Employee engagement template: examples & free downloads

Improving employee engagement has never been more crucial for forward-thinking HR leaders who want to future-proof their employment strategies and keep top performers. The problem? Engagement rates are on the decline.

According to a recent study by Gallup, engagement in the United States dropped to 30% among both full- and part-time employees in Q1 2024, representing 4.8 million fewer engaged professionals compared to the end of 2023*; this is the lowest engagement rate on record since 2013, pointing toward a widespread issue likely to affect retention and profitability.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s no secret that engaged team members make for successful companies, so we’ve created an employee engagement template to help you develop an action plan that motivates your people to achieve your organizational goals.

‍*Gallup, 2024

🚀 Streamline your employee engagement strategy

Our free, customizable template is easy to use and outlines a clear structure for tracking engagement initiatives.

👉 Click here to download

What is employee engagement?

Many business leaders believe employee engagement refers to team members’ overall happiness — but there’s more to it than that. Employee engagement is about one thing: commitment. Anyone satisfied with their job will probably show up every day and do at least the bare minimum expected of them; however, that doesn’t necessarily mean they work to their full potential. Plus, without a company culture that champions enthusiasm and growth, it’ll be difficult to instill the loyalty and drive that motivates top performers to stick around — a concern for many business leaders dealing with significant churn.

The distinction between employee satisfaction and engagement is that an engaged professional will work at their full capacity to help you fulfill company goals and their own. They commit to making a difference, not just for themselves, but also for the overall success of your organization. ‍

So, what impact can this have on your bottom line, and what can happen if you get employee engagement wrong?
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The impact of employee engagement

There’s a clear correlation between high employee engagement levels and increased revenue, customer satisfaction, staff retention, and innovation.

Gallup has reported that engaged professionals lead to higher profitability and improved well-being — essential elements of a thriving company culture. Plus, businesses with the most engaged workforces tend to outperform competitors in earnings per share by 147%, highlighting how critical it is to address team members’ needs; and yet, 77% of employees in the United States aren’t engaged at work, costing businesses trillions of dollars in lost productivity and hiring costs.

Poor employee engagement is a massive problem for HR departments — especially those looking to secure young talent (remember that six in 10 millennials are open to new job opportunities).

If you don’t prioritize employee engagement within your broader HR strategy, you risk being left behind in the competitive recruitment landscape. You could also miss out on a range of other benefits, such as:

• Higher efficiency — self-motivated teams are more focused
• Better-quality output — thanks to staff members taking pride in their work
• Reduced absenteeism — as a result of employees having a healthy work-life balance 
• More savings — because of enhanced productivity and lower staff turnover
• Improved reputation — which helps attract and retain desirable clients and talent

Fortunately, there are many ways to boost employee engagement; using our detailed employee engagement template, identifying and addressing the obstacles that may dampen your organization’s enthusiasm is easier than you might think.
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Our free employee engagement toolkit

Employee engagement is the cornerstone of staff retention and growth in today’s competitive market. But how do you ensure your employees feel valued, supported, and inspired to collaborate and work toward professional goals?

We’ve created a range of resources to help you address team members’ wants and needs and empower HR professionals in cultivating a thriving workforce.

This employee engagement toolkit is ideal for HR leaders and operations managers developing engagement plans from scratch; it helps refine outdated processes and use staff feedback data effectively.

✅ Check out our employee engagement checklist

This free resource is a must-have for HR decision-makers who want to organize employee engagement tasks.

‍ 👉 Download your free toolkit now

Our employee engagement strategy template

Strategy is critical to success in employee engagement; this means following a process framework that can take you from collecting insights and assessing your workforce targets to defining clear actions for improving engagement rates.

Getting started is where organizations typically fumble — but we’ll help you have a smooth start to your employee engagement strategy. Use the employee engagement plan example in our customizable template to outline a strategy that works for your business.

👍 Employee engagement made easy with Leapsome

Discover the five key steps to improving employee engagement.

👉 Download our free template

Our employee engagement strategy template explained

How dedicated are your employees to furthering company goals? Through a combination of surveys, goal-setting, and ongoing analysis, you can uncover actionable insights within employee data and create an engagement strategy that gets results.

‍We’ve broken down the five steps in our free employee engagement action plan template — created to add measurable value to your HR and retention strategies. 
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Step 1: DEFINE

Determine what you hope to achieve with your employee engagement plan. Doing so will give your strategy intention and help you focus your resources.

Ask yourself:

• What outcomes am I hoping for?
• How do these targets help you achieve your business targets?
• How will you measure employee engagement?

Whether you’re trying to increase productivity rates, discover new retention opportunities, or improve job satisfaction for remote workers, covering these bases will help you create an efficient and effective course of action.

You may want to apply the SMART goal framework to ensure your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

💡 Pro tip: Use our employee engagement ROI calculator to discover how investing in your employee engagement strategy could impact your business.

Step 2: ASSESS

Next, it’s time to hear directly from employees. Conduct 1:1s and engagement surveys to learn how satisfied team members are with your engagement initiatives. Then, when you have the results, analyze the data to identify trends and obstacles you might’ve missed. These insights will help you understand what’s working and how to improve your strategy.

For example, one study revealed that 98% of employees disengage when they receive little or no feedback on their work. So, if your survey shows team members are dissatisfied with the feedback they receive, there’s a huge opportunity to improve employee engagement rates within your organization. It’s up to you to take action!
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Step 3: PLAN

By now, you should know what prevents team members from feeling invested in your company’s mission. But knowing isn’t enough; you must act.

During this stage, develop an action plan that addresses employees’ frustrations — and highlights the strengths of your current processes. Be sure to prioritize engagement initiatives that’ll help you achieve the goals you laid out in step one. For example, consider:

• What did employee feedback highlight as the weakest areas in terms of engagement?
• Are there any “quick fixes” that could lead to fast improvements?
• Will you need to get budget approval for any high-impact, resource-heavy initiatives?
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Step 4: INITIATE

Equipped with a well-thought-out plan, you’re ready to put your engagement strategy to work.

If you used our free employee engagement plan template, you should have a clear list that covers:

🎯 Focus areas — themes you identified from employee surveys and feedback

❗ Problems — factors contributing to these issues

✅ Solutions — actions you’ll take to overcome engagement obstacles

🤝 Task owners — people responsible for managing each solution

🗓 Timeline — the deadline you’ve set for completing every step in your action plan
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💡 Pro tip: Buy-in from managers, stakeholders, and individual contributors is crucial to getting the most out of your engagement strategy.

Explaining the purpose of participating in these initiatives and how they’ll improve performance within your business can go a long way in getting you closer to your targets.

Step 5: EVALUATE

Finally, you’re ready to see whether your efforts have paid off or if parts of your strategy need further improvement.

Track the performance of the employee engagement metrics outlined in step one, which might include:

• Absenteeism
• Productivity levels
• Voluntary turnover rates
• Glassdoor ratings
• Employee satisfaction scores

These metrics will be specific to your business goals and provide a snapshot of the state of your workforce. Be sure that you consistently collect and record data and verify that it’s accurate, relevant, and organized.

And remember: “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Seeing a return on investment for some of your more ambitious initiatives might take long, but it’ll be worth the wait. In the meantime, keep checking in with managers and individual contributors to get ongoing feedback to help you shape a successful employee engagement strategy.
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What is an employee engagement survey?

Is your business ranking low on employee engagement? Employee engagement surveys are excellent tools for finding out why; these surveys help employers collect feedback on how the staff feels toward their work and organization. They typically cover metrics like job satisfaction, career development, work-life balance, and company culture.

‍High participation rates in employee engagement surveys often indicate positive engagement; It shows a willingness to participate in business transformation and suggests an open and inclusive company culture.

Besides, the more surveys you conduct, the more engagement data you can collect and interpret — enabling you to benchmark your metrics against competitors and enhance your employee engagement strategy. Harnessing these insights will streamline your engagement initiatives and boost employee loyalty, helping you improve your reputation and reduce staff turnover.
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Our free employee engagement survey questions

We’ve created a free employee engagement survey question template to help you measure engagement effectively. It includes 70 employee survey questions and a free question pack — with all the essential topics you need to cover to generate a results-driven questionnaire that helps you put your people first.

📝 Get more from your engagement surveys

Download our list of 70 employee survey questions to ensure you’re extracting the best insights.

‍ 👉 Download the list of questions

Invest in engagement to unlock new opportunities

Even though many HR leaders, managers, and business decision-makers are now prioritizing employee engagement, cultivating a truly engaged workforce is still difficult.

Knowing what motivates your people isn’t enough to retain top talent; you need to take action and show that you care. The best way to do this is by following a detailed employee engagement strategy template that puts people first and gives you insights that’ll help you shape a better engagement approach.

Leapsome’s employee engagement plan example will help you transform your organization’s employee experience by helping you define, assess, and evaluate critical metrics. Paired with our Surveys module, which uses questionnaires and AI to help businesses better understand employees, this free template will help reduce staff turnover and unlock more productivity within your teams — bringing you one step closer to achieving your goals.
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⭐ Dig deeper into employee engagement

Leapsome presents data in an easy-to-understand format that highlights where you need to take action.
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