16 key drivers of employee engagement in the workplace

Want to boost motivation and morale? Start with the building blocks of employee engagement.

What we'll cover

Employee engagement: The goal every company is chasing. And for good reason.

When people feel connected to their work and supported by their organization, you can count on more energy, productivity, and loyalty.

But engagement isn’t something that just happens. It’s built, little by little, through everyday workplace experiences.

That’s where engagement drivers come in. These are the things that shape how employees feel about their jobs, their teams, and your company as a whole. From safety to tech tools to progression to workplace friendships — they all add up.

And to really move the needle on employee engagement, these are the foundations you need to put in place. With them, you’ll find it easier to inspire, motivate, and retain your teams.

Ready to learn about the key drivers of employee engagement? Let’s go!

Why you need to know the drivers of employee engagement

Globally, just 23% of employees are engaged at work in 2025. That means the majority of workers are either disengaged and eyeing their exit, or sticking around just for the paycheck. Neither outcome is good for your business.

As we’ll see in a moment, many of the drivers of employee engagement are linked to connection, company culture, and access to the right workplace tools. And this is why frontline employee engagement is a particular challenge.

When employees work away from HQ, with patchy comms and limited co-worker contact, they’re a lot less likely to report high levels of engagement.

Knowing the drivers of employee engagement — and how they play out across different parts of your workforce — can help you develop a more effective employee engagement strategy. It helps you put employee engagement best practices into action and find meaningful ways to increase and measure your engagement efforts.

So let’s take a look. Which drivers of engagement should you be keeping tabs on in 2025?

What are the key drivers of employee engagement?

A driver of employee engagement is a workplace factor with the power to motivate and inspire employees. Together, these elements create a culture where people want to do their best work.

The 16 key drivers of employee engagement are:

A safe working environment
Tech tools
Internal communication
Psychological safety
Fairness
Management
Autonomy
Progression
Leadership
Work-life balance
Purpose
Well-being support
Two-way feedback
Peer-to-peer relationships
Company culture
Recognition

In this guide, we’ll break down why each of these drivers matters — and how you can put them into practice to boost employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention.

Physical drivers of employee engagement

Physical employee engagement drivers relate to the workplace environment and the tools employees are expected to use.

#1. A safe working environment

A safe and comfortable working environment isn’t just a legal requirement. It’s a signal that your organization values its people — and it allows employees to focus on doing their best work.

But recent research reveals that 56% of employees don’t feel completely safe at work. They say that poor communication, inadequate safety training, and weak safety reporting processes are putting their well-being at risk.

For customer-facing teams, there are other safety concerns to consider — a shocking 46% of UK workers have experienced customer aggression at work.

How to drive engagement with the work environment

Lots of things contribute to a feeling of safety in the workplace — good air quality, ergonomic desks, the right safety equipment, good hygiene measures, and robust safety protocols.

Here are some other things you can do to improve workplace safety:

Make safety info easy to access. Employees shouldn’t have to track down a dog-eared paper manual to get up to speed on safety processes. Make process and policy documents available digitally on your company’s content hub.
Provide streamlined reporting tools. Your teams should also have easy and effective ways to report their safety concerns. For frontline teams, that might mean using digital forms rather than paper processes, so it’s easy for them to report hazards on the go.
Ask employees what they think. Conduct an employee engagement survey to find out what employees want from their physical work environment. It may be as simple as turning down the air-con or improving access to personal protective equipment (PPE).

#2. Tech tools

Digital tools now form a huge part of the employee experience. Most organizations use software for internal communication, HR self-service, learning and development, and company operations. They even use tools for employee engagement.

When these tech tools are intuitive and integrated, they help workers to achieve a state of flow. When they’re outdated and clunky, they create friction and frustration.

How to drive employee engagement with tech tools

To drive worker engagement with tech tools, the software you choose needs to meet the following criteria:

Intuitive. The best tech is easy and intuitive to use. It doesn’t require extensive training and achieves high levels of adoption organically.
Mobile-first. It’s difficult for frontline employees to access desktop-based software. Mobile-first tech tools ensure that every employee can access workplace software from their smartphone.
Consumer-grade. When it comes to tech, employees have high expectations. The tools you use in the workplace should mirror the consumer-grade experiences they enjoy on apps like WhatsApp and Instagram.
Integrated. A complicated tech stack can feel overwhelming for employees. So the best tech tools integrate with one another, creating a joined-up system, with tools ideally accessed from one centralized dashboard.

Mental drivers of employee engagement

Mental employee engagement drivers are the psychological factors that shape how employees feel about your organization.

#3. Internal communication

Internal communication is one of the most important drivers of employee engagement. Because if people don’t know what’s going on, they feel disconnected from your company.

The best comms keep people informed, aligned, and motivated. They give employees the context they need to do their jobs well and feel part of company culture.

Driving employee engagement with internal comms

If you’re still using a clunky old intranet or relying solely on email for internal communication, there are lots of ways to improve engagement with comms:

Centralize your channels. A single, mobile-first hub for news, updates, and resources means no more scattered messages — and communication channels that everyone can access, even hard-to-reach frontline employees.
Make it two-way. When comms are just a C-suite broadcast, they don’t tend to drive engagement. So allow employees to comment, react, share their ideas, and even create their own internal comms content.
Be open and authentic. Transparent communication builds trust. It helps to create a culture of psychological safety (more on this in a moment). And, when you go beyond the corporate memo to write like a real-life human, employees are much more likely to remember your messages.
Go social. The best internal communication tools provide a modern social experience. They give comms teams the tools they need to create rich, multi-media content that catches audience attention. Think images, short-form video, live streams, and infographics.

#4. Psychological safety

Psychological safety means employees feel comfortable speaking up — sharing ideas, asking questions, admitting mistakes, and even challenging the status quo — without worrying about a backlash.

But unfortunately, only 42% of employees strongly agree that they feel psychologically safe at work. And just 35% say they can voice their opinions without fear of repercussion. That silence comes at a cost. Without psychological safety, people hold back — and innovation, collaboration, and employee engagement suffer.

How to drive engagement through psychological safety

Psychological safety starts at the top of your organization. Here’s how:

Set an example. Leaders and managers need to communicate openly, admitting their mistakes and asking employees to share their ideas.
Recognize employee input. When employees do speak up, they should be praised, not punished. Highlight employee contributions so others feel empowered to have their say.
Create a dialogue. Use anonymous employee surveys, quick-fire polls, listening tours, and leader Q&As to start a conversation with employees.
Keep comms channels open. Beyond big, feedback-gathering initiatives, use instant messaging tools and adopt an open-door policy. That way, when employees have a concern or a bright idea, they know exactly where to go.

#5. Fairness

Fairness is another important employee engagement driver. It’s the sense that employees are being treated equitably — with regard to pay, workload, recognition, opportunities, and access to workplace tools.

Sometimes inequalities in the workplace go unnoticed by leadership. For example, did you know that for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 81 women move up the ladder? Or that two in five frontline employees say they’re viewed as inferior by employees in the office?

People notice when promotions go to favorites, when workloads aren’t balanced, or when policies aren’t applied consistently. And when things don’t feel fair, resentment and disengagement set in.

How to drive employee engagement through fairness

You can promote fairness in the workplace by:

Create clear policies. Put policies in a shared content hub so employees can access them. And stick to these policies consistently, across all teams and levels of the organization.
Be open. Transparency is another essential. Be open about pay — and about how compensation and promotion decisions are made.
Ensure equitable access. Make training, internal comms, and workplace tools accessible to all employees. For frontline workers, that might mean replacing desktop-based systems with mobile-first tech.

#6. Management

The relationship between employees and their managers is one of the strongest drivers of workplace engagement. According to Gallup, managers account for 70% of the variance in team employee engagement.

A good manager supports, coaches, and clears roadblocks, inspiring loyalty and productivity. A bad manager drives people out the door.

For deskless teams, especially, managers are a vital link between HQ and the frontline. They’re the ones who share information, set expectations, and deliver recognition. Their leadership can make or break the employee experience.

How to drive employee engagement through management

You can have the best employee engagement strategies in the world. But if your managers aren’t on board, those initiatives simply won’t cascade down to your workforce. To support employee engagement, managers need time, the right tools, and the right training.

Here’s what you can do to help:

Recognize their role. Acknowledge managers as engagement champions. Give them space to focus on their team, not just on tasks and KPIs.
Train them. Managers don’t always have the soft skills they need to promote employee engagement. So train frontline leaders in active listening, empathy, and coaching. Dedicated employee engagement training may also come in useful.
Provide the right tools. Overstretched managers need efficient systems. Streamlined mobile-first tools for communication, HR self-service, and recognition make it easier for them to support their teams and drive engagement.

#7. Autonomy

Driving engagement means giving employees autonomy. Employees should have the freedom to take ownership of their work — because when employees feel empowered to make decisions and solve problems without constant oversight, engagement and productivity get a boost.

In contrast, micromanagement stifles creativity and erodes trust. It contributes to a “bare minimum” mentality, where employees tick tasks off their to-do list, never feeling truly invested in their work.

How to drive engagement through autonomy

Creating an environment where autonomy thrives means balancing freedom with clear direction and support. Here are a few ideas:

Set clear expectations. Employees are more likely to embrace autonomy when they’re clear on the boundaries. Clear goals and guidelines give them the confidence to act without seeking manager approval.
Provide the right resources. Easy access to information and resources empowers independent work. Use a content hub to store policies and procedures — and provide self-service tools and templates.
Encourage problem-solving. Cultivate a culture where employees feel safe to try new approaches and share ideas without fear of failure. Show that you trust employees and they’ll feel empowered to take ownership of their work.

#8. Progression

A lack of career growth opportunities is the number one reason people give for changing jobs. And organizations that don’t provide skills-building opportunities are 72% less likely to have employees saying they want to work there in a year’s time.

When employees see a clear path forward within your organization, they’re more motivated, productive, and loyal. But, for frontline workers in particular, progression can feel out of reach. They’re often overlooked for training opportunities and career paths aren’t always made clear.

How to drive engagement through progression

Give employees the space and support they need to grow, learn, and progress, and you boost engagement while reducing employee turnover. Here’s what you can do to help employees see a future at your organization:

Shine a light on career paths. Use internal comms and manager 1:1s to share clear routes for progression, including promotions and skills-building opportunities.
Invest in training that fits the frontline. Mobile-first microlearning makes it easy for employees to grow on the go. They can complete bite-sized modules without stepping away from their roles.
Create growth opportunities beyond promotions. When a new role isn’t available, use stretch assignments, job shadowing, and lateral moves to help employees develop new skills and experience new challenges.
Offer mentorship. Pair employees with more experienced co-workers who can offer skills development and career support.

#9. Leadership

Leaders set the tone for your organization. When leaders are visible, authentic, and inspiring, employees feel proud to be part of the company. They also have a clear understanding of where the company is headed and how they contribute to its success.

But leaders aren’t always great at sharing their vision in a way that lands with employees. Less than half (49%) of internal communicators say their leaders are effective at communicating with employees.

Reaching the frontline is an even tougher task. This segment of the workforce might never meet senior leaders face-to-face, so they often feel disconnected from the C-suite. This can leave the feeling like just a number, rather than part of something bigger.

How to drive employee engagement through leadership

To create a trusting and engaged workplace, good leadership comms are essential. So what can leaders do to create this kind of culture?

Be visible. Use video updates, town halls, and frontline-first comms channels to make leadership more accessible to every employee.
Be human. Leaders should use the comms platforms employees use. They can also humanize their comms by demonstrating empathy, ditching unnecessary jargon, and sharing relatable stories.
Lead with transparency. Don’t just share decisions. Share the why behind them. Honest communication builds trust, even when talking about difficult topics.
Lead by example. Leaders should live and breathe the values they expect employees to demonstrate. Authenticity inspires engagement.

#10. Work-life balance

Work-life balance has become one of the biggest workplace talking points in recent years. Employees don’t just want a paycheck — they want the flexibility to manage work and their personal lives without burning out.

Give people the flexibility they crave and they’re more likely to be engaged and stay working for your organization, too. 80% of workers say their loyalty towards a company increases when it offers flexible work options.

Of course, flexibility looks different for different sectors of your workforce. Office teams may be able to work from home a few days a week — or work flexible hours. For shift workers, achieving flexibility requires a little creativity, but it’s absolutely possible with the right approach.

How to drive engagement with work-life balance

Work-life balance is a top priority for employees. To ease stress and support flexibility, you can:

Plan ahead. Give staff advance warning of shifts, provide access to shift swap software, and try to accommodate their shift preferences wherever possible.
Provide practical perks. On-site childcare, a gym, or the option to buy extra vacation days all help employees manage life beyond work.
Create clear boundaries. Make sure people aren’t under pressure to check emails or company comms outside of their working hours.
Set realistic expectations. Ensure workloads and shift patterns are sustainable, so employees aren’t pushed past their limits.
Foster open communication. When managers know employee needs and preferences, they can create schedules and solutions that make a real difference.

#11. Purpose

Purpose connects day-to-day tasks to the bigger picture. When employees understand how their work contributes to the organization’s mission, they work with commitment and pride — particularly when that mission makes a positive difference beyond the four walls of your organization.

But purpose isn’t always clearly communicated. Almost one in five employees say they have zero clarity on company strategy, performance, or their contribution.

Driving engagement through purpose

Want to align your workforce behind the company mission? Here are a few ideas:

Communicate the mission. Use storytelling, internal channels, and team meetings to regularly repeat your company’s mission.
Link tasks to impact. Show employees the real-world outcomes of the work, whether through data, customer feedback, or social impact stories.
Celebrate contributions. Recognize and share examples of work that align with company values.
Empower employees to contribute. Give employees opportunities to lead projects, share ideas, and help shape the company mission.

#12. Well-being support

Between the state of the world, a cost of living crisis, and the stressors of modern life, employees are feeling the strain. And that’s before we even consider what their workday looks like.

Only 57% of employees report good holistic health, which includes mental, physical, spiritual, and social well-being. And they want help — 83% say that companies have a responsibility for the health and well-being of their people.

There are lots of very good reasons to invest in employee well-being. When employers support physical, mental, emotional, and financial wellness, employees are more resilient, less likely to burn out, and more likely to bring their A-game.

How to drive engagement through employee well-being

To boost employee well-being, take a look at the following ideas:

Offer mental health resources. Provide access to counselling services, mental health apps, and training for managers so they can recognize the signs of stress. Regularly signpost these resources across internal comms channels so employees know what’s available.
Promote physical well-being. Consider desk ergonomics and safety equipment. You may also like to offer healthy eating options, fitness classes, or subsidized gym membership.
Support financial well-being. Help employees overcome money worries by offering salary advances, financial planning workshops, or benefits that ease cost-of-living pressures.
Ask employees what they need. Use employee surveys and manager 1:1s to find out what your workers are struggling with most. Then, tailor support accordingly.

Social employee engagement drivers

Social connection is another significant driver of employee engagement. The contact employees have with co-workers, managers, leaders, and company culture impacts their productivity and commitment.

#13. Two-way feedback

Employees should get regular feedback from their managers. Research from Gallup shows that employees who get valuable feedback about their performance are five times as likely to be engaged as those who don’t.

But feedback should never be one-way. Employees should also have the opportunity to share their ideas, concerns, and opinions — on everything from internal comms to employee experience to the brand of coffee you stock in the break room.

Giving employees a voice helps them feel valued. It also helps you craft a more engaging workplace experience going forward.

How to drive engagement with two-way feedback

When gathering feedback from employees, bear the following tips in mind:

Make feedback easy. Use mobile-first tools so all employees, including frontline staff, can respond to surveys and polls — and contact their managers via chat tools.
Be consistent. Don’t wait for the annual employee engagement survey. Use pulse surveys and quick-fire polls to take the pulse of your organization at regular intervals.
Take action. Employees quickly lose faith in the process when their feedback doesn’t lead to meaningful change. So create a plan of action based on what you hear.
Close the loop. Let employees know what actions are being taken as a result of their feedback. They’ll see that their input matters and be more likely to respond to your next survey.

Want some ideas for your next employee engagement survey? Read this: Employee engagement surveys: Best practices & 46 questions to ask

#14. Peer-to-peer relationships

Did you know that 42% of Gen Z and 40% of millennial employees say they wouldn’t mind earning less money if they had good friends at work?

Strong workplace relationships are one of the top components of employee engagement. Having a work bestie also leads to better collaboration, productivity, well-being, and company loyalty.

So how do you help your staff to make friends? These days, bringing people together IRL isn’t always easy. Frontline and remote teams rarely set foot in the office. So to build peer-to-peer relationships across your organization, you have to be intentional.

How to drive engagement with peer-to-peer relationships

To encourage strong peer connections, you can:

Provide communication tools. Dispersed teams don’t get much opportunity for camaraderie. So ensure they have mobile-first communication channels, like direct messaging and video call tools, that help them stay in touch no matter where they’re working.
Create online communities. Encourage like-minded co-workers to get together by supporting the creation of communities around hobbies and shared interests.
Create a digital water cooler. Use the company news feed to bring co-workers together. Share photos from the latest social event, celebrate an employee’s work anniversary, or launch a hashtag competition to get people talking.
Organize virtual get-togethers. A virtual coffee morning, co-working, or lunch break brings dispersed teams together. This informal setting is an opportunity to go beyond the work agenda and get to know co-workers better.

#15. Company culture

An inclusive company culture is one where every employee feels valued, respected, and able to bring their whole self to work. This is really important for engagement.

8 in 10 people say a sense of community helps them perform better at work — and 55% would quit if they felt they didn’t belong.

Despite this desire for belonging, only 2 in 10 workers say they feel connected to company culture. Frontline workers, in particular, have few opportunities to engage with their workplace community — and can be left feeling disconnected and isolated.

How to drive engagement with company culture

Many of the other points on this list contribute to a positive and inclusive company culture. But here are a few extra ideas for building a workplace community that everyone feels part of:

Make comms accessible. Internal communication sits at the heart of company culture. So use mobile-first tools to ensure every employee can access the latest culture-building content.
Translate your content. If you have a large multilingual workforce, translate internal content so everyone can understand it. The best employee engagement apps come with built-in translation features.
Celebrate company values in action. Highlight real examples of employees living your company values through stories, recognition posts, or internal awards.
Training and awareness. Equip leaders and employees with training on unconscious bias, inclusive language, and accessibility — so nobody feels left out of the company conversation.

#16. Recognition

Only 22% of employees strongly agree that they get the right amount of recognition for the work that they do. And over half say the recognition they receive isn’t authentic, personalized, or equitable.

But we know that employee recognition is another important driver of employee engagement. When employees are recognized and rewarded for their hard work, they’re more likely to give their all. And recognition doesn’t have to be grand. Small, consistent, and sincere acts of recognition show employees that their work matters.

How to drive engagement through employee recognition

Whether you’re marking a work anniversary, the success of a big project, or an employee’s dedication to going the extra mile, here’s how to make recognition more effective.

Make it timely and specific. The most meaningful recognition is given soon after an achievement and explains clearly what was done and the impact it had.
Make it equal. The same recognition and rewards should be available to all members of staff. Digital employee recognition tools can help you reach employees who don’t work at HQ.
Encourage peer-to-peer recognition. The act of giving recognition makes employees more likely to stay working for your organization. So encourage co-workers to comment with their congratulations on recognition posts.
Tailor rewards. Ask employees what rewards they want to see for top performance. You can then tailor your rewards program so it truly incentivizes your workforce.

Ready to drive employee engagement at your organization?

Get to know the drivers of engagement and you can make meaningful improvements to employee engagement at your organization.

For frontline employees, that often starts with the right workplace tech. An employee app like Blink puts connection, company culture, and vital workplace tools into the palm of every employee’s hand.

Using secure single sign-on technology, teams can use their personal smartphones to catch up on company news, congratulate co-workers, respond to polls, and send digital forms.

Thanks to strong integrations, they can also use the Blink dashboard to access other workplace software, like HR self-service, training courses, and shift swap tools. And your HR team can keep track of employee engagement metrics with the help of in-depth analytics.

Blink brings your whole organization together, so engaging employees gets a whole lot easier.

Blink. And drive employee engagement across the frontline and beyond.

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