How to Increase Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is the holy grail of the business world. Get it right, and you could drive down absenteeism by as much as 81%, turnover by up to 43%, and safety incidents by nearly two-thirds. You might even see as much as a 23% increase in overall profitability.

But get it wrong? Poor employee engagement can lead to declining morale, disruptive turnover, and lost opportunities—and once your organization succumbs, it can be difficult to get back on track.

In this article, we’ll cover how to improve employee engagement at every step of the employee lifecycle—from tips on hiring to finding insights in exit interviews.

Along the way, we'll also offer expert tips for measuring employee engagement over time. At BambooHR, our award-winning software helps HR professionals trade tedious spreadsheets for accurate people analytics that capture the state of your business in real time.

What Does Employee Engagement Look Like?

When employees are engaged, they’re often enthusiastically involved in their work. They go beyond the bare minimum required for their role and value successful outcomes.

Engaged employees also communicate proactively with managers and colleagues, contribute and comment on ideas in meetings, show up and have fun during team-building activities, and respond to surveys with thoughtful answers.

Start with Effective Hiring and Onboarding

When you’re hiring new employees, your decisions can make or break employee engagement across the company. Choosing new hires that mesh well into your existing organization—as well as making them feel welcome—can curate engagement from the start.

Align Hiring With Company Culture and Values

Every new hire has the potential to shake up how employees interact with each other, either detracting from or reinforcing your values and culture.

Every new person on your team has the potential to shake up how employees interact with each other, either taking away from or adding to your values and culture.

To be a great hire, a new employee needs to align with the organization in several ways, including compensation expectations, respect for company values, competency in the skills required for the role, and the ability to get along with co-workers and managers.

Don't Overlook Onboarding

New hires are just learning to navigate the twists and turns that more experienced employees take for granted and may need help with basic tasks. Still, 65% of new hires say they have no point of contact for questions, and 62% say they barely receive enough training. Knowing that effective onboarding is key, don’t overlook the training and relationship building that set a pattern of employee engagement from the beginning.

Build Teamwork

Teamwork is important in the workplace for a number of reasons:

• It brings together different perspectives, which can lead to innovative ideas.
• It helps managers learn how to increase remote employee engagement, which is crucial for today’s hybrid teams.
• It allows people to learn from each other, boosting overall performance.
• It helps build positive relationships, translating to a culture of collaboration.
• It helps teams avoid conflict, squashing negativity before it can take root.
• It leads to increased engagement, which can affect business outcomes.

If you’re wondering how to improve employee engagement, teamwork is a great start. The engagement resulting from better teamwork can increase productivity by 18% and profitability by 23% while lowering absenteeism and turnover by 78% and 21%, respectively.

Keep Lines of Communication Open

A robust communication tool is a key step in using employee engagement to increase motivation and performance. Give managers at least a half hour each month for one-on-one meetings where the only purpose is to talk about the employee’s recent performance. They can discuss what went well, identify areas for improvement, and ask each other for clarification or support on upcoming projects.

Adding performance management software to track goals can help improve the results of these meetings and increase workforce engagement between managers and employees.

Show Your Respect

Sometimes, the key to engaging employees boils down to treating them differently. Giving them more independence and perks are two ways to do that.

Give Your Staff More Autonomy

If your employees are feeling disengaged, switching up duties could help. Offering your staff flexibility to try out new tasks can help them understand what they’re good at and interested in. Relaxing your management style to let staff set their own hours, work locations, holidays, and workloads can also help them maintain a solid work-life balance.

Give Time, As Well As Money

There’s more to recognition than bonuses (even if employees won’t say no to some extra cash) or time off. Evaluate your organization’s recognition structure. Are managers providing regular informal recognition for good performance? Do higher-ups recognize individuals or departments after successful initiatives? Meaningful recognition supports employees’ higher motivational needs and shows them their value.

Invest in Engagement

Like most things in life, engagement isn’t free. But that doesn’t mean your company needs to spend an arm and a leg to get your employees in the game. Thoughtfully allocating your budget toward these initiatives can improve engagement across your workplace.

Software Tools for Employee Engagement

Human resources professionals often struggle to measure employee engagement. Instead of fighting with Google Forms and spreadsheets, we recommend investing in an all-in-one HR software that combines the following HR activities:

• Applicant tracking system
• Performance management software
• Employee satisfaction survey tools
• Recognition programs
• Compensation research software

BambooHR brings these features—and more—into a complete, intuitive platform that puts employee engagement metrics at your fingertips. Plus, our vast array of integrations seamlessly sync with our platform, so you can continue using many of the tools you know and love.

Equipment, Tools, and Resources

No one wants to go to work without the tools they need for success. Whether they work in an office or a factory, your staff should have up-to-date equipment. Investing in tools, computers, and software shows you’re committed to your team.

Consistent Employee Development

Study after study finds countless employees disengaging from their organizations because of a lack of professional development. Even new Gen Z graduates are expecting employers to invest in development, with 63% of them saying it’s essential to career success.

Employee development plans keep employees motivated beyond just compensation. They also help the business stay on the cutting edge. This is especially critical when learning how to increase employee engagement in healthcare since patient outcomes are at stake.

5 Employee Engagement Ideas

Now that you know the basics of how to increase employee engagement in the workplace, you can focus on crafting a specific plan for your organization. Use these employee engagement ideas to get started.

1. Create a Great First Day

With everything new employees need to learn on their first day, there are much better ways to spend time than signing paperwork. An HRIS with e-signature capabilities lets new hires complete forms in advance so they can focus on more important matters. Additionally, create a robust orientation presentation and provide some time for new hires to get to know their new teams, maybe with lunch at a nice restaurant.

2. Assign a Mentor

Even the best first day can’t cover everything, but after that introduction ends and work begins, it can be difficult for a new hire to know when or how to ask questions—or who they should ask. Providing each new hire with a mentor gives them a known resource for technical or cultural questions.

3. Regularly Survey Employees

Studies show that employee satisfaction has a significant impact on engagement and productivity. eNPS surveys (Net Promoter Score) and other engagement surveys can help you understand how employees are feeling by tracking dissatisfaction, overall sentiment, and more. With this crucial insight into employee sentiment, you can figure out how to improve on employee engagement before smaller issues lead to widespread problems.

4. Encourage Employee Resource Groups

Employee resource groups (ERGs) represent certain interests, backgrounds, and demographics within your workforce. They can be relatively lighthearted and hobby-based—a film society, for example—or can focus on issues like diversity and representation in the workforce. Funding and encouraging ERGs not only helps people connect with each other in your business but also demonstrates your organization’s commitment to inclusivity.

5. Measure Employee Engagement Through Exit Interviews

When terminating an employee, the exit interview process is a chance for managers and leadership to receive honest feedback and learn from each other. If the employee left voluntarily, it’s important to recognize their reason for leaving and see how it can help the organization improve the employee experience. Finally, don’t forget to stay connected, as some employees may later come back to the company with new skills and experiences.