The best employers and HR teams think proactively about how to drive employee performance. Workers aren’t solely responsible for figuring out how to stay motivated.
Of course, it’s impossible to keep everybody engaged all the time. Your company’s priorities shift, and your employees’ goals change. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about how to create a healthy organization.
Whether you’re a Chief People Officer, HR manager or someone else responsible for building culture, it’s important to create systems that push employees up the engagement ladder, from actively disengaged to unengaged to actively engaged.
If you do this at scale, you’ll build an exceptional team. And you’ll be less affected by difficult recruiting dynamics or retention trends.
In this article, we cover key drivers of employee engagement. Use this information to think more intentionally about how to support employees.
Encourage Open Communication
Employees value open and honest communication. They want to know what’s happening both within and outside of the business that could affect their roles. And they want their voices to be heard on important issues.
Open communication means different things in different companies. In smaller businesses and startups, open communication might mean having a daily “standup” where everyone shares work updates. In larger companies, open communication could mean having executive leaders send weekly or monthly updates.
What matters most is that you find out what your team members want to know and how often they want to hear it. Implement a communication strategy, and then gather feedback. You’ll likely need to refine your approach as you go.
How you communicate is also important. At BombBomb, we use video messages to share comments, give big updates and explain new processes or concepts. For quick questions and smaller updates, we use Slack.
This setup gives us the best of all worlds – transparent and personalized communication at scale plus operational efficiency.
Recognize and Celebrate Achievements
Employees want to be recognized for their contributions. They want to know that their work – and the work of their colleagues – is appreciated.
The key to driving engagement in this area is realizing that you need to be intentional about what you celebrate. What you celebrate indicates to your workforce what you value.
So if you only celebrate things like business results and professional achievements, you’re sending the message that those things are more important than personal milestones. The opposite is true as well.
Healthy organizations value both personal and professional accomplishments, so you should recognize both consistently.
Another thing to keep in mind is the value of recognizing “inputs” and “outputs.” You want to call out good behaviors, as well as the results that those good behaviors produce.
For instance, if you want your salespeople making more cold calls, you should celebrate when people make a certain number of dials per week AND celebrate when those dials lead to a sale.
Focusing on inputs only can distract from the outcomes you want to drive. Focusing only on outputs can incentivize poor behaviors that are difficult to replicate or scale.
Again, at BombBomb, we use video messages to celebrate wins on all fronts. People love seeing managers and executives recognize success.
It builds morale and reminds everyone that the business depends on real people – individuals who are invested in the product and our customers.
Facilitate Professional Development
Your best workers want to continue growing personally and professionally. They want to feel like they are moving forward. Otherwise, they’ll leave.
Building a strong professional development practice means giving people opportunities to build new skills and make progress along clearly defined paths. It also includes sharing helpful feedback and giving people chances to grow accordingly.
Daniel Pink’s book Drive provides a helpful paradigm for thinking about high performance in the workplace. He writes that autonomy, mastery and purpose are the three pillars that determine whether people feel satisfied in various domains.
Mastery fits well under the professional development bucket. People want to feel competent and develop new capabilities. They also want to exercise autonomy and feel a deeper connection to their work.
If you address all three as part of your professional development practice, you make it very hard for other employers to poach your people.
Ensure Personal Wellbeing
Employees do their best work when they’re thriving personally. That’s why prioritizing things like work-life balance, psychological safety and positive mental health is crucial.
Work-life Balance
Work-life balance can be a misnomer. It doesn’t mean that you spend the same amount of time at your job as you do at home. Work-life balance exists when your expectations for work align with reality.
If you work at a startup where 60-hour weeks are required but you LOVE what you do and want to see the business succeed, then you might happily give that much time. That’s balance.
The same is true in the other direction. If working part-time hours gives you flexibility for other parts of your life, that might also be “balance.”
As team managers and organizational leaders, it’s important to have conversations with employees about what work-life balance means to them. The closer you can match expectation to reality, the more engaged your workers will be.
Side note: more hours doesn’t guarantee higher-quality work or more productivity. It’s often better in the long run to help employees avoid burnout rather than squeeze as much working time out of them as possible.
Psychological Safety
Employees need to feel comfortable sharing ideas and voicing concerns. They also want to know that they can make mistakes.
When leaders listen and accept feedback, trust increases. When they allow team members to make mistakes, collaboration and problem-solving improve.
To be clear, psychological safety doesn’t mean that you give employees everything they want. Leaders still have to discern what’s best for the organization overall.
Mental Health & Wellness
Outside of promoting good work-life balance and psychologically safe environments, many businesses should offer mental health and wellness resources. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), mindfulness sessions and training dedicated to recognizing signs of burnout are all effective ways to help employees help themselves.
Gym discounts, exercise challenges and financial management workshops are also great ways for managers to support employees in all aspects of life. When people feel taken care of by their employees, they can truly thrive in their roles.
Hire Great Leaders
People don’t just work for companies—they work for leaders. Good leaders keep teams motivated and committed. Bad leaders breed toxic culture and perpetuate unhealthy organizational behaviors.
Now, leadership styles need to change depending on the state of the business. Sometimes executives need to push their teams harder to accomplish certain goals. Other times, it’s important to slow down and reflect on company culture.
Great leaders adapt and know how to guide their teams through different situations. They clearly explain tough decisions and make sure people know they are appreciated.
One McKinsey report draws sharp connections between one’s job satisfaction and their relationships with management. If you have an engagement or retention problem, evaluating the quality of your leaders across the organization is a great place to start.
Encourage Strong Peer Relationships
People stay where they feel connected. Employees who build strong relationships with their colleagues are more engaged, motivated and committed to their work. A sense of belonging makes the workplace feel more than just a job—it becomes a community.
Social connections matter too. Whether it’s casual conversations, team lunches or company events, small moments build lasting bonds.
Our belief in small moments is why we use video messaging as much as we do internally. Why send an email or a Slack if you can send a warm and personalized video message? We do this for new hires during the onboarding process and belief video is a key retention tool as well.
Once again at BombBomb, we rely heavily on video messaging to help our remote employees stay connected. Video messages remind people that they are part of a team and that there are real people on the other side of every direct message and email.
Curate the Ideal Physical Work Environment
Work environments have a significant impact on how employees feel and perform. A safe, comfortable space helps people stay focused and productive.
Some quick wins on this topic include:
- Ensuring adequate natural lighting
- Creating dedicated quiet spaces
- Setting aside break areas
- Purchasing adjustable desks and comfortable seats
Providing a great physical work environment also means supporting hybrid and remote workers. Offering flexible schedules and giving people funding to invest in their personal office spaces are great ways to ensure people love where they work.
For a deeper dive on how to engage remote employees, check out our blog post here.
Lean into Innovation
People want to be part of something meaningful. When companies embrace innovation, employees feel energized and excited.
Innovation doesn’t just have to be about big ideas—it’s about continuous improvement. Encouraging new solutions, fresh perspectives and creative problem-solving makes work more fulfilling.
Employees thrive when they feel empowered to experiment and take risks. When people see their work drives progress, they feel more connected to the organization’s mission. They’re not just completing tasks—they’re shaping the future.
Take Charge of Employee Engagement
Employee engagement isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a business necessity. Engaged teams are more productive, creative and committed. They stay longer and contribute to a positive workplace culture, thereby creating a cycle of positive reinforcement.
Knowing and acting on these drivers of employee engagement is one of the best ways to differentiate your organization in 2025. It’s an investment that compounds continuously.
If you’re curious to give video messaging a try internally, start a free 14-day trial here.
You can also schedule a demo if your team wants to learn more about video messaging use cases for promoting employee engagement.
