TLDR: Employee engagement reaches its highest potential when companies proactively align their workplace culture with CSR programs like matching gifts, VTO, and volunteer grants. However, true engagement should also include structured peer-to-peer recognition, transparent performance management, flexible hybrid work models, and ongoing opportunities for employee growth.
As an employer, you want your team to share the enthusiasm and dedication you have for your business. However, employee engagement doesn’t just happen on its own. To increase loyalty, commitment, and productivity among your staff, you’ll need a solid understanding of what employee engagement is and strategies for making it happen. This guide will help get your strategy off the ground by exploring:
- What is employee engagement?
- Why is employee engagement important?
- How do you measure employee engagement?
- How do you know if your employees are engaged?
- Top 15 ideas for engaging your employees
Engagement will differ depending on your organization and employees’ preferences. For instance, a business with many remote employees will need a different strategy from one with in-person teams. But before you can choose the right strategies, you need to understand the basics of employee engagement. Let’s get started!
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement is a measure of how committed and invested employees are in their employers, workplaces, and jobs. Engagement is also a scale with highly engaged employees at one end, unengaged employees in the middle, and disengaged employees at the other end.
Check out this sample ‘employee engagement spectrum’ from Double the Donation:
To increase team-wide engagement, many businesses implement formal employee engagement strategies. These are frameworks for cultivating a positive work culture, increasing employee satisfaction, and boosting productivity. Creating these strategies often involves gathering feedback through surveys, offering additional perks, and using engagement software.
Why is employee engagement important?
Your success hinges on your employees’ work, and employees are more likely to put in increased effort and stick with your business long-term if they’re thoroughly engaged. Here are some other benefits of a highly engaged team:
- Retention: Retaining employees is easy when your team feels supported, valued, and able to grow. These individuals are likely to stay with your business long-term, providing increased value as they use their accumulated knowledge and skills to do great work and get new team members up to speed.
- Productivity: When employees are passionate about their jobs, they’re more enthusiastic about their work and likely to go the extra mile for outstanding results. Along with performing their current tasks to the best of their ability, these employees will offer creative solutions for improving current work processes.
- Positivity: Employees who are positive about their work are more likely to encourage others, be productive problem-solvers, and speak highly of your business outside of work hours. This can help you build a positive word-of-mouth reputation among customers and job seekers alike.
A solid engagement strategy will not only improve employees’ working conditions but also the quality of work they produce and the overall success of your organization.
How do you measure employee engagement?
The ways in which you measure engagement largely depend on your organization’s unique purpose, practices, and environment. A few popular methods include:
- Surveys: The simplest way to get feedback on employee satisfaction is by engaging them directly. Regularly ask how they feel about their compensation, workload, and office environment. To gather honest feedback, ensure employees know that you appreciate their opinions. This requires creating a workplace where staff feel valued and transparent communication is rewarded.
- Advocacy: If your employees recommend or voluntarily advocate for your organization, it’s likely they believe in your work and are proud to represent your organization. This might be reflected in job referrals, service recommendations, and social media activity.
- Involvement: Consider which employees actively participate in events and activities outside of the regular work schedule. Employees who are happy at your organization are more likely to be involved.
Employee engagement software can help you facilitate and measure the impact of your new initiatives, too! Not to mention, if you notice an uptick in positive attitudes around the office, team members surpassing expectations, and successful examples of teamwork, chances are that your engagement strategy is working:
Top 15 ideas for engaging your employees
While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, there are a few tested engagement strategies that many organizations have found empowering. To help your team achieve success, we’ll explore a few top solutions we’ve seen produce outstanding results.
1. Show appreciation.
When employees are regularly recognized for their hard work, they’re more likely to keep it up. While appreciation can take many forms, our preferred method involves sending eCards.
eCards are digital greeting cards that can be sent via email, text message, or social media. With an eCard creation and delivery platform, your business can design custom eCards and send them out to employees to celebrate their accomplishments.
Here’s an example from Circa Logica:By emphasizing that your employees make a difference through their daily work, you’ll show that you value them and their contributions, therefore driving engagement up.
There are two primary ways eCards can engage employees.
- Top-down recognition involves a member of leadership showing appreciation for an employee. If a manager notices a member of their team going the extra mile, they can thank them immediately for a job well done.
- Peer-to-peer recognition occurs when colleagues show appreciation for one another. While less formal than top-down recognition, this approach allows more team members to be appreciated and show appreciation, which can build a stronger sense of community. Plus, peer-to-peer recognition programs are 35.7% more likely to drive a positive financial impact than manager-only recognition (O.C. Tanner, Global Culture Report).
eCards can also help reinforce company values. Check out this Modivcare example:When an employee does something to further your mission, use an eCard to call out the exact value they demonstrated. Specificity shows employees you’re paying attention and encourages them to act in ways that align with company values.
When To Show Employee Appreciation
Being mindful of when you show appreciation can make all the difference in a supportive work environment. To integrate recognition throughout your organization’s culture, we recommend doing so during these specific times:
- Everyday Accomplishments: Shout out employees each time they receive positive client feedback, complete a project, or reach a milestone. You might send an eCard detailing their accomplishments or shout them out in a meeting.
- Workplace Milestones: Celebrate major professional achievements to make team members feel valued for their dedication. This can include acknowledging work anniversaries, honoring retiring team members, or recognizing major business wins like an individual's largest sale to date.
- Birthdays: Wish employees a happy birthday to show you care! With our automated birthday feature, you’ll never forget an employee’s birthday. All you need to do is include employees’ birthdates in their profiles within your eCard platform, create a few birthday-themed cards, and draft meaningful messages. From there, the software will cycle through different combinations to offer each employee a unique birthday wish.
- Holidays: Holidays like Thanksgiving or New Year’s Day provide the perfect opportunity to show gratitude for your employees and look back on their accomplishments from the past year. Send them a special gift or holiday eCard to communicate your appreciation.
- Employee Appreciation Day: This holiday occurs on the first Friday of March each year, providing the perfect opportunity to throw a company party, post about your team on social media, or send thoughtful appreciation eCards.
Key takeaway: Whether you acknowledge an employee’s effort immediately after finishing a project or send well wishes on their birthday, timely recognition shows that you value their contributions.
2. Connect employees’ work to company goals.
Employees want to know their individual contributions matter, and if they are unsure how their day-to-day tasks impact your organization, they may become disengaged. Show your team how each individual member matters by helping employees see the bigger picture at your company. Plus, checking in keeps everyone on the same page and moving toward the same objectives. This can help employees make accurate decisions if a task is ever unclear and prevent projects from going off the rails.
The easiest way to connect employees’ work to your organization’s goals is to write out the purpose behind new tasks when you assign them. For example, when you create a new job posting, add a few sentences explaining what the purpose of the role is and how it fits into your company overall.
3. Launch a workplace giving program.
Engage your employees by giving them a chance to make a difference through their work. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs are opportunities for your organization to give back to the community and create social good. Many of these programs directly involve individual employees, increasing engagement by allowing them to make a greater impact.
A few types of popular workplace giving programs include:
- Matching gifts: Incentivize giving by matching employees’ donations to their favorite charities. Have employees report their donation amounts to you, review their matching gift applications, and then double or even triple their donations by matching their gift amount.
- Volunteer grants: Support employees’ interests by running corporate volunteer programs where you donate monetary gifts in response to the hours individuals contribute to nonprofits. For example, you might offer to donate $100 for every 10 hours volunteered.
- Volunteer days: Get your team involved in giving back by arranging a corporate volunteer day at a local nonprofit. Remember to begin planning the associated activities far in advance to ensure a seamless experience your entire team can participate in together.
Focus your CSR efforts on the causes employees care about the most. For example, after learning that several team members volunteer at the local animal shelter, you might offer to double volunteer grant amounts for animal-related causes.
Bonus! By launching a corporate giving program, your company can also boost customer engagement. You’ll see an improvement in your local reputation when constituents know that you’re working to better their community.
4. Plan work culture events.
Employees often want to make connections with their coworkers but feel they don’t have the time to do so during the normal workday. Provide them with opportunities to get to know one another in a more casual context with work culture events.
For example, you might host events for:
- Birthdays: Post a calendar of all your employees’ birthdays in an easily accessible place. Then, encourage celebration with cake and streamers. As an employer, make a special effort to attend and wish employees a happy birthday.
- Holidays: Make your annual holiday parties a little more fun by celebrating smaller holidays throughout the year. For example, order a few pies for your employees on Pi Day (March 14th) or set up a taco bar on National Taco Day (the first Tuesday of October).
- Company anniversaries: Celebrate important dates for your company, like the day your organization was founded. You can also celebrate employees’ anniversaries, recognizing a certain number of years working for the company, and hand out awards to commemorate their accomplishments.
- Hobby how-tos: Your employees have unique hobbies that fill their time outside of the office. Help your team get to know each other better by hosting events centered around their favorite pastimes. For example, if an employee is skilled in knitting, purchase yarn and knitting needles for an after-work gathering where that individual leads the whole team in making a simple knitting pattern.
Set aside an ‘events fund’ in the budget to provide food, desserts, and other party materials for fun gatherings throughout the year.
Key takeaway: When your organization invests in celebrating and spending time with its employees, it can be viewed as a generous gift from a thoughtful company, making employees more committed to your organization.
5. Create a two-way feedback system.
To help your employees feel understood, ask for their feedback regularly so that they always have an opportunity to be heard. Consider asking for feedback by regularly checking in via email or sending dedicated surveys. For example, you might ask employees about their experiences with a new task management system or how they feel a specific project went. You can also get a general sense of how your team views your workplace (and pinpoint opportunities for improvement) by asking questions like:
- What is something you think the company should start doing?
- What is a missed opportunity for revenue for the company?
- How do you feel about our company’s values?
- What part of the company’s mission statement do you feel you’ve served recently?
- What could the company do to improve office culture?
- How do you feel you’re excelling in your role? How do you feel you’re challenged in your role?
When reviewing responses, look for qualitative insights rather than a certain number of answers. Consider making your surveys anonymous to get the most honest feedback possible. If employees don’t have any opinions to give, that’s okay! Let them know whether a survey is optional to avoid cutting into regular work time.
6. Provide growth and development opportunities.
If your employees are excited about their work, they’ll likely want to grow in their roles. Therefore, it’s a good idea to provide compelling opportunities for professional development. For example, you might offer:
- Tickets to conferences directly related to their jobs or the company’s industry
- Training programs or certificates to help them learn more about their specific roles
- Stipends to pay for courses related to their work
- Skills-based volunteering partnerships, through which employees sharpen their skills by supporting nonprofit causes
Key takeaway: By providing opportunities for professional growth, you’re investing in your employees’ futures. Not only are you equipping them to excel in their current field, but you’re also allowing them to develop their skills for any future roles they might grow into at your organization.
7. Create an employee experience program.
To engage your employees, you need to understand their day-to-day experiences. With an employee experience program, you can create a systemized framework for collecting employee feedback, identifying pain points, and creating a better work environment.
Employee experience consists of all interactions employees have with your business. An employee experience program organizes those interactions to find trends and identify recurring problems. While the details will vary, employee experience programs generally follow this model:
- Employees are surveyed about their experiences.
- Employees highlight pain points in their day-to-day work.
- Surveys are elevated to appropriate members of leadership, such as employees’ managers.
- Leadership assesses issues raised, and either resolves them or pledges to investigate further to find underlying causes.
- The employee is notified that a solution has been implemented or is being considered.
This process repeats continuously so employees can respond to new situations, provide feedback on implemented solutions, and share other concerns they may have.
Keep in mind that while some employee surveys can be anonymous to encourage honest feedback, employee experience surveys should not be. This allows leadership to respond to specific individuals’ concerns and ask for additional details. It also helps employees to know they are heard in the workplace, increasing engagement.
8. Offer flexible working conditions.
According to Gallup, hybrid work is the new normal, with nine out of ten employees preferring a hybrid environment. If your organization can go hybrid, consider what you would need to do so. For instance, cultivating a cohesive company culture and establishing flexible working conditions in a hybrid environment can include:
- Encouraging employees to establish designated in-home workspaces so they can create healthy work-life balance
- Setting clear communication expectations to promote trust and transparency throughout the business
- Using virtual recognition or appreciation strategies, such as sending eCards that celebrate team members’ accomplishments
For many employees, flexible work includes not just where they work but when. This might look like requiring two in-office days a week but letting individuals choose which days or allowing employees to reallocate their hours as long as they achieve a minimum amount of work every week.
9. Hire for fit.
Building an engaged team starts during the hiring process. This doesn’t mean exclusively hiring individuals who share the same background but rather assembling a productive team that will work well together.
For the best results, consider what values, communication styles, and work preferences will make for a cohesive team that thrives in your specific industry. Then, implement new interview questions designed to reveal whether a candidate is a good fit.
For instance, you might ask questions that help determine if a candidate is…
- Teamwork-focused or independent
- “Can you tell me about a recent project where you had to work closely with a team versus one where you worked entirely on your own? Which environment did you feel most energized by, and why?”
- Likely to ask for help or likely to problem-solve on their own first
- “Walk me through a time when you hit a major roadblock or technical issue at work. What steps did you take on your own before deciding to escalate it or bring in a teammate for help?”
- Competitive or collaborative
- “When setting work goals, do you find you are more motivated by beating individual performance targets and outperforming standards, or by achieving a collective milestone together as a group?”
- Creative and risk-taking or focused on sticking to guidelines
- “Describe a situation where a standard process or set of guidelines was in place, but you felt a new, untested approach might yield better results. How did you navigate that decision?”
- Social and friendly or interested in keeping their head down
- “How do you prefer to structure daily workflows when it comes to social interaction: do you perform best in an open environment frequented by spontaneous chats, or do you thrive in uninterrupted focus blocks with minimal interaction?”
While the ‘right’ answers will vary based on your organization, assessing your current team and what types of individuals will help foster a more positive work environment can go a long way.
10. Highlight success.
Show off employee successes by highlighting their work-related accomplishments. This is an opportunity to appreciate high-performing employees and show the rest of your team how hard work and success are rewarded at your organization. A few ways you can do so may include:
- Sending eCards: eCards are a meaningful and convenient way to show your appreciation for employees. In your message, note exactly what you’re recognizing the employee for so they know what behavior to replicate. For more tips on using eCards for employee recognition, check out this video from our team:
- Showing public recognition: Some employees may appreciate a bit of public attention. For these high performers, consider shouting out their accomplishments during an all-hands meeting or making a social media post praising how they’ve contributed to your organization.
- Handing out awards: A physical award can go a long way toward making an employee feel appreciated. This might be a trophy, certificate, plaque, or other tangible object they can take home or display in their office. You can even create an “employee of the month” certificate that you distribute on the first day of each month.
When communicating team-wide wins, consider what type of work environment you want to cultivate, then build out your approach accordingly. For instance, in some workplaces, public recognition may inspire competition, whereas in others it may foster a sense of community. Like with all engagement strategies, ask employees for feedback to ensure you are getting the response you intended.
11. Provide fair and competitive compensation.
While employees likely have many reasons to work for your business, they’re ultimately there to earn fair compensation. If employees feel they are not earning what their work is worth, they may become disengaged or seek other career opportunities.
In performance management meetings, have proper documentation that explains employees’ current compensation, including benefits. This will help guide salary negotiations and provide a foundation for future conversations. Be ready to make additional notes and adjustments based on employees’ feedback, such as if they feel they have taken on increased responsibilities or their role has significantly changed.
When it comes to communicating compensation policies, transparency is key. If there is a disruption, such as your payroll system experiencing technical issues, get ahead of the situation and let employees know what is happening to help them set accurate expectations and prevent misunderstandings.
Additionally, keep an eye on your competitors’ compensation practices. If a business similar to yours offers better benefits and salary ranges, previously engaged employees may consider changing employers.
12. Encourage the establishment of Employee Resource Groups.
Form employee-led committees centered around shared social causes or community interests. Give these ERGs (or Employee Resource Groups) a modest company budget to support eligible nonprofits or organize CSR projects.
Giving circles or ERGs empower team members to take ownership of company philanthropy. They build cross-departmental connections while aligning your workplace culture with causes your staff genuinely cares about.
13. Leverage a spirit of friendly competition with gamification.
Turn office initiatives into exciting, interactive challenges. Start by setting clear goals (such as around sales/revenue dollars, employee giving participation, and beyond) and establishing visual progress trackers within your company portal or intranet system. From there, you can monitor department milestones, showcase live leaderboards, and offer team prizes when staff reaches specific targets.
This is a particularly effective engagement strategy because gamification creates shared focus and healthy competition across departments. Whether your team is pushing to increase software adoption, collect customer testimonials, or reach a project deadline, leaning into employees’ competitive nature keeps momentum high and rewards collective success.
14. Organize micro-volunteering projects for bite-sized social good.
Rather than dedicating a full day for a volunteer event, organize short, targeted sessions where employees are encouraged to use their professional skills to support nonprofits in your community. For example, your marketing team can host an hour-long clinic to help local charities build social media strategies.
Employees love using their core strengths to give back, and micro-volunteering removes the barrier of a huge time commitment.
15. Organize an Employee Innovation Day.
Set aside dedicated, paid working time (such as a quarterly "Hackathon") where staff can step away from daily tasks to work on creative business ideas, internal process improvements, or community tech solutions.
Giving staff autonomy over creative projects boosts intrinsic motivation, prevents burnout, and demonstrates that leadership trusts their expertise.
Final Thoughts on Employee Engagement
To truly engage your employees, you’ll have to find opportunities for your company to stand out in creative ways. Look for meaningful methods to make your employees feel appreciated for their work and excited about their jobs.
For more ideas about employee engagement and creating a positive work environment, check out the additional resources below:
- How to Motivate Employees: 12 Easy Ways to Uplift Workers. If you’re struggling to keep employees engaged, this ultimate guide shares creative ways to motivate your staff members and improve company culture.
- Marketing eCard Software: Custom Digital Greeting Cards. eCards add a bit of creativity to employee engagement. Explore our solution to get an idea of how it’ll work at your organization.
- Employee Coaching: Complete Overview and How-To Guide. A big part of employee engagement is providing them with the skills to succeed. Dive into employee coaching with this guide from RealHR Solutions.