Employee engagement: What is it and how to improve it?

Employee engagement describes the strength of an employee’s connection to their work and the organisation they work for. It's reflected in how committed, involved and motivated they feel to contribute, develop and perform at their best.

CIPD notes that there is no single universally agreed definition of employee engagement, but research links it with concepts such as vigour, dedication and absorption. In other words, the energy people bring to their work, how strongly they identify with it and how focused they are when carrying it out.

The 5 C's

A framework that some organisations use when thinking about employee engagement is the 5 C's. These stand for: care, connect, coach, contribute and congratulate.

• Care: Make employees feel valued and supported.
• Connect: Build strong relationships through regular, open communication.
• Coach: Help employees develop through guidance and feedback.
• Contribute: Give employees opportunities to share ideas and make a meaningful contribution.
• Congratulate: Recognise employees for their achievements and contributions.

What employee engagement isn't

Engagement is related to employee satisfaction, wellbeing and motivation, but it isn't the same thing. An employee can be satisfied with their pay or working conditions without feeling particularly committed to the organisation, while someone can feel motivated to complete a specific task without being engaged in the wider employee experience.

For example, while only 10% of UK employees are engaged at work, 49% are thriving in their overall lives.  

For employers, the key distinction is that engagement is not simply about whether employees are happy. It's about creating the conditions that help people feel valued, supported, connected to their work and able to make a meaningful contribution. 

Employee engagement matters because it's closely linked with how people perform, how long they stay with an organisation, and the experience they create for customers and colleagues.

Multiple studies show a positive relationship between employee engagement and business outcomes including performance, productivity, customer satisfaction, innovation, staff retention, efficiency and health and safety. However, CIPD caveats that much of this evidence shows correlation rather than causation, so engagement should be viewed as one important part of wider organisational performance.

Gallup’s meta-analysis reinforces that relationship. Across more than 183,000 business and work units and 3.3 million employees, teams in the top quartile for engagement recorded, on average, 23% higher profitability, 18% higher sales productivity, 78% lower absenteeism, up to 51% lower turnover and 63% fewer safety incidents than teams in the bottom quartile.

So there is a clear link between high employee engagement and positive business outcomes. As Jeanette Wheeler, Chief HR Officer at MHR, explains:

“Engaged employees are the cornerstone of a truly effective business. There are immediate benefits involving improved employee retention and easier recruitment, but in the long term, high employee engagement leads to a lot of incredible benefits that will make your business stronger and more resilient, as well as more profitable.” 

Before you can improve employee engagement in your organisation, you need to understand your starting point. There isn't a single metric or score that will give you the full picture, so the most effective approach combines employee feedback with wider workforce data.

Here a few ways you can measure it: 

Employee engagement surveys

Employee engagement surveys provide an opportunity to explore engagement in detail. They can cover areas such as relationships with managers, recognition, development opportunities, communication, autonomy and connection to organisational goals.

An engagement survey should typically be carried out annually, giving you a baseline that you can compare over time.  

Pulse surveys and eNPS

Pulse surveys are shorter and more frequent than annual engagement surveys. They can help you monitor changes in employee sentiment throughout the year, explore a specific issue or understand how employees are responding during periods of organisational change.

You can also use pulse surveys to track Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS). This asks employees how likely they are to recommend your organisation as a place to work on a scale from 0 to 10. The percentage of detractors is subtracted from the percentage of promoters to produce a score between -100 and +100.  

Exit interviews

An employee will often be at their most honest as they’re leaving, so this is a crucial time for you to find the stress points that made them leave.

Regular check-ins

Don't just wait for a survey or an employee's exit interview to find out how they feel. Regular check-ins between managers and employees create opportunities to discuss what's working, raise concerns, give and receive feedback, and talk about development.

Read our guide to Check-ins to learn more

Wider workforce data

Your wider workforce data can add another layer of insight. Employee turnover and retention, absence, internal mobility, learning participation and relevant performance measures can all help you identify patterns that might require further investigation.

When analysed alongside employee feedback, this data can help you build a more complete picture of engagement across your organisation and identify where action is most needed.

Using a connected HR and workforce management system, like People First, will help you to monitor and analyse this data all in one place.  

Every organisation is different so there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. But these are some long term strategies you could try to improve employee engagement levels within your organisation:  

Review your hiring and onboarding experience

Employee engagement starts from the beginning of the employee journey. Hiring people who are well suited to the role and organisation, then delivering a positive onboarding experience, can help establish a strong connection from day one.

Be realistic about the role and your workplace culture during recruitment so that expectations match the employee's eventual experience. Once they join, provide a structured onboarding process that gives new starters the information, tools, introductions and support they need to settle in and contribute.  

Strengthen communication between managers and employees

Managers have a greater influence on team engagement and performance than any other factor. Regular, meaningful conversations can help employees feel heard, supported and clear about what is expected of them.

Encourage managers in your organisation to hold consistent one-to-one check-ins, give timely feedback and create space for employees to raise concerns.  

Act on employee feedback

Asking for feedback is only valuable if employees can see that something happens as a result.

Use feedback methods to identify recurring issues, then prioritise the areas where change will have the greatest impact. Be transparent about what you are acting on, what you cannot change and why.  

Recognise employees for their contribution

Recognition helps employees understand that their work is noticed and valued. It doesn't always need to be financial or formal; it could be a team shoutout or an award such as employee of the month.  

Provide development opportunities

Providing clear development opportunities can help people see a future within your organisation rather than feeling that they need to look elsewhere to progress.

Give employees access to relevant learning, help them understand potential career paths and encourage them to identify the skills and experience they want to develop.  

Use software and technology to support engagement

Technology can't improve employee engagement on its own, but it can make the behaviours that support engagement easier and more consistent.

HR employee engagement software can help organisations maintain regular check-ins, share company updates, support employee recognition, provide access to learning and development, and give employees a central place to access information and manage their own HR experience.

Bringing employee engagement, HR, payroll, workforce management and learning together in one platform can give HR teams greater visibility and make it easier to identify patterns and support engagement over the long term. 

The Plan Group, a family-owned insurance intermediary with over 100 employees across three offices, is focused on keeping its people connected and engaged while embracing hybrid working.

The organisation achieves this by using People First for internal communication and employee recognition. The platform's social media style newsfeed allows employees to share updates, recognise colleagues and stay connected with what is happening across the business, including when working remotely.

In this interview with the Telegraph about how to build a happy workforce, Susie Wilson, Head of HR at The Plan Group, explained:

“On [People First] you can add recognitions about employees, and also keep people updated about what other people in the company have been doing. You might see something on there that affects you or that you’re passionate about and then you can get involved or offer to support.”

The Plan Group also places a strong emphasis on continuous learning, with an in-house training team providing opportunities for employees to build their skills and develop as their roles evolve.  

Together, these approaches support several important drivers of engagement: communication, recognition, development and connection.

Read or watch the case study to see how The Plan Group increased employee engagement while improving employee self-service and saving time with People First. 

Improving employee engagement is easier when employees and managers have the right tools to communicate, recognise contribution, support development and stay connected.

People First is a unified platform that brings employee engagement together with HR, payroll, workforce management and learning. Instead of engagement sitting within a separate tool or process, employees can access the information, support and services they need as part of their everyday experience.

Its social-media-style interface gives employees a familiar, accessible way to keep up with company news, share updates and recognise colleagues, helping people stay connected across teams and locations.

Want to see how it could work for your organisation? Book a demo now: