How to Improve Employee Engagement and Retention: 10 Proven Strategies

When an employee leaves your business, it costs an average of $4,700.

Plus, you’ve got the drop in productivity, the cost of finding and onboarding new employees, and the general disruption caused when there’s a shake up.

Combine these costs and delays and you soon realize that improving employee engagement and retention should be on your priority list.

That’s where a dedicated employee engagement plan comes up trumps.

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is the process of keeping employees happy, productive, and looking after their wellbeing.

The more an employee enjoys their job, the more likely they are to remain focused on the tasks at hand and contribute to the success of your business.

A successful employee engagement program ensures that staff are committed to their role, go about their daily tasks in a professional manner, and ideally, have contagious enthusiasm that motivates fellow team members.

What are the key drivers of employee engagement?

• Providing a safe, enjoyable, and productive work environment (in-person and remote).
• Creating a culture of recognition so employees feel more than just a number.
• Embracing two-way communication so staff can come to you as well as receive feedback.
• Ensuring strong but open leadership, enabling direction and coaching—not just management.
• Understanding that staff need a challenge as well as simply showing up and going through the motions.
• Adopting a mindset of continuous improvement, including clear career development.
• Allowing a healthy work-life balance so employees can switch off and reduce burnout.
• Communicating salary and benefits up front—and honoring promises made up front.
• Learning from exit interviews what has and hasn’t worked in the past.

All in all, these key drivers amount to a single overarching theme: treat employees how you’d like to be treated and they’ll be receptive, motivated, and productive.

What role does leadership play in employee engagement?

While the day-to-day activities of a single staff member may not be directly impacted by the role of leadership, everything must stem from the top.

It’s no good asking personnel to abide by rules and root for the same cause if management isn’t playing by the same rule book.

This means leadership must be seen to be invested in genuine employee engagement, making your place of work enjoyable and productive, and with an open dialogue of communication.

It could take the form of regular company updates, like all-hands team meetings, but it could also be simpler elements like contributing to intranet discussions, dropping in from time to time, and spending time with employees.

PRO TIP: Don’t get this confused with novel perks. While some may be welcomed, not everyone will view staying late for an online cheese tasting or company softball as an enjoyable part of their role. Those with families and commitments outside of work most value their downtime. Respecting this is often one of the most confusing elements of leading a genuinely engaged workforce.

How do you create a workplace culture that encourages employee engagement?

The key to creating and maintaining a great workplace culture is to speak with employees and continuously gather feedback.

Like any form of planning, you need input from those who will be affected.

If, for example, you fear employees have become disconnected since you introduced remote work, it rarely pays off to make a decision for them. You only need to look at the plethora of articles, tweets, and LinkedIn posts about the failure of forced return to office schemes.

Instead, show your leadership team is invested in employee engagement and survey those affected. This might be an online poll on your intranet, an anonymous questionnaire sent to all staff, or simply speaking with staff members.

Note: If you’ve embraced an open two-way communication mantra from day one, it’s a lot easier to get candid feedback from staff.

When thinking about a workplace culture that encourages employee engagement for the first time, abide by these principles:

• Define and communicate clear core values: Ensure everyone understands and aligns with the organization’s core values, which should be consistently reinforced through policies, leadership behavior, and daily interactions.
• Recognize and celebrate achievements: Regularly acknowledge employee contributions, both big and small, to create a sense of appreciation and boost engagement.
• Empower employees with autonomy and decision-making: Trust employees to take ownership of their work by encouraging participation in decision-making and providing opportunities for initiative.
• Allow open communication and listen to feedback: Create an environment where employees feel safe to share ideas and concerns, and demonstrate that their input leads to meaningful action.
• Promote belonging and inclusion: Build a culture where every employee feels valued, connected, and included, regardless of their background, to strengthen engagement and loyalty.

What is employee retention?

Employee retention is a business’ ability to retain the talent it’s recruited, trained, and invested in. The goal of employee retention is to retain as many (of the right) staff as possible by sustaining an environment where they'll feel appreciated and motivated.

By creating an inclusive culture where employees are part of the business, rather than just members of staff, you stand to profit from employee loyalty and brand advocates.

The opposite, where employees get treated like a number, often results in poor employee retention. For skilled workers, finding another job is relatively easy—when you’re motivated by poor workplace culture.

Often, the cause of poor employee retention is negative or lapsed employee engagement initiatives.

Read the case study: How CluneTech’s Employee Retention Rate Jumped 30% with Workvivo

Why are engaged employees more likely to stay?

Employee engagement drives low turnover rates. This is not up for debate.

When you’ve got employee engagement down to a tee, it’s obvious that your team will stay with you while you strive for greatness. It boils down to five main themes.

They feel more valued and connected to the company's mission

Working towards a common goal builds camaraderie and connectedness. No longer are team members working in silos and simply turning up to an office to push buttons. Instead, they're building something they’re a part of.

When it’s clear there’s a contribution to wider efforts, staff are more likely to remain engaged and stay the course until project completion. Once completed, the cycle must start again for continuous employee engagement.

They have higher job satisfaction and sense of purpose

Seeing results and progress correlates with job satisfaction. Be these milestones progressing on a project plan or witnessing change within internal teams, physical or tangible impacts are a key driver in high employee retention.

Think of it like tending a garden. In the winter, you may plant seeds. By spring, you see your creations coming to life and remain invested through summer and into fall because you know the results will be worth it.

They are typically more motivated and productive

There’s a difference between those who wake up in the morning dreading work and those who feel inspired to contribute to their role.

Those who understand their value to a business—because it’s made clear from leadership and they can see their progress laid out in front of them—take pleasure or a sense of achievement from completing tasks that push other parts of a project forward.

They see opportunities for growth within the company

Feeling valued and witnessing tangible growth of a business correlates with personal growth.

When employees have seen other staff members progress or you’ve laid out a clear career path, they’re more likely to remain engaged and stay the course while working for a long-term promotion or pay bump.

They are less likely to seek other job opportunities

When it’s obvious to employees that there is internal career progression, it reduces the temptation to look for new roles in another company.

Taking a proactive approach to employee engagement has a direct (positive) impact on long-term employee retention.

The opposite is also true here. Disengagement and the potential to leave happen when employees don’t feel valued, lack a sense of purpose, or can’t see future career progression.

High turnover is often due to a lack of focus on mental health, employee needs, poor mentoring, or even a poor onboarding process from the start.

Why is employee engagement vital to company success?

Employee engagement isn’t just about employee satisfaction. Rather, it’s a business strategy of retaining talent and reducing employee turnover costs.

While the components are engaged staff and clear career paths, the overall outcome is a successful, productive, and profitable business.

Here, we’re talking about your return on investment of employee engagement.

Employee engagement and retention are an investment. And it’s one that comes with risk, upfront input, and the need for ongoing attention. Long term, however, it pays off in the form of multiple business benefits:

• Drives overall business success and profitability.
• Improves employee retention and reduces turnover costs.
• Boosts productivity and lowers absenteeism.
• Strengthens talent acquisition and employer brand.
• Increases customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Enhances employee experience, satisfaction, and belonging.
• Addresses modern employee expectations (like inclusion and flexibility).

10 Proven strategies for improving employee engagement and retention

1. Invest in a thorough and welcoming onboarding experience

The smooth integration of new employees sets both the staff member and the business up for a productive future. If you set the standard on day one, it encourages efficiency and reinforces your company values and mission. (You know, everything you promised in your job description 😉).

Using standardized training programs means everyone gets the same experience and is aligned with how you work and the culture you’ve cultivated. Tailor this initial onboarding with department-specific training to best prepare new hires.

PRO TIP: Use this (free) onboarding checklist to deliver a thorough, consistent onboarding experience for all your new employees.

2. Create a positive and inclusive company culture

While vital to creating a positive culture, and simply an ethical way of doing business, inclusivity goes further than race, gender, and ability. Here, you must factor in the psychological needs and well-being of all employees. An open line of communication, made clear from day one, is vital to ensure everyone feels part of a team that’s free to flag problems that exist outside of work and on-site.

PRO TIP: Inclusivity often gets wrongly used as a way to promote how great your business is. While some don’t promote inclusivity, “promoting” it as a way of marketing goes against everything you’ve built. It should be the norm for people of all cultures and backgrounds to feel welcome in your organization.

3. Provide meaningful professional development opportunities

When you hire a new member of staff, it shouldn’t just be to fill a gap. Every new employee must have the potential to grow into a new role in months or years time.

Complement this with the training and mentorship to reach these goals rather than leaving employees to fight for themselves and (often) miss out on the chance of promotion due to a lack of opportunity to learn new skills.

4. Be transparent and fair about pay

Move away from a culture of staying quiet about money. For too long, it’s been viewed as taboo to openly discuss salaries and bonuses.

But, at the end of the day, that’s why we go to work. We all need to put food on the table and pay our bills. Salaries and bonuses should meet employee needs and market standards. If a staff member feels they’re undervalued, make it so it’s a comfortable discussion about what they need to achieve the next bracket.

5. Implement benefits that really matter

By the 2020s, it’s become abundantly clear that staff will happily give up snacks and company swag for good medical insurance, retirement plans, and flexible working.

By introducing things that have an impact on people’s lives, you go the extra mile and cater to the genuine needs of your staff. Snacks are nice, but pension contributions and work-life balance are valued considerably higher.

6. Ensure open, transparent communication

When your teams know what’s going on in your company, they’re more receptive to things like overtime and change. If you keep employees informed about company news and decisions, and create channels for honest feedback and dialogue, you’ll see company buy-in at all levels.

Empowering staff to have a voice and creating constructive feedback models goes a long way to creating genuine transparency. Try the following methods if you don’t currently operate this way:

SBI feedback model (Situation-Behavior-Impact):

• Situation: Describe the specific time and place where the behavior occurred to provide context.
• Behavior: Focus on observable actions without judgment or interpretation.
• Impact: Explain the effect of the behavior on you, the team, or the organization, making the consequences clear and tangible.

COIN method (Context-Observation-Impact-Next Steps):

• Context: Set the scene by explaining when and where the behavior happened.
• Observation: Share specific, factual observations about what occurred, avoiding assumptions.
• Impact: Discuss the effect of the behavior on people, projects, or outcomes.
• Next Steps: Suggest constructive actions or changes to guide future behavior and improvement.

7. Develop strong, empathetic and supportive leadership

When you promote staff members, they may progress into management roles. It’s vital here that you provide them with sufficient coaching to succeed in this new role.

Likewise, existing managers must receive clear expectations, constructive feedback, and advocacy for their teams.

There’s also the unspoken rule of individual contributors being able to lead too. Just because these roles don’t involve managing people, it doesn’t mean there’s no influence on a business. Ensure these roles get the support they need to display empathetic and supportive leadership across all stakeholders they engage with.

8. Develop internal recognition initiatives

You remember those trivial benefits like company swag and free lunches on a Friday? They may still have a place when it comes to gamification and recognition.

You might operate both formal and informal practices to acknowledge a job well done or project completed.

For larger achievements, it still pays to prioritize employee well-being initiatives (think physical, mental, and financial health). But for smaller achievements, a pint after work or a taco from the van goes a long way to keeping employees engaged.

9. Empower employees with autonomy and trust

One of the biggest (and free) benefits employees desire is the ability to get on with their work without interruption or micro-management.

Of course, this must be a two-way street. Less experienced employees must earn the right to be left to their own devices. However, when hiring specialists or experienced personnel, you’re doing so because you need someone who can get on with their role and start delivering results without you looking over their shoulder.

Complement this trust with regular check-ins (if needed) and an open dialog where both parties can express the need for help or change.

10. Measure employee engagement levels

To understand how engaged your employees are, there must be a measurement in place.

For very small companies, like 10-person startups, this may be extremely informal and use a sense of what’s right in front of you. When businesses start to scale, or those established businesses with hundreds or thousands of employees, you need a tool or system to calculate this, present a holistic view, and drill down into which departments are suffering and what types of issues arise persistently.

The best way to measure employee engagement levels is with a dedicated employee engagement platform.

How can an employee experience app help?

Using an employee experience app, like Workvivo, can directly boost employee engagement and increase retention — all while providing a system to track key metrics, gauge employee satisfaction, and draw comparisons to different moments in time.

The app itself takes the shape of something like a business social media network. Users get access to features like:

• Employee Journeys: Structured onboarding and milestone tracking for key employee experiences.
• Say Hi: Tools for welcoming new team members and making introductions.
• Shoutouts & Celebrations: Public recognition for achievements, birthdays, anniversaries, and milestones.
• Spaces: Dedicated groups or communities for teams, projects, or interests.
• People Directory & Org Chart: Easy access to employee profiles and organizational structure.
• Pulse Surveys & Polls: Tools for collecting employee feedback and measuring sentiment.

These all form the basis for solid communication and connection across the company while making it easier to give and receive employee recognition.

Gathering feedback through employee engagement surveys can be anonymized, ensuring staff feel they can speak freely without judgment. The newsfeed and company updates sections can be used to not only keep employees informed but also share poll results and items to be actioned as a result.

You get easy access to company news, resources, and HR info, and help build a sense of community and belonging at the same time.

It really is a no-brainer if you’re thinking about putting your people first.

Optimize your employee engagement strategy with Workvivo

Investing in employee retention strategies is vital if you plan to look after your staff while building a successful, profitable, and productive business.

Leveraging an employee engagement app removes the burden of manual measurement and activities like all-staff emails, long-winded polls, and forever checking in with staff.

Workvivo is the employee experience platform designed and built to help optimize these efforts.

With the goal of directly supporting your engagement and retention strategies, companies like Kindred and Convera use Workvivo to improve communication, create a sense of connection, and enable employee recognition.

Are you ready to take employee engagement seriously?

👉 Book a demo of Workvivo today.