14 employee engagement ideas for a happy & driven team

Remote work has taken the world by storm. As of 2023, 12.7% of US professionals worked from home full-time, while another 28.2% had a hybrid setup*. This flexibility offers many benefits, but one remote work challenge costs HR teams a lot of time and money: developing effective ideas for employee engagement.

With hybrid and remote work, communication mostly happens with online tools. While this fosters an agile environment and supports async work, it can lack the authenticity of a quick brainstorming session or informal chat in the office. What’s more, organizations that seek to build people-first cultures have to change how they think about employee engagement topics to keep engagement rates high and turnover rates low in a turbulent world of work.

To stay ahead of the curve, you need to invest in meaningful employee engagement — that’s why we’ve compiled a list of our top 14 employee engagement ideas for a happy and driven team. You can also access a free employee engagement return-on-investment (ROI) calculator, so let’s begin.

*Forbes, 2024

🚀 Want to boost employee engagement and measure progress?

High-performing teams run employee engagement surveys to measure what truly matters.

👉 Explore Leapsome’s engagement survey tool

14 ways to boost employee engagement

There’s no single way to improve engagement within your organization — different team engagement ideas will align more closely with some people than others. Your best bet is consulting a wide range of employee engagement examples, trying out ideas, getting feedback from your team, and optimizing your approach from there. Consider the following examples of employee engagement initiatives and start thinking about which your team members would enjoy the most.
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1. Measure engagement & be consistent

Before implementing new employee engagement ideas, your first step should be understanding how engagement currently looks within your organization. Then, you’ll want to dig into how it affects productivity and revenue and decide which metrics are most relevant for your company to track. Remember that measuring engagement isn’t a one-time task. 

Start measuring employee engagement through surveys before employing the ideas below. This way, you can track engagement over time and understand what works and doesn’t.

Monitoring metrics like Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) and performing sentiment analysis can help you turn survey data into insights, and employee engagement tools like Leapsome can help you automate this process.

🤔 Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of your employee engagement initiatives can be tricky, but our engagement ROI calculator makes it easy and straightforward! All you need are three variables for your company:

1. Number of employees
2. Average salary
3. Employee turnover rate

2. Consistently recognize team members for personal & professional wins

Your employees want to be seen, heard, and valued. When team members know their work is appreciated and rewarded with recognition, it’s easier to engage and motivate them. 

According to Gallup, the role recognition plays in team engagement and performance is a huge missed opportunity for leaders and managers. A 2024 report even reveals that employees who don’t feel adequately recognized are 2x as likely to say they’ll quit their jobs in the next year. So, be generous with compliments and don’t hold back on praise.

It’s great to recognize team members for their big professional wins, such as signing an important new client, exceeding sales targets for the quarter, or completing a project with positive client feedback. However, it’s also crucial to show appreciation for smaller day-to-day wins (like coming up with a particularly creative solution to a problem and uplifting team spirit during a difficult period).

Celebrating milestones with employees is equally important — the simple act of remembrance is key to making people feel valued. You can send team members a personalized note or small gift on a work anniversary or birthday; if you worry about forgetting important dates, our integrations with Slack and Microsoft Teams allow you to automatically send out messages for work anniversaries and birthdays!

Need help coming up with new ways to recognize and appreciate team members?
We’ve got a comprehensive guide for that, complete with 39 ideas that work for in-office, hybrid, and fully remote teams.

3. Prioritize communication & foster a thriving feedback culture

Companies with employee engagement woven into their cultures communicate with their staff often and openly. By letting team members know the why, what, how, when, and where of things, you ensure everyone stays in the loop. 

For example, simply communicating policy updates to your employees isn’t enough. Explain why a policy needs improving, when the changes will come into effect, and what the adjustments will mean for employees.

Make maximum use of remote work software like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Loom, and calendar apps to make sure team members are well-informed. Even if most of your communication happens asynchronously, employees should be in the know and participate actively.

In addition, by building an environment where team members feel safe to give and receive feedback, you create space for honest and actionable input. We recommend keeping survey processes anonymous and using tools like our Q&A boards to make employees feel extra comfortable sharing unfiltered opinions.

😌 Promoting psychological safety at work fosters openness and encourages team members to speak up. If you want further guidance, Leapsome’s guide on creating a culture of feedback will help you incorporate continuous feedback into your daily processes and transform your workforce for the better

4. Encourage 1:1 meetings

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1:1 meetings are an excellent way for employees to talk to their managers privately, exchange feedback, and dig deep into goals and ambitions. However, 1:1 check-ins don’t have to be just for managers and their reports! Encourage team members to organize 1:1s between themselves; for example, if they’re coming onto a project and would benefit from a “need to know” run-down from a colleague.Our 1:1 meeting template can help you design team check-ins with intention and increase their efficiency.

🤩 Never enter a meeting without an agenda again
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Leapsome Meetings makes it simple to plan meetings out in advance, foster collaboration between all participants, and streamline action steps.
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👉 Discover Leapsome’s free, out-of-the-box Meetings tool

5. Organize company-wide retreats

Regular company retreats are an excellent way to engage team members, whether your business operates with an in-office, hybrid, or fully remote model. Deep conversations, team building, and bonding are bound to take place when your people are in close proximity. Company events also facilitate cross-team collaboration and help employees learn each other’s strengths and talents.

If budget is an issue, there are other great ways to get your team together in more informal environments to have fun and collaborate:

• Day-to-day team-building exercises — Carve a couple hours out of a regular workday and invite employees to activities like an escape room, a cultural celebration party, a team lunch or dinner, a happy hour, or a games night.
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• Team volunteer activities — Encourage your people to come together and spend time during a workday volunteering for a local cause or charity. Employees who frequently participate in company volunteer events are twice as likely to rate their culture as very positive. Some ideas include supporting retirement homes or hospitals, participating in beach, park, or city clean-up initiatives, and preparing and distributing meals for your city’s at-risk population.

🌳 Don’t forget about the environment while you have fun!
Try to adopt sustainable practices while on a company retreat, and be aware of your carbon footprint!

6. Support professional development

Does your marketing associate think picking up a few design skills would add value to their work? Set up a path inside Leapsome’s Learning module and encourage them to pursue this goal. 

This kind of resource helps employers personalize professional development and track staff aspirations. Such initiatives are key to success — Forbes identifies professional development and training as “the heart of engagement at work.”
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7. Provide flexible hours & work arrangements

Your employees are adults who are hired to do their jobs well. Trust them to make that happen. If productivity is your concern, here’s a strong reason to let team members pick their own hours: 43% of remote work employees agree that flexible work hours have helped them achieve greater productivity. 

Simply put, people have lives outside of work. And their productivity increases when you understand and respect that. Not all jobs lend themselves to flexible hours,  but deciding on core working hours with some wiggle room can help you improve job satisfaction rates — and your people feel in control of their lives. If it’s possible for your business, also consider making hybrid or remote work arrangements an option.

When Airbnb’s CEO and founder, Brian Chesky, announced that all employees were free to choose where they worked, 800,000 people quickly flocked to the company’s careers page. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that 97% of professionals want some form of remote work setup. 

Allowing employees to work remotely lets them spend quality time with their families, engage in activities outside of work, participate in community service, improve work-life balance, and be active members of society — all while getting their job done when it best suits them.
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8. Build a multilevel mentorship program

All team members can benefit from mentorship, whether they’re new hires or have been with the company for years. We recommend establishing a multilevel mentorship program as an HR engagement initiative across your organization so employees know where to go for guidance, enrich their professional relationships, and get opportunities for upskilling and development. 

Let’s consider a couple of different ways that may look:

• New team member buddy system — Assigning recent hires a veteran “buddy” can help them feel at ease and transition into their role more smoothly. An ideal buddy would be someone who’s easy to talk to and knows a thing or two about the new team member’s role. They can act as a resource for new hires by answering questions, making quick introductions, meeting up for check-ins throughout the first couple of weeks, and generally showing them around. 
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• Opportunities to shadow senior team members — Pairing junior employees up with more experienced colleagues provides an excellent opportunity for learning, growth, and development. For instance, a junior team member who’s interested in moving into a more senior role would benefit from shadowing a department leader to understand their more strategic responsibilities and connect with other members of the leadership team. The more senior team member would also be able to provide them with support and guidance.
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9. Implement physical & mental health initiatives

It’s essential for people-centered organizations to take care of their employees’ physical and mental health. While typical benefits packages may include health insurance and gym memberships, physical and mental health perks that go the extra mile and take team member needs into account will impact engagement and satisfaction most.

Some ideas:

• Running free, in-office exercise classes during lunch breaks or after work
• Setting up gym equipment that’s free for employees to use when they please
• Organizing a team or company-wide retreat to a mindfulness or meditation center
• Providing extended health coverage
• Offering paid mental health days off — no questions asked
• Giving out subscriptions to mindfulness and meditation apps
• Organizing mental health workshops
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10. Discourage working overtime

If your employees work several hours of overtime per week, the problem is about way more than just productivity. 

Here’s how you can reduce the need for people to work overtime, ultimately bringing down burnout rates:

• Give your team clear instructions
• Set reasonable deadlines
• Offer managerial support 
• Set an example by asking leaders to log off after work hours
• Check in with employees regularly working overtime and offer assistance
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11. Send out internal newsletters

Busy schedules can make casual chats less frequent, so updates about what’s happening in other departments can be hard to come by. 

A great way to bridge that gap is with internal newsletters, and here’s what you can include in them:

• Departmental progress and roundups
• Individual shoutouts for excellent work
• Team success celebrations
• Inside jokes
• New hire introductions
• Internal announcements
• Giveaways
• Policy updates
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12. Organize a “day in the life of…” event

A “day in the life of…” event helps employees wear different hats and puts them in someone else’s shoes for the day. It can be a two-day affair, with the first dedicated to training and the second to doing.

Activities like these help new hires understand the complexities of working in other departments and stimulate conversation. For longer-standing employees, it can deepen their understanding of colleagues’ day-to-day roles and responsibilities and build empathy.
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13. Encourage resting & taking breaks throughout the day

We all sometimes feel tired or distracted in the middle of the workday, so encourage employees to leave their workspaces every so often and take a quick break. Squats, stretching, or eye-resting exercises can help team members feel rejuvenated. 

For those working from home, a quick power nap can also help boost productivity and increase one’s attention span. 

If your company operates in a single time zone, block out a dedicated 20 minutes on your employees’ calendars for them to take a break. If you’re a global organization, encourage team members to establish their own exercise and rest breaks in their calendars.
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14. Establish innovation hubs

Don’t underestimate the power of employee ideas. Team members will have suggestions on how to improve things — and if you aren’t leveraging that, you’re missing out big time. Create innovation hubs with people from different departments to focus everyone’s energy on core issues and develop creative solutions. 

Traditional innovation hubs aid problem-solving or help improve current processes. However, you can also aim to foster an environment that encourages larger-scale innovation, like coming up with a new product idea. 

Prioritizing internal innovation promotes a sense of accomplishment and creative freedom within your entire company.
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Employee engagement examples: who has it worked out for?

Although companies have only recently realized the importance of employee engagement and its positive business impact, many high-growth companies worldwide have been betting on engagement for long. 

A good case study is Google, which employs the following strategies to engage and retain its employees:

• Offering exclusive perks to all team members — Google employs in-house chefs to cook organic food, has in-house nap pods to let employees rest, and offers free haircuts and subsidized massages.

• Giving team members access to health and fitness benefits like gym memberships, on-site physicians, and swimming pool passes.‍
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• Providing mental health PTO to all employees.
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• ‍Investing in employee passion projects and encouraging them to spend some of their work time doing something they love.
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Prioritize & enrich employee engagement with Leapsome

The current world of work presents many challenges to employee engagement, including a challenging economic climate and high turnover rates — but that makes investing in engagement initiatives more critical than ever. After all, engaged team members are happier, more productive, high-performing, and more likely to stick around in the long term.

Employee engagement software like Leapsome empowers you to understand the state of engagement within your organization, pinpoint the actions you can take to improve it, and maintain a thriving company culture. 

Send out engagement surveys with our Surveys module to find out how employees feel about the organization and get automatic recommendations on what you can do to improve engagement levels. Then, use tools like Instant Feedback, Meetings, and Learning to ensure team members connect with each other in meaningful ways and grow as professionals.

🚀 Want to boost employee engagement and track progress?

High-performing teams use Leapsome’s employee engagement survey tool to measure what truly matters.

👉 Request a demo