This article originally was published on WRAL.
Regardless of industry, every CEO wants the same things: greater productivity, higher revenue and improved morale. And employee engagement remains the key to achieving these critical objectives. Yet despite its mission-critical role, employee engagement in the United States has sunk to a 10-year low. To reverse this trend, reengage employees and create thriving workplaces, CEOs and their HR teams need actionable data and targeted strategies.
Engagement provides a major boost to productivity and results in a resilient culture that can withstand market fluctuations and economic volatility. Engaged employees are directly related to higher profits—an average of 23% higher—and better stock performance. An engaged workforce generates 18% more in sales, and engaged team members are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work.
At the same time, a January 2025 Gallup survey found that only 31% of the U.S. workforce is engaged, more than half are disengaged, and 17% of the workforce is actively disengaged. The global picture isn’t any better, with workplace engagement worldwide hovering at 23%. Executives can’t afford to ignore this widespread low workplace morale, which Gallup calls the Great Detachment. To implement effective engagement strategies, senior leaders need company-specific data to tell them where to go to work. This is often easier said than done.
Executives don’t have the data they need to improve employee engagement
Most standard engagement surveys fail to provide actionable insights or pinpoint areas of concern. Many surveys don’t ask the right questions and don’t reveal the details of what employees are struggling with. And employees are anxious about a lot. PwC’s recent Global Workforce Hopes and Fears survey finds that more than half of workers are feeling overloaded by change in the workplace, and sizable percentages are struggling with finances, an increase in workload and fears about their job security.
Every organization—and every location—will have its own mix of concerns, fears and challenges. It’s crucial that leaders have an accurate picture of what that mix entails. Without detailed and segmented data, leaders risk implementing generic strategies that don’t address the root causes of their organization’s disengagement, amounting to little more than wasted time and money.
Executives Need Real-Time, Granular Data for a Successful Engagement Strategy
Relying solely on your annual engagement surveys won’t give you the right insights to take effective action. The solution is a combination of more frequent pulse surveys and intentional conversations with employees, in small groups and in one-on-one interactions. This mix of hard data and employee feedback allows leaders to pinpoint and address the most pressing issues. To build an effective employee engagement strategy, you need data as well as the human stories behind them.
Start with trackable data. Quantitative data lets HR leaders track efficacy—making it even more important that they have the right information. Well-structured engagement surveys that get to root causes of disengagement, information on employees’ well-being and internal communications are all important data points to track and measure over time.
Check in on your employees’ experience. To ensure your company’s engagement strategies are tailored to your workforce’s specific needs, ask employees how they are doing. You can gather valuable qualitative feedback through both causal and intentional conversations with team members. These real-time check-in efforts will help you get a more accurate gauge on your team members’ sentiments, letting leaders adapt quickly to new challenges.
Measure progress over time. Accurate and timely data is crucial, but it becomes more valuable when you can track your progress. Did workplace morale improve after your employee engagement initiatives? Or did engagement decline from one survey to the next? Are certain departments less engaged than others? Are certain demographics less engaged than others? The differences from survey to survey over time allows leaders to pinpoint what programs are most effective and which fail to deliver results.
As management guru Peter Drucker said, “what gets measured, gets managed.” Only by measuring employee sentiment accurately—using regular pulse surveys and intentional conversations—can executives manage workplace engagement. But even the most insightful data is worthless unless leaders act on that information. When employees see leadership not only listening but also making meaningful changes based on their feedback, they feel valued and respected. This fosters trust and psychological safety, where people are more willing to share ideas, voice concerns, and take creative risks without fear of retaliation. And at the heart of this process is authenticity and vulnerability. Leaders who acknowledge challenges, admit when they don’t have all the answers, and involve employees in shaping solutions create a culture where engagement isn’t just an HR metric—it’s the foundation of a thriving, high-performing organization.
If you’re looking for actionable tips and innovative strategies to elevate your employee engagement practices, join Kurt Merriweather, vice president of marketing at The Diversity Movement for “How to Measure Employee Engagement: Metrics You Can Act On.” This one-hour, free webinar explores setting employee engagement goals, tracking employee engagement with surveys and quantitative data, and using engagement metrics and qualitative feedback to create a motivated and productive workforce, no matter the size of your team.
About the Author
Donald Thompson, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2023 SE Award-winner, founded The Diversity Movement, a Workplace Options Company, to fundamentally transform the modern workplace through diversity-led culture change. Recognized by Inc., Fast Company and Forbes, Thompson is author of Underestimated: A CEO’s Unlikely Path to Success, hosts the podcast “High Octane Leadership in an Empathetic World” and has published widely on leadership and the executive mindset. His new book is The Inclusive Leadership Handbook: Balancing People and Performance for Sustainable Growth, co-authored with Kurt Merriweather, Vice President of Marketing and Innovation at The Diversity Movement. Follow Thompson on LinkedIn for updates on news, events and his podcast.