The Complete Guide to Employee Engagement

Today, we're sharing what employee engagement is, how we build it, and its impact on every area of our lives at work.

In this guide

• What is employee engagement?
• What are the benefits of higher employee engagement?
• What are the three types of employee engagement?
• What are the leading causes of low employee engagement?
• What are the 3 pillars of employee engagement?
• 10 employee engagement best practices for strong, authentic connections
• Ideas to increase employee engagement this week (remote and budget-friendly)
• Case Study: Employee engagement and a culture of recognition
• Mistakes to avoid when increasing employee engagement
• Employee engagement: Because work feels better when people feel seen.
• Employee engagement FAQ

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement defines one's emotional connection and commitment to their job. These bonds are built by increasing:

• How intrinsically motivated an employee is to perform.
• How the employee views their growth and development in the workplace.
• Their psychological investment in both individual and collective success.
• Their alignment with the company's mission, values, and culture.

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What are the three types of employee engagement?

Engagement is low. Whose fault is this? Before pointing any fingers, identify which relationship is suffering the most. Breaking down employee engagement into three areas helps choose more targeted solutions.

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What are the leading causes of low employee engagement?

No appreciation, but lots of (vague) expectations. Those are the biggest causes of slipping engagement, but there are a few others to be aware of.

Lack of recognition.

Employees perceive authentic recognition and appreciation as forms of respect. Meaningful feedback, specific compliments, consistent acknowledgement of contributions.

When we view recognition as respect, it can no longer be mistaken for grade school hand-holding or sugarcoating. It's valuing someone's work and seeing them as a human.

Unclear expectations.

Surveys have shown that only half of all employees strongly agree that they know what's expected of them. No one has a shot at doing their best work when they aren't sure what the ideal outcome should be.

Clarifying objectives and keeping an eye on progress is a must. So are decent peer connections. If half of the workers experiencing uncertainty around expectations felt confident they could simply ask someone nearby, those figures would shift.

Poor work-life balance.

Bad work-life balance results from a few mistakes. Without proper boundaries, employees can be “mentally at work” well into their off hours. Executing tasks without a clear purpose reduces useful output and makes people feel like they wasted time.

Some companies have to stick to a particular schedule and can't offer much flexibility. In these cases, aligning work with purpose and setting boundaries to protect their time are crucial.

Dissatisfaction with pay and/or benefits.

Engagement strategies are unlikely to compensate for compensation. Employees who don't receive adequate insurance, PTO, and other benefits also don't believe their employer cares.

If you do offer market-rate pay, rethink how you package and present everything else. Many engagement boosters fit nicely into a total rewards strategy.

Toxicity.

Hostility, gossip, and favoritism. These are overt forms of workplace toxicity. The ones people actually experience seem subtler, but are impactful enough to kill their desire to succeed.

Heavy absenteeism forks more responsibilities onto other people's plates. Blame culture reduces accountability and makes people feel ostracized. Managers and leaders can behave however they like; the norms and rules don't seem to apply to them.

Personal reasons.

Grief, extra responsibilities at home, and health-related challenges can easily lower engagement at work. Patience and compassion may help, as can increasing flexibility.

What matters most is checking in. Ensure employees are aware and able to take advantage of what resources the company does offer.

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What are the 3 pillars of employee engagement?

The three pillars of employee engagement are recognition, meaning, and growth. Together, they create the right environmental conditions for workplace connection.

Virtually all employee engagement best practices serve one or more of these engagement essentials.

I. Recognition and appreciation

Feeling seen and valued is non-negotiable. Nearly every survey or body of research examining engagement points back to recognition and appreciation as the cornerstone.

Hold fast to what you already know about employee recognition. It should be frequent, timely, specific, and true. Peer recognition is real-time positive feedback from coworkers, reducing managerial blind spots and increasing authenticity.

“At the end of the day, people want to feel seen, know their work counts, and believe they're moving forward. That's engagement.”

Doug Dosberg, Founder of HeyTaco

II. Purpose and meaning

Recognition, especially the small, daily stuff, helps reveal strengths. An employee who repeatedly receives recognition for their knowledge on a topic or supportive behavior knows their worth at work. The rapport peer recognition builds across teams is also meaningful and culture-enriching.

From a top-down perspective, communicating values and showing evidence of impact mentally cements one's purpose. Take a manager who consistently champions autonomy as a core value. If they can show an employee how their independent process design contributed to project success, everyone wins.

III. Growth and development

If you value someone, you care about what happens to them tomorrow. Employees cannot feel appreciated and valued if their relationship with an employer stagnates. Growth in the workplace involves both the individual's skills and voice.

Offerings like stretch projects and mentorship are forms of recognition as well as growth and development opportunities. Asking for, accepting, and implementing employee feedback proves to employees that they do have the power to make positive change in the organization.

With this, they'll be much more willing to help develop a beneficial culture.

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10 employee engagement best practices for strong, authentic connections

These 10 practices can take a siloed staff perpetually on the brink of quiet cracking and turn them into teams that move with meaning and purpose.

1. Embed recognition into the culture.

This is always first. You cannot foster engagement without recognition. If you're lacking a structured program, consider HeyTaco's clear-cut, budget-friendly, highly scalable TEMPLE framework.

No matter how you go about it, here are the essential elements that make recognition part of a company's culture.

• Peer-to-peer recognition. Tools, nominations, charitable initiatives, and celebrations.
• Manager recognition. Shout-outs, 1:1s, milestone recognition, and using tools alongside teams.
• Creating rituals and habits. Taco Tuesdays, gratitude channels, weekly peer shout-outs.
• Measuring recognition. Weighing the impact and adjusting as needed, recognizing those who give as well as receive recognition.

2. Clear, transparent, consistent communication.

Vague instructions and a general sense of “I'm not sure what they want from me” are leading causes of frozen engagement rates. Use plain language to define all role expectations and project objectives.

Additionally, town hall-style meetings and Q&A sessions give leadership an idea of where everyone stands.

3. Empower employees to use their voices.

Environments where you're not invited to speak up or feel that nothing you say matters are not positive cultures, ever. When feedback isn't just allowed but solicited and valued, you'll find that those contributions are more relevant and productive.

• Distribute regular surveys and pulse checks. Make sure these do not disrupt workflows or cut into personal time.
• Implement feedback where possible. Give timelines for addressing longer-term issues and explanations for things that cannot be resolved.
• Let employees form committees and resource groups. A culture of support, recognition, and inclusivity is ultimately driven by teams empowered to do so.
• Involve them in decision-making. Set goals and let employees help pave the path toward them. Be open to ideas that improve or streamline processes.

4. Focus on belonging in the workplace.

Rituals and recognition shouldn't be exclusively based on performance. Remote employees will need access to faster, easier-to-execute rituals more frequently.

Workplace belonging is about feeling as though you have allies at work, knowing a new idea doesn't expose you to rejection, and much more. Like recognition, it's the small, everyday acts of inclusion and acceptance that make the difference.

5. Share opportunities for growth.

A lack of opportunity is a moderately insidious retention killer. Employees may not be begging for more training or consistently inquiring about promotions. However, if they see it on offer somewhere else, it immediately raises a green flag and lures them in.

Promoting from within is far from the only avenue.

• Career development paths
• Voluntary training and skill-building workshops
• Mentorship programs
• Lateral moves and stretch projects

6. Support work-life balance.

You're likely aware that work-life balance now sits atop the list of candidate priorities. Many would even accept less compensation for greater flexibility. Employees want a say in their schedule and boundaries drawn around their personal time.

Speak to leadership about the chance to offer more flexible work arrangements. Ensure PTO policies are competitive and clear-cut, and encourage employees to take advantage of them.

7. Highlight the purpose of their work.

Improving communication helps employees get clarity on the “what.” Now they need the “why.” People are straying further from the idea of busywork and don't want to waste time feeling invisible. Ways to engage employees and weave their idea of success into the organization's include:

• Clearing up the company mission. Remind everyone what the shared objective is.
• Individual impact visibility. Data, customer reviews, and other forms of proof influence how people view their roles.
• Link recognition to values. Features like Taco Tags take a positive behavior and make it even more impactful by aligning it with what the company stands for.
• Offer meaningful work assignments. Leading a project, cracking a problem, or updating a process feels worthwhile and shows you trust someone's ability or expertise.

8. Develop manager skills.

A culture with substantial positive peer influence seems to achieve so much of what we want. Yet, employees still remember top-down recognition most. Their self-esteem, enthusiasm, and sense of belonging still rely on managerial awareness, participation, and support.

• Train managers on engagement. What it is, how it will be prioritized, and how they should participate.
• Encourage regular check-ins. Employees should interact with their manager in some way at least once a week.
• Hold managers accountable. They're the ones that carry out many employee engagement best practices. If they agree but don't deliver, they should address it.

9. Track, measure, plan, adjust.

Gumption and optimism may light the way at first. But once the numbers and feedback start rolling in, there's your guide. Use a combination of qualitative and quantitative data to assess progress. Consider:

• Key engagement metrics.
• Setting a regular assessment cadence.
• Benchmarking.
• Action planning from data.

10. Start small and build from there.

Small, easy wins. In recognition, celebrating small wins feels authentic and fun, not awkward and hard-won. It's easy for employees to envision getting more small wins. They can sustain it.

The same goes for working on employee engagement. Those quick little victories, like a manager adopting weekly shout-outs or a team sending their coworker funny birthday memes, are sustainable.

Test tools and rituals, iterate on what works, and celebrate everything.

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Ideas to increase employee engagement this week (remote and budget-friendly)

By far, one of the biggest challenges HR and people leaders face is justifying their efforts in the budget. However, engagement is an area where failure is closely tied to a lack of leadership buy-in rather than money.

Lest you thought that ensuring gift cards and catered celebrations were a must, behold. These engagement boosters are all FREE.

Start everyone's day right.

The beginning of the day is a prime place to add a team ritual. If this doesn't work, at least model the habit of saying good morning to everyone. It opens up opportunities for more connection and is one small step toward a positive vibe.

Offer a networking opportunity.

“Amy in marketing would love to sit in on your project update.” “My old colleague knows all about that. Here's their email.” Invite, introduce, include. It increases one's willingness to participate. It makes them feel they have chances to grow and develop, even without formal actions.

Implement the buddy system from onboarding on.

Remote and siloed people feel less inclined to reach out to managers for minor inquiries or things they worry they should have the answer to. Link two remote employees or people in independent roles. The immediate benefit is that they'll feel less isolated. Additionally, they'll have a coworker they know they can ask for assistance or answers.

Have a stress session.

A positive work culture never means ignoring or denying stress or struggles. At the same time, we want complaints and fears to be openings to solutions, not just venting. Host sessions where people can air out their worries, commiserate, and brainstorm next steps and alternatives.

Make a big deal out of a core value.

Employees can name a company's core values, but do they believe the workplace actually reflects that? Are they consciously aware of when they're exemplifying it? Make it translate to real life. From autonomy to inclusivity, point it out more often. Do it even on the smallest occasions, and watch its relevancy and the team's connection to it grow.