Employee Engagement: How It Builds High Performing Cultures

The job market is more competitive than ever, thanks to the expansion of remote work and global hiring. Retaining top talent has become increasingly difficult since your top-performing employees could be just a Zoom call away from another job opportunity anywhere in the world.

To motivate your team members to stay, it’s not enough to just pay them well. You need to keep them engaged. Paying genuine attention to improving employee engagement can help keep your talent, while a declining employee engagement rate in your company may lead to a 59% higher turnover rate, according to a Gitnux report.

But what is employee engagement, and how can you achieve and maintain it? Our employee engagement guide equips HR professionals with the tools and knowledge needed to foster a motivated, committed, and high-performing workforce.

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is the emotional commitment and connection of employees to the organization and its goals. It shows how invested employees are in their work and how much effort they are willing to put in beyond the basic requirements of their role.

Typically, engaged employees are more productive, provide better customer service, and stay longer with employers. They are motivated, feel a sense of belonging and purpose within the company, and strive to make a difference.

Employee engagement in numbers

There are quite a few reasons why employee engagement is crucial for your company and the numbers that back them up speak for themselves.

Employee satisfaction and retention: Higher engagement levels are closely linked to increased employee satisfaction, which reduces turnover rates. Companies with engaged employees see 65% greater retention rates than companies where employees don’t feel connected to their organization’s mission and purpose.
Productivity and profitability: Highly engaged teams show 21% greater profitability and a 20% increase in productivity.
Customer satisfaction: Engaged employees are more likely to improve customer relationships, resulting in a 10% boost in customer ratings and 18% in sales.
Innovation: Engaged employees are more motivated to contribute ideas, leading to innovation and growth. 59% of engaged employees say their job inspires their most innovative ideas, against only 3% of disengaged employees.
Workplace morale: High levels of engagement contribute to a positive work environment, boosting employee morale. Employee absenteeism is 41% less in companies with high engagement rates.
Organizational success: Engaged employees demonstrate better performance and are more likely to contribute positively towards achieving business goals and objectives.

7 most common employee engagement models to follow

Employee engagement models provide structured frameworks and approaches to help organizations better understand, measure, and improve the level of engagement among their employees.

Here are some of the most well-known employee engagement models:

1. Gallup’s Q12 employee engagement model

Developed by Gallup, this model measures employee engagement using 12 key questions that cover the basic needs, individual contributions, team dynamics, and growth opportunities of employees in a workplace.

Positive answers to these questions are strongly linked with high employee engagement and performance.

Gallup’s team goes on to explain the science behind each question so that you can fully understand what you’re measuring if you opt for this approach with your team.

2. The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model

The JD-R model explains how a good balance between a job’s demands and available resources can lead to higher employee engagement. Job demands are the challenging parts of a job that require effort and can cause stress. Resources are the supportive elements of a job that help you meet goals, lessen the challenges, and promote growth.

When the support and resources provided at work are greater than the challenges faced, employees are more likely to be engaged and motivated.

3. The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES)

Developed by Schaufeli and Bakker, the UWES model measures work engagement based on three key components:

Vigor: Having high energy and mental strength at work
Dedication: Being deeply involved in your work and feeling it’s meaningful, exciting, inspiring, and challenging
Absorption: Being completely focused and happily involved in your work

4. Aon Hewitt’s model

Aon Hewitt’s employee engagement model identifies the psychological conditions that reflect engagement:

Say: Speaking positively about the organization
Stay: An intention to remain with the organization
Strive: Going above and beyond to contribute to the organization’s success

5. The Zinger model

David Zinger developed this model around 10 building blocks for employee engagement, including relationships, recognition, and growth. The flexible model allows organizations to create engagement strategies based on these fundamental blocks.

6. The SCARF model

Although not exclusively an employee engagement model, David Rock’s SCARF model (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness) focuses on social domains that influence human behavior in organizational contexts.

Enhancing these areas can increase engagement by reducing threats and increasing rewards within the workplace’s social environment.

7. The Kahn model

William Kahn’s model is one of the earliest, laying the groundwork for understanding employee engagement. It focuses on the physical, cognitive, and emotional aspects of employee engagement at work.

According to Kahn, engagement occurs when employees bring their “personal selves” to their job roles, enabling full expression and use of personal skills and abilities.

Key drivers of employee engagement you should consider

The key drivers of employee engagement are essential elements that create a work environment where employees feel appreciated and motivated. Understanding and addressing these drivers can help organizations increase engagement levels.

Here’s a brief overview of the ten most important ones:

Driver	What it looks like in the workplace
Purpose	Employees understand how their roles and individual contributions align with the organization’s overarching mission and objectives.
Recognition	Employees feel valued and appreciated when their hard work and accomplishments are acknowledged publicly or privately by peers or supervisors.
Leadership	Employees trust their leaders, feel inspired by their vision and direction, and are motivated to contribute towards shared goals.
Autonomy	Employees take ownership of their tasks, demonstrate initiative, and feel empowered to innovate and problem-solve independently.
Empowerment	Employees feel empowered to voice their ideas, suggest improvements, and drive positive change within their roles and the organization.
Professional development	Employees actively seek out learning opportunities, participate in training programs, and continuously develop their skills and knowledge.
Communication	Employees communicate openly, share ideas and feedback freely, and feel heard and respected by their colleagues and leadership.
Feedback	Employees welcome feedback as an opportunity for growth, actively seek and provide feedback, and use it to enhance their performance.
Meaningful work	Employees feel a sense of purpose and fulfillment in their work and understand its impact on the organization’s goals and outcomes.
Interpersonal relationships	Employees collaborate effectively, support one another, and build strong professional relationships based on trust, respect, and teamwork.

How to measure employee engagement

Analyzing the gap between your current employee engagement rate and where you want it to be is key to putting together a strategy to improve it. To identify and understand the gap, you need to track and measure employee engagement over time.

Weekly employee pulse checks, 1:1 meetings, focus groups, and observation are a few common methods of measuring employee engagement levels.

Weekly pulse checks

Weekly pulse checks are among the best ways to gauge the sentiments your employees have about their work. These concise surveys are designed to be completed in just a few minutes. They typically consist of a few questions focused on assessing current engagement levels, well-being, and perceptions your employees have of their work environment.

Key features:

Quick completion: Weekly pulse checks are brief and don’t interrupt employee workflow or momentum. Employees can quickly provide feedback without a significant time investment.
Anonymity: To encourage honesty, responses to pulse checks can be anonymous. This anonymity helps employees feel safe sharing their true feelings and thoughts, providing more accurate and valuable insights.
Insights provided: Pulse checks offer real-time data on employee sentiment, engagement, and the immediate impact of any organizational changes. They can highlight emerging issues before they become significant problems (for example, discover signs employees are preparing to quit), track changes in sentiment over time, and provide continuous feedback to guide organizational improvements.

Other methods for assessing engagement

Combined with other qualitative methods and quantitative metrics, pulse checks provide comprehensive insights into employee engagement levels and the factors influencing them.

One-on-one meetings: They follow weekly pulse checks and allow for deeper discussions about an employee’s experiences, challenges, and improvement suggestions.
Focus groups: Discussions with groups of employees can uncover shared experiences and collective insights that might not emerge from individual responses.
Observation: Managers and leaders observing team dynamics, meeting participation, and day-to-day behaviors can provide additional context to the quantitative data collected.

Engagement metrics and KPIs

After collecting qualitative insights through these methods, it’s essential to measure engagement through specific metrics and KPIs:

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): Gauges the willingness of your employees to recommend the organization as a place to work at.
Turnover rate: A higher turnover might indicate lower engagement, whereas a lower turnover suggests higher engagement.
Absenteeism rate: Increased absenteeism can be a sign of disengaged employees.
Productivity metrics: Monitoring changes in productivity can help correlate engagement levels with work output.
Quality of work: Assessments of work quality can indicate engagement through the care and effort put into tasks.

Strategies for improving employee engagement

Any company aiming to boost productivity, retain talent, and foster a positive workplace culture must increase employee engagement. Effective engagement strategies can lead to happier employees, better performance, and higher customer satisfaction.

Below, we explore several key strategies for enhancing employee engagement, along with actionable steps for each area:

1. Develop effective leadership and management practices

Leaders and managers inspire trust and respect through their actions and decision-making. They motivate employees, address concerns, and facilitate a supportive, open work culture. Developing these qualities in leaders and managers involves ongoing training, feedback, and a commitment to leading by example, ensuring they are equipped to support their teams.

Actionable steps:

Train leaders and managers in emotional intelligence and effective communication
Encourage managers to set clear expectations and provide (and receive) regular, constructive feedback

2. Create a positive and inclusive company culture

A positive and inclusive company culture is one where every employee is an appreciated member of a community. It promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion, ensuring all voices are heard and considered. It’s built on mutual respect, understanding, and shared values, encouraging innovation, creativity, and collaboration.

Establishing such a culture requires deliberate policies, practices, and behaviors that support diversity and inclusion at every level of the organization.

Actionable steps:

Implement policies that promote diversity and inclusion
Celebrate cultural differences and encourage social interactions among employees
Establish a zero-tolerance for discrimination and harassment

3. Implement recognition and reward systems

Recognition and rewards validate the efforts and contributions of your employees, increasing their motivation and engagement. An effective recognition and reward system is timely, specific, and aligned with the company’s values and goals. It acknowledges both individual achievements and team successes.

Actionable steps:

Create a structured recognition program that acknowledges both individual and team achievements
Offer meaningful rewards, such as bonuses, extra time off, or public acknowledgment.
Ensure recognition is timely, specific, and frequent
Implement peer-to-peer recognition programs to empower employees to acknowledge each other’s contributions
Use HR platforms, like HeartCount, that allow for real-time recognition and visibility across the organization

4. Provide opportunities for development and career growth

Career development opportunities signal an investment in the future and personal growth of your employees. Providing them encourages employees to expand their skills and knowledge, increasing their engagement and loyalty to the company. It also helps the organization build a skilled and adaptable workforce ready to meet future challenges.

Actionable steps:

Offer training programs, workshops, and seminars that cater to career interests of your employees
Support mentorship and coaching opportunities
Post job openings internally first

5. Enhance communication and ensure employee voices are heard

With open communication, all employees feel informed, involved, and heard. It involves encouraging feedback, ideas, and dialogue from all levels of the organization. Regular communication and feedback channels such as surveys, meetings, and suggestion boxes can facilitate this two-way communication.

Actionable steps:

Implement regular surveys and feedback mechanisms, like pulse checks, to gather employee insights
Create a feedback loop where employees can see the outcomes of their input
Hold town hall meetings and Q&A sessions with leadership

6. Foster a collaborative and supportive work environment

Encouraging a culture of support and collaboration increases engagement by making employees feel valued and part of a cohesive team.

Actionable steps:

Promote team-building activities and cross-functional projects.
Recognize and reward teamwork and collaborative achievements.
Provide tools that facilitate collaboration.
Offer team collaboration spaces, both physical and virtual, designed to enhance teamwork and creativity.

Unlock the potential of a truly engaged workforce

Employee engagement requires commitment; it’s a continuous process, not a one-time fix.

Establishing a culture of recognition, emphasizing open communication, and providing growth opportunities can help you build a workplace where employees feel appreciated, motivated, and encouraged to reach their full potential.

HeartCount allows you to seamlessly gauge employee sentiment, measure engagement levels, and gain actionable insights in real time.

With HeartCount’s pulse check surveys and data analysis, you can identify areas that require attention, track progress, and make informed decisions to continuously cultivate a thriving and engaged workforce.

Use a 14-day free trial to learn how our platform works today.