What are the best strategies to improve employee engagement?

employee-experience-group

Rewind 15 years or so and you would have heard very few leaders talking about employee engagement.

Nowadays, there are not many organisations where it isn’t a key area of focus for leadership teams.

I’ve previously written about how this might be a big distraction for internal communicators, and can often be heard discussing the fact that percentage scores for engagement are meaningless without something tangible linked to them.

But, the question about how to improve engagement comes up again and again.

Interestingly, data that looks at the challenges for IC professionals over the last nine years shows that disengaged staff have remained a consistent challenge over that time, suggesting that even though it has been a focus, nothing is really changing.

In 2009 the Four Enablers of Engagement were shared with the government by Engage for Success and a government task force in the UK was launched. These enablers were the outcome of a need to answer three questions: What is Employee Engagement? Is there evidence to suggest it matters? and What were the things present in organisations that were successfully engaging their people?

the four enablers of engagement - strategies to improve employee engagement - Strategic Narrative, Engaging Managers, Employee Voice, Organisational Integrity

In my own experience working inside different organisations, I have learnt these are not all equal. It’s something I’ve wanted to delve into in more detail but, based on what I’ve experienced, when there is no or little strategic narrative the impact on engagement is incredibly high, with people leaving and lots of change.

Coupling that with my work into credible leadership and why we follow some leaders and not others, I talk about what happens when the leader doesn’t share a vision. It’s apathy. We know that when a leader isn’t trustworthy, they get disengagement from their team.

I don’t want to rank the Four Enablers in importance (not without some further research) but I do think there needs to be deeper questioning about what has the most impact, and work outwards from there.

If we know that disengagement is distrust, that has to be our starting point. And in 2025, the importance of trust is something we can no longer ignore. So, any strategy to improve employee engagement must include improving trust, and we can do that by working on integrity. Make sure you’re doing what you say you’re going to do, be accountable for decisions and be genuine about what you can and can’t do.

This has to start from the top and from all leaders throughout the organisation. An improvement in engagement cannot be achieved solely by improving the employee experience or internal communication. Leaders have to step in and lead by example.

One strategy to boost employee engagement: three pillars for success

We don’t need lots of strategies to improve employee engagement, just this one. And then, within that strategy, there are three pillars of execution that have to happen:

1. Improve line manager skills

Line managers need to be given space and time to develop skills to help them understand some of the fundamentals of being human. They need to learn about difficult conversations, why people get stressed, how to navigate flexible and hybrid working conversations, and they need to have the time to get to know those they lead.

2. Align the employee experience with the culture

The employee experience has to be the tangible element of the organisational culture. If it includes the tools and processes, the relationships and the environment, all of that needs to be aligned to what you stand for. If it’s not, employee expectations aren’t matched, things start to fall apart, and those expectations not being met is what leads us to distrust.

3. Create a clear strategic narrative

Without this, people won’t know where they’re going and they won’t believe you when you tell them. All of this is linked to trust and building it or rebuilding it. Take the time as a team to align on messaging and consider what people might ask.

That’s it. One strategy, three pillars of execution. As a leadership team this means you need to provide dedicated time to conversations about this if you want to see long-term change.

After nine years of disengaged staff being a barrier to successful internal communication, I think it’s time we start to address the root cause of the issue.

About the author:
Internal Communications
Jenni Field

Jenni Field is an expert in leadership credibility and internal communication.

Host of the popular Redefining Communications with Jenni Field podcast and author of Influential Internal Communication, and Nobody Believes You, her work as an international speaker and coach, helps leaders and their organisations become more efficient and more engaging.

After spending 13 years working inside organisations as Head of Internal Communications and Communications Director, Jenni set up the consultancy Redefining Communications to help organisations and teams use communication to go from chaos to calm.

Since 2017 Jenni has published two books, hosted two popular podcasts that discuss leadership, communication and wellbeing and conducted research into communication with deskless workers, the role of line managers and why we follow some leaders and not others.

In 2020 she was the President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, and she holds qualifications and accreditations in internal communication, company directorship and facilitation.

She is an impressive speaker, inspiring leader and is globally recognised in the communication industry as a force for change in the way leaders and organisations as a whole communicate with their teams.

You can find her on LinkedIn and Instagram

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