Employee engagement is a crucial factor in determining retention, productivity, and workplace culture. As the workforce evolves, your business’s employee engagement tactics must adapt accordingly to keep pace with staff expectations.
Today’s dynamic workforce calls for innovative approaches that prioritize connection, purpose, and flexibility. These approaches go beyond perks and platitudes—they foster real connection, purpose, and well-being.
Whether you’re refining your current practices or building a new engagement strategy from scratch, let’s explore some ideas that will help you create a thriving workplace.
1. Create a Culture of Recognition
Employee recognition is about consistently acknowledging the contributions and behaviors that help your organization succeed. Investing in recognition can pay dividends—studies show that recognition lowers voluntary turnover by more than 30 percent.
According to Uncommon Giving’s employee engagement guide, meaningful recognition doesn’t have to come from the top in the form of a fancy award, either. Consider these lower-lift (but still effective) recognition ideas:
- Peer-to-peer recognition programs: Recognition from peers can feel more authentic than top-down praise and build bonds between departments. Allow employees to nominate colleagues for team-wide awards (such as Employee of the Month).
- Internal celebration of wins: Use internal meetings and communication channels to amplify team accomplishments and reinforce shared success. For instance, you might have peers submit value-aligned employee shoutouts to be highlighted in your company-wide staff meetings.
- Public recognition: Public acknowledgement via LinkedIn or other external channels can demonstrate staff members’ excellence on a larger scale. Just ensure the employee is comfortable with this kind of shoutout by obtaining their permission to post first.
Timely and specific recognition reinforces excellent performance. Ensure you recognize employees soon after they complete outstanding work—the ideal timeline depends on the recognition technique, but it should occur within a month.
2. Prioritize Personalized Onboarding Experiences
Employee engagement initiatives should start from an employee’s first day on the job. A one-size-fits-all onboarding experience risks leaving new hires feeling confused and disconnected. Personalized onboarding ensures they feel welcome, confident, and aligned with your culture from the outset.
Here are some ideas for tailoring onboarding processes to individual employees’ needs:
- Assigning veteran onboarding mentors who help new hires feel supported and reduce isolation.
- Providing welcome kits that include resources that reflect both your company culture as a whole and the employee’s unique role, from team-specific guides to thoughtfully selected branded company merchandise.
- Hosting structured check-ins during the first month to gauge new team members’ progress, answer questions, and provide support.
- Offering job shadowing opportunities for new hires allows them to see how other departments operate, thereby building cross-functional understanding early on.
When onboarding is thoughtful and multifaceted, it doesn’t just prepare employees to do their jobs—it helps them thrive. Try to make onboarding as enjoyable as possible with company lunches and other socialization opportunities, so the stressful first weeks are more manageable.
3. Support Employee Wellness Holistically
Supporting employee wellness should be a proactive strategy integrated into your organization’s operations. According to the American Psychological Association, “92 percent of workers said it is very (57 percent) or somewhat (35 percent) important to them to work for an organization that values their emotional and psychological well-being.”
Emphasize employee wellness by:
- Normalizing mental health: Offer access to mental health treatment through insurance, mental health days, and burnout education. Also, welcome conversations about mental well-being during one-on-one meetings between managers and their direct reports.
- Gamify movement: Physical wellness can contribute to mental wellness. Host challenges based around step tracking, yoga, or other similar activities, and offer incentives that promote consistency rather than competition.
- Conduct wellness audits: Survey your team to determine what wellness initiatives they find most valuable and tailor your approach accordingly. For instance, if in-person employees feel like sitting at a desk all day is negatively impacting their health, you could invest in standing or treadmill desks for your office to address this concern.
Mental health concerns can be a sensitive subject, so your managers need to be prepared. Train managers to recognize red flags from their direct reports and provide support, whether by helping them navigate your company’s wellness offerings or simply providing an empathetic ear for work-related stress.
4. Foster Social Connections at Work
Social bonds at work are a foundational element of a healthy company culture. In fact, 88 percent of US workers strongly or somewhat agree that a sense of belonging leads to higher productivity at work.
Consider these ideas to strengthen relationships:
- Create opt-in community spaces: From affinity groups to hobby-based Slack channels, provide platforms for authentic social connection outside of work.
- Celebrate together: Mark team milestones, work anniversaries, and big wins through in-person or virtual happy hours, appreciation videos, or care packages.
- Facilitate informal bonding: Rotate “coffee chat” pairings across departments or host non-work-related team activities to build connections organically.
Ensure employees understand how to start their own group to reduce the barrier to entry. Make it as easy as possible to start a group or pitch a new social opportunity by limiting administrative red tape.
5. Offer Thoughtful Gifts
Gifts are a powerful tool for showing appreciation and making employees feel seen. When they’re personalized and tied to moments that matter—like anniversaries, project completions, or personal milestones—gifts become a touchpoint for meaningful connection.
Consider these tips to achieve impactful employee gifting:
- Tailor your offerings: Use surveys or employee bios to understand preferences. For instance, coffee lovers might appreciate a subscription box more than a general gift card.
- Tie gifts to values: Choose gifts that reflect your company’s mission—for instance, if corporate social responsibility is a core value, you might offer to make a philanthropic donation in an employee’s name.
- Avoid a one-size-fits-all mentality: Offering a choice of gifts that cater to different employee types (introverts vs. extroverts, remote vs. in-office) ensures inclusivity.
Even modest gestures, when thoughtfully executed, can make employees feel appreciated and more invested in their workplace. Unwrapit suggests using a corporate gifting platform that allows your employees to choose the gift that best fits their preferences. It’s a win-win—you can ensure a positive return on investment (ROI) while your employees get to select a curated gift that’s truly meaningful to them.
6. Invest in Professional Development
Opportunities to learn and grow are among the most requested—and often under-delivered—engagement drivers. When companies invest in employee development, it signals a long-term commitment to their careers.
You can support employee growth and engage them in your company’s success by:
- Offering learning stipends: Allow employees to choose courses, certifications, or conferences that align with their goals.
- Creating internal knowledge hubs: Encourage peer learning through optional employee-led subject matter presentations and mentorship programs.
- Setting development goals: Incorporate personal growth objectives into performance feedback to signal that learning is a priority.
- Hosting career-pathing sessions: Help employees visualize their future roles within the company and develop the skills necessary to achieve them.
To offer truly valuable learning opportunities, use a learning management system (LMS). This software facilitates employee development through lessons and progress-tracking mechanisms (e.g., quizzes and module completion). Once the course is completed, the employee can earn a certificate in recognition of their hard work. Plus, your team can instantly find out which courses are the most useful using LMS data so that you can allocate resources effectively.
The most impactful engagement strategies are living systems that evolve with your team and business environment. This means revisiting and refining your approach regularly based on data, feedback, and workforce changes.
Start by identifying a high-impact gap. Is your recognition program underutilized? Do employees feel unclear about growth paths? Are our employee gifting programs achieving a positive ROI?
Then, choose a specific area, implement a targeted improvement, and track the results. Engage employees in the process so solutions are co-created and therefore more likely to resonate with your team.
