When employees feel deeply connected to your purpose, respected by leadership, and supported by their team, they give more of themselves to the work.

When they don’t, they do the bare minimum… while quietly looking for the exit.

Engagement isn’t a “nice-to-have.” It’s the difference between:

• Teams that own outcomes vs. teams that wait to be told what to do

• Talent that stays and grows vs. talent that leaves and needs to be replaced

• A company people talk about vs. a company people line up to work for

If you want engaged employees, you must deliberately design how people experience your organization.

Below are 7 core strategies that directly impact engagement. When these are strong and aligned, they create powerful synergy that makes it hard for top performers not to want to work with you – and stay.

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Why Engagement Matters

Engagement drives:

• Performance – Engaged employees care about the outcome, not just the task.

• Quality – They take pride in their work and catch problems early.

• Retention – People don’t leave jobs where they feel valued, challenged, and supported.

• Reputation – Engaged employees talk. So do disengaged ones. Your employer brand is built either way.

If you’re seeing turnover, “quiet quitting,” missed deadlines, or a lack of ownership, chances are one or more of these 7 strategies is broken.

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1. Purpose

We all want to believe that the work we do matters. When people see how their role connects to something bigger, they will sacrifice more, stay longer, and care deeply about the outcome.

Ask yourself:

• Why does your organization exist beyond making money?

• What are you striving to accomplish that a top performer would be proud to help build?

• How clearly is that purpose communicated to candidates and employees?

If you consistently share your purpose in your job postings, interviews, onboarding, and team meetings, the right people – the ones who believe what you believe – will find you and stay with you. If you don’t, work becomes “just a job,” and engagement drops fast.

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2. Leadership Mindset

People don’t quit companies. They quit leaders.

Everyone wants to feel appreciated and to know their efforts are seen. Top performers, especially, will follow good leaders and will happily tell their top-performing friends about them.

A leadership mindset that drives engagement includes:

• Recognition – Not fluffy praise, but specific acknowledgment of effort and impact.

• Ownership – Trusting employees with meaningful responsibilities and the authority to act.

• Support – Removing roadblocks, coaching instead of criticizing, and being available.

If your leaders are overloaded, inconsistent, or uncomfortable giving feedback, engagement will suffer – even if everything else is dialed in.

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3. WIIFTE: What’s In It For The Employee?

No one wants to feel like their work is pointless or unimportant. We all want to know that what we do is making a difference.

You can’t just talk about what you need from the role. You must clearly show:

• Impact: How does this role impact the organization, the product, the client, or the team?

• Growth: What skills will they build? How can they advance? What does their future look like with you?

• Uniqueness: What do you offer that they can’t easily get somewhere else – development, autonomy, stability, type of work, schedule flexibility, culture, etc.?

The ability to grow and contribute to something meaningful keeps employees engaged and motivated. If they can’t answer “What’s in it for me if I stay and give my best here?” they will eventually look elsewhere.

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4. Fair, Competitive, and Equitable Pay

Money rarely turns a disengaged employee into an engaged one – but it absolutely becomes a problem when it feels unfair.

People need to know they aren’t being taken advantage of. They also need time off and health and wellness benefits that support a balanced and sustainable life.

You don’t have to be the highest-paying employer in your market. But you do need to be:

• Competitive: In line with market rates for similar roles and responsibilities.

• Fair: Compensation that is reasonable for the work performed.

• Equitable: Avoiding unexplained gaps that destroy trust.

When pay is obviously unfair or non-competitive, it becomes a loud demotivator. When it’s fair, it stops being the conversation – and employees can focus on the work itself.

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5. Outcomes & Expectations

Too often we don’t get what we want from employees because we were never clear.

Job descriptions usually list duties and responsibilities, but not actual deliverables or success metrics. That gap is where disengagement grows.

Engaged employees need:

• A clear picture of success: “At 90 days, if you’re winning in this role, here’s what it looks like…”

• Defined outcomes: Not just “manage projects,” but “deliver X projects per year at Y margin with Z client satisfaction.”

• Aligned expectations: Agreement between the employee, direct manager, and leadership on what matters most.

People often leave within the first few months not because the work is too hard, but because what was sold to them doesn’t match the reality of what’s expected.

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6. Job Fit

If the way your employees think and learn, the way they naturally behave, and what they care about doesn’t align with the job, the hiring manager, or the team, they will disengage or quit.

Job fit isn’t just about skills. It includes:

• Cognitive fit: How they problem-solve and learn.

• Behavioral fit: Pace, structure, communication style, independence vs. collaboration.

• Interests and passions: What energizes them vs. what drains them.

  Emotional Intelligence: The need to recognize, understand, and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the capacity to recognize, understand, and influence the emotions of others in order to influence desired outcomes.

If you’re not intentionally measuring and aligning these factors, through structured interviews, validated assessments, and clear role profiles, you’re leaving engagement (and retention) to chance.

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7. Integrity & Values

If your values are just words on the wall, employees will know.

If your integrity is questionable – shifting promises, double standards, cutting corners – employees will quietly leave for a safer, more aligned environment.

Engaged employees need:

• Real values in action: Decisions, promotions, and consequences that match what you say you believe.

• Psychological safety: Confidence they won’t be punished for speaking up, asking questions, or raising concerns.

• Consistency: What’s tolerated and rewarded is the same, regardless of who you are.

Top performers don’t want to succeed in a place they can’t respect.

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What Happens When You Get These 7 Right

When these seven strategies are aligned, you create a workplace where:

• People are proud of what they’re building and are excited to build more

• Organizations are magnets for talent instead of revolving doors.

• Human beings want to be a part of what you’re doing

• Pay becomes a non-issue and people want to be a part of what you’re doing

• Expectations are clear, so people know how to win.

• Values are lived, trust runs deep and people feel safe to have the impact they came have

That’s the kind of environment where great people want to work, and where they invite their best people to join them.

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