Employee disengagement plagues many organizations. According to Gallup, only 31% of U.S. employees are engaged in their work. This gap can lead to decreased productivity, higher turnover rates, and lower overall job satisfaction.

By understanding the root causes of disengagement and implementing effective strategies, you can create a thriving workplace where people are motivated, productive, and committed to your organization's goals.

Using Gallup’s research as a foundation, this guide covers the most essential elements of employee engagement—so you can turn insights into action and build a workforce that’s truly engaged.

Whether you're just starting your journey or looking to find how to improve employee engagement, this guide has something for you.

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is a workplace metric that reflects the level of enthusiasm and commitment your workforce members have toward their role, team, and organization. 

This metric tracks a mental and emotional state that fluctuates regularly depending on people's relationships and specific workplace events.

Engaged employees: 

• Are excited to go to work
• Care about helping the company attain its goals 
• Frequently exceed expectations without excessive oversight
• Discover ways to help those around them
• Help build a fun, inclusive, and collaborative culture

Disengaged employees lack interest, care, or focus at work. In other words, they: 

• Only do the bare minimum of what’s expected
• Don’t care about the success of the company, nor are they interested in what the business does
• Have negative, apathetic attitudes toward their work, the company, and their coworkers

Why does employee engagement matter to your business?

Engagement is a critical metric that illustrates how motivated they are to put their best foot forward. It reflects how connected, motivated, and committed people feel at work—a critical link that directly influences quality output and healthy ROI.

When engagement is low, the impact is costly. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025, disengagement cost the world economy $438 billion in 2024. That loss shows up in missed goals, higher turnover, absenteeism, and inconsistent customer experiences.

The reason is simple: Employees are the engine behind your business. Every action and decision they make impacts organizational effectiveness. How well they show up depends largely on the emotional connection they feel to their work and to the organization.

When that connection is strong, the results speak for themselves. Here are some quick benefits highly engaged employees can bring you:

• 18% higher productivity
• 10% higher customer satisfaction
• 23% higher profitability
• 43% lower turnover
• 81% less absenteeism

What are the signs and root causes of low employee engagement?

Gallup reports that only 31% of U.S. employees are in the “engaged” category. That means most organizations are operating with a workforce that is emotionally checked out, inconsistently motivated, or actively disengaged.

So why aren’t engagement levels higher?

Three things: stress, burnout, and lack of purpose.

Stress: When work feels isolating and reactive

Sixty percent of disengaged employees report significant stress from their job and cite a lack of teamwork as a main cause of this stress.

This often shows up as:

• Poor collaboration and siloed teams
• Constant urgency with little clarity or prioritization
• Employees feeling they have to “figure it out” alone

When stress becomes the norm, employees shift into survival mode—doing just enough to get through the day rather than thinking creatively, collaborating, or investing extra effort.

Burnout: When effort outpaces energy

Fifty-three percent of people work overtime, and 38% feel overwhelmed at work. 

Common signs may include:

• Declining energy and focus
• Increased absenteeism or presenteeism
• Frustration, cynicism, or emotional withdrawal
  

Burnout doesn’t mean employees don’t care—it means they’ve been caring for too long without adequate resources, recognition, or recovery time. Over time, even high performers disengage to protect themselves.

Lack of purpose: When work feels disconnected from impact

Roughly half of disengaged employees don’t feel they are contributing to their company in a meaningful way.

This often stems from:

• Unclear goals or shifting priorities
• Limited visibility into how individual work supports larger outcomes
• Recognition systems that focus on tasks completed rather than value created
  

When purpose is missing, motivation becomes transactional. Employees do the work—but without commitment, pride, or long-term loyalty.

Which employee engagement strategies should you leverage?

Gallup and Awardco have shared common mistakes organizations make when implementing employee engagement programs. We highlight them below, along with actionable strategies for making a difference at your workplace.

Leverage managers effectively

Managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement. In fact, the single highest driver of engagement is whether employees feel like they belong at their organization, and managers directly influence this feeling.

Have managers hold one-on-ones with their employees. These meetings should focus on: 

• Employee happiness and job satisfaction
• Individual goals and career roadmaps
• Team dynamics and performance feedback

Managers should also clarify expectations, offer constructive guidance, and provide personalized support. This level of attention ensures employees feel valued and motivated to stay engaged.

Collect and act on data 

Gathering data allows leaders to understand what needs to change and how. Focus on predictors that are within a manager’s control and connect with a team member’s core needs at work. Alignment is key.

For example, Gallup’s engagement survey features 12 needs managers can meet to boost motivation and performance. They include indicators such as: 

• “How satisfied are you with your company as a place to work?”
• “I know what is expected of me at work.”
• “I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.”
• “At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.”
• “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.”
• “My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.”

The survey results are then categorized into one of four levels within a hierarchy of development needs. They include: 

• Growth
• Teamwork 
• Individual contribution
• Basic needs

For additional engagement questions, take advantage of our survey.

Depending on which group workforce members fall into, managers can tailor discussions and interventions to drive engagement more effectively, ensuring every team member receives the support they need to thrive. 

We offer some examples of how this might manifest in the next few sections. 

Mix flexibility with accountability

Ninety-four percent of employees want flexibility in when they work, and those who have it report the highest job satisfaction. When flexibility is paired with clear standards and accountability, it drives both high performance and growth.

Workplace flexibility comes in a range of strategies—choose which one works for your industry and culture:

• Remote work options
• Hybrid schedules
• Flex time, allowing for flexible start and end times
• Unlimited PTO
• Compressed workweeks, allowing for four 10-hour shifts
• 4-day workweek
• Annualized hours
• Shift swapping
• Job sharing
• Self scheduling
• Sabbaticals
  

The key to flexibility is letting employees work when, where, and how works best for them. Train managers to empower employee flexibility while still holding them accountable with clear expectations and communication.

Empower employees with meaningful work

Employees who feel their work has a purpose are 4X more engaged than those who don’t. Yet only 15% of non-executive employees and managers feel like they have a purpose.

So here are some steps you can take to inject a purpose into each employee’s workload:

1. Clarify the purpose of your organization as a whole.
2. Communicate with each employee how their personal responsibilities contribute to the organization’s success.
3. Talk to your people to learn more about what work they enjoy and want more of—then readjust workloads to help people focus on what they like.
4. Involve employees in as many decisions as possible.
5. Guide employees’ upward trajectory with professional development

Nothing kills engagement more than the feeling that you’re stuck at a dead-end job doing work that doesn’t matter.

In relation to giving employees more purpose at work, giving them more direction also boosts engagement. Fifty-eight percent of employees would leave their company if they didn’t have development opportunities, and 35% of them “rated learning and development among the top three elements of the employee experience.”

Professional development comes in many shapes and forms—offer as many options as possible and customize your opportunities to fit your employees’ interests:

• Workshops
• Conferences
• Online courses
• Continuing education
• Coaching or mentoring
• Certifications

And don’t forget about the importance of feedback. Employees crave knowing what they’re doing well and what they can improve—create a set feedback loop where managers give feedback to and take feedback from employees so that everyone can improve together.

Recognize employee efforts and contributions

While most organizations have a recognition program, 81% of HR leaders don’t believe it’s very effective. However, building a truly effective recognition strategy improves engagement by two times.

Think about what matters most to your team members. Based on their interests and needs, you might want to spice things up with a rewards and recognition program that is:  

• Driven by technology: Make recognition a part of your existing communication channels. The right rewards and recognition platform can adapt to your existing workflow to build a true culture of recognition.
• Meaningful: You want to offer a variety of gift options to show that you value your team members, whether they’re in-office, remote, or hybrid. These options should align with their interests, preferences, and needs.
• Timely and frequent: Leaders should express appreciation right after they notice a team member doing something positive. This, along with regular recognition, will strengthen the appreciation culture you’re trying to build.
• Participatory and motivating: Use team-based challenges or goal-driven competitions to reinforce desired behaviors and keep recognition engaging. Friendly competition encourages participation, builds connection, and makes progress visible across the organization.

How do you measure employee engagement successfully?

You already know employee engagement matters—and you’ve committed time and resources to improving it. The next challenge is proving that the investment is working. 

The right employee engagement metrics help you move beyond intuition and track what’s actually driving motivation, performance, and retention.

Let’s take a closer look at the most effective ways to measure employee engagement and turn insight into action.

1. Productivity

Productivity reflects the amount of work or output produced over a given time. When employees are engaged, they are more likely to take initiative and be productive. 

Here’s the way to measure productivity:

Total output ÷ total input

• Output = the amount generated in goods or services ($500,000)
• Input = the number of labor hours required (3,000)
• 500,000 ÷ 3,000 = $166

The above example shows that your company generates $166 per hour of work. So, after implementing initiatives to increase employee engagement, you simply need to repeat this equation to see how productivity has improved.

2. Turnover

The rate at which people leave your company is also a good indicator of employee engagement. It helps to measure your turnover rate before and after trying to improve employee engagement. This will help you compare the values and see if your engagement efforts are effective. 

The equation is as follows:

# of employees who quit during a set time ÷ average # of employees during the same time

• 15 employees quit in 2022
• 200 average total employees in 2022
• 15 ÷ 200 = 7.5% turnover rate

By improving your engagement, you can expect your turnover rate to drop, and this equation will help you prove it.

3. Absenteeism 

Absenteeism is another helpful employee engagement measurement tool. It reflects the level of commitment employees have towards their jobs. Employees who are engaged and motivated are less likely to miss work due to mental health days or other reasons. 

The equation for calculating your absenteeism rate is:

(Total absences / (average # of employees × workdays)) x 100 (to make it a percentage)

• (200 total absences) / (50 employees x 260 work days in a year) = 0.015
• Multiply that by 100 to get an absenteeism rate of only 1.5%.

Once you’ve made concerted efforts to improve metrics for employee engagement, rerun this equation to see how your absenteeism has lowered.

Bringing it all together

The metrics outlined above (productivity, turnover, and absenteeism) help you validate whether your engagement strategies are actually working. 

More importantly, they give leaders a feedback loop to adjust, refine, and scale what drives motivation and performance over time.

When you pair Gallup-backed engagement strategies with consistent measurement, engagement stops being a vague goal and becomes a measurable business advantage. 

Track what matters, listen to your workforce, and use data to guide decisions—so engagement becomes something you actively manage, not something you hope improves on its own.

Build lasting engagement with Awardco

We hope these details mitigate concerns and address what your organization needs. For more information on how to further elevate employee engagement (for both remote and in-person staff), we encourage you to bookmark our resources library. We could all use some assistance when it comes to building the right work environment, and Awardco is here to lend a helping hand.