Jieyi’s new article on employee engagement strategies that reduce turnover.
I’ve written a lot about how to retain employees. In this post, I’m going to write about how to engage them. These are two different things, but they’re very closely related.
What is an “employee engagement strategy”?
The word “engagement” is often used in HR discussions, but it’s often used in a way that means little or nothing. When managers talk about “increasing engagement”, what they usually mean is “giving people more stuff”, like giving them better benefits, better pay, or better perks. This is a mistake. Engagement is not about what you give your employees — it’s about the practices, programs, and behaviors of management that make employees feel invested in their work, their teams, and their company’s direction.
In other words, engagement is about how committed employees are to their work and their employer. If you want to increase retention, you need to focus on increasing engagement, because these two things are directly linked.
There’s a good business case for focusing on retention now.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 3.08 million people quit per month between July and October of 2025:
Turnover is expensive and disruptive. According to Gallup, it costs an average of 6 months’ salary to replace an employee. It also disrupts productivity, team cohesion, and customer satisfaction.
Engagement is one of the few interventions that directly addresses the cost of turnover. An engaged workforce produces increased productivity, lower absenteeism, stronger team collaboration, higher customer retention, and reduced voluntary turnover. And there are clear financial benefits to a strong retention strategy: Lower hiring costs, higher customer satisfaction, stronger work relationships, better brand reputation, and optimized talent management through internal promotions.
But engagement and retention are directly linked. Gallup found three personas among employees:
Engaged employees are more likely to stay with a company longer, take initiative, deliver better customer outcomes, collaborate effectively, and show resilience under stress or change.
So if you want to reduce turnover, you need to increase engagement.
Megatrends are changing the workplace landscape. A competitive job market has led to a talent shortage, while a growing younger, digitally savvy workforce is putting fresh demands on companies, requiring new ways of working that call for adapted strategies.
One foundational element of engagement is communication.
Communication helps clarify what employees are working toward. It signals that leadership is paying attention. For remote or non-co-located teams, regular video check-ins, asynchronous recognition tools, and explicit goal-setting matter more than ever before.
Recognition and career development are the two major drivers of motivation. Best-in-class recognition programs celebrate achievements at every stage of the employee lifecycle, building positive workplace culture. They build loyalty by showing employees that their work matters.
Investing in learning and development shows employees that you care about their long-term future within the company, not just their current role. Strategies include training initiatives, upskilling and reskilling courses, hands-on projects, and mentorship programs. 9 out of 10 employees who can master skills important to them feel they belong at their organisation (a 2023 engagement study). Learning and development is therefore a critical factor in improving retention.
Wellbeing support spans the ways of working, pay, benefits, and overall employee experience. Now, wellbeing support is no longer a minimum requirement, but rather a baseline requirement for companies wanting to motivate, inspire, and retain their employees. A healthcare engagement report found a positive correlation between engaged employees and reduced workplace injuries.
Active manager involvement is essential to making any engagement or retention strategy work.
Gallup found that up to 70% of variance in employee engagement is attributed to the manager. Only 26% of leaders report that engagement is an important part of their daily thinking and planning. Managers must act as advocates, set a positive tone, and model the desired behaviors. Active management involvement is described as critical to reducing turnover.