Ultimate guide to employee engagement & involvement

Employee engagement and involvement mean giving your team a reason to lean in, speak up, and help shape the place they spend so much of their time.

When employees feel heard, valued, and part of the bigger picture, great things happen – stronger performance, happier customers, and teams that actually want to stick around.

In this guide, we’ll walk through what engagement and involvement really mean, why they matter, and practical ways (plus Appspace tools) to boost both across your organization.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What employee engagement actually means.
• How involvement takes engagement a step further.
• Why both matter more than ever.
• Practical tools and strategies to boost engagement.
• How to measure progress without overcomplicating it.

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is the motivation, connection, and sense of purpose employees feel toward their work and your company’s goals. But here’s the catch: engagement is still shockingly low. Gallup reports that only about a third of employees feel engaged.

That’s a huge opportunity.

Engaged employees show up with energy. They solve problems faster. They stick around. And they become brand-builders from the inside out.

Employee engagement vs. employee involvement

The terms sound similar, but they’re not the same.

• Employee engagement = I believe in what we’re doing.
• Employee involvement = I get to help shape how we do it.

Someone can be engaged but not involved – meaning they like the mission but don’t feel invited to participate, contribute ideas, or influence decisions.

For modern teams (especially hybrid and frontline), involvement is the key. It turns passive supporters into active contributors. And with remote work on the rise, the right digital tools make all the difference.

Appspace research shows that many organizations are failing workers around collaboration, communication, and connection. 85% of employees said their organization can do more to improve the employee experience. So the opportunity is clear: build a workplace where people can actually take part, not just tune in.

What is employee involvement?

Employee involvement is when employees have a real say – contributing ideas, sharing feedback, improving processes, and helping guide decisions. Think of it as the “hands-on” version of engagement.

When people feel involved, they’re more committed, more creative, and more invested in the company’s success. It’s also hugely valuable for leaders: the best ideas often come from the people closest to the work.

Benefits of high involvement include:

• Higher morale and wellbeing.
• Higher retention.
• Better productivity.
• Faster, smarter decision-making.

Low involvement, on the other hand, leads straight to disengagement. Gallup estimates this costs the global economy hundreds of billions each year. That’s not a typo.

Why is employee engagement important?

Engaged and involved employees aren’t just happier — they’re the engine behind better business performance. When your team feels connected to the work and included in conversations, everything improves:

• Productivity
• Customer experience
• Retention
• Innovation
• Team alignment

And the opposite is true too. Disengagement spreads quickly, leading to poor service, low morale, and costly turnover. The more connected your workforce is, the easier it is for your company to stay aligned and move in the same direction.

How an intranet increases participation across your organization

Today’s intranets look nothing like the old-school, top-down portals of the past. Modern digital workplaces – like Appspace – give employees a place to participate, not just read announcements.

And that matters, especially when your workforce is distributed.

With Appspace, employees can:

• Share ideas and feedback right where work happens.
• Publish content, comment, and react – just like on their favorite personal apps.
• Access tools, updates, policies, tasks, and training from one place.
• Join communities tied to interests, roles, or locations.
• Celebrate wins and recognize each other in a shared space.

This shift from “information hub” to “interactive workplace” is what drives real involvement.

Before you launch any engagement initiative, make sure your digital workplace is:

• Easy to use.
• Mobile-friendly.
• Up to date.
• Secure.
• Backed by leaders who participate, not just observe.

Employee engagement tools

You can use lots of tools to help employees connect and contribute – recognition platforms, surveys, task managers, chat tools, and more.

But using 10 different apps makes things messy.

That’s where a digital workplace like Appspace shines: it brings all your communication and connection tools into one place.

With Appspace, you can use:

• Employee recognition (spotlights, kudos, peer-to-peer praise).
• Spaces & communities for interest groups and cross-team collaboration.
• Surveys & polls for quick, actionable insight.
• News & broadcasts to align everyone fast.
• Workflows & Orchestration to improve content creation, tasks and processes.
• Frontline & mobile access so everyone stays connected – even without a desk.
• Appspace Analytics to see what’s working and where engagement needs attention.

Instead of juggling multiple platforms, you centralize communication, feedback, recognition, and knowledge sharing in one consistent employee experience.

Strategies to increase engagement & involvement

Now that you’ve got the right tools in mind, let’s talk about how to use them to move the needle. Here are practical, tried-and-tested ways to build engagement that sticks.

Get leadership on board

Culture flows downward. When leaders show up, communicate openly, and model involvement, the rest of the organization follows their lead.

Try this:

• Keep conversations open. Give leaders easy channels to share updates and respond to feedback. (Think leader blogs and Q&As.)
• Make leaders part of the mix. Invite employees into planning sessions or team updates, and get leaders commenting and posting internally.
• Back engagement with data. Showing the real ROI – retention numbers, cost savings, productivity gains – helps leaders stay committed.

Engage employees from day one

The first few weeks of a new job set the tone. A strong onboarding experience doesn’t just educate – it builds connection.

Try this:

• Create a clear knowledge base. Give new hires a simple hub to find policies, ask questions, and learn how your company works.
• Design a guided onboarding path. Include steps like setting up a profile, learning tools, meeting teammates, and navigating your intranet.
• Let them explore early. If possible, give them access to your onboarding center before their official start date. It builds excitement and shortens ramp-up time.

Treat employees like customers

Your employees have choices – and expectations. When you treat the employee experience like a product, you naturally design with more care and intention.

Try this:

• Map their journey. Outline what growth looks like, where employees can go, and how leaders will support them.
• Market the experience. Share stories, spotlight people doing great work, and use champions to help spread the culture.
• Offer flexible, modern tools. A single login to access knowledge, people, and resources (hello, intranet!) removes friction and empowers people to do their best work.

Reward the right behaviors

Recognition is fuel. When people feel seen and valued, their engagement rises – and so does everyone else’s.

Try this:

• Build a recognition center. Give people a dedicated space for kudos, nominations, and celebrations.
• Tie recognition to company goals. Show what “great work” looks like and why it matters.
• Encourage storytelling. Let people share moments where values come to life – through posts, videos, or shoutouts.

More ideas to boost employee involvement

Looking to go beyond the basics? Try layering in a few of these culture-building initiatives:

• Run a naming contest before launching your new intranet or digital workplace. Employees love to shape what they use.
• Give employees direct access to leadership through a leadership center. Transparency builds trust.
• Celebrate peers publicly in your recognition center – quick wins for morale and culture.
• Create a feedback center where employees can share honest input and see leaders respond.
• Spark storytelling through blogs and personal posts that highlight the human side of work.
• Add fun. Think scavenger hunts, playlists, trivia, or social challenges. Small moments can spark big connections.
• Survey early and often to check the pulse before launching big changes.
• Create online communities around shared interests and roles to strengthen belonging.
• Unite new hires in an onboarding center so they can ask questions, share experiences, and ramp up faster.
• Get people talking. Likes, comments, and leader participation drive more conversation – and more insight into what’s working.

Give employees what they want

At the end of the day, engagement thrives when employees have:

• A clear line of sight between their work and company goals.
• A meaningful, purposeful role.
• Recognition and appreciation.
• A voice that’s genuinely heard.

If you can deliver those consistently, you’ll see engagement climb.

Measuring employee engagement

The trick to measuring engagement is using both numbers (what’s happening?) and stories (why is it happening?).

Here’s how to make it doable:

• Use quick surveys to capture quantitative data – things like involvement, clarity, or connection – on a scale.
• Layer in open-ended questions to understand the “why” behind the numbers.
• Offer anonymous options to surface issues people hesitate to share.
• Run 1:1 conversations for deeper, relationship-building insights.
• Survey everyone, not just a sample. Engagement is a full-team metric.
• Follow up consistently. Data is only useful when you act on it.

Use your intranet to track performance

Trying to track engagement across tools, spreadsheets, and messages? It gets messy fast.

That’s why your intranet (especially with Appspace Analytics) becomes your best friend:

• See engagement trends at a glance.
• Track how employees use your intranet.
• Spot bottlenecks, silos, and wins early.
• Build custom reports to fit your team.
• Remove the heavy lifting of data gathering.

You get clarity without the chaos – so you can spend time taking action, not digging for answers.

Get everyone more connected & involved today

A connected team is an engaged team. And with hybrid and frontline work now the norm, it’s more important than ever to create spaces where people can talk, collaborate, learn, and celebrate – without needing to be in the same building.

With the right tools and the right mindset, you can build a workplace where people feel included, supported, and motivated to do their best work every day.

If you’re ready to learn more about how a digital workplace can improve employee engagement and involvement at your organization, explore our digital workplace solutions for culture and engagement today.