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9 Employee Engagement Programs to Increase Your Bottom Line
Investing in company culture is smart, but without a structured engagement program, you may still face challenges like absenteeism, poor retention, and stalled growth. Paradigm’s research shows employees with a stronger sense of belonging are 10x more likely to be engaged. With a practical, measurable approach, you can achieve—and sustain—an engaged, high-performing culture.
Discover how Paradigm’s Culture for Everyone philosophy and platform can enhance your employee engagement programs, leading to increased job satisfaction and improved employee performance.
What Makes and Breaks Employee Engagement?
When employees feel their contributions and voices don’t matter or believe they don’t have the same opportunities as others, engagement suffers. Feeling unsafe expressing ideas can also reduce motivation to contribute. According to the Benefits of Belonging report, employees are five times more likely to experience psychological safety at work when they feel like they belong. That sense of safety improves performance and encourages innovation, risk-taking, and curiosity.
Carissa Romero, Co-Founder of Paradigm, summarizes the importance of engagement and company culture. “A culture of growth fosters a sense of belonging by helping people navigate the uncertainty associated with newness, challenges, and change at work.” To build that culture, leaders must invest in strategies and programs that measurably increase workplace inclusion, professional growth, and team collaboration.
9 Employee Engagement Programs That Drive Results
Although employee engagement steadily rose from 2011 to 2020, peaking at 69%, scores declined to 67% in 2023. However, with the right approach, you can reverse the trend and create lasting improvement. Here are practical strategies for fostering a positive work environment rooted in inclusion and growth:
1. Leadership Coaching and Mentorship
High engagement starts at the top. When leaders model inclusive workplace behaviors and provide consistent direction as mentors, they help create a culture where everyone feels valued and wants to contribute.
Workshops and educational courses give leaders tools to improve workplace culture. Data-driven leadership assessments and tailored recommendations enhance development programs, helping managers establish inclusive practices, reduce bias, and foster psychological safety for their teams. In fact, leaders who have completed a Paradigm training report a 45% increase in understanding of inclusion.
You can also explore formalized mentorship programs, pairing senior leaders with junior team members to reinforce inclusive practices and encourage knowledge sharing. Be intentional about matching participants across diverse backgrounds and experiences so both sides benefit from unique perspectives.
2. Identity-Inclusive Workshops and ERGs
Once your leadership has the training to create a high-performance, inclusive culture, you can expand this approach to the rest of your team. Paradigm research shows over 70% of people want their workplaces to invest in inclusion, so be sure to give them meaningful ways to engage.
Host interactive workshops that encourage authentic peer support. Implementing sessions on unconscious bias and common inclusivity barriers can also spark conversation and create opportunities for collaboration.
Another effective way to improve engagement is through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), which bring together team members from underrepresented groups or similar backgrounds to provide resources, understanding, and tools to prevent burnout.
All of these initiatives help employees feel seen and connected—key ingredients for highly engaged teams.
3. Whole-Person Well-Being and Belonging Initiatives
Prioritizing employee well-being and belonging is a smart investment in both team members and your business. When employees feel supported on and off the clock, they show up more engaged at work.
Work-life balance initiatives not only boost employee satisfaction but are also essential for retaining talent. According to APA’s Work in America Survey, 92% of employees said it’s “very” or “somewhat” critical for their organization to value their physical and emotional well-being.
Start by offering mental health resources, including foundational programs like counseling and mindfulness training. Then add in physical and financial wellness programs. You can also nurture connection through community-focused programs like volunteer opportunities, family days, social events, and cultural celebrations.
Employees who feel their well-being is supported are 73% less likely to feel burned out and 50% more likely to be thriving. They are also 53% less likely to be actively looking for new jobs.
4. Reward Structures and Employee Recognition
Calling out wins not only motivates employees but also boosts employee retention. Regular recognition can prevent up to 45% of voluntary turnovers. Build a culture of appreciation through consistent, structured practices like:
- Peer-to-peer shoutouts
- Points-based reward systems
- Appreciations during team meetings
- Awards tied to collaboration, inclusion, innovation, or performance metrics
Leaders may inadvertently miss employee contributions due to unconscious bias, so it’s essential to train managers to spot and celebrate all achievements. Fair recognition across all groups helps create a more balanced and inclusive culture for everyone.
5. Cross-Functional Collaboration
According to Corel’s State of Collaboration survey, 64% of respondents report losing three hours a week to poor collaboration, and 20% said they lose more than six. Help reclaim that time by breaking down silos and encouraging cross-functional teamwork. Here are a few methods to try:
- Create more inclusive projects: Bring departments together to spark innovation and energy. For example, have your marketing team partner with sales on a new ad campaign that addresses real customer hesitations.
- Use internal communication tools: Encourage teams to connect through Slack or similar tools when they need help. Dedicated channels or chat rooms for projects or shared interests encourage real-time and asynchronous collaboration and camaraderie.
- Leverage collective brainstorming: Host regular creative sessions to increase innovation and strengthen workplace bonds. Make sure everyone has the chance to express their ideas.
- Organize community volunteer opportunities: Offer paid time off for participating in local non-profit events and charity drives. Encourage your team members to choose the causes they care about most.
These initiatives build stronger teams by increasing trust, boosting morale, and creating a more connected workplace.
6. Positive Feedback Loops
Consistent, thoughtful feedback is one of the most powerful tools for boosting engagement. Alongside your reward and recognition programs, implement a feedback process that helps employees feel heard, supported, and motivated to grow.
Start with frequent manager check-ins. Gallup research on recognition and feedback shows employees who receive input from a supervisor at least weekly are almost three times more likely to feel they get valuable feedback. But frequency alone isn’t enough—it also needs to be specific, actionable, and inclusive.
For example, vague comments like “This doesn’t feel right” don’t offer much insight or foster a sense of inclusion. A better approach is to start by asking about the employee’s intent and, after understanding their reasoning, offering specific suggestions and positive encouragement.
Beyond regular and specific feedback, give employees opportunities to share experiences related to their role and personal well-being. Use pulse surveys and check-in polls with questions like:
- How are you feeling?
- Are your goals clear?
- Do you feel recognized by your team?
- Do you have access to growth opportunities?
With Paradigm Blueprint, you can analyze the results to understand culture, communication, sentiment, and other factors influencing engagement.
But tracking engagement metrics is only part of the process. To drive change, it’s also essential to tie employee feedback to actionable goals.
For example, if survey data shows high stress due to task overload, consider reducing the number of low-impact assignments or increasing autonomy to give employees more control over managing their workload.
7. Career Pathing and Growth Visibility
It’s difficult to keep employees engaged if they don’t see a future for themselves at your company. According to SHRM, 47% of companies report lower turnover rates when employees have a clear career path.
Increase motivation in disengaged employees and support high performers by establishing career development paths that instill confidence and a sense of belonging for everyone. Clear expectations and development opportunities increase security and purpose, encouraging team members to stay and grow.
Because not everyone is interested in management or a leadership role, be sure to foster growth and provide professional development opportunities for both upward and lateral movement. Define skills and milestones for each path so employees and managers can monitor progress.
8. Manager Support and Accountability
Alongside training programs and coaching sessions, encourage leaders to strengthen their skills in conflict resolution, bias reduction, empathy, and mentorship—and use data to hold them accountable. During performance reviews, include pulse survey results that indicate engagement levels as well as each team member’s sense of belonging, fairness, access to opportunities, and sense of purpose.
When engagement is a core part of every manager’s role, overall performance improves. Team members are more likely to stay when they enjoy their work, trust their team, and respect their leaders.
9. Onboarding with Inclusion in Mind
Employee engagement starts on day one. Onboarding is your first opportunity to show new hires what your culture stands for and how they’ll be supported.
Use this time to communicate your company values, reinforce inclusive team norms, and offer resources like diversity training and guidance on how teams work together. When new employees feel welcomed and prepared, they’re more likely to contribute, innovate, and thrive from the start.
The Business Case for Employee Engagement Initiatives
Employee engagement strategies aren’t just nice to have. They directly affect your bottom line. Studies consistently show that highly engaged organizations outperform their peers.
Paradigm’s Benefits of Belonging report found that team members who feel they belong are 10 times more likely to engage at work. That engagement leads to better performance and greater impact. In contrast, employees who don’t engage are far less likely to contribute to company growth.
Taking a data-driven, research-backed approach to measuring engagement, analyzing setbacks, and making improvements is essential. It enhances the employee experience, increases productivity and performance, and helps your company grow.
How to Measure Employee Engagement Success and Sustain Progress
There’s a strong business case for improving employee engagement, but how do you measure success? Tracking impact is what turns good intentions into actual progress.
Frequent employee engagement surveys and check-ins can help identify areas for improvement, but the challenge is knowing where to focus amid all that data. Holistic platforms for employee engagement, like Paradigm, address this challenge by centralizing engagement, diversity, and performance data. Paradigm helps you track belonging scores and filter results by identity group, location, and other key characteristics to reveal what’s working and what isn’t.
As a department manager or human resources leader, you can use these clear, actionable insights to align engagement metrics with company goals and take targeted steps to improve inclusivity, belonging, and overall engagement.
Are Your Engagement Programs Equitable?
The core objective of an employee engagement program is simple: create a workplace culture where everyone belongs so they can contribute their best work.
Identifying where equity gaps exist is essential. Some groups may experience less psychological safety, fewer opportunities, lower recognition, or more negative sentiment. These are priority areas for improvement. Taking actions to close these gaps creates a welcoming and equitable environment for everyone, boosting engagement across your organization.
Implement Employee Engagement Programs with Measurable Impact
Paradigm’s Culture for Everyone platform doesn’t just gather engagement data. It connects your business goals to actionable steps.
Analyze engagement quality within your teams, monitor ongoing scores, and drill down to individual results to identify employees at higher exit risk and intervene early. With Paradigm’s expert support, you can build targeted employee engagement programs that ensure no one falls through the cracks.
Contact us today to transform your culture data into actionable insights that drive engagement and improve profitability.
September 26, 2025