A well-thought-out employee engagement strategy is one of the most powerful ways to build a workplace where people feel connected, motivated and committed to their work. It can lift business performance, make your organisation a more attractive place to work and seriously improve employee retention.
But too often, organisations take a scattergun approach — launching disconnected initiatives that don’t lead to meaningful change. A structured strategy helps you cut through the noise, take targeted action and build long-term engagement around what matters most.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or refining your approach, this guide will walk you through how to create an employee engagement strategy using the trusted framework created by our HR experts.
Related: Watch our webinar on how to evolve your engagement strategy
When people are engaged at work, they’re more productive, more creative and more likely to stay. A study by the University of Oxford found that happy employees are 13% more productive — and organisations with engaged people outperform those without by 21% in profitability, according to a meta-analysis by the Harvard Business Review.
But engagement doesn’t happen by accident. A successful employee engagement strategy connects your people to your organisation’s goals and values, gives them a voice in the change process and provides structure around how progress will be achieved and measured.
It also helps you focus resources in the right places. With clear objectives and an action plan based on real data, your strategy makes it easier to prioritise what will have the biggest impact — whether that’s developing line managers, improving internal communication or supporting employee wellbeing.
There’s no universal approach to employee engagement. Every organisation has different priorities and challenges — so your strategy should reflect the unique needs of your employees and your goals as a business.
At People Insight, our employee engagement strategy model has four core stages:
Let’s explore what each step looks like in practice.
Before making any decisions, you need a clear picture of where you are now. An employee engagement survey is the best way to do this — providing both a benchmark for engagement and insight into what’s driving it.
Your survey should be anonymous and easy to complete. The goal is to identify the key engagement drivers in your organisation — the factors that have the greatest influence on how people feel about their work.
Our Pearl model is a helpful framework to start with. It covers five core themes:
Once you’ve gathered this data, you can move forward with confidence — knowing that your employee engagement strategy is based on real feedback from your people.
A strong strategy connects employee feedback with business direction. Once you’ve understood what matters to your employees, consider how it links to your organisation’s broader goals.
Ask questions like:
Use your survey data to choose 3–5 employee engagement objectives. These should address priority areas and align with where your business is heading.
For example, if feedback shows a gap in people’s sense of belonging and your business is focused on diversity and inclusion, your objective might be: “Create a workplace where all employees feel safe to speak up and bring their whole selves to work.”
It’s important to be specific. Use your engagement data to set measurable goals, like improving a survey score or closing gaps between different groups of employees.
Your employee engagement strategy becomes real through the actions you take. This is where you shift from insight to impact.
Use People Insight’s action planning framework to help you build out each objective with specific, achievable actions:
Quick wins are important — they show employees that their feedback is being taken seriously. But don’t lose sight of the long term. Some changes will take time, and it’s important to communicate regularly about what’s happening behind the scenes.
Once your strategy is in motion, it’s important to track how things are evolving. This helps you course-correct, maintain momentum and demonstrate impact.
A combination of methods can help:
You’re not just tracking numbers — you’re listening to how employees feel and responding in meaningful ways. That trust is the foundation of any lasting employee engagement strategy.
When Arrow Communications expanded rapidly through acquisition, they needed a shared culture to bring everyone together. Their #ARROWVISION programme put employees at the centre of that transformation.
Key initiatives included:
This consistent and transparent approach helped them create a culture of ownership and openness — backed by data and built around people.
Read Arrow Communications’ employee engagement case study and learn more about our survey communications services
London South Bank University (LSBU) uses employee engagement surveys as a key input into their five-year strategic plan. They’ve seen marked improvement in student experience, organisational reputation and internal engagement.
By giving line managers direct access to their own results, LSBU created a sense of ownership that led to tailored, local change. For example, the School of Applied Sciences used insights to focus on inclusion and leadership — designing initiatives that reflected the unique needs of their teams.
The result? Targeted, measurable improvements that employees could see and feel.
Read more about how LSBU is enabling local action.
A thoughtful employee engagement strategy demonstrates a genuine commitment to listening and acting with purpose. The real power lies in your ability to hear what matters most to your employees and take meaningful steps towards it.
Employee surveys are the foundation of this process. They help you ask the right questions, focus on the right priorities and involve the right people. Whether you’re just beginning or looking to level up your existing strategy, the insights from employee feedback can set your engagement efforts on the right course.
If you are looking to partner with an actionable employee experience platform like People Insight, we’d love to work with you. Our employee surveys are second to none and we’re fuelled by passionate survey consultants. Get in touch with us today to get the ball rolling.
