What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement can be defined as the connection, involvement and enthusiasm that your employees have for their work and their workplace. It can be measured by a range of factors, including:

• enthusiasm
• commitment
• effort and motivation
• pride in the work and workplace.

Job satisfaction is also a factor but it doesn’t always indicate engagement, as an employee might be satisfied with their job but not fully engaged with the workplace.

Engaged employees have an emotional connection to their workplace. They take pride in the work they do and the organisation they work for. This motivates them to put in the effort that makes a genuine difference to results.

A highly engaged employee typically:

• has a positive emotional connection with their organisation, other team members and their work
• often demonstrates enthusiasm and a motivation to go beyond what their role requires
• is loyal and committed
• has a high-performance output.

Why employee engagement matters

Engagement impacts your business across a range of areas. According to research conducted by Gallup examining the impacts of employee engagement (Gallup 2024), businesses in the top 25% for employee engagement experienced (compared to businesses in the bottom 25%):

• 78% less absenteeism
• a 17% increase in sales productivity
• a 23% increase in profitability.

Engaged employees are less likely to leave their jobs

High engagement reduces attrition too, with typically high-turnover organisations experiencing 21% less turnover, and organisations with typically low turnover experiencing 51% less turnover when they have high engagement levels.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) data on job mobility in 2023 found that while there’s been a reduction in the number of people moving jobs after the Covid-19 pandemic, this isn’t reflected across all industries. The ABS reported that 9.7% of people in sales switched jobs in 2023, and 43% of those workers moved to a different employer (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2024). The biggest reason people leave jobs is to secure better conditions – and this isn’t just about remuneration.

Additionally, Deloitte’s 2023 Global Contact Center Survey found that 63% of contact centres are facing a staffing shortage – and only 29% of those contact centres are developing career paths as a corrective measure and only 10% are developing enrichment activities as a corrective measure (Deloitte Development LLC 2023).

If your business can’t keep its workforce, it means it is spending more time and money on recruitment, induction and getting people up to speed than it should be. Attrition also reduces corporate knowledge, which poses risks to succession planning, reputation and even compliance.

Workplaces that don’t make efforts in the areas that drive engagement are more likely to see people leave than those that actively develop and implement strategies to improve the engagement of their employees.

Engaged employees drive business outcomes

Highly engaged workers care more about your business than those with low engagement levels. Engaged employees take ownership and are enthusiastic; they improve the experience for your customers, ensure quality outcomes and help to drive innovation. These metrics are important for all businesses and employee engagement makes a real difference to the bottom line.

Employee engagement is important because it leads to increased productivity, reduced absenteeism, better employee retention and improved business outcomes. These factors contribute to the overall success and performance of an organisation.

Read more about the benefits of employee engagement in our blog, Creating a successful employee engagement strategy in 2023.

Key drivers of employee engagement

So what drives employee engagement? What impacts an employee’s enthusiasm, motivation and pride in their work? Several factors work together:

• leadership
• workplace culture
• support and development
• recognition and reward
• work-life balance
• ownership and autonomy.

Focusing on all your drivers will improve employee engagement. It’s not just ensuring that your leaders are on the same page when it comes to values, investing in formal training programs, or creating a diversity and inclusion program. Employee engagement lifts when it’s seen as important and when multiple strategies are developed and implemented.

Let’s look at some of the best ways you can lift employee engagement.

6 of the best employee engagement strategies

Employee engagement strategies should be aimed at improving the key drivers of engagement. Fixing low morale, poor culture or ineffective workplace training programs won’t happen without thoughtful consideration and development of tailored strategies and enthusiastic implementation across an organisation.

Let’s explore our favourite strategies to boost engagement.

1. Look at your leaders

Leaders model behaviours and set the tone for the workplace. If team leaders and senior managers aren’t engaged, why should your employees be? If leaders are engaged but are not taking a real interest in their employees or failing to support their people where it matters then this will need to be addressed. In fact, good leadership is required to drive all employee engagement strategies.

Leadership assumes a central role in propelling employee engagement, and leaders should spend time working on their leadership style and ensuring it’s going to support engagement. No matter what the leadership style, leaders should be expected to:

• reflect company values and the behaviours you want to see in your people
• demonstrate a positive attitude and enthusiasm (this should be genuine)
• follow through on promises they make
• show employees that the business is invested and interested inthem
• foster a culture of trust and open communication.

Effective leadership involves fostering an environment for growth and motivation, so find ways to ensure employees feel valued and acknowledge employee contributions.

2. Offer one-to-one coaching opportunities

A guaranteed method of driving engagement is by supporting employees to reach their own goals. Engaging employees through coaching activities and conversations outside of formal training is a great way of supporting employees daily and helping them to achieve their goals – as well as the organisation’s.

Team leaders probably have the most critical impact on an employee’s day-to-day engagement. Team leaders set the tone for the team, play a key role in aligning organisational goals with individual performance targets, and are in the best position to offer support and guidance.

Regular check-ins with team members give managers time to re-set goals, discuss behaviours and build rapport. Employees get the opportunity to share concerns and receive the guidance that they need to meet their own goals.

When embedded into the daily operations, one-to-one coaching shows employees that they are valued – each day. What a great way to show employees you genuinely support them!

Coaching conversations:

• provide an opportunity to discuss goals and address capability gaps
• build trust and rapport
• help employees have ownership over their development and how they can contribute
• ensure that employees can discuss any issues that they’re experiencing.

People are looking for connections with other people. Team leaders play a critical role and the conversations they have with their employees should be consistent and productive. YakTrak’s employee coaching software embeds coaching into the daily operations of work, ensuring that these important conversations aren’t skipped, helping to connect managers and their teams and supporting genuine connections and productive conversations.

Why is coaching better than your current learning and development program?

While formal training and development programs are important and can keep a workforce up to date with new processes, upskilling and growth opportunities, they don’t engage employees in the same way as regular coaching conversations and check-ins.

3. Take an honest look at your workplace environment and invest in your company culture

A culture that considers employees as important as job performance and output is critical in improving engagement. If there’s an issue with workplace culture then you’re not going to somehow end up with more engaged employees by ignoring the culture.

When looking at company culture it’s a good idea to look at the company’s values. What are the company values? Are they relevant or do they need to be updated? Are they being demonstrated or are there areas that need work?

Company values should be tangible for your employees (as well as your customers and stakeholders). You might have values related to, for example:

• innovation and problem-solving
• integrity and transparency
• ownership and accountability
• sustainability and social impact
• teamwork and collaboration.

Bringing all of your values to life is a great employee engagement strategy. Some ways you can integrate values into the day-to-day operational reality of your organisation include:

• Recognising employees: Actively seek examples of people demonstrating specific workplace values and acknowledge them. Think of ideas to foster this, such as asking people to nominate colleagues, holding an awards event, celebrating people in a fun organisational mini-film or podcast, or creating a values board where people can share examples of other’s contributions. Recognition doesn’t always have to be monetary; however, if remuneration isn’t appropriate, this will likely affect engagement negatively. Also, remember to acknowledge efforts and reward people for the behaviours they demonstrate – not just the performance outputs.

• Rewarding teams who display company values: Consider how different teams approach problem-solving, transparency, ownership of issues or projects and collaboration. Or how the outputs of teams demonstrate innovation or care to customers. Highlight these examples across the company. You could hold quarterly team awards where the winning teams are rewarded with fun activities during work time!

Building a great culture is an ongoing process but worth spending time on. It will improve the employee experience, build reputation, help with talent acquisition, reduce employee turnover and increase employee engagement.

4. Stop overworking your employees

Burnout is an issue in many workplaces and occupations. If your people are feeling burnt out then you face major challenges to achieving high engagement. In fact, you’ll probably have a problem with disengaged employees.

Ensuring work-life balance and considering people’s wellbeing can prevent burnout from occurring. Giving people time to recharge their batteries ensures that they can bring their best selves to work.

High engagement can sometimes lead to burnout. Roles in particular professions can also lead to chronic workplace stress, so monitoring stress and providing support is particularly important in these professions.

If burnout is becoming an issue that you’re starting to see across your organisation or team, it will hinder any other employee engagement efforts you’re making. Address burnout by:

• balancing demands and resources to ensure employees are not overwhelmed for sustained periods
• measuring employee wellbeing alongside engagement to identify potential burnout risks
• providing resources and support for employees to maintain their overall health
• ensuring your employees have a work-life balance.

5. Take diversity, equity and inclusion seriously

Belonging is a critical emotional driver for engagement, so creating a sense of belonging and inclusivity in the workplace – along with supporting equity and diversity – should be a critical goal for all organisations.

Inclusion is the practice of ensuring that all people can contribute, feel valued and respected, and can access opportunities within an organisation. This includes:

• people who are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
• people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
• LGBTIQ+ people
• older people
• people with a disability
• women and gender-diverse people.

It’s a fact that some parts of the population are less likely to feel included in the workplace and are more likely to face discrimination than others. An inclusive workplace ensures that everyone feels valued and is supported to do their work. Improving diversity and inclusion involves:

• intentionally being an equitable and inclusive organisation – from mission and values statements through to behavioural expectations, recruitment policies and workplace communications
• educating people (from the top down) to foster understanding and help embed policies that improve diversity, equity and inclusion
• setting up, supporting and listening to employee network groups
• ensuring the workplace is accessible
• using employee engagement surveys to understand issues and measure how strategies are making an impact
• celebrating diversity.

Initiatives in this space will not only drive workplace engagement but again improve recruitment outcomes helping you to open your workplace to a diverse pool of new hires. This will also help with business outcomes, including improved problem-solving and customer understanding.

6. Give people autonomy and ownership

If your workforce doesn’t have ownership of their own work, it’s going to be hard for them to do their best work. This impacts employee engagement as people are less likely to take pride in their work or even have enthusiasm for what they do. This can lead to low motivation and morale.

Foster a culture where employees feel empowered, accountable and invested in the success of the organisation by first ensuring everyone understands how the work they do directly contributes to the organisation’s success.

Empower employees and encourage people to take ownership by:

• giving people the opportunity to make decisions on matters that impact them
• creating a culture of open communication so people feel it’s safe to share their ideas and feedback
• supporting people to take on initiatives and projects they’re interested in.

Don’t forget to measure employee engagement