10 Proven Strategies and 16 Ideas to Improve Employee Engagement Today

Employers who invest in employee engagement often fail to understand that it is not something you should indulge in without a defined strategy, more so because a disengaged workforce can cost $1 trillion annually and 18% of an average employee’s annual salary, according to a Gallup study. 

However, on the other hand, A Gallup report found that enterprises characterized by elevated levels of engagement have noticed a 21% increase in profitability. It substantiates that successful companies implementing strategic engagement plans and reap the benefits have well-defined goals and action plans. That’s the mantra for achieving a focused and highly productive workforce. 

While some companies know and understand the difference employee engagement can make, very few apply the right tricks of the game. Therefore, this article will share ten tips that will help lay down a foundation for improving employee engagement. 

Human interactions that improve employee engagement 

‍In today’s digital age, lesser personal interactions is a more significant cause of less employee engagement and this, in turn, results in higher levels of absenteeism, higher staff turnover, more human error etc. One of the main ways to reboot employee engagement appears to be in the form of human interaction. 

Researchers at HR Consultancy Penna identified a hierarchy of engagement, with pay and benefits being the lowest level of the hierarchy. 

They found the highest driver of engagement on the hierarchy to be a true sense of connection, a common purpose, and a shared sense of meaning at work. In other words, value and meaning were aligned to better engagement. 

1. Clearly communicate a vision 

‍When Deloitte surveyed 560 employees for a Talent 2020 report, one truth stood out. Employees needed to be engaged in meaningful work or they would walk out the door. 

Good leaders are able to help employees find meaning in their work. Leaders and team members should interact on a formal and informal basis to build relationships and it’s in the context of these relationships that they can help employees to feel not only physically but emotionally engaged. 

When Google did a careful review of performance data, it could prove that frequent conversations between team leaders and team members were the main reason for the high performance of a team. 

Employees need to have a clear understanding of the vision and mission of an organization. It’s up to the leaders to clearly communicate that vision to inspire employees and make them want to contribute. 

2. Encourage peer interactions 

‍Employees are likely to be more loyal to team members they value and with whom they have built relationships because they don’t want to let them down. Loyalty can be a strong motivator in a work context. 

Team members value the recognition they receive from fellow team members. They feel acknowledged and it boosts their sense of self-worth and achievement. A culture of peer recognition encourages genuine feelings of collaboration and companionship. 

Team members can encourage one another to improve their skills and academic qualifications, using to assist them. 

Collaboration is very important for employers to feel engaged and included. Management can encourage practices that see employees interacting and working with each other. This may involve daily routines, messaging platforms that encourage cross-team communication and company events like getaways and boot camps. 

To foster collaboration and peer appreciation, platforms like Empuls provide a seamless way to build a culture of recognition and engagement. With peer-to-peer appreciation, personalized recognition, and awards, employees feel valued in real-time, strengthening teamwork and loyalty. 

Using Empuls' community groups, employees can engage in organic conversations, share information with like-minded colleagues, and celebrate milestones together—just like they would around a workplace water cooler. These interactions drive a sense of belonging and improve employee morale. 

3. Offer choices in how to work 

‍When employees feel empowered to work in a way that fits in with their personal needs and lifestyle, it drives engagement. There is a level of trust involved in shifting responsibility to employees over when and how they work. This can only come from relationships and relationships are only established through human interaction. 

A Harvard Business Review study reported that companies who offered employees more choice in how they work grow significantly and reduce turnover. 

Companies that create a flexible work culture can encourage productive, more focused work, rather than meaningless work. 

4. Proactively create roles together 

Image Source 

‍Engagement is a two-way street. Employers need to proactively work with employees to make their roles engaging over the long term. 

Leaders need to free up as much time as they can to spend engaging employees in new opportunities and recommending tools and resources to help them perform their roles. 

5. Adapt communication styles to suit employees 

Source- Smarp 

‍Leaders need to sit down with employees and learn how they like to be communicated with. Some people prefer verbal instructions. 

Some may want a team leader to be available to help with any problems, whilst others may prefer to work things out for themselves. Seeing that they adapt their ways of communication because they’ve listened can increase employee engagement. 

6. Get employee feedback and act on it 

Interaction is a two-way process. Employee feedback is crucial to continued engagement. When feedback is received, it must be acted upon. Leaders who receive feedback and don’t act on it may cause damage. Leaders must follow through with their promises. 

7. Take a hard look at employee retention figures 

Retention figures give a good indication of how effective employee engagement is in a company. If the churn rate is greater than 10%, you need to find out why. Conducting an employee engagement survey could help companies to find out where they are going wrong and how they can improve. 

8. Treat employees with respect 

Acknowledging employees and treating them in a respectful way is one of the best ways to boost employee engagement. This does not mean offering them praise all the time but making them feel valued. If they feel as though they’re invisible, they can quickly become disengaged. 

In creating a workplace that emphasizes respect for others, collaboration and communication at all levels, higher levels of engagement are the result. 

Top 10 ways to improve employee engagement in the workplace 

Boosting employee engagement is crucial for productivity and job satisfaction. Here are ten effective strategies to improve employee engagement and create a motivated workforce. 

1. Provide timely feedback, rewards, and appreciation 
Reinforcing positive behavior with prompt feedback and rewards strengthens motivation. Honest and constructive feedback should be given in real-time to ensure employees feel valued. Google’s "Anxiety Party" discussions are a great example of addressing workplace concerns and fostering engagement. 

2. Keep employees informed about changing company goals 
Employees are brand ambassadors, so keeping them updated about evolving company goals is essential. Regular internal communication ensures that every team member feels connected and aligned with the organization's mission, increasing employee engagement effectively. 

3. Encourage learning and personal growth 
Understanding employees' career aspirations and supporting their growth fosters engagement. Providing opportunities for skill development, such as Apple's "Blue Sky Program," where employees dedicate time to personal projects, enhances job satisfaction and innovation. 

4. Develop customized engagement plans 
Every employee has unique motivational needs. Identifying whether an individual is driven by intrinsic or extrinsic factors allows for personalized incentives. Offering flexible work options or performance-based bonuses can be effective initiatives to improve employee engagement. 

5. Promote a healthy lifestyle 
Work-life balance and physical well-being are essential for long-term engagement. Providing gym memberships, wellness sessions, and play zones can encourage a healthy work environment, preventing burnout and boosting morale. 

6. Align employees with core company values 
A strong sense of belonging increases employee commitment. Clearly communicating and integrating company values into daily work culture ensures employees feel part of a shared vision, strengthening team unity. 

7. Utilize exit interviews for insights 
Exit interviews provide valuable feedback on company strengths and weaknesses. Addressing common concerns raised by departing employees fosters trust and improves the workplace for existing team members. 

8. Assign an employee engagement officer 
Having a dedicated employee engagement officer to assess motivation levels, suggest innovative strategies, and monitor engagement efforts can lead to a more engaged workforce. 

9. Address performance blocks proactively 
Employees face various challenges that impact performance. Leaders should identify low performers, offer guidance, and provide necessary support, including counseling, to help them overcome obstacles and stay engaged. 

10. Implement an internal communication tool 
A dedicated communication platform enhances transparency, collaboration, and real-time recognition of employee contributions. It helps bridge gaps between remote workers and strengthens workplace connections. 

By implementing these initiatives to improve employee engagement, organizations can foster a motivated and productive workforce, ensuring long-term success. 

A great example of an employee engagement and communication platform is Empuls. It keeps everyone on the same page by sharing company news, enabling two-way conversations, and helping employees see how they contribute to company culture and vision. 

With interactive content formats like GIFs, polls, and videos, employees feel more connected. Empuls also provides leaderboards and gamification tools to nudge participation and drive engagement at scale. 

16 Best employee engagement ideas that every company should follow 

There are a lot of activities and ideas to increase employee engagement, but the thing is they should be prioritized to center the employee so that he/she feels that they are valued and respected. 

And who doesn't need respect and prioritization? A well-respected employee exhibits better performance and results while taking ownership of the team activities that help in business growth and success. 

Here are the 16 best employee engagement ideas for better team building and boosting the motivation levels of the employees for a successful business and better profits. 

1. Share your business goals 

‍Team gathering is a very important activity to engage employees in work. While planning a bigger party to discuss the recent issues and plans to overcome them, involving the employees is encouraging them to focus on what is necessary for the growth of a business. 

Also providing a platform to the employees to step forward with their own perception of solving issues and working the best out of the plans discussed to make them feel respected and involved in business goals. Sharing the commitments that the company is into and letting them decide how to achieve them. 

For every 6 months, goals and achievements can be discussed in a success meet involving the employees and recognizing their contribution. Not only have the employees felt recognized but also respected by their own team. 

2. Maintaining a knowledge-sharing system 

‍The greatest cost of a high employee turnover rate is the lack of essential information. When employees were given a chance to receive the right kind of information, they will strive to focus better on their job and commit to their assigned task. 

A knowledge-sharing system not only helps to fill the lack of information but also to a greater extent engages a driver for newcomers. It can be a mentorship program that pairs up new hires with experienced employees. 

‍Empuls as a knowledge sharing tool uses channels for knowledge sharing. It uses groups and feeds for knowledge sharing and universal search options. 

Creating a template of processes for every knowledge-sharing program is also useful. For example, a skill assessment checklist helps challenge employee learning capabilities and provides enough space to understand the technical requirements to fill their knowledge gaps. Give a timeframe and a set of goals and wait for the relationship to unfold by itself. 

3. Creative way of communication 

‍Mostly, teams are isolated within their own workspace and have left with no idea of what's going on in the rest of the company. Creating an open sharing platform, ones in a couple of months, where every team can share their updates on their ongoing projects and key learning areas. 

Communication helps evolve with growth and experience from what various scenarios pose. Online communication platforms like Empuls are effective and help present information in a creative way so that employees are engaged and excited. 

For example, come up with creative employee engagement team ideas and plan a theme like "Commander Orders" where the team comes up with their updates in a military-like style on over team groups. Always remember, a great driver for happiness is creativity. 

4. Rewards for employee contribution 

‍When the work that the employees do is rewarded, the benefit isn't really for the employee but for the company too. This encourages them to work better and plan goals to achieve in the future. And also, they can challenge themselves for better growth and higher targets. 

Maintaining consistency in their work hours and attendance that makes the company benefit from the employees in parallel to giving the right kind of recognition to the worker who had spent his quality time to clear the objective. Engaging employees not only involves games, parties, and other physical activities but the mental satisfaction that keeps the employee motivated. 

Empuls takes employee rewards and recognition to the next level with a structured approach. With multiple award types like spot awards, peer awards, and incentive-based recognitions, companies can reinforce positive behavior in real-time. 

Using Empuls' automated reward workflows, organizations can customize reward experiences, integrate company branding, and provide instant redemption options through a built-in rewards store. This ensures employees feel valued, motivated, and eager to contribute their best efforts. 

5. Encourage them to learn and take up new challenges 

‍One of the major reasons why employees quit companies is that they weren’t provided with learning opportunities. Every company should have its own academy to train employees with the latest technologies and requirements. Assessing the needs and setting up 1-2 classes per week. 

Let them decide how they can attend these classes. Make it much more interesting by celebrating a graduation ceremony, celebration, and even a fun night out. 

6. Creating a fun and sportive environment 

Having fun at the office is found to give a boost to productivity. When planning for a team sport or any event to engage all the employees they need some fun, out of the working space. They should feel that they have a life out of their job. 

Balancing these entities refresh the employee and boost their interest in various events. Let them enjoy both work hours and fun hours and make them balance both for a healthy both and mind. 

7. Have a hack night 

‍Pump up the energy in the office by having an event by changing up the regular working hours. The best way to do this is by having a hack night. The hack night tests the working efficiency and the passion of the workers and this event is popularly used to get a lot of work done at a rapid momentum. 

This also works as an ice-breaking activity among the employees and keeps them involved in their work like never before. The activity can be accompanied by food, music, and snacks. 

This generally tests the operational and creative limits of the employee and the work of every individual is out in the open. Every individual looks for a change in the mundane regime of their day-to-day lives and such events act as competitions that test their out-of-the-box thinking making them feel like kids again, only now they put their professional knowledge to use. 

8. Create anticipation about upcoming opportunities 

‍Keep the employees updated on the future prospects of the company. Entice them to the various developments and changes that are in the making for the betterment of the company. This keeps them passionate about the work and secures their creative knowledge by assuring them that there is always something new to create. 

Helping them compare their opportunities from the competitor companies and realize that there is always a new opportunity exactly where he/she is giving them a lesser desire to change their firm. 

The individuals should always feel like they are constantly creating something different in order for them to be content with their passion and updating them about future prospects does just that. 

9. Create a memorable onboarding experience 

Onboarding is the process of socialization of the employee, through which the employees gain the necessary knowledge, behavior, and skillset to be an effective member of the firm or a trustee insider of the organization. 

Let them create a self-made onboarding experience, as the information they learn on their own goes a long way compared to information the information forced in. 

Set the rules, give them a basic list of objectives and a timeframe. Let them work around their own time frames rather than forcing deadlines onto them and finish their work efficiently at their pace. Instead, raise the bar by setting standards of excellence that will make them want to achieve it voluntarily. 

10. Publishing an internal magazine 

‍Creating a fun internal magazine can always keep the employees excited. Creating an organization implicit magazine with articles, personal opinions, news, and many other fun columns. Ask employees to come up with ideas for publication and encourage them to participate. 

This certainly brings the creative side of employees and work upon its success. Moreover, it also helps them to add to their bio in the future. Who wouldn’t want a scoop of all this fun? It can either be an online magazine or a printed magazine. As far as the magazine serves the purpose of engaging the employees it’s all the company needs. 

11. Platform for sharing ideas 

‍Create a platform for sharing ideas by keeping the communication transparent. A company should share a platform where every employee can share his ideas openly instead of the access being limited to a confined number of members.

Organizing scheduled meetings. Meetings are the best ways to update everyone on new ideas and communicate analysis and perceptions of the ideas. 

Engaging people via conversation. Creating a friendly environment among all the employees is the key to best communication. When you create a friendly base the person trusts you enough to talk about their views to you and this is the most efficient way of exchanging ideas. 

Telling success stories replenishes the employees with hope and encourages them to constantly think about new ideas. Creating a Knowledge Base. Open-door Policy allows every employee to feel welcomed and at ease to share ideas.

The creativity base should not be biased between the superiority and the inferiority of the employees and should maintain a sense of equality for every individual. 

12. Let them think “I am my own hero” 

Mentor does not manage, the people belonging to these generations look for constant validation by contemplating their life from time to time. The best way to bring out the best of such people is to listen to them, encourage them and provide them with guidance.

Help them feel individual and confident about everything they do by providing them with what they require and opportunities to strengthen their drive to work. Millennials have the capability to multitask. 

Tip: Getting employee feedback is a great way to empower your employees. Pulse surveys, engagement surveys, and reviews are a few useful tools to collect invaluable information from employees. 

Your employees are capable of performing any task in a most satisfying manner. To bring out optimum performance they need to be trusted with responsibilities. It is the job of the superior officers to entrust them with responsibilities and ensure that the responsibilities appear to them as challenges and milestones. 

The employees of this generation are not afraid to take a risk and are willing to try any new way to make the task as easy as possible. They can certainly deliver more than your expectations. 

13. Plan a giveback 

This is one of the most commonly used ideas to improve employee engagement. ‍Bonuses work as investments. This improves the quality of future products of the company and escalates the development towards the prospects of the company. 

Giving constant bonuses as a reward for the employees’ excellence assures employee loyalty providing them with the satisfaction and the right amount of validation, they need to enhance their work ethic. 

Bonuses work towards improving the performance of the employees as they start making the company one of their top priorities and will never leave its side at the period of crisis. 

They also show increased interest to work for longer and meet the deadlines with excelling work. Giving out bonuses in a small business is all the more essential since there are lesser employees to distribute bonuses to. 

A structured reward and recognition system, like the one offered by Empuls, makes "givebacks" meaningful and impactful. Instead of one-off bonuses, companies can create customized rewards programs with approval-based awards, performance-driven incentives, and branded certificates. 

Leaders can track recognition trends, monitor participation levels, and ensure every employee feels acknowledged and appreciated—ultimately boosting retention and loyalty. 

14. Celebrating eEmployees, not just their accomplishment 

Every manager wants a good job done by employees and should know the value of the accomplished work- but this is not just an employee engagement idea. The best way is to extend your appreciation to employees. 

Make them feel that you are generously satisfied with the work done. Don't just show your appreciation by saying, "Great work John", but instead give a reward in any form as a part of a token of appreciation. This will further create enthusiasm to offer quality output. 

15. Work on your office design 

‍Yes, this is the most important and in-direct employee engagement idea to follow for a better return. Employees love working in an inviting office with good lights, dressed-up desks, in-house coffee space, fun activity rooms, etc. 

This creates a good impression among employees to work and enjoy simultaneously. If you have a smaller office space, you can consider offering remote/home working space. 

16. Be a coach, not a boss 

‍There is a difference between being a boss and a coach. A coach trains its players to bring out the best in them, while the boss orders them to perform work. Employees need someone who can encourage them and bring out the best in them, helping to build a promising career. 

Throughout the work process, ongoing motivation is something that can work best with employees. Training your employees is the best way to help them to work diligently. The Udemy research found that 70% of employees found the training helps them stay focused on the job and manage their time.‍ 

Conclusion 

The main aim of employee engagement ideas for managers is to make them feel satisfied, passionate, and feel energized at work. Hence, it’s all about investing in your team to help them achieve these requirements for their well-being and the betterment of the company. 

This will persuade them to voluntarily be loyal to the organization while experiencing greater job satisfaction and work-life balance. This simultaneously benefits the business and will make it easier for the organization to retain better employees and see improved quality of work. 

Employees will also put forward their best work because they feel connected, realizing that the organization appreciates their work and understands how it contributes to the greater good. This can be extremely rewarding and renders fruitful results to both the employees and the company. 

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