In the shifting landscape of work, where hybrid models, generational differences, and evolving employee expectations collide, engagement has become a North Star for HR and People teams. But let's get one thing straight: engagement isn’t a buzzword. It’s the engine behind high-performing teams, healthy company culture, and sustainable business growth.
And yet, despite its importance, engagement is often misunderstood or diluted into surface-level gestures. And fortunately, everyone is in agreement that free pizza Fridays don’t cut it anymore.
Employees today are looking for meaning, recognition, and connection. If you're serious about increasing employee engagement and sustaining it, you need intentional, practical strategies that go beyond the superficial.
Here are seven actionable ways to keep your team truly invested - and yes, they can be implemented without overhauling your entire organisation.
1. Make Recognition a Daily Practice, Not a Yearly Event
Recognition is one of the most powerful tools in your engagement toolkit - and it's often the most underused.
Research consistently shows that employees who feel recognised are more productive, more loyal, and more motivated. But many organisations still rely on annual performance reviews or quarterly shoutouts from the C-suite. That’s too little, too late.
To increase employee engagement, build a culture where peer-to-peer recognition is easy, public, and part of the everyday flow of work. This doesn’t require a large budget - just the right tools and a commitment to consistency.
There are many platforms (like Juno's Shoutouts) that make this simple by allowing team members to acknowledge each other in real-time for big wins, daily support, or demonstrating company values. It’s a small action with compounding returns.
The beauty of consistent recognition lies in this compounding effect. Much like interest in a savings account, small moments of genuine appreciation build on one another over time - creating a cumulative sense of value, trust, and belonging. When employees regularly see and feel that their contributions are noticed, they’re more likely to repeat those behaviours, uplift others, and stay emotionally committed to the team’s goals. What starts as a single shoutout can spark a culture where acknowledgment becomes second nature.
Over time, this steady stream of recognition helps improve company culture at a foundational level. It reduces friction, increases collaboration, and creates a shared language of appreciation that permeates across departments. Instead of culture being something HR tries to define from the top down, it begins to emerge organically - from the bottom up - through daily acts of respect and gratitude. And because recognition is visible and inclusive, it also reinforces key values in a way that no handbook ever could.
Pro Tip: Tie recognition to specific behaviours or values. “Great job” is fine, but “Thank you for stepping up to handle that client issue - your calmness under pressure really reflects our value of integrity” is more meaningful and memorable.
2. Align Roles With Purpose
People want to do work that matters. If employees can’t see how their role contributes to the bigger picture, their motivation will suffer - no matter how many perks you offer.
As HR leaders, it’s crucial to bridge that gap between daily tasks and organisational purpose. Start by working with managers to help employees understand their impact. What customer pain point are they solving? What broader mission are they enabling?
Let’s say you’re part of a company that provides sustainable packaging solutions. The overarching mission might be “to eliminate single-use plastics and help businesses adopt eco-friendly alternatives.” On the surface, a finance assistant or IT support technician might feel disconnected from that goal - but that’s where intentional alignment comes in.
In this case, HR and managers can help those individuals see their strategic impact. For the finance assistant, accurate reporting and forecasting enable the business to reinvest in R&D for more sustainable materials. For IT support, ensuring the tech infrastructure runs smoothly means customer orders and supply chains are uninterrupted - directly supporting client success and reducing waste. When employees understand this connection, even if it’s indirect, they begin to view their role as essential to the mission, not peripheral to it.
Recognition plays a crucial role in reinforcing these connections. When managers or peers call out not just what someone did - but why it mattered to the company’s wider mission - it makes that link tangible. For instance, recognising the finance assistant for enabling a new sustainability initiative through precise budgeting helps them see the direct impact of their work. Over time, this kind of specific, purpose-driven recognition doesn’t just motivate individuals, it helps weave a shared understanding across teams of how everyone contributes to the bigger picture.
Actionable Tip: During onboarding and reviews, include discussions about purpose and how each role fits into the mission. Don’t leave this to chance—it’s too important.
3. Rethink “Culture” as a Shared Experience, Not a Policy Document
Culture is not your mission statement or the posters in the office kitchen. It’s the daily lived experience of your employees. If you want to improve company culture, start by listening to your people and involving them in shaping it.
Here’s how:
- Run pulse surveys regularly, and act on the feedback.
- Host employee-led “culture labs” or focus groups to gather qualitative insights.
- Create space for informal connection - especially in remote or hybrid environments.
Culture is dynamic, not static. It evolves with your team, and your engagement strategies should evolve with it.
Take the example of a 30-person creative agency based in Manchester. The leadership team noticed rising tension between departments and a drop in morale, but traditional engagement surveys weren’t surfacing the root causes. So they introduced a “culture lab” - a monthly, informal session where a rotating group of employees across departments came together to discuss what was working, what felt off, and what changes they’d like to see.
Within three sessions, several patterns emerged: junior staff felt excluded from decision-making, and remote employees lacked visibility into project wins. Acting on these insights, the company implemented a few targeted changes - like including junior team members in pitch prep meetings and using a recognition tool to publicly celebrate cross-team successes. Within a few months, collaboration improved, internal feedback scores rose, and employees reported feeling “more heard and more connected.” What started as a low-cost, low-stakes conversation series became a catalyst for cultural renewal.
4. Invest in Autonomy and Trust
Micromanagement is the fast track to disengagement. Trust and autonomy, on the other hand, lead to ownership and creativity.
HR can play a key role in coaching managers to shift from control to enablement. This doesn’t mean removing structure - it means giving employees the freedom to approach their work in the way that suits them best, while still being aligned with outcomes.
Practical Steps:
- Offer flexible working hours where possible.
- Give teams input into how they structure projects.
- Focus on goals, not time spent at the keyboard.
Empowered employees are engaged employees.
Recognition platforms can also serve as a subtle but powerful listening tool for managers. When used consistently, they provide a pulse on who is being acknowledged, and who isn’t. If certain team members rarely receive recognition, or stop giving it altogether, it can be an early indicator of disengagement or feeling undervalued. This kind of behavioural signal is often missed in traditional performance reviews but is critical for preventing quiet quitting. With the right data and visibility, managers can take proactive steps - checking in, redistributing workload, or opening up a development conversation - before disengagement turns into attrition.
5. Build Pathways for Growth That Aren’t Just About Promotions
Not everyone wants to be a manager, and not all roles have vertical ladders. But everyone wants to grow. If employees feel stuck, they’ll disengage - or leave.
To increase employee engagement, offer growth opportunities that align with different career ambitions, whether that’s technical mastery, cross-functional exposure, or mentoring others.
Some ideas:
- Create individual development plans (IDPs) tailored to each employee.
- Offer budget or time for learning and development (L&D).
- Celebrate lateral moves, not just upward ones.
A transparent, supported path for growth is a major motivator—especially for younger workers.
At a mid-sized tech company, a mid-level developer named Alex had started to withdraw - fewer contributions in team meetings, minimal involvement giving or receiving recognition from peers, and a visible drop in enthusiasm. His manager noticed the pattern not through direct complaints, but via the recognition dashboard: Alex hadn’t been getting involved in weeks, a sharp contrast to earlier trends. Instead of escalating the issue as a performance concern, the manager initiated a casual check-in and discovered Alex felt “stuck” - uninspired by routine tasks and unsure of where his career was headed.
In response, the manager invited Alex to co-lead a new internal tooling project - an initiative outside of his usual scope but aligned with his strengths. Within weeks, his engagement rebounded, and soon after, so did his performance on core responsibilities. This is a reminder that sometimes the best development opportunity isn’t a promotion - it’s a project that reignites purpose.
6. Create Rituals of Belonging
Belonging is the emotional glue that binds people to their team. It’s hard to quantify, but you know when it’s missing.
To improve company culture and create a strong sense of community, embed belonging into the rhythm of your workplace. Think rituals, not just events.
Examples:
- Start meetings with a “win of the week” to highlight individual or team successes.
- Encourage managers to do regular 1:1s that focus on the whole person, not just the task list.
- Create shared experiences around celebrations, cultural moments, or team milestones.
These rituals don’t have to be complex or expensive. They just have to be consistent and genuine.
In any workplace, but especially in hybrid or remote setups, genuine human connection can be the difference between simply showing up and fully showing up. When colleagues rarely see each other in person, informal chats and spontaneous team bonding moments are easy to lose. That’s where intentional tools like recognition platforms play a vital role.
By making appreciation visible, frequent, and inclusive, they help recreate those social “micro-moments” that are essential for building trust and connection. Whether it’s a public thank-you after a tough sprint or a shoutout for behind-the-scenes support, these acts of recognition remind people that their efforts matter, and that they’re seen by more than just their line manager. Over time, this fosters not just belonging, but real relationships - the kind that turn colleagues into teammates.
7. Make Mental Wellbeing Part of the Business Strategy
Employee wellbeing isn’t a nice-to-have - it’s a business imperative. Burnt-out, anxious, or unsupported employees can’t engage meaningfully, no matter how much they care.
As HR professionals, ensure your wellbeing strategy is more than a few EAP leaflets in the break room. Mental health support should be proactive, accessible, and de-stigmatised.
Tactics That Work:
- Offer mental health days that don’t require a doctor’s note.
- Train managers in psychological safety and active listening.
- Partner with platforms that offer flexible wellbeing options employees can tailor to their needs.
The most engaged teams are the ones that feel safe, supported, and seen.
The link between wellbeing and engagement isn’t just anecdotal - it’s backed by data. According to a 2023 report by Mind Share Partners, employees who feel their mental health is supported by their employer are 2.5 times more likely to be satisfied with their job and three times more likely to feel engaged. Gallup’s research echoes this, finding that workplaces with strong wellbeing cultures experience 41% lower absenteeism and 24% lower turnover. When employees know their mental and emotional needs are not only acknowledged but actively supported, they’re far more likely to invest their energy, loyalty, and creativity in return. In short, prioritising wellbeing isn’t a perk - it’s a competitive advantage.
Engagement is Built, Not Bought
There’s no shortcut to lasting engagement. It’s not about perks or flashy initiatives - it’s about intentional design of the employee experience. When people feel recognised, trusted, connected, and able to grow, they stay invested. When they don’t, no amount of foosball tables or free snacks will fix the problem.
And while technology can help - especially tools that make it easy to celebrate wins and keep morale high - the heart of engagement is human.
If you're serious about making a change, start small but start now. Recognise one more person today. Ask one more purposeful question. Facilitate one more conversation about what matters.
Because at the end of the day, engagement isn’t a buzzword - it’s the difference between a workplace people tolerate and one they believe in.
Final Thought for HR Leaders
Engagement isn’t a trend - it’s a strategic advantage. In a competitive hiring market and an unpredictable business climate, your ability to increase employee engagement and improve company culture will directly influence performance, retention, and brand reputation.
Start with intention. Stay consistent. And don’t be afraid to use tools like Shoutouts by Juno to help make recognition and motivation part of the everyday.
Because motivated teams don’t happen by accident - they’re built, day by day, by people like you.