Increase Employee Engagement from the Bottom Up

Why Active Involvement Fuels Stronger Employee Engagement
When employees feel genuinely connected to the mission of the organization, their commitment shows up in the way they work, collaborate, and solve problems. Yet in many companies, the distance between day-to-day roles and enterprise-level goals is wide — a gap that quietly undermines discretionary effort. Research from Gallup has long shown that engagement rises when people believe their contributions matter, and a meta-analysis in the Journal of Applied Psychology reinforces that employees who participate in decision-making demonstrate significantly higher motivation and performance. Active involvement isn’t a feel-good initiative; it’s required to increase employee engagement.

Why Employee Engagement Matters
An increase in employee engagement is not only about cultivating a healthy workplace; it is also about strengthening the bottom line. Corporate culture assessment research consistently shows that higher engagement correlates with:

• 18% greater productivity
• 12% higher customer satisfaction
• 51% less voluntary turnover

The #1 Employee Engagement Mistake
Despite years of initiatives, engagement levels in many organizations remain stubbornly low. One core reason: leadership teams often approach engagement from the top down, assuming they can mandate motivation through directives, campaigns, or broad organizational programs. That mindset misses the point. Engagement doesn’t flourish because executives announce it — it flourishes because employees shape it.

Turn Things Upside Down
If the goal is to meaningfully elevate engagement, the process needs to flip. Instead of executives dictating solutions, employees should be the ones helping define what will actually make work better. Frontline teams understand the daily friction points, the cultural gaps, and the practical improvements that will move the needle. When organizations tap into that insight and empower employees to co-create engagement solutions, engagement stops being an initiative and becomes a shared commitment.

How To Increase Employee Engagement
With over twenty years of success with our clients regarding how to increase employee engagement in terms of advocacy, discretionary effort and intent to stay, here is our advice:

1. Conduct a Well-Researched, Highly Customized Employee Survey
   Before gathering any feedback, ensure the leadership team is fully committed to acting on what employees share — and that employees trust the confidentiality of their responses. A credible survey does more than capture opinions; it measures the specific conditions that enable engagement as well as the depth of engagement itself.

   Go beyond generic items. Include questions that assess the drivers of commitment — such as recognition quality, clarity of expectations, quality of manager support, and opportunities for growth — while also measuring outcomes like intent to stay, willingness to recommend the organization, and confidence in the company’s future.

   A tailored approach yields insights you can actually use, and employees will only invest in the process if they believe their input will lead to meaningful change.

2. Share The Results With Your Front Line Managers
   Every people manager should receive a clear view of how their own team performed and understand how their team compares to others across the organization. Much like a thorough project postmortem, this data gives managers the opportunity to reflect on what is working, where challenges exist, and which areas need improvement.

   Equipped with this insight, managers can develop targeted actions to strengthen engagement, address gaps, and ultimately elevate their team’s performance.

3. Have Managers Share Engagement Scores With Their Teams and Co-Create Action Plans
   Managers should openly review the engagement results with their teams, fostering a constructive debate around what’s working well and where improvements are needed. Encourage discussion: Which scores surprised the team? Which were expected? What factors contributed to high or low performance? Solicit suggestions for improvement directly from the people who experience the work every day.

   Next, identify one specific metric that, if improved, would have a meaningful impact on team morale and engagement. Collaboratively develop visible, practical, and relevant action steps to address that area within the next 90 days. Finally, hold managers accountable not only for implementing the plan but for demonstrating measurable results — ensuring that engagement becomes a living, actionable part of daily work rather than a static engagement report.

   When employees see action taken after an engagement survey, they are 12 times more likely to be engaged the following year.

The Bottom Line
Employees are more engaged when they play an active role in shaping how work gets done and the environment around them. Give people visibility, autonomy, and opportunities to contribute, and you shrink the gap between individual roles and organizational goals — a prerequisite for meaningful, sustained performance.

To learn more about how to increase employee engagement, download The Top 10 Most Powerful Ways to Boost Employee Engagement.