Employee Engagement Focus Groups: 5 Best Practices

Are You Leveraging Employee Engagement Focus Groups Effectively?
Employee engagement focus groups give employees a voice in shaping solutions that directly improve their own experience and retention. When conducted thoughtfully as part of a broader workplace culture assessment, these sessions can generate actionable insights — fresh perspectives that translate survey results into concrete strategies for meaningful change.

Why Employee Engagement Matters
More leaders are wisely paying attention to employee engagement these days. They understand that:

• Engaged workers are over 40% more productive and effective than their disengaged coworkers.
• A decrease in engagement can result in a 1-2% reduction in operating margin and net profit.
• Highly engaged work forces advocate better for the company, give more discretionary effort, look forward to coming to work, help their teammates to succeed, and perform at higher levels.

What Is a Focus Group?
Traditionally, focus groups are defined as demographically diverse gatherings of people who provide feedback on a product, political campaign, television series, or similar topics. In short, they are primarily about collecting opinions.

Employee engagement focus groups, however, serve a more strategic purpose. While they still bring together carefully selected participants to share insights, reactions, and perceptions, their ultimate aim goes beyond feedback. Much like a facilitated strategy retreat, these sessions actively involve employees — and often their managers — in designing and implementing practical solutions. The goal is to create meaningful changes that enhance engagement, boost performance, and improve retention across the organization.

Why Employee Engagement Focus Groups Are Invaluable
Too many organizations excel at administering engagement surveys but stumble when it comes to acting on the results. In fact, research from CEB shows that 80% of business leaders do not believe their engagement surveys drive meaningful business outcomes. This gap isn’t surprising — designing and distributing a survey is far easier than rallying an entire organization around the few critical actions that truly improve engagement.

We have long emphasized the importance of clear communication and readiness to act on survey results. Yet one highly effective — but often underutilized — approach is employee engagement focus groups.

Once survey results highlight the key engagement areas that need attention, why not actively involve employees directly in shaping the solutions? Doing so demonstrates that their input matters and leverages their first-hand insights. Employees can help craft practical, actionable steps that are both realistic and meaningful, increasing the likelihood of sustained improvements in engagement, performance, and retention.

Five Steps To Implement Employee Engagement Focus Groups
Here is how to involve your employees in improving engagement through employee engagement focus groups:

1. Define Boundaries of Empowerment
   Before employees begin brainstorming engagement or employee retention solutions, leaders must clearly define the scope of what is open for discussion. You don’t want participants debating compensation if it is off the table.

   Take the time to align leadership on what employees can realistically start, stop, or continue. By setting clear boundaries, you ensure the focus remains on meaningful, actionable changes — those areas where employees can truly make a difference.

2. Ensure Representative Employee Groups
   While every employee ideally should have a chance to review survey results and help shape engagement initiatives, at a minimum ensure that all key employee groups are represented. For productive discussions, keep each group to twelve participants or fewer, or design the session to accommodate larger numbers without losing focus.

   Many organizations find value in having individual departments, locations, or teams host their own focus groups. This approach encourages tailored insights and actionable suggestions that reflect the unique dynamics of each group, while ensuring that engagement solutions are relevant and inclusive.

3. Act Quickly
   Schedule focus groups promptly after the employee engagement survey results are released — don’t wait for the “perfect” moment; it doesn’t exist.

   The sooner employees are involved in identifying and committing to meaningful engagement actions, the greater the momentum and impact. Acting quickly turns insights into action before enthusiasm wanes and demonstrates that leadership is serious about making change happen.

4. Select an Effective Facilitator for Each Group
   Each focus group should be led by a facilitator who understands employee engagement and its connection to overall business and people performance. They should also possess the business acumen and experience needed to guide complex, nuanced discussions — ensuring they are both respected by participants and capable of helping generate practical, actionable solutions.

   In most cases, managers should not serve as facilitators. Removing direct supervisors from the discussion encourages open, honest dialogue and fosters a freer exchange of ideas.

   VIRTUAL NOTE: With the increase of remote work, many organizations are facilitating virtual sessions.  While virtual facilitation sessions can be very effective in many circumstances, a recent study by Stanford found that videoconferencing inhibits the production of creative ideas because it focuses communicators on a screen, which prompts a narrower cognitive focus. When you need to innovate, try to be in person whenever possible.

5. Establish a System for Sharing Ideas and Tracking Progress
   Transparency and open information flow are critical for holding both leaders and employees accountable for follow-through. Create a clear system for focus groups to share their ideas, and use dashboards to monitor progress on initiatives. Regular pulse checks can track engagement trends, ensuring that actions remain relevant, visible, and effective over time.

The Bottom Line
Inviting your employees to participate in employee engagement focus groups accelerates both commitment and the implementation of meaningful actions. You’ll know you’re making progress when employees see tangible improvements stemming from the previous survey, understand the specific action plans addressing key issues, and trust that leadership is genuinely committed to acting on their feedback.

To learn more about how to improve engagement, download 7 Tips for Managers to Increase Employee Engagement through Communication