Feature
Research Report
The State of the Digital Workplace
Employee engagement is linked to reduced turnover, increased productivity and other benefits. So why do so many organizations still get it wrong?
According to Gallagher research, 71% of internal communicators track employee engagement as a business metric and 61% of organizations measure engagement consistently. “It's a very useful concept to drive a high-performance organizational culture,” said Madeleine Porter, head of internal communications at Reach Plc. “We know that engaged employees drive stronger business outcomes.”
That said, improving employee engagement is rarely simple. It comes with real complexity — and potential pitfalls — ranging from oversimplification to unreliable measurement.
Table of Contents
- What Is Employee Engagement?
- Why Employee Engagement Is Complicated
- How to Measure Employee Engagement
- Strategies for Improving Employee Engagement
- Key Areas for Leaders to Focus
- The Role of Communication in Employee Engagement
What Is Employee Engagement?
There is no single universally accepted definition of employee engagement. The term is often credited to organizational psychologist William Kahn, who defined it in 1990 as "the harnessing of organization members' selves to their work roles." Today, Gallup defines it as "the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace."
"Employee engagement is an outcome, more than just an activity. It's how someone feels when they think about their work," said Kat McTaggart, an internal communications and employee engagement specialist. "It's often spoken about as Sunday night dread or excitement, the feeling on the morning commute or the end-of-week reflection."
"Employee engagement is usually defined as the extent to which people feel emotionally committed to their organization and willing to go above and beyond," agreed Sharon O'Dea, partner and co-founder at Lithos Partners.
Why Employee Engagement Is Complicated
For business leaders, it's important to understand that employee engagement is not a single problem with a single fix.
One common pitfall is treating engagement as the answer to every organizational challenge. "Our definition of engagement isn't wrong, but it is doing far too much heavy lifting," said O'Dea. The term has become a catch-all for everything from productivity and retention to morale, culture and leadership quality, which leads to unrealistic expectations.
Engagement is also shaped by a wide range of factors. "It's a complex picture — engagement is influenced by many factors, and they can be personal to individuals," said Porter. It encompasses how someone feels about their specific role, their colleagues and the broader organization.
"Most disengagement comes down to three fairly ordinary issues: whether work makes sense, whether it is doable, and whether people feel their time and effort are respected," said O'Dea.
Engagement Fluctuates — Constantly
Employee engagement can shift day to day, person to person. "The problem is that engagement is a deeply unstable mix of emotion, context and circumstance," said O'Dea. "It fluctuates with workload, management behavior, pay, personal life, health, organizational change — even whether the office is too hot or too cold."
This volatility is exactly why employee engagement requires ongoing attention from leadership, not a one-time initiative — and volatility is only part of the problem.
“How does an organization reckon with the diversity and multitude of cultures, ways of working and perspectives to make sure an employee remains ‘suitably engaged’ for their ‘one team, one culture’ vision?” McTaggart said.
How to Measure Employee Engagement
Many organizations rely on annual or biannual — but this snapshot approach misses both day-to-day fluctuation and variation across teams.
"Asking people to report how 'engaged' they feel and then treating that as a reliable indicator of system performance is, at best, optimistic," said O'Dea. Aggregated scores can also create an illusion of a shared reality, smoothing over differences and making targeted action harder.
Other common measures include employee retention and turnover rates, which serve as useful but indirect indicators.
The most effective approach combines quantitative and qualitative methods. "Like all good research, combining quantitative and qualitative methods is the way to go," said McTaggart.
Ultimately, the goal is measurement that leads to action. “The best way to measure employee engagement is the way that makes you take it seriously and act on your findings,” said Porter. A sophisticated employee engagement listening program without action is pointless, she added.
Strategies for Improving Employee Engagement
With so many factors at play, where should business leaders focus? The answer is a multi-pronged, holistic approach.
"To make a lasting difference, organizations need to look at engagement holistically, across the employee experience — viewing every touchpoint through the eyes of an employee," said Porter.
Crucially, many of the factors that drive engagement are structural, not just cultural. "Much of what shapes engagement is structural and operational rather than cultural or communicative," said O'Dea. "People disengage because work is confusing, overloaded, constantly shifting or structurally frustrating."
Key Areas for Leaders to Focus
It helps to focus on areas where leadership can actually make a difference. Porter points to Engage for Success's four enablers as a practical framework: strategic narrative, engaging managers, employee voice and organizational integrity. "These are all areas where an organization has influence that demonstrates results," she said.
Culture, optimism and psychological safety. McTaggart highlights these as the three key drivers of employee engagement. Organizational culture is shaped by leadership style, sector and role design. Optimism — supported by authentic connections, career development opportunities and a positive employee experience — is something organizations can actively invest in. Psychological safety, where employees feel free to speak up, challenge ideas and innovate without fear, is equally critical.
Clarity around work. "One of the most effective things organizations can do is make work clearer," said O'Dea. "Fewer priorities, better context for decisions, and a more honest explanation of tradeoffs reduce a huge amount of everyday frustration."
Reducing friction. Resist the urge to pile on new engagement initiatives. "Many organizations respond to low engagement by launching initiatives on top of already overloaded systems. That usually makes things worse," O'Dea warned.
Supporting managers. "Most engagement — or disengagement — is experienced locally, through day-to-day interaction with line managers," said O'Dea. Investing in managers' ability to set direction, make decisions and communicate clearly is one of the highest-leverage actions a business leader can take.
The Role of Communication in Employee Engagement
Internal communication is a powerful, and often underused, lever for improving employee engagement. "Internal comms can help people understand decisions, navigate change and see the bigger picture," said O'Dea.
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"Clear, simple, proactive, authentic and two-way communications are essential," agreed Porter.
Organizations should also invest in active employee listening. "Having the right strategy and mix of tools, at the right time, can give you a good sample of feedback and data," said McTaggart.
In Part 2, we'll explore the tools and technology available to HR and internal communications teams looking to measure and improve employee engagement.