How to Increase Employee Engagement and Performance—and keep your employees for the long haul
Written by WDHB, a vendor attending this year's HR and People Development Summit in Dubai, they address the link between poor employee engagement, performance and retention while giving insights on how to overcome this.
According to a recent Gallup poll, only about 23% of employees globally are considered “engaged” at work. With the low performance and “quiet quitting” that results, the long-term implications of minimal employee enthusiasm can spell disaster for companies that do not take their workforce’s engagement seriously.
However, when individuals feel mutual commitment and believe they bring value to their organisations, overall business is far more likely to experience higher success. Decades of research show that when employees are engaged in their work, they are more productive, motivated, willing to exceed expectations and generally happier in their roles which encourages them to stay with their companies longer.
Employee engagement starts with sound leadership, as all managers must know how to nurture engagement within their teams. After employee engagement increases, so do their performance and even longevity at their organisations.
The question, then, is how can good leadership influence employee engagement, performance and retention?
The Connection Between Engagement in the Workplace and Leadership Style
Outside of a company’s mission or values, research shows leadership and employee engagement cannot exist without one another. In the State of the Global Workplace Report 2023, Gallup researchers found that 41% of employees were likely to “quiet quit” or psychologically disengage from their work because of poor relationships with management. Another data point reveals employee engagement had 3.8 times the influence on employee stress levels than the location they worked in, whether remote, hybrid or on-site. Good engagement improves an employee’s quality of work, inter-company relationships and, more generally, quality of life.
When companies do their part to create a positive workplace culture focused on employee engagement, they see higher overall performance. By developing a leadership style that stimulates individual engagement, employee attitudes can shift from seeing a job as “just a job” to genuinely caring about their work, which will also inspire them to want to invest more in overarching company goals.
How Leadership Development Improves Employee Engagement
Effective leadership training can encourage employees to become more innovative, inspired and productive than ever, which leads to measurable business impacts. Further, increased retention is another critical outcome of effective leadership. Employees who feel supported, challenged and valued by their leaders are far more likely to stay with their companies.
According to the Forbes article Even The Best Leaders Can Do More To Increase Retention, “Leaders who listen to their teams, support each member, recognize each member's individual goals and strengths, will earn trust and can have conversations that prevent surprise two-week notices.” Effective leadership reduces costly turnover rates and preserves institutional knowledge, leading to long-term stability and growth.
Leaders must take a proactive approach to foster a workplace culture where team members are motivated by the company’s mission, the organisational culture and the role they play in the company’s success. Leadership training is one of the best ways for managers to learn how to create and nurture employee engagement.
Leadership development can teach management everything they need to know about empowering people to work better and stay with their companies longer. This powerful form of managerial development instils taking a hands-on approach, creating a positive work culture, aligning organisational goals with employee needs and enabling open and honest communication.
Beyond leadership development, professional learning for all levels in an organisation can improve employee engagement.
5 Ways Effective Leadership Can Improve Engagement, Performance and Ultimately Retention
Leadership can impact how employees will feel about their work environment, perform in their roles and contribute to company success. Here are some ways leaders strengthen employee engagement and ultimately performance in the workplace:
- Professional Development
Offering professional development opportunities for employees can play a big part in their workplace engagement. In Culture Amp’s Importance of Employee Development report, research showed a 46% higher engagement result for employees whose skills are being developed in line with their interests. Providing tools and resources for staff, such as coaching initiatives, mentoring, leadership training and consistent feedback, is a great way to increase motivation and have a positive impact. Additionally, employees who see growth opportunities within their organisations are far less likely to leave, reducing turnover rates.
The bottom line: When companies invest more in their employees, these employees, in turn, invest more in their companies. The responsibility falls on leaders to initiate the first step.
2. Build Rapport
Being personable as a leader is a must if you want to be able to connect with your employees. When trust and mutual respect become a two-way street, your people are more likely to feel heard, valued and believe that they are part of the bigger picture. Research from the DDI World’s 2023 Global Leadership Forecast found that people who trust their senior leaders are three times more likely to develop new ideas and solutions.
To initiate a positive and mutual one-on-one relationship with their team members, leaders should focus on listening rather than always being the person talking the most.
3. Collaboration
Fostering a collaborative environment where ideas can be shared, opinions are diverse, and everyone is welcome to speak their mind is a great motivator for employees. Providing a space for people to work collectively is a powerful way to build innovative ways of thinking that boost productivity and improve business outcomes overall. With intercompany communication becoming increasingly virtual, Forbes council member Alfredo Ramirez believes that organizations must open up opportunities for collaboration.
By doing so, leaders boost overall business performance.
4. Work-Life Balance
It’s very easy for employees to disconnect from their work when they lack balance in their lives. In The Conference Board’s Job Satisfaction 2023 Report, having a positive work-life balance was rated one of the most important factors of job satisfaction by employees. As a leader, it is vital to encourage a healthy work-life balance among teams to keep energy high, avoid burnout and increase levels of engagement. People work at their best when their workloads are balanced, and thus more likely to maintain long-term productivity and stay loyal to the organisation.
5. Celebrate the Wins
Employees are unmotivated when they feel unappreciated. Questions like “What is the point?” are bound to come up if people put in 100 per cent and receive no recognition for their efforts. O. C. Tanner’s Global Culture Report 2024 found that employees who were acknowledged for their work felt a stronger sense of belonging, connection to their leader and to the organisation. Positive reinforcement from senior leaders validates and uplifts their team members, instills a sense of purpose and gives them the push they need to keep going.
Company-Wide Approaches to Increasing Engagement
Experiential learning is a highly effective way that companies can increase the engagement, performance and retention of their workforces.
Pascal Baudry, the founder of WDHB, coined the term “learning expedition” in 1989. This type of structured, immersive programme gathers a company’s selected leaders and team members intentionally around shared knowledge-building. Professional development opportunities like this dramatically increase long-term employee engagement, as professionals gain a sense of belonging with their companiesand a new vision for what the future could hold for them with their current organisations.
Outside of Learning and Development programs, companies can also invest in their employees through much needed internal summits. When done intentionally, these sessions unite entire companies around shared goals, inspiring engagement from within. Companies do not necessarily need third-parties to facilitate Learning and Development: many specialised firms are well-equipped with vast industry experience and research to help everyday companies create their own people development programmes.
As technology and time progress, Learning and Development options continue to expand and evolve. After the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the most experienced Learning and Development companies can successfully create and deliver programmes and summits in virtual and hybrid formats. Whether leaders choose to partner with a Learning and Development organisation to customise and facilitate their programs or invest in building their own internal programs with outside consultants, their people feel the positive impact of their companies investing in them. This applies to hybrid and virtual formats as well though, long standing companies advocate for as many in-person sessions as safely possible to foster greater team-building.
For research-backed insights on Learning and Development for corporate teams, please read our free report, The Future of L&D: 2024 Edition.
Measuring and Monitoring Leadership Impact on Engagement
To measure the effectiveness of leadership in increasing employee engagement and overall organizational success, leaders should check in regularly with their teams, assess what is and is not working and make a conscious effort to improve their skills. Whether through one-on-one conversations with employees, group evaluations, anonymous surveys or numerical analytics, leaders can choose from several methods to reach an objective understanding of employee engagement and the role their leadership styles play in that balance.
The key? Consistency.
Regardless of how leaders choose to measure their impact on employee engagement, performance and retention, they should make measuring a regular practice. If in doubt, ask. Talking to employees to understand how they feel about their work and whether or not they are getting the support they need to do their job well can go a long way to supplement the data in their measurements. With expected trial and error, leaders can master the art of influencing employee engagement, driving high performance and building retention as a leader.
Meet Your Partner in Promoting Effective Leadership
Are you interested in upskilling your Leadership Team to foster employee engagement and performance in your organisation? The international team at WDHB has your back. With over 35 years of research-backed experience in the Learning and Development industry and partnerships with 15K leaders globally we can equip your leadership team with the right tools, empowering them to become better leaders who inspire, connect deeply with their people, and create a culture meaning and high performance.
For those attending the 6th HR & People Development Summit in Dubai on 5-6 February 2025, arrange a one-on-one session! And of course, everyone is welcome to connect with us via our website, www.WDHB.com/Contact.
Interested in attending the 6th HR and People Development Summit? Register here https://summit-events.com/hrpddub-dubai/delegate-registration
Sources and Further Reading:
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace Report 2023.
Gallup, What Is Employee Engagement and How Do You Improve It?
Gallup, How to Improve Employee Engagement In the Workplace.
Culture Amp, Importance of Employee Development Report.
DDI World, 2023 Global Leadership Forecast.
Forbes, Forbes councils member Alfredo Ramirez, Effective Collaboration Is Crucial To High Employee Engagement.
Forbes, Kara Dennison, SPHR, CPRW, EC, Even The Best Leaders Can Do More To Increase Retention.
The Conference Board, Job Satisfaction Report 2023.
O. C. Tanner, Global Culture Report 2024.
WDHB, Dr. Imane Terrab, Nicolas Peressotti et al, The Future of L&D 2024 Report.