outsized impact on:
Improved productivity and efficiency
One of the most noteworthy benefits of an employee engagement action plan is that it improves productivity and efficiency for individuals, teams, and whole organizations.
According to Gallup, companies with better employee engagement levels experience a more than 14% increase in productivity and a 13% increase in organizational participation.
Reduced staff turnover and absenteeism
The same Gallup survey revealed that companies that invest in employee engagement strategies experience fewer turnovers and absenteeism.
Recent data indicated that high-turnover organizations that adapted engagement strategies achieved 59% lower turnover rates. Lower-turnover organizations exhibited around 24% fewer turnovers as well.
Increased customer satisfaction and profitability
That’s not all. Aside from employee retention and productivity, engaged business units also showed improved customer outcomes and profitability.
Highly engaged employees have been found to increase profit by 24%, sales by 18%, and customer satisfaction by 10%.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the strategies for employee engagement?
There are a number of strategies for improving employee engagement.
Among them are: open communication, encouraging risk-taking and new ideas, creating a more collaborative environment, and recognizing employees for their efforts and accomplishments.
What are the 4 Es of employee engagement?
The 4 Es is a brand-new HR paradigm revolving around employee needs during the hiring process. The three Es or pillars stand for enablement, energy, empowerment, and encouragement.
Conclusion
In the modern business landscape, effective employee engagement strategies are valuable tools to propel your company to success. Nurturing a culture of highly engaged employees is no longer merely a lofty dream, it's a strategic necessity.
Organizations should aim for open communication, flexibility, empowerment, and the development of meaningful employee relationships to help unlock your team’s full potential.
About the author
Mike Lovett
Mike is a senior content marketing specialist at Workhuman where he writes about the next era of the workplace. Outside the workplace, he’s an avid gardener, a frequent biker, a steadily improving chef, and a fantasy sports fanatic.