Employee engagement affects everything from company productivity to your bottom line, not to mention your company’s public reputation. Engagement is the antidote to burnout and apathy, but it’s not easy to pull off.
In fact, employee engagement rates took a nosedive after the pandemic and have struggled to recover in the years since. Rates briefly peaked at 36% in 2020 and decreased to just 30% in 2024. To make matters more challenging, 17% of workers say they’re actively disengaged at work.
Business leaders and human resources departments should make it a priority to re-engage these employees. While it may be tempting to throw a few pizza parties, factors like compensation, management style, and corporate culture have a much bigger impact than one-time incentives.
In this guide, we’ll break down five best practices on how to improve employee engagement, plus actionable tips for implementing these strategies at your company.
Engaging and retaining talent could make the difference between success and failure in your business. Companies with highly engaged employees are more likely to see increased profitability and reduced employee turnover.
From fostering open communication to promoting professional development, these best practices will help you learn how to improve employee engagement in a way that best suits your culture. We’ll also show how an integrated, AI-powered HR tool makes it way easier to implement these employee engagement strategies.
New employees already have an impression of your company from the interview process, but how you interact with them during onboarding sets the tone for your working relationship. Do you want them to think the company is a disorganized trainwreck or a well-oiled machine?
A strong onboarding process sets the foundation for long-term employee engagement and retention. When new hires feel supported from day one, they’re more likely to integrate into the company culture, contribute meaningfully, and stay engaged in their roles. Plus, a well-structured onboarding process also boosts new employee satisfaction, increasing the likelihood that they’ll stay in this role that you worked so hard to fill.
However, HR has a lot on its plate and might not have time to walk new hires through a more structured process. Instead of overwhelming HR, tap RapidBee to streamline the entire process with smart automations, including form and document management.
Not only does RapidBee help with document conversion and auto-population, but it also automates the process with AI-powered triggers. There’s no need to wait for people to press the right buttons—RapidBee helps new hires onboard in a compliant, no-hassle process to streamline the red tape of starting a new job.
There’s a saying that employees don’t quit companies: they quit managers. How your managers interact with employees during check-ins has a tremendous impact on employee engagement levels. While every manager should have the freedom to lead according to their unique style, they still need training on how to create helpful, personalized action plans that help employees grow.
Effective employee feedback goes beyond annual reviews—it should be ongoing, meaningful, and tailored to each employee’s strengths, challenges, and goals. Personalized performance management fosters employee development and ensures that team members feel valued and heard. When employees receive regular, personalized feedback, they gain clarity on expectations, feel recognized for their hard work, and are more motivated to improve.
Feedback like, “You’re doing a great job,” is okay, but it’s not personalized or specific. RapidBee’s Performance Management platform gives managers AI-driven insights into each team member’s performance, helping them share more specific employee recognition. It also visualizes employee progress with qualitative and quantitative data, helping managers personalize guidance for each employee’s unique goals.
If an employee is at risk of falling behind, RapidBee alerts their manager with AI-driven reports suggesting ways to bridge performance gaps. Most struggling employees want to do a good job, and this approach gives managers more tools to support employees’ best work by sharing quantitative goals and guidelines.
Sure, employees need to focus on work, but all work and no play makes for a dull team culture. Team-building creates opportunities for team members to connect outside of their daily tasks, which can help boost employee engagement levels and build a company culture that’s the envy of your industry.
Engagement activities help employees develop better communication skills, reduce absenteeism, and strengthen their sense of belonging. However, the last thing you want to do is plan an event that’s cringey, physically intense, or non-inclusive. That can have the opposite effect on company culture and cause employees to be even more apathetic.
Planning the perfect team-building activity is far from easy, but RapidBee’s Employee Engagement Surveys can help you gather (truly fun) ideas that foster solid teamwork. Since our survey designer is completely customizable, you can use it for just about any team survey—including gathering ideas for team-building. Send a one-time survey or schedule them to go out on a quarterly basis to keep the good ideas coming.
While the best ideas usually come from your own team, you can also get the ball rolling by suggesting a few fun-sounding options and asking employees to vote for their favorite. Some popular employee engagement ideas include:
Remember, the right team-building exercise depends heavily on your team and corporate norms. Keep it light, friendly, and not too physically demanding to ensure participation.
A lack of career advancement is the most common reason people quit their jobs, according to a study by McKinsey. After all, few people see themselves doing the same job forever. Growth is essential for improving employee engagement, so give your team lots of opportunities not only to rise through the ranks but to learn new skills. When employees see a clear path for professional growth, they’re more motivated to stay with the company, take on new challenges, and reach their full potential.
While you should absolutely offer paths to promotion, you can sate employees’ need for knowledge with a learning management system (LMS). RapidBee’s LMS automates employee development programs with multimedia courses designed to address knowledge gaps quickly. Plus, it visualizes training data in multiple formats, making it a cinch for managers to understand their team’s progress.
When learning how to improve employee engagement, it’s crucial to stay in your lane as an employer. Still, you can support employee well-being by offering as much support as possible. A company’s success is directly tied to the well-being of its workforce. Employees who feel supported both mentally and physically are more likely to stay engaged, productive, and committed to the organization. Prioritizing employee well-being also reduces burnout, improves work-life balance, and strengthens job satisfaction.
First things first, give your team the tools they need to do a good job. RapidBee’s AI-driven employee support function fosters a supportive work environment by giving your team access to in-the-moment answers without overwhelming HR or IT.
Next, consider which well-being initiatives make sense for your company. That might include:
These options support employee well-being at work without overstepping boundaries. They require some investment, but pay dividends by showing employees just how much you value their hard work.
Learning how to improve employee engagement is an ongoing process. Your team members’ preferences will change, as well as industry best practices. Still, improving employee engagement improves everything from employee morale to profitability. Corporate engagement rates are still struggling post-pandemic, so now’s the time to take action. Follow the tips in this guide to ignite employees’ passion and create a productive, engaged workforce.
However, you need the right tools to execute the strategies in this guide. Download RapidBee’s free guide on administering 360-degree engagement surveys to put data to work for your business.