Employee engagement isn’t just a buzzword. It’s the glue that holds a thriving workplace together. Since a new year often brings fresh initiatives, improving engagement may be at the top of your list. It’s a perfect time to talk about an employee engagement action plan.
Having engaged employees on the payroll isn’t a given. According to Gallup, only 33% of employees were engaged in their roles in 2023. Addressing and enhancing engagement is a must-do to build a motivated, productive, and satisfied workforce. We’ll walk you through a structured action plan to evaluate current levels, monitor progress, and address the findings effectively. You’ll get some straight-shooting tips and insight into how you can bolster your organization’s engagement in the new year (and beyond).
Why Organizations Should Be Concerned About Employee Engagement
High engagement helps drive organizational success. When employees are engaged, they contribute positively to the company’s goals, culture, and overall performance. Here are 6 big reasons why engagement should be a priority for every organization.
- Enhances productivity. Engaged employees work harder and more efficiently, delivering higher-quality results. You will often see them consistently go above and beyond. They are more focused, energized, and committed to meeting deadlines and achieving business objectives.
- Reduces turnover. Employees who feel valued and connected to their workplace are less likely to seek outside opportunities. Employee retention offers big benefits to organizations, helping reduce the high costs associated with hiring, onboarding, and training new employees. It also builds institutional knowledge and stability.
- Builds brand ambassadors. Engaged employees advocate for the organization, enhancing its reputation among customers and prospective hires, whether through word-of-mouth, social media, or customer interactions. This enhances the organization’s reputation, making it more appealing to potential clients and top talent.
- Improves morale. If employees aren’t motivated to do their best, they may come in late, miss work more often, and “zone out” even when they are there. High engagement lifts morale and helps employees feel they are contributing to meaningful goals and fostering a sense of pride in their work.
- Increases creativity and innovation. Businesses are built on ideas. High engagement fosters a positive workplace culture and encourages creativity. Engaged employees are more likely to share ideas, collaborate, and think outside the box. A workplace with high engagement fosters a positive culture where creativity thrives. This leads to new solutions, improved processes, and innovative products that can drive growth.
- Gains a competitive edge. In a tight labor market, organizations that prioritize engagement are better positioned to attract and retain top talent. Engaged employees are easier to retain (as we mentioned above) and their performance and advocacy help attract new talent. This enthusiasm gives the company a significant advantage.
Your Step-by-Step Employee Engagement Action Plan
Building a culture that nurturesemployee engagement requires a multi-faceted, strategic approach and committed follow-through. Our action plan provides a clear, step-by-step framework for creating and maintaining a more engaged workforce.
See Where Things Stand Now
Before you can improve employee engagement, you need a clear understanding of your starting point. Even if you think you know, you may miss the mark if you just guess. Getting a true picture involves assessing the current levels of engagement in your organization.
What to do? Start by conducting an anonymous employee engagement survey. Measure employee sentiments toward their job satisfaction, its alignment with organizational goals, communication effectiveness, and opportunities for growth.
Engage with employees through focus groups or one-on-one conversations to gather qualitative insights. Ask open-ended questions to uncover underlying concerns that might not surface in surveys. Examine existing HR metrics such as turnover rates, absenteeism, and productivity trends for additional clues about engagement levels.
Why this matters? The data you collect at this stage will act as your baseline, providing a reference point for future improvements. Share the results transparently with leadership and employees to build trust and create a sense of shared responsibility for positive change.
Get tips, industry benchmarks, strategies to boost scores, and more!
Gathering and Segmenting Information
Yes, collecting employee feedback is an important first step. However, the true value hinges on how you organize and analyze the data.
What to do?
- Look at departmental insights. Are certain teams struggling more with communication or workload?
- Identify role-based trends. Do entry-level employees have different engagement needs compared to senior staff?
- Pinpoint location-specific issues. Are remote employees reporting different levels of satisfaction compared to in-office workers?
Why this matters? By breaking down the data, you can tailor engagement strategies to meet the unique needs of each group. This targeted approach makes solutions more effective and shows employees that their feedback is thoughtfully considered.
Comparison to Industry Rates
Once you’ve assessed your engagement levels, it’s important to benchmark them against industry standards. This comparison helps you understand where your organization stands relative to competitors.
What to do? Here are some important steps to effectively compare your data:
- Identify reliable benchmarks. Use sources like industry reports, HR research firms, or engagement software providers to gather accurate and relevant data for your sector.
- Account for industry specifics. Different industries face unique challenges. For example, the healthcare sector often deals with higher stress levels, while tech companies may focus more on innovation-driven engagement. Factor these into your comparison.
- Segment by company size. Smaller organizations may experience different engagement dynamics compared to larger corporations. Ensure your benchmarks are relevant to your organization’s scale.
- Analyze the key metrics. Focus on metrics like employee satisfaction, retention rates, and productivity when comparing your data to industry standards.
- Spot gaps and opportunities. Use the comparison to identify areas where your organization is lagging. Also, highlight strengths to leverage further.
- Communicate your findings. Share your analysis with leadership to emphasize urgency and provide a data-driven foundation for prioritizing improvements. Use charts and graphs to make the data easy to absorb.
Why this matters? By identifying gaps between your engagement levels and industry rates, you can prioritize areas that need immediate attention. Sharing this analysis with leadership underscores the urgency and provides context for how you allocate resources.
Regular Monitoring
An employee engagement action plan needs to be ongoing to really show results. Monitoring employee engagement requires a consistent approach.
What to do? Use surveys and feedback from other channels to measure the plan’s success and spot areas that need to be improved.
- Conduct periodic surveys. Schedule quarterly or pulse surveys to gather real-time insights into employee sentiments and identify emerging concerns.
- Use analytics tools. Make the process efficient by implementing dashboards and analytics platforms to track key engagement metrics like communication effectiveness, workload satisfaction, and retention trends.
- Spot trends over time. Regularly review engagement data as a whole to identify patterns or shifts. Improved team collaboration or declining morale in specific departments is important to note early.
- Encourage open communication. Train managers to participate in conversations with their teams to address issues early and build trust.
- Integrate feedback loops. Use survey results to create actionable feedback loops, ensuring employees see measurable outcomes from their input.
Why this matters? Monitoring engagement consistently allows organizations to adapt strategies, maintain momentum, and address challenges proactively. This part of the process ensures that engagement initiatives remain relevant and effective.
Address Findings
Addressing the results of your engagement efforts is where meaningful change begins.
What to do? Use the insights you’ve gathered and reviewed to prioritize and implement targeted improvements.
- Identify areas for improvement. Focus on the most pressing issues highlighted by employee feedback. For example, if professional development is a concern, consider mentorship programs or career progression opportunities.
- Communicate the plan. Share your action plan with employees, explaining how their feedback is driving organizational change. Transparency fosters trust and encourages participation.
- Quickly take the small wins. Implement achievable changes early. This shows progress. For example, you could quickly adjust work schedules or improve communication tools.
- Involve leadership. Secure buy-in from leadership so initiatives are properly supported with resources and align inputwith business goals.
- Measure the outcomes. Align your actions with measurable goals, like reduced turnover, improved productivity, or increased employee satisfaction. Regularly track progress.
- Celebrate successes. Highlight and celebrate improvements to motivate employees and sustain momentum.
Why this matters? Organizations show employees that their input is valued and impactful by addressing findings systematically and visibly. This builds trust, boosts morale, and strengthens the foundation for long-term engagement improvements.
We've curated tips and best practices on how to move from survey results to internal action plans.
Pitfalls to Avoid with Your Employee Engagement Action Plan
Even if it’s well-planned, your strategy can go down the wrong path if you make some of the common mistakes we see frequently. Missteps can derail progress and diminish valuable trust among employees. Watch out for these pitfalls:
- Over-promising. Announcing big plans without following through undermines employee confidence. Set realistic goals and provide regular updates on progress.
- Ignoring employee feedback. We know that it’s difficult to digest and respond to negative feedback. However, soliciting input and failing to act on it conveys a lack of genuine concern and may even increase employee disengagement. Deal with concerning comments promptly to ensure employees see their input reflected in actionable changes.
- Focusing on perks instead of meaningful changes. Perks (free snacks and massage chairs) are appreciated. However, they don’t replace addressing core concerns like workload, career growth, and transparent communication.
- Applying a one-size-fits-all solution. Engagement drivers vary by department, role, or location. To get the best results, tailor your strategies to address the unique needs of diverse employee groups.
- Leaving leadership out. Without support and accountability from leadership, engagement initiatives are unlikely to gain much traction or secure the necessary resources to create positive change.
- Infrequent monitoring. Sporadic surveys or reviews can miss key trends and hinder timely interventions. Increasing employee engagement requires continuous effort.
- Overloading employees with surveys. Running engagement surveys too often can cause fatigue and diminish participation. Focus on actionable insights rather than excessive data collection.
Why an Employee Engagement Action Plan is Worth It
Commanding a plan that improves employee engagement can sound like lots of work. And it is.
While implementing an employee engagement action plan requires time, effort, and resources, the outcomes make it a worthwhile investment. The benefits extend across every level of the organization. Your action plan:
- Cuts costs. High engagement reduces costs associated with absenteeism, turnover, and inefficiencies. Retaining talent and maintaining productivity minimizes expenses related to recruitment and training.
- Increases revenue. The report “A Winning Approach to Employee Success” (by the Harvard Business Review) found that 56% of respondents say their organization has achieved positive ROI from its investment in employee engagement..Engaged employees deliver exceptional performance, build stronger customer relationships, and drive sales. Their commitment directly contributes to the organization’s bottom line.
- Improves overall productivity. Engaged employees are motivated and committed to achieving organizational goals, which translates into higher efficiency and better results.
- Enhances workplace culture. Engagement initiatives foster an environment of trust, collaboration, and positivity, creating a workplace where employees want to excel.
- Drives innovation. Employees who feel valued are more likely to share ideas and think creatively, fueling the organization’s growth and competitive edge.
An Employee Engagement Action Plan Benefits Employees AND Organization
An employee engagement action plan is a strategy for building a thriving, innovative, and resilient workforce. Working through the process allows you to create an environment where employees feel valued and motivated. The benefits ripple across the organization, driving productivity, reducing costs, and fostering a culture of innovation.
Organizations that invest in engagement reap measurable returns in performance, retention, and revenue. Ultimately, an employee engagement action plan is a strategic move that’s a win-win for employees and the organizations they serve. By prioritizing engagement, companies can build a happy workforce, reach their goals, and stay competitive and profitable.
Make next year the best one yet by proactively planning to improve and enhance your employee engagement strategy.
