Employee engagement is a crucial yet complex component of retention, business success, and a positive employee experience. Measuring engagement can be a powerful tool to improve staff wellbeing and increase revenue for the organization.
This article discusses a tactical approach to measuring engagement, offers guidance on how to do it correctly, and highlights nine best practices that can boost engagement, retention, motivation, and productivity.
Contents
What is employee engagement?
9 best practices for employee engagement
How to ensure your engagement strategies don’t fail
Tools to boost employee engagement
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement refers to how committed employees are to the organization they work for, as well as how enthusiastic about their jobs they are. Some key drivers of employee engagement include leadership and management quality, meaningful work, recognition and rewards, learning and development opportunities, work-life balance, and company culture.
The more engaged an employee is, the more invested they’re likely to be in the company’s success. This results in greater innovation, better results, a higher employee retention rate and lower turnover, and increased motivation and productivity. A disengaged employee, on the other hand, is typically less motivated and productive, and more likely to resign and contribute to a higher turnover.
9 best practices for employee engagement
Here are nine proven practices to help your organization motivate and retain top talent:
1. Measure the right thing
One of the most significant problems with employee engagement surveys is unclear definitions. Are you measuring engagement, happiness, or empowerment? These terms overlap but are not the same. An engaged employee may not always be happy, and a happy employee may not always be productive.
Different organizations measure engagement differently, which means two companies can report the same score yet have completely different employee experiences. To avoid this, make sure your definition of engagement is tied to actual business outcomes such as productivity, retention, or revenue.
2. Use proven methods
Validated tools like the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES; also available in an ultra-short, three-item version) and the GALLUP scale are widely tested and show strong links between engagement and business performance. Using these ensures your data is reliable and actionable.
The temptation to “tweak” questions for your own context can backfire, as even small changes break the validity of the scale. Unless you have psychometric expertise, stick to proven questionnaires so results remain accurate and comparable over time.
3. Guarantee confidentiality, not anonymity
Full anonymity may seem like the safest option, but it prevents meaningful analysis. Without the ability to link results to departments, roles, or outcomes, your survey loses value.
A better approach is to guarantee confidentiality. Employees trust that their responses won’t be used against them, while leaders still gain the insights they need to take targeted action.
4. Connect data to business outcomes
Knowing that engagement rose 7% is not enough. The real impact comes from linking results to business outcomes. At Best Buy, for example, a 1% increase in engagement translated into $100,000 more revenue per store.
When you can show this type of connection inside your own company, you create urgency. Engagement stops being an HR initiative and becomes a business driver.
5. Highlight what’s in it for the employee
Employees rarely enjoy filling out surveys for their own sake. To keep response rates high, you need to offer something in return — whether it’s personalized feedback, benchmarking against peers, or actionable tips for wellbeing.
This approach helps employees see value in the process, not just the organization. In cases of low engagement, automated advice on avoiding burnout can benefit both the employee and the business.
6. Act quickly on feedback
The worst thing you can do after running an engagement survey is nothing. If your workforce has taken the time to give you employee feedback, they expect action. Long delays between survey results and visible change send the message that leadership is not listening.
Quick wins — like adjusting communication practices or simplifying processes — show responsiveness. Acting fast builds trust and encourages employees to keep participating in future surveys.
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7. Segment your data
Engagement scores often hide important differences between groups. Frontline staff may face very different challenges from office staff, and new hires may not feel the same as those who’ve had long employee tenures.
By segmenting results by department, tenure, or role, you uncover targeted insights. This allows for tailored solutions that address specific needs rather than broad, one-size-fits-all fixes.
8. Combine quantitative and qualitative insights
Numbers highlight trends, but they don’t explain them. Comments and conversations provide the context you need to understand what’s really driving engagement.
Pairing quantitative data with qualitative insights ensures you know both “what” is happening and “why.” This makes your interventions more precise and effective.
9. Make engagement a shared responsibility
Engagement should never sit solely with HR. Leaders and managers must own the results, discuss them with their teams, and take practical steps to improve.
Embedding engagement into daily leadership behaviors — not treating it as a side project — creates lasting cultural change. When employees see leaders taking action, they are far more likely to stay committed.
How to ensure your engagement strategies don’t fail
Even with the best intentions, many employee engagement strategies fail. The reasons are often predictable: lack of follow-through, unclear ownership, or focusing on the wrong measures. To avoid these pitfalls, make sure your strategy is:
- Visible: Show employees how their feedback leads to real changes.
- Sustained: Engagement is not a one-off survey. Regular check-ins and continuous action are key.
- Owned by leaders: HR supports and facilitates, but managers and executives drive the work.
- Tied to business outcomes: Always connect engagement efforts to performance, productivity, retention, or customer impact.
By combining proven measurement methods with practical, business-focused strategies, you create more than just a survey. You build a culture where employees feel heard, valued, and motivated—delivering measurable results for the business.
Tools to boost employee engagement
Technology can make it easier to measure, track, and improve engagement continually. Here are some options worth considering:
- Officevibe: Officevibe offers validated survey templates, pulse checks, and automated feedback loops. It can also help managers spot issues early and address them before they escalate.
- Culture Amp: Culture Amp provides advanced analytics that link engagement data to business outcomes like retention and performance. Its benchmarking features also allow for comparisons with industry peers.
- Qualtrics: A flexible survey platform with customizable design and advanced dashboards, Qualtrics combines adaptability with proven methods for reliable insights.
- Slack: Slack facilitates transparent communication through channels that support collaboration, feedback, and recognition. Additionally, its real-time messaging keeps employees connected and engaged.
- Bonusly: Bonusly enables peer-to-peer recognition tied to company values. This provides opportunities to reinforce positive behavior and increase engagement through real-time rewards and praise that boost morale.
- Kudos: Kudos highlights employee contributions through social recognition and rewards. It can also strengthen culture by fostering appreciation and belonging.
To sum up
Measuring employee engagement requires both operational efficiency and strategic clarity. Surveys should be short, easy to complete, and supported by managers to ensure high participation. But these basics only matter if you measure the right things — define engagement properly, link it to business outcomes, and follow it with visible action.
While engagement may have lost some of its buzz compared to a decade ago, its importance has only increased. Applied correctly, it is a powerful tool to improve employee wellbeing, boost retention, and drive real business impact.
