Suffering from disengaged team members?

Having studied employee engagement for years, in this article, I will share with you expert insights into the why, what, and how of employee engagement.

1. What is Employee Engagement?
2. Benefits of Employee Engagement
3. Using Employee Experience to Drive Employee Engagement
4. Employee Engagement Strategies for Hybrid and Remote Teams
5. The Power of Listening and Employee Surveys to Drive Employee Engagement
6. How to Engage Employees Through Events and Activities
7. Boosting Engagement with Employee Recognition
8. How to Engage Remote Employees
9. How to Build Community at Work

What is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement is individuals' profound and emotional connection with their organization. 

It goes beyond being satisfied with your job, resulting in people who invest in their work, colleagues, team, and the company's goals and values.

This means people love coming to work, which is so important.

Sounds good, right?

It does. But it’s easier said than done.

Benefits of Employee Engagement

Why do we care so much about this employee engagement?

Well, as you can guess from the above, if people are emotionally invested in their jobs, they tend to be more productive, more committed, and stay with the company longer.

Research has consistently shown that employee engagement directly impacts various aspects of business performance.

The difference between highly engaged teams and the ones that dread coming to work is incredible, per 2023 Gallup employee engagement data:

• 81% in absenteeism
• 43% in turnover
• 28% in theft
• 64% in accidents
• 41% in quality (defects)
• 10% in customer loyalty and engagement
• 18% in productivity
• 23% in profitability

This is exactly why employee engagement is critical in achieving success as a team and company.

Gallup's latest survey, which over 160,000 employees participated in, has good and bad news.

The good news? Employee engagement rose double-digits, up 11% from 2022 to 2023.

The bad news? Employee engagement is still only at 23%.

That means most people are disengaged at their jobs, costing us $8.8 trillion in lost productivity yearly. Yikes.

Using Employee Experience to Drive Employee Engagement

So, how to improve Employee Engagement? 

If Employee Engagement is the desired result, a stellar Employee Experience is the input.

The Employee Experience encompasses every employee interaction with the company throughout their employment journey.

It includes the recruitment and onboarding process, ongoing development and growth opportunities, meaningful work assignments, supportive team dynamics, and a positive work environment.

The employee experience journey consists of several key stages, including attracting top talent, hiring the right people, onboarding them effectively, engaging them in their work by setting clear performance goals, providing development opportunities, and ensuring a positive exit experience.

Each stage shapes the overall Employee Experience and fosters Employee Engagement.

This is why more companies are investing in Employee Experience Management and why, according to recent LinkedIn data, the Employee Experience Manager is one of the fastest-growing jobs.

Attract

Attracting top talent begins with creating a strong employer brand, a killer employee value proposition, and clearly articulating the organization's purpose and values.

Candidates are increasingly interested in working for companies aligning with their values and offering meaningful work.

This is why remote-first companies like Atlassian and Buffer are so popular, as they built their brand around much-desired remote work flexibility.

To build a highly attractive employee value proposition, company culture expert Josh Levine shared in our interview that we should focus on the 5Ps: Package, Potential, People, Purpose, and Pedigree.

Hire

The hiring process should be aligned with the organization's purpose, brand, and culture. 

Objective and scientifically rigorous talent assessments can help ensure a fair and effective hiring process, leading to better overall performance and reduced turnover.

This is why things like updating your phone interview questions for your screener interviews is critical. If these questions don’t convey that working for your company is an amazing opportunity for the right candidate, you’re missing an opportunity at the very first stages of the relationship.

Onboard

Effective onboarding goes beyond a few quick presentations and some on-the-job training. 

Still, Gallup data shows that only 29% of new hires feel fully prepared and supported after being onboarded.

Onboarding best practices prescribe that you should focus on helping new employees quickly assimilate into their teams, understand the organization's purpose and values, and feel empowered to contribute their unique strengths.

In remote onboarding, where you don’t meet the new hire, a personalized and structured experience that fosters connection, understanding, and productivity will set the stage for a successful team and company experience.

Engage

Employee engagement goes beyond providing a pleasant work environment. 

It involves creating a supportive culture, fostering strong relationships between managers and employees, and providing professional growth and development opportunities.

While it was never easy to positively engage employees, remote work and hybrid remote work have made it even more challenging.

Engagement ideas from getting to know you activities to company retreats can support you to achieve this day-to-day engagement, and you’ll find examples further down in the article.

But real engagement isn't just fun activities. It comes from great leadership, real involvement in your team members as people, and creating reasons for people to want to continue contributing their best work to your team and organization.

Perform

Setting clear performance expectations and providing regular feedback and recognition are essential for employee engagement. 

People-centric managers often feel challenged to coach for and demand performance, thinking it’s at odds with being people-centric.

But as Dave Ulrich, the founder of modern HR and one of the world's leading leadership coaches, told me in our interview: “leadership is about delivering results in the right way.” Performance is part and parcel of working in any company.

"I've got to care about my people, have compassion and empathy, and I've got to compete in the marketplace. And so the paradox you just laid out is so powerful. If I build a good organization and don't care about people, I've got a great system, but nobody's going to play if I have great people, and if they don't work well as a team, we don't succeed." – HR Godfather Dave Ulrich

It’s also important that employees feel their work is valued and their contributions are acknowledged. For ideas about recognition, see further down.

Develop

Employees value opportunities for growth and development. 

Organizations should provide ongoing coaching, support, and opportunities for acquiring new skills and taking on new challenges.

This is especially a great way to engage Gen Z, as for them, learning and development are key reasons to stay with a company. For more senior hires, you can invest in leadership coaching.

Depart

Even when employees leave the organization, providing a positive exit experience is essential. 

From exit interviews to alumni groups, employees who leave on good terms are more likely to become brand ambassadors and speak positively about their experience with the company.

And just like with any product or service, (online) word of mouth can be a killer advantage!

Employee Engagement Strategies for Hybrid and Remote Teams

While all the above has been true for decades, the changes in how we work over the past years means a new way to look at employee engagement, too.

Fostering employee engagement in hybrid and remote teams requires a tailored approach.

Over the years, I've collected a number of expert employee engagement strategies that I find to be highly valuable in keeping teams engaged:

1. Embrace Company Values and Mission: Have strong core values and an inspiring mission, and communicate them constantly. Align team members with these values to create a sense of purpose and belonging. In managing remote teams, purpose is more important then ever.
   
2. Invest in Learning and Growth: Provide continuous learning opportunities for professional development. Offer online courses, webinars, mentorship programs, and career development plans.
   
3. Promote Transparent Communication: Ensure open, honest communication channels. Share important updates and progress to keep everyone informed and engaged.
   
4. Recognize and Reward Performance: Implement a recognition program to acknowledge contributions. This can include financial and non-financial incentives.
   
5. Prioritize Work-Life Balance: Encourage a healthy balance by respecting employees' time off and promoting flexible schedules. This helps prevent burnout and enhances well-being. Understand that people may suffer from work from-home loneliness.
   
6. Build a Diverse and Inclusive Culture: Focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Create an environment where all employees feel valued and heard.
   
7. Facilitate Virtual Team Building: Organize virtual social events and team-building activities to foster team cohesion and interpersonal connections. See below for my recommendations and ideas.
   
8. Empower Autonomy and Trust: Trust employees to manage their responsibilities independently. Encourage ownership and accountability in their tasks and projects. Micromanagement and a focus on hours over outcomes is so 2023!
   
9. Ensure Employee Well-Being: Offer wellness programs and mental health support. Acknowledge personal milestones and events to support physical and mental health.
   
10. Stay Adaptable and Responsive: Continuously gather feedback and be willing to adapt engagement initiatives. This ensures they effectively support managers and their teams. For more about this, see the section about employee surveys below.

For more about employee engagement strategy, see our 10 Expert Tips on Employee Engagement Strategies.

I also highly recommend checking out my conversation about Employee Engagement Best Practices with Christie Hoffman, a workplace strategist.

The Power of Listening and Employee Surveys to Drive Employee Engagement

Traditionally, employee engagement was measured through annual or bi-annual surveys. Sorry, but that won't cut it in today's fast-paced world of work.

Employees' expectations and needs continuously evolve, which means we must adapt our employee engagement and experience strategies.

Cue employee surveys: questionnaires organizations use to understand their employees better. From pulse surveys to continuous listening, getting a firm finger on the pulse is key

These surveys are designed to measure employee satisfaction, engagement, and overall experience within the company and can cover the work environment, communication, recognition, career development, and management effectiveness.

All crucial to get right for a highly engaged team and company.

For a detailed look, see our master guide on Employee Surveys, from design to tools.

Benefits of employee surveys

There's a reason why everyone, from startups to enterprises, uses employee surveys. Benefits of employee surveys include:

• Generating Insights. Employee surveys provide valuable insights into how your people experience life in your company. They let you know exactly where you're doing well, and where you may need to invest a bit more. (All to make joining and staying at your company more attractive!)
  
• Creating Transparency. Employee surveys also promote open communication and transparency because you show employees you care. Of course, this only works if you turn your insights into action!
  
• Measure Progress. Finally, employee surveys help track progress and measure the impact of initiatives or changes implemented based on previous survey results.

Types of Employee Surveys

There are a few types of employee surveys that you'll want to look into if you're serious about boosting your employee engagement:

• Employee Engagement Surveys: provide insights into people's emotional connection and commitment to the organization and identify areas where employees may be disengaged. They're a bit longer, and you'll often do them 1-2 times yearly.
  
• Pulse Surveys: are short and frequently sent surveys that let employees share feedback in real-time, so you get a continuous snapshot of employee satisfaction.
  Check our guide to the employee pulse survey, including a free downloadable template, and our review of the best employee survey tools.‍
• Exit Surveys: are a great way to understand why people leave and the ultimate moment where you may get some of the most honest feedback to keep others longer. (Exit interviews are a great way to collect these too.)‍
• ‍‍Deep-Dive Surveys: can give you detailed insights into specific topics you want to improve on, like onboarding, employee wellbeing, training & development, and leadership.
  

Designing Employee Surveys

Excited to get started with your first employee survey?

Take it from me: it pays to review some expert best practices when creating these surveys. (Christie Hoffman once told me that writing surveys from scratch is like baking a cake without a recipe – but in this case, a very expensive cake.)

• Designing effective employee surveys requires clear objectives and precise questions. Start with a specific goal for your survey and craft each question to focus on a single topic, using straightforward language.
  
• Mix various question types like multiple-choice and open-ended to keep it engaging.
  
• Avoid biased phrasing to ensure neutral responses and comprehensive options, avoiding overlap.
  
• Keep the survey short; you'll prevent participant fatigue.
  
• Test your survey with a small group for clarity and relevance.
  

Sending Employee Engagement Surveys and Collecting Data

Assuming you're tech-savvy like most of our readers, you know that you won't send your beautifully crafted employee survey as a Word attachment to an email.

You're going to collect responses using smart software.

Well, fortunately then, we have gone ahead and reviewed the best tools for collecting survey data for workforce engagement. 

They break down into three categories: employee survey apps, employee survey tools, and employee survey providers.

Employee Survey Apps

Employee survey apps let you upload, send, and collect data from employee surveys, often without recurring monthly costs.

Survey apps often provide templates and automated support to run your employee surveys. They are the best choice for managers and People Operations or HR at small to midsize companies for infrequent employee surveys at a low (or even no) cost.

Some of the most popular options include:

1. Google Forms - Best for simple surveys with easy collaboration.
2. NoteForms - Best for creating customizable forms and storing data in your Notion hub.
3. SurveyMonkey - Best for streamlining survey management and providing extensive reporting capabilities.
4. Typeform - Best for delivering personalized survey experiences for better data insights.
5. Jotform - Best for reaching out to customers and collaborating with co-workers with short, quick, dipstick surveys

For even more options, check out our 10 best Employee Survey Apps reviews.

Employee Survey Tools

One step above employee survey apps are employee survey tools, online platforms that collect and analyze employee feedback continuously.

The leading employee survey tools offer multiple survey types, advanced ways to analyze data, and integrate with other platforms you'll have.

Because they're continuously surveying employees, they're even better than one-off surveys in the “listen-analyze-improve-listen” loop.

Employee survey tools also seamlessly integrate insights into other business and HR systems, making reporting at a large scale much easier.

Employee survey tools are best for making an ongoing investment in employee listening.

Leading employee survey tools include:

1. Culture Amp - Best for creating a strong data-driven people strategy
2. Pingboard - Best for streamlining employee management and fostering connectivity in hybrid setups
3. Deel - Best for integrating employee survey tools with advanced analytics and multilingual support
4. CultureMonkey - Best for getting employee feedback and measuring employee happiness
5. Connecteam - Best for easy-to-use employee management, communication, and collaboration software

For more, see our review of the top 11 Employee Survey Tools for Better Employee Engagement in 2024

Employee Engagement Survey Providers

Companies with thousands or tens of thousands often have detailed employee survey requirements.

Employee engagement survey providers can design and facilitate large and complex questionnaires with dedicated consulting teams.

Employee engagement survey providers are best for larger companies wanting to invest seriously in continuously optimizing their highly tailored employee experience.

Some of the leading providers include:

1. CultureAmp
2. Lattice
3. Qualtrics
4. Glint

For more, see our detailed review of the Top 18 Employee Engagement Survey Providers.

Using Employee Engagement Software to Boost Your Employee Engagement

Failing to be successful in your employee engagement efforts means you'll have less productive employees and risk losing your top talents to competitors who offer better environments. 

Yeah, not a dream scenario. 

Lucky for us all, employee engagement tools and software can help you foster employee engagement.

From collaboration to culture, great employee engagement software solutions have:

• Gamification elements incentivize employees to achieve milestones and reward them to boost their motivation and satisfaction.
  
• Collaboration features that facilitate real-time communication among people, with a focus on idea generation and more effective decision-making processes.
  
• Performance tracking links people’s daily tasks to team and company goals, ensuring that employees are inspired to do great work (and hit deadlines.)
  
• Social integration allows employees to communicate with each other in various groups and feeds, to keep people connected beyond the work itself. 

Great examples of employee engagement software that can help you boost employee engagement include:

• WorkTango: The Top Solution for Building Work Culture
• TrakStar: An Overall Solution with Tons of Integrations
• Pingboard: Deliver a Better Employee Experience While Remote
• Motivosity: Excellent for Improving Team Morale
• Nectar: Employee Engagement On A Budget

For more, check out our guide to 5 employee engagement tools for 2024.

How to Engage Employees Through Events and Activities

Now that we're all working from different places at different times, one of the big questions is how we all stay connected and engaged.

Plenty of research shows that people easily disconnect from their work, team, and company when working remotely.

In my interview with Company Culture expert Josh Levine, he said about this:

“In any remote situation, you don't have as many connections, and you don't feel as closely connected or as strongly connected to the company. You're just at home. Now, of course, you're seeing your colleagues and all this stuff, but you don't have those physical reminders of what you're doing and for whom you're doing it. It's almost like you've distilled it down to simple tasks. That is the opposite of what we're trying to do here.” – Josh Levine, Great Mondays

But it's not always easy to do. You need to invest real time and effort.

We've been deeply inspired by Priya Parker's The Art of Gathering, which teaches us the importance of getting together and how to make gatherings meaningful. While it isn't a book about Employee Engagement, many engagement lessons exist.

Based on those principles, we've organized hundreds of online employee engagement activities and events over the past years.

Here are some of our favorites:

Simple Icebreaker and Get-To-Know-You Questions

Sometimes you need to move quickly. These questions are easy to ask, but provide great value:

• Get to Know You Questions for Work: Use questions like "What's your favorite work-from-home perk?" and "How do you recharge after a long week?" to facilitate deeper conversations and understanding among team members.
• Icebreaker Questions for Work: Kickstart conversations with questions like "If you could have any superpower, what would it be?" and "What's one hobby you've always wanted to try?" to get to know your team on a more personal level.
• Would You Rather Questions: Engage your team with thought-provoking choices like "Would you rather work from the beach for a year or have an office with a view of the skyline?" to spark interesting discussions and laughs.

Simple and Free Online Activities

If you have a bit more time for a quick game, then these are some great options for you:

• Getting to Know You Activities: Foster a welcoming team environment with activities like "Two Truths and a Lie," personal trivia quizzes, and "Life Timeline" sharing sessions to encourage personal sharing and strengthen team connections.
• Virtual Team Building Activities: Dive into engaging online experiences that boost remote collaboration, such as virtual escape rooms, online office Olympics, and virtual world tours, designed to enhance communication and team cohesion.
• Occasion-Based Engagement Activities: Celebrate throughout the year with themed activities for Christmas, Children's Day, Halloween, and Summer.
• Virtual Team Building Games: Engage teams with games like virtual Pictionary, online team trivia, and multiplayer puzzle challenges that promote teamwork and problem-solving in a fun, interactive setting.
• Virtual Ice Breakers: Warm up your remote meetings with icebreakers like "Show and Tell," "Virtual Background Challenge," and "Emoji Mood Indicator" to break the ice and boost energy levels.
• 5-Minute Team Building Activities: Quick, impactful exercises like "Airplane Mode" (a rapid unplugging challenge), "Gratitude Round-Robin," and "Flash Debate" to foster communication and teamwork efficiently.

As you can see, almost all these ideas are Inexpensive Employee Engagement Ideas. You can elevate morale without breaking the bank with ideas like virtual volunteer opportunities, "Lunch and Learn" sessions, and team shout-out boards to recognize and celebrate team achievements.

If you have budget and time, and especially if you're planning to meet offline, you will love our Food Team Building Activities. Bond over food with activities like virtual cooking classes, recipe swap meets, and international cuisine nights to explore culinary skills and cultural diversity.

Pro tip: Because people connect more easily in small groups, for most activities, we recommend to use a Random Group Generator to break up big groups.

See all of our hundreds of employee engagement ideas here.

Company Retreats

Especially for remote teams, frequent company retreats can cure any work-from-home-loneliness they may experience.

Retreats like those by expert remote-first, like Dropbox and Doist, have shown improved retention and collaboration. They provide opportunities for connection, collaboration, and team growth.

In fact, Doists Head of Remote Chase Warrington told me in an interview:

“I'm probably one of the few heads of remotes out there pushing for more synchronicity. We got so good at asynchronous communication that we forgot that we needed to actually connect with each other on a human level. We can get our work done, and we can have great work-life balance. But we want more: to feel team cohesiveness and connection with your teammates, and that starts with how you work together.” – Doist’s Head of Remote Chase Warrington

Here are some of our insights and recommendations on making remote retreats work:

• Frequency of Remote Team Meetings: Remote workers often meet in person monthly, with full remote companies recommended to have 1-4 off-sites per year for better engagement and higher earnings.
• Strategic Planning for Retreats: Retreats should be planned with intentionality, focusing on the company's current needs and setting clear expectations for participation.
• Personal Connections Are Crucial: Emphasizing personal connections during retreats is essential. Activities should balance formal and informal interactions to foster relationships.
• Challenges in Planning Retreats: Issues include potential disruption to regular work, coordination complexities, and syncing team availability. Solutions include clear ownership and a focus on day-to-day work alongside retreat activities.
• Retreat Activities and Ideas: Include team-building activities, professional development workshops, outdoor adventures, cultural excursions, and unstructured social time. Prioritize activities that address the company's biggest challenges.
• Planning and Execution Tips: Utilize experts for detailed planning, set clear ownership of the retreat, build anticipation and excitement pre-retreat, provide time for casual connections, and engage in shared experiences.
• Utilizing Retreat Planners: Companies like Midstay, WorkTripp, and The Offsite Co offer specialized services for organizing and executing effective company retreats.

For more, check out our complete guide to Company Retreats.

Boosting Engagement with Employee Recognition

Employee recognition is an effective way to acknowledge the hard work of individuals and teams. It helps create or strengthen team bonds, increase employee productivity, boost engagement, and improve retention rates. 

According to 2023 Zippia research, recognition is the most important thing that motivates team members to perform exceptionally well.

You might have experienced the power of recognition as a recipient or giver. A well-deserved compliment that recognizes your efforts can be incredibly powerful.

To become a pro at employee recognition, keeping three things in mind - regularity, timeliness, and specificity is essential. 

Make sure to provide recognition frequently but not overdo it. Also, promptly share recognition when the work is done, and be specific in your feedback, highlighting what the person did well and what they could improve.

However, sometimes, it can be challenging to come up with unique ways to recognize your team without feeling cliche or boring. 

This is why our team collected 101 employee recognition ideas, including Recognition Ideas For Individual Employees, Teams, and Whole Companies. From thanking people in front of their peers to featuring them in a newsletter, and from creating unique awards to having a family day at the office.

Check out our 101 Employee Recognition Ideas to Show Appreciation to Your Teams. 

Work Anniversaries (“Workiversary”)

One under-appreciated way to recognize employees is to do something special on their work anniversary, or ‘Workiversary.’ 

Celebrating work anniversaries isn’t just about acknowledging milestones; it’s about expressing appreciation for people's hard work and dedication. And it pays off, as Gallup research shows that individuals who get recognized are 20 times as likely to be engaged.

Just like with employee recognition ideas, the key is to put real thought into the celebration and ensure the moment doesn’t pass like a ship at night.

Again, we collected over 100 ideas, most perfect for hybrid and remote teams. This is great news, as research shows that 64% say appreciation is more important when working from home.

Ideas include:

• Focusing on their Growth Journey
• Creating a Kudo Wall with coworkers’ wishes
• Naming best traits

We also include tens of sample messages so you don’t suffer from empty-page syndrome. 

‍Check out our guide to 100+ Happy Work Anniversary Quotes, Wishes, and Celebration Ideas. And for that very important third year, when resignations increase, there’s a special guide to the 3-Year Work Anniversary. Looking for images rather than words? Check out our work anniversary images here!

How to Engage Remote Employees

While all of the strategies, best practices, and tips I shared already take into account that some or most of your team is remote, you may wonder how to engage remote employees more specifically.

Here are five ways you can engage employees no matter where they work:

1. Ensure Employees Feel Heard, Valued, and Connected: Prioritize open communication, feedback opportunities, and regular check-ins. Recognize and celebrate achievements to build trust and appreciation within the team.
2. Host Virtual Meetings and Casual Hangouts: Use online platforms for regular meetings and informal social interactions. This helps in building connections and ensuring team alignment. Also, assign accountability partners to keep team members motivated and connected.
3. Encourage Health and Wellness: Promote a healthy work-life balance and offer wellness programs. Be mindful of work hours and encourage physical and mental well-being activities.
4. Foster Personal Connections: Regularly reach out to team members to build strong relationships. Tailor assignments to align with their strengths and interests, enhancing job satisfaction and team loyalty.
5. Keep the Lines of Communication Open: Respect diverse time zones and work schedules. Use efficient communication tools to maintain transparency and inclusivity, allowing team members to feel valued and heard.

For more, check out my guide about how to engage remote employees.

How to Build Community at Work

As Brian Elliott (Slack) told me in our interview, “People don’t quit bosses; they quit teams.” The sense of comradery and community at work is critical to drive engagement. 

Community at work refers to employees' sense of belonging and connection in a company, which helps you create an engaging experience. 

It helps combat social isolation, strengthens relationships among team members, creates more reasons to stay in a company, and even becomes a substantial competitive advantage. 

In hybrid and remote companies, it’s even more important to build a community, as people often don’t connect with colleagues beyond their immediate team.

Workplace communities include Departmental or Team Communities, Project-Based Communities, and Affinity or Interest Groups. 

To build and continuously engage and expand workplace communities, my research shows you need to consider three critical steps:

1. Collect relevant data on your employees' interests and passions. 
2. Find communities of like-minded employees within your wide employee base.  
3. Once you've found these "tribes," create community-specific content like events and activities. 

Once the community flywheel starts spinning, it becomes a self-sustaining engine that creates engagement. 

Great colleagues, even outside of your immediate team, whom you’re closely connected with become a compelling reason to stay with the company and do your best work – the definition of employee engagement.

For more, see my articles about the What, Why, and How of Community at Work, and How to Build a Community in the Hybrid or Remote Workplace. 

The Bottom Line

Employee engagement remains critical for organizational success in the hybrid and remote work era.

Fostering a positive employee experience, from attracting top talent to providing opportunities for growth and development, is key to creating engaged and motivated teams.

By implementing strategies that prioritize values, communication, recognition, work-life balance, diversity and inclusion, and team building, organizations can create a culture of engagement that drives business performance and supports the well-being of employees.

I’ve learned the hard way, so I hope that putting together these lessons and resources helps you skip a few challenging years of trial and error and head straight for employee engagement mastery!