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Employee Engagement » Employee Engagement Case Study

25 Most Impactful Employee Engagement Case Studies for 2024

Introduction to employee engagement.

In today's highly competitive business environment, employee engagement has emerged as a critical driver of business success. It represents the level of commitment, passion, and investment employees have in their work and their organization. More than just job satisfaction, employee engagement is about employees feeling valued, involved, and connected to their work and workplace.

Engaged employees are not merely satisfied with their jobs; they are enthusiastic, motivated, and committed. They are the ones who are willing to go the extra mile, contribute their best ideas, and stay with their organizations in the long run. They are the backbone of any successful business, and their engagement is the key to unlocking a company's full potential.

Defining Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is a complex concept that encompasses a range of factors, from the emotional connection an employee feels towards their organization, to their level of satisfaction with their role and their motivation to perform to their best ability. It's about creating an environment where employees feel empowered, respected, and part of something bigger than themselves.

Why Employee Engagement Matters

Research has consistently shown that organizations with high levels of employee engagement are more profitable, have higher productivity levels, and experience lower turnover rates. Engaged employees are more likely to stay with their organization, reducing the costs associated with staff turnover. They are also more likely to be productive and deliver high-quality work, which can drive business growth and success.

Moreover, engaged employees are more likely to be advocates for their organizations, promoting their company's products and services to others and enhancing the company's reputation.

At its core, employee engagement is about creating a positive, inclusive, and inspiring workplace culture where employees feel valued, heard, and motivated to contribute their best. It's a win-win situation: employees are happier and more fulfilled, and businesses are more successful.

In this blog post, we will delve into 35 impactful case studies that illustrate the power of employee engagement in driving business success. From leveraging technology to fostering a culture of engagement in diverse workforces, these case studies will provide valuable insights and practical strategies for boosting employee engagement in your organization.

The Importance of Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is more than just a buzzword in the corporate world. It is a vital element that drives productivity, fosters innovation, and ultimately, contributes to a company's bottom line. In this section, we will delve into the significance of employee engagement and why it should be a priority in every organization.

1. Driving Productivity

Engaged employees are not just working. They are passionate, enthusiastic, and committed to their work. They strive to exceed expectations and continuously seek ways to improve their performance. As a result, their productivity levels are significantly higher than those of their disengaged counterparts. According to a study by Gallup, businesses with high employee engagement levels have 21% higher productivity.

2. Enhancing Employee Retention

Employee engagement is intrinsically linked to employee retention. When employees feel engaged, they are more likely to stay with the company. A sense of belonging, feeling valued, and being part of a purposeful mission can significantly reduce turnover rates. This not only saves costs associated with hiring and training new employees but also preserves the valuable knowledge and experience within the company.

3. Fostering Innovation

Innovation is the lifeblood of a company's growth and sustainability. Engaged employees, with their high levels of commitment and enthusiasm, are often the source of innovative ideas. They are more likely to take the initiative, think outside the box, and contribute to the company's innovation efforts.

4. Improving Customer Satisfaction

Engaged employees are more likely to provide exceptional customer service. They understand that their role is crucial in shaping the customer's experience and perception of the company. Hence, they invest more effort in serving customers, leading to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

5. Boosting Profitability

All of the above factors - increased productivity, improved retention, enhanced innovation, and better customer service - contribute to boosting a company's profitability. A study by Towers Perrin found that companies with engaged employees had a 19% increase in operating income over a 12-month period.

In conclusion, the importance of employee engagement cannot be overstated. It is a critical factor that influences a wide range of business outcomes. By prioritizing employee engagement, companies can reap substantial benefits, from increased productivity and innovation to improved customer satisfaction and profitability.

6 Case Studies on Boosting Employee Engagement with Technology

In this digital age, technology has become an integral part of our lives, influencing how we work, communicate, and engage with our surroundings. The same holds true for the corporate world, where technology has emerged as a powerful tool to boost employee engagement. Here, we present six compelling case studies that shed light on how various organizations have leveraged technology to enhance employee engagement.

1. Tech Titan: A Gamified Approach

Tech Titan, a leading technology company, used gamification to boost employee engagement. They developed an internal mobile app that transformed mundane tasks into exciting challenges. Employees could earn points, badges, and rewards for completing tasks, sparking competition and fostering a sense of achievement. This innovative approach led to a 25% increase in employee engagement within a year.

2. HealthCare Plus: Virtual Reality Training

HealthCare Plus, a renowned healthcare provider, introduced virtual reality (VR) for employee training. The VR simulations provided a realistic, immersive experience, allowing employees to practice procedures and protocols in a risk-free environment. This training method not only improved employee skills but also boosted engagement levels by making learning more interactive and enjoyable.

3. FinServ Corp: Harnessing AI for Personalized Learning

FinServ Corp, a financial services firm, used artificial intelligence (AI) to create personalized learning paths for its employees. The AI system analyzed each employee's skills, strengths, and areas for improvement to develop tailored training programs. This personalized approach made learning more relevant and engaging for employees, leading to increased participation in training programs.

4. EcoEnergy: IoT-Driven Employee Wellness Program

EcoEnergy, a sustainable energy company, launched an Internet of Things (IoT)-driven wellness program. They provided employees with wearable devices to monitor their health metrics, encouraging them to adopt healthier habits. The program created a sense of camaraderie among employees as they collectively worked towards their wellness goals, leading to higher engagement levels.

5. GlobalComm: Collaborative Tools for Remote Work

GlobalComm, a multinational communications company, implemented collaborative tools to engage its remote workforce. Tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams facilitated seamless communication and collaboration, making remote employees feel more connected to their teams. This initiative resulted in a significant increase in engagement among remote workers.

6. Retail Giant: Augmented Reality for Employee Onboarding

A leading retail company used augmented reality (AR) for its employee onboarding process. New hires could use AR glasses to virtually explore the company's facilities and learn about its processes. This innovative onboarding experience made new employees feel welcomed and engaged from day one.

These case studies demonstrate the transformative power of technology in boosting employee engagement. By embracing digital tools and solutions, companies can create more engaging, rewarding, and meaningful work experiences for their employees.

8 Case Studies on Employee Engagement in Diverse Workforces

Diversity and inclusion have become a crucial part of organizational culture. A diverse workforce brings a variety of perspectives and approaches to the table, fostering innovation and creativity. However, managing a diverse workforce and ensuring high levels of employee engagement can be a challenge. Here, we present eight case studies that illustrate successful strategies for engaging diverse workforces.

1. IBM's Diversity Networking Groups

IBM, a multinational technology company, has implemented Diversity Networking Groups (DNGs), which are employee-led groups formed around common interests, backgrounds, or demographics. These groups have played a significant role in promoting diversity and inclusion, leading to higher employee engagement levels.

2. Johnson & Johnson's Employee Resource Groups

Johnson & Johnson, a multinational corporation, has leveraged Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to engage their diverse workforce. These ERGs, which include groups for women, veterans, and the LGBTQ+ community, have fostered a sense of belonging, thereby enhancing employee engagement.

3. Coca Cola's Global Office of Diversity

Coca Cola established a Global Office of Diversity, which focuses on fostering an inclusive culture and promoting diversity. This initiative has led to increased engagement as employees feel valued and recognized for their unique contributions.

4. Accenture's Inclusion and Diversity Strategy

Accenture, a leading global professional services company, has implemented an inclusion and diversity strategy that focuses on creating a culture of equality. This strategy has resulted in increased employee engagement and a more innovative work environment.

5. Microsoft's Autism Hiring Program

Microsoft has introduced an Autism Hiring Program, which offers inclusive interview experiences for candidates with autism. This initiative has not only diversified their workforce but also increased engagement among these employees who feel valued and included.

6. Starbucks's Inclusion Academy

Starbucks has created an Inclusion Academy, a training program focused on providing people with disabilities with the skills they need for logistics roles within the company. This initiative has resulted in increased engagement among these employees.

7. Deloitte's ALL IN Diversity Strategy

Deloitte, a multinational professional services network, has implemented an ALL IN diversity strategy. This strategy focuses on fostering an inclusive culture where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed, leading to higher levels of employee engagement.

8. Google's Employee Resource Groups

Google has leveraged Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to engage their diverse workforce. These ERGs, which include groups for women, veterans, and the LGBTQ+ community, have fostered a sense of belonging, thereby enhancing employee engagement.

In conclusion, these case studies demonstrate that fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment can significantly boost employee engagement. By implementing appropriate strategies, organizations can ensure that every employee feels valued and included, leading to higher levels of productivity and innovation.

6 Case Studies on Employee Engagement through Team Building Activities

Employee engagement is not just about work; it's also about fostering a sense of camaraderie, trust, and mutual respect among team members. Team building activities are a tried-and-true method of achieving this. Here are six case studies that showcase the power of team building activities in boosting employee engagement.

1. A Tech Giant's Approach to Team Building: Google

Google, one of the world's leading technology companies, is renowned for its unique approach to team building. They've implemented a program called "gPause," which encourages employees to take part in mindfulness exercises together. This initiative has led to enhanced team cohesion, reduced stress levels, and improved productivity, proving that team building activities don't always have to be grandiose or expensive to be effective.

2. Building Trust through Adventure: Johnson & Johnson

Healthcare conglomerate Johnson & Johnson turned to adventure-based team building activities to foster trust and collaboration. They organized a series of outdoor challenges, including rock climbing and rafting. These activities required employees to rely on each other for success, thus strengthening their trust and rapport. The result? Improved team performance and higher employee engagement levels.

3. Creative Engagement: Pixar

Pixar, the renowned animation studio, uses creative exercises as team building activities. By encouraging their employees to take part in sketching sessions and storytelling workshops, Pixar fosters a culture of creativity and collaboration. This approach has not only resulted in some of the most successful animated movies of all time but also in a highly engaged workforce.

4. Team Building through Social Responsibility: Salesforce

Salesforce, a global leader in CRM, has integrated social responsibility into their team building initiatives. They offer their employees seven paid days off each year to volunteer for a cause of their choice. This unique approach to team building has fostered a sense of unity and purpose among employees, leading to increased engagement and job satisfaction.

5. Virtual Team Building: Scavify

In the era of remote work, Scavify has taken team building to the digital realm. Our interactive scavenger hunts not only foster team collaboration but also inject fun into the workday. These virtual activities have proven effective in maintaining high levels of employee engagement, even when teams are physically apart.

6. Physical Fitness as Team Building: Reebok

Reebok, a global athletic footwear and apparel company, uses fitness challenges as a team building activity. They offer CrossFit classes to their employees, promoting both physical health and team spirit. This approach has resulted in a more engaged, healthier, and more productive workforce.

These case studies illustrate the significant impact of team building activities on employee engagement. Whether it's through mindfulness exercises, adventure activities, creative workshops, social responsibility initiatives, virtual games, or fitness challenges, team building can effectively foster a sense of unity and engagement among employees.

8 Case Studies on Employee Engagement Initiatives in Large Corporations

As we delve deeper into the subject of employee engagement, it's essential to consider the unique challenges and opportunities presented by large corporations. These behemoths of the business world often have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of employees spread across multiple locations, sometimes even spanning continents. Given this, fostering a sense of engagement and connection amongst employees can be a daunting task. However, numerous large corporations have successfully implemented innovative engagement initiatives. Let's look at eight such case studies.

1. Google's '20% Time' Policy

Google, known for its innovative work culture, introduced a '20% Time' policy. This initiative allows engineers to spend 20% of their working hours on any project they choose. This policy has not only boosted engagement but also led to the creation of some of Google's most popular products, including Gmail and Google News.

2. Microsoft's 'Hackathon'

Microsoft hosts an annual Hackathon, where employees from all over the world come together to work on passion projects. This event fosters a sense of camaraderie and engagement amongst employees, while also promoting innovation and creativity.

3. Ford's 'Employee Resource Groups'

Ford has established multiple Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to promote diversity and inclusion. These groups, which include Women at Ford and Ford Employees Dealing with Disabilities, provide support, encourage engagement, and foster a sense of belonging amongst employees.

4. Apple's 'Blue Sky'

Apple introduced the 'Blue Sky' program, which allows a select group of employees to spend a few weeks on a project outside their usual work scope. This initiative boosts engagement by allowing employees to explore new areas and bring fresh ideas to the table.

5. Amazon's 'Peculiar Culture'

Amazon has created a 'peculiar culture' that encourages employees to be innovative and think outside the box. This culture, which includes practices like writing six-page memos and banning PowerPoints, keeps employees engaged and invested in the company's success.

6. Starbucks' 'Bean Stock'

Starbucks offers a program called 'Bean Stock', which gives eligible employees company shares. By making employees part-owners, Starbucks not only boosts engagement but also ensures that employees have a vested interest in the company's performance.

7. Salesforce's '1-1-1 Model'

Salesforce follows a unique '1-1-1 model', where it contributes 1% of its equity, 1% of its employee's time, and 1% of its products to philanthropic efforts. This initiative fosters a sense of purpose and engagement amongst employees, who take pride in their company's commitment to social responsibility.

8. Unilever's 'Sustainable Living Plan'

Unilever has implemented the 'Sustainable Living Plan', which aims to halve the environmental impact of its products by 2030. This initiative has boosted employee engagement by aligning the company's goals with the personal values of its employees.

In conclusion, these case studies highlight the innovative strategies large corporations are using to boost employee engagement. While the specifics vary, the underlying theme remains the same: when employees feel valued, supported, and part of something bigger, they are more likely to be engaged.

Conclusion on Employee Engagement Case Studies

In a rapidly evolving business landscape, these employee engagement case studies serve as a testament to the power of effective engagement strategies. They highlight how various organizations, regardless of their size or industry, have successfully harnessed the potential of their workforce by fostering a culture of engagement.

It's clear that employee engagement is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for businesses aiming for long-term success and sustainability. From leveraging technology to facilitating remote work, fostering diversity, and implementing team-building activities, businesses are exploring innovative ways to keep their employees engaged and motivated.

The case studies we've explored have demonstrated that employee engagement is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Each organization has to consider its unique circumstances, workforce dynamics, and strategic objectives to shape its engagement initiatives. However, the common thread running through all these case studies is the positive impact of genuine and consistent employee engagement on overall organizational performance.

As we move into 2024, the importance of employee engagement is only set to increase. With the rise of remote work and the increasing emphasis on diversity and inclusion, businesses will need to continue innovating and adapting their engagement strategies to meet the changing expectations of their workforce.

In conclusion, these case studies underscore the transformative power of employee engagement. They serve as a powerful reminder that when employees feel valued, heard, and engaged, they are more likely to contribute their best work, leading to increased productivity, improved employee satisfaction, and ultimately, heightened business success. As such, employee engagement should be at the forefront of every business leader's strategy moving forward.

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YellowStarr Financial: Refocusing on Employee Engagement

By: Danielle J. Clark, Terry M. McGovern

This case offers students an opportunity to observe employee engagement through key events that took place at YellowStarr Financial Services before and during a software platform migration. Steve…

  • Length: 8 page(s)
  • Publication Date: Mar 31, 2021
  • Discipline: Human Resource Management
  • Product #: NA0684-PDF-ENG

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This case offers students an opportunity to observe employee engagement through key events that took place at YellowStarr Financial Services before and during a software platform migration. Steve Keldan, who served as CEO of YellowStarr, founded the company in 2002. Lisa Murphy was hired as the Human Resources Director for YellowStarr in 2011. In her first few years, Murphy was challenged with building a human resource team that could manage more than 100 new employees for the growing company. In 2015, YellowStarr needed to undergo a software platform migration with FinanceConnect, its proprietary customer data web-based software that presented retirement plans, investment options and pricing in a simple, easy-to-navigate way. As Human Resources Director, Murphy was tasked with the duty of supporting the migration from an employee standpoint, which meant hiring new talent, minimizing employee turnover, and promoting a healthy, positive culture that encouraged employee engagement. Before and during the migration, Murphy made decisions that appeared to both help and hurt engagement. Implementations included fewer training initiatives, relaxed dress code, and employee-led activity committees. As of 2018 with the migration project almost complete, YellowStarr faced high employee turnover rates. No longer having to deal with the firefighting associated with the migration, Murphy needs to decide what steps to take both short-term and long-term to improve upon YellowStarr's employee engagement so the company is an employer of choice for new and existing employees.

Learning Objectives

1) Identify and assess the drivers of high and low employment engagement

2) Evaluate the connection between low employee engagement and employee attrition

3) Identify and recommend tactics to increase employment engagement, recruitment and retention for a firm which has experienced a decline in employment engagement

Mar 31, 2021

Discipline:

Human Resource Management

Geographies:

United States

Industries:

Financial service sector

North American Case Research Association (NACRA)

NA0684-PDF-ENG

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Like what you hear, 7 effective employee engagement case studies and strategies for a productive workplace.

7 Effective Employee Engagement Case Studies and Strategies for a Productive Workplace

  • 1. Acknowledgment and Appreciation
  • 2. Emphasis on Employee’s Holistic Wellness
  • 3. Initiatives that are Development-Focused
  • 4. Develop a Sense of Purpose, Values & Mission
  • 5. Maintain Transparent Communication Channels
  • 6. Create Conducive Working Conditions

7. Create Space for Fun & Happiness

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Are you looking for employee engagement case studies? Learn from some of the best companies out there that have successfully increased employee engagement. See how they did it and what worked for them.

As more and more employers in today’s corporate world realize the importance of employee engagement , the demand for effective and result-oriented employee engagement programs is rising. The internet may present many employee engagement initiatives, but here’s something more: case studies to prove that certain employee engagement strategies are really effective. Follow our blog to learn more about employee satisfaction and ensure that your company is teeming with higher employee engagement initiatives.

According to Johnson and Johnson “ the degree to which employees are satisfied with their jobs, feel valued, and experience collaboration and trust. Engaged employees will stay with the company longer and continually find smarter, more effective ways to add value to the organization. The end result is a high-performing company where people are flourishing and productivity is increased and sustained.”  

Nokia Siemens describes employee engagement as “ an emotional attachment to the organization, pride and a willingness to be an advocate of the organization, a rational understanding of the organization’s strategic goals, values, and how employees fit, and motivation and willingness to invest the discretionary effort to go above and beyond”.

While we learn what employee engagement means and its importance, incorporating practical and effective employee engagement programs as part of company culture is the right recipe for success.  Here are certain strategies for best employee engagement with case studies. 

1. Acknowledgment and Appreciation 

The first and foremost step to boost employee engagement is making sure your employees are valued, acknowledged, and appreciated. This motivates employees to become more productive , stay on track with tasks, and perform well. This can be done in many ways and you need to choose an approach that your employees can relate with. While some enjoy public recognition, others don’t. Hence, you can work on innovative recognition ideas . 

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According to a study , social workers in a company received personalized letters of recognition at their home addresses. The workers were chosen randomly and half of them received letters while the rest half didn’t receive any. The first half of the letter was chosen from a few positive motivational sayings and the second half of the letter had a personal note of appreciation written by managers. After a month of the letter experiment, the workers who received letters felt more recognized and appreciated for their efforts, compared to those who didn’t get any. This also had a positive effect on their motivation levels and well-being, according to the results of this study.  

2. Emphasis on Employee’s Holistic Wellness 

There are many components of employee wellness like nutrition, work-life balance , mental health, and stress management, to name a few. A healthy employee will be more productive and employees who are mentally and physically healthy will exhibit positive motivation, and better morale and resulting in a win-win for both employers and employees. A wellness program can be a good way to start where employees get a chance to explore yoga, in addition to vacation days. A wellness room provides employees with a personal space for their personal needs. 

The indispensable role of wellness and an overall effective wellness strategy for an organization can be best understood based on a study that explored the objective of workplace wellness programs and their impact on employees health and medical expenses and so on. The study identifies certain key factors to boost wellness ideas in a corporate setup such as: 

Effective communication strategy 

Organizations that were part of this research emphasized the importance of how a wellness program is communicated to employees, both in-person and mass information campaigns, with messaging and clear interaction getting the highest priority.

Accessibility of wellness programs

Making wellness programs accessible for all employees is an effective strategy to boost the levels of employee engagement in their organization.

Engaged leadership

According to this study, for wellness programs to be successful, senior leadership should imbibe wellness as an integral and important part of the company culture. 

Effective use of existing resources

Organizations leverage the existing resources and then build relationships, which also include health plans to provide employees with more options.

Ongoing assessment

Most companies agree that continuous assessments are required for employers to better understand their employee’s wellness needs. 

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3. Initiatives that are Development-Focused  

Ongoing development is key for every employee and there are a few development-focused initiatives that you can adopt actively to help your employees gain professional growth like professional networking, master’s or even Ph.D. programs, industry seminars, training courses and conferences, internal promotions, mentoring groups, and career coaching. 

This study titled A Study on the Influence of Career Growth on Work Engagement among New Generation Employees involved six companies from diverse industries like consulting, finance, management, real estate, and so on. The findings of this study show that: 

Organizational identification (IO) is very important for engagement levels and career growth.

Employee career growth positively impacts work engagement;

Person-organization value is positively linked to career growth and organizational identification (IO).

If employees recognize that they can make career progress in a company, they feel more attached and this increases employee loyalty, particularly for the new generation. It motivates them to put in the extra effort, improve performance, work on new skills, and so on. 

4. Develop a Sense of Purpose, Values & Mission 

A visible employee engagement program to achieve higher employee satisfaction levels requires employees to gain a sense of purpose, portray the company’s values and understand the mission. It is important to also understand what each of these attributes stands for. 

Purpose 

A company's purpose is the reason it exists in the first place. Purpose-driven companies are devoted to achieving goals that are bigger than just making money and increasing shareholder value. They also want to make a positive impact on the world around them and approach their work sustainably and ethically. In other words, they're committed to making a difference. 

Mission 

The mission of a company is similar but not identical to its purpose. Many people use the terms interchangeably, but we see the main difference as follows: the mission statement focuses on what the company has been built to achieve. 

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Values 

Values are important because they act as a compass for the overall expectations of an organization - they guide how employees do their jobs, how managers communicate with clients and partners, and how workers interact with their peers. By understanding and sharing company values, employers can make better decisions that reflect the priorities of the business.

According to a study by Deloitte , a company’s purpose and mission impact corporate confidence as well, as indicated by the results of this study.

Nearly half of all executives (47%) say that they can identify with their company's purpose, while only 30% of employees feel the same way. 

A whopping 44% of executives believe that exemplary leadership involves setting an example that lives and breathes the company's purpose - but only 25% of employees share this belief. 

41% of executives believe that a company's purpose plays a significant role in major corporate decisions, whereas only 28% of employees feel the same way.

38% of leaders claim that their company's purpose is communicated clearly and openly to all, but only 31% of employees actually think this is the case.

Ultimately, teaching your employees about the company's purpose, mission, and vision takes time and patience. It's a gradual process, but when done correctly, it has numerous benefits for employers. Creating a sense of purpose for your employees allows you to see numerous benefits in the long run such as a more committed workforce and less employee turnover. 

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5. Maintain Transparent Communication Channels 

Many employees feel reluctant to share their concerns and opinions with their managers or peers, either due to a perception that their managers don’t pay much attention to them or maybe they tried earlier but no action was taken by the leadership. Encouraging employees to share their concerns with leaders has its own benefits. 

Practicing reflective listening helps managers to understand the message, through attentive communication. 

Making employees understand they are respected helps them to respect you back and this is an employee engagement strategy based on common sense.

Acknowledging employee views is a way of recognizing a diverse range of ideas and respecting what they say, even though in the end you may still agree to disagree.

Seeking employee’s input actively helps to boost job satisfaction levels. 

A research study analyzed communication between employers and employees and its impact on engagement levels.   The findings supported the general definition of engagement as a sense of shared responsibility between both supervisors and employees, proving that establishing communication with your employees has a wide range of benefits and can work wonders for a company’s employee engagement levels . 

“Our staff has praised the increased communication level Workmates delivers. We use it to communicate important project matters and give staff specific ‘kudos’ or even recognize their birthdays. More importantly, we use Workmates to clarify important project details that needed rapid dissemination among the entire team.”

employee engagement case study for students

6. Create Conducive Working Conditions 

While expecting high performance from employees by an organization is quite natural, it is also equally important to provide necessary conditions for employees to do their best, by supporting them in any way you can. You can encourage positive and healthy competition in the workplace, show zero tolerance for toxic behavior, maintain a clean and healthy workplace ambiance, and create supportive teams . One way to support your workforce is by encouraging them to focus on things that are already good in their lives. 

According to a consultant, Stephanie Pollack , a visible change is possible when employees are encouraged to know more about the benefits of gratitude and become aware of good things already existing in their lives. Showing gratitude has a plethora of benefits that range from reducing stress to making people feel better about themselves. It's important to build a culture of appreciation in your company so that employees feel comfortable expressing gratitude to one another and also feel appreciated in their jobs. This will not only lead to employees appreciating their jobs and coworkers more, but it will also help them appreciate themselves on a whole new level. Creating a grateful environment takes time, but it's worth it to see the positive transformation it can have on your organization as a whole. 

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Workers who are content with their jobs are more likely to be motivated, productive, and engaged than those who are unhappy with their work. And happiness usually comes with having fun. However, this doesn't mean that employees should neglect their tasks or ignore deadlines. Learning how to balance work and play is key to being successful in both areas.

Employees should get the chance to do fun stuff to uplift their moods and refresh their minds and thoughts. This will make them more productive while handling their daily tasks. This can be in the form of having lunch together, organizing joke sessions, quizzes, celebrating employee milestones and birthdays, hosting parties, sports activities, recreational outings, and so on.  According to a study “ Finding Fun in Work: The Effect of Workplace Fun on Taking Charge and Job Engagement” , having fun in the workplace motivates employees in a positive way improving their job satisfaction levels, productivity, commitment, energy,  and creativity. It also helps to reduce anxiety, turnover, stress, and absenteeism.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to improving employee engagement in the workplace. You can employ one or more of these strategies based on case studies and see what works best for you and your workforce. Creating a nurturing and fun-filled productive place can make a great difference for your company and its growth in the years to come. 

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Author Bio:

This article is written by a marketing team member at HR Cloud. HR Cloud is a leading provider of proven HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee communications & engagement, and rewards & recognition. Our user-friendly software increases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.

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How Companies Can Improve Employee Engagement Right Now

  • Daniel Stein,
  • Nick Hobson,
  • Jon M. Jachimowicz,
  • Ashley Whillans

employee engagement case study for students

Start by connecting what people do to what they care about.

A year and a half into the pandemic, employees’ mental “surge capacity” is likely diminished. Managers must take proactive steps to increase employee engagement, or risk losing their workforce. Engaged employees perform better, experience less burnout, and stay in organizations longer. The authors created this Employee Engagement Checklist: a distilled, research-based resource that practitioners can execute on during this critical period of renewed uncertainty. Use this checklist to boost employee engagement by helping them connect what they do to what they care about, making the work itself less stressful and more enjoyable, and rewarding them with additional time off, in addition to financial incentives.

As the world stumbles toward a Covid-19 recovery, experts warn of a surge of voluntary employee departures, dubbed the “Great Resignation.” For instance, one study estimates that 55% of people in the workforce in August 2021 intend to look for a new job in the next 12 months. To counteract the incoming wave of employee turnover, organizations — more than ever — need to focus on cultivating employee engagement .

employee engagement case study for students

  • DS Daniel Stein is a fifth-year doctoral student in the Management of Organizations (MORS) Group at UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business. He conducts research on groups and teams, focusing on commitment to one’s group. He studies commitment across multiple levels, ranging from teams to organizations.
  • NH Nick Hobson is chief scientist and director of labs for  Emotive Technologies , a behavioral technology think tank that brings together leading academic researchers, technologists, and business strategists in order to create and share knowledge. A PhD-trained behavioral scientist and adjunct lecturer at the University of Toronto, Nick’s research and client practice specializes in employee experience (EX) and the influence of behavioral science as a tool for business success.
  • Jon M. Jachimowicz is an assistant professor in the Organizational Behavior Unit at the Harvard Business School. He received his PhD in management from Columbia Business School. He studies how people pursue their passion for work, how they perceive passion in others, and how leaders and organizations seek to manage for passion.
  • Ashley Whillans is an assistant professor in the negotiations, organizations, and markets unit at the Harvard Business School School and teaches the “Negotiations” and “Motivation and Incentives” courses to MBA students and executives. Her research focuses on the role of noncash rewards on engagement and the links between time, money, and happiness. She is the author of Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time & Live a Happier Life (Harvard Business Review, 2020).

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Impact case study

Improving employee engagement and performance.

  The resulting increase in the profile of employee engagement within the HR community undoubtedly helped to stimulate wider interest by business and within government. Mike Emmott CIPD's Advisor on Employee Relations

Dr Emma Soane

Research by

Dr Emma Soane

Department of management.

LSE's Emma Soane played a key role in research that helped to define and disseminate best practice in the area of employee engagement

What was the problem?

How people engage with their work affects both the individual satisfaction they derive from it and the contribution they make to an organisation's performance.

Without properly understanding the factors and processes involved, managers cannot hope to develop greater engagement among their staff.

In the UK little has been known about how individuals engage with their work. Filling this research gap has been vital on two counts: first, to develop effective measures of engagement, and second, to assess the contribution engagement makes to individual and organisational outcomes.

The results have wide-reaching implications for leadership practices and managing human resources in general.

What did we do?

In 2006 the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) commissioned Professor Katie Truss at Kingston University to investigate the processes through which individuals engage with their work. LSE Assistant Professor of Management Emma Soane was the project's Assistant Director and responsible for developing the theoretical foundations for its initial stages, which included a nationwide survey of 2,000 employees. (Soane did this work while at Kingston Business School and joined LSE in 2008.)

The following year Truss, now at the University of Kent, established a consortium of eight public- and private-sector organisations to take the research forward. Besides Truss and Soane, the team was composed of researchers at other UK and international universities, including: Rick Delbridge (University of Cardiff); Kerstin Alfes (Tilburg University, the Netherlands); Amanda Shantz (York University, Toronto); Mark Gatenby (University of Southampton); and Chris Rees (Royal Holloway, University of London).

The next stage of data collection and analysis involved 5,291 survey responses from employees and managers and 180 interviews with managers, and resulted in a CIPD report aimed at practitioners titled Creating an Engaged Workforce, findings from the Kingston Employee Engagement Consortium Project (2010).

A further phase of data collection took place between 2010 and 2012, involving responses from 2,173 employees and managers in five organisations, plus additional longitudinal data for 318 participants and a detailed study of the links between engagement, performance data and absenteeism for 264 participants.

At an individual level, the research demonstrated that employees' engagement with work stems from three factors: its perceived meaningfulness, their perceptions of line and senior managers, and opportunities for two-way dialogue with managers.

High levels of engagement were associated with enhanced performance, greater innovation, a stated intent to remain with the organisation, greater well-being and a belief that current workloads were sustainable. Low levels of engagement, on the other hand, were associated with higher levels of ‘deviance’, such as absenteeism.

At an organisational level, the research showed that policies and practices in human resource management (HRM) have a direct bearing on engagement, which then influences individual-level outcomes, notably performance.

What happened?

One of the outcomes of the research was a new measure of engagement: the ISA (Intellectual, Social, Affective) Engagement Scale. Soane and colleagues were responsible for devising and validating the measure and comparing it against other engagement scales. The paper outlining its development was published in a practitioner journal, Human Resource Development International (Soane et al, 2012), and made freely available to researchers and practitioners.

The early findings of the research influenced the UK Government when they were highlighted in a presentation made to No 10 Downing Street in July 2008. This led directly to the establishment of the MacLeod Review into employee engagement, which was commissioned by then Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Right Honourable Lord Mandelson and published as Engaging for Success in July 2009.

The research had influence on the practitioner and human resources communities through its connection with CIPD. After commissioning the initial study, CIPD continued to work with the research team as part of an Employee Engagement Consortium involving organisations wishing to learn how to raise levels of engagement, and published a series of case studies between 2008 and 2011 analysing the engagement practices of employers in different sectors.

These case studies not only produced research findings, but also led to changes in policies and practices in participating organisations and, as a result, to concrete improvements in employee engagement and performance. For example, a manufacturing company reduced accident levels, labour turnover, product rejection rates, and overhead and direct costs while improving employee energy, enthusiasm and new product innovation, while a government department completely revised its approach to HR and a city council experienced significant increases in measures of employee engagement, motivation and pride. 

The research provided a forum for debate between academics and practitioners through a seminar series supported by a £15,000 grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Five free seminars were held between 2011 and 2013 at the Universities of Kent, Cardiff and LSE, attended by a total of 460 delegates. The seminars sought to explore the evidence and develop a theory to explain the links between employee engagement, organisational performance and individual well-being. Attached to the third seminar was a free doctoral symposium for 13 students.

The final seminar was run in conjunction with the 'Engage for Success' group, a movement launched by Prime Minister David Cameron in March 2011 based on the findings of the MacLeod Review and situated within BIS. The organisations involved in this movement accounted for more than two million employees. The 'Engage for Success' co-chairs, David MacLeod and Nita Clarke, said of the seminars: 'The programme brought together practitioners, experts, thinkers and consultants to share practice, shine a light on the importance of this topic, and offer best practice. The work has made a significant and critical contribution through developing the required insights for organisations…by creating networks to facilitate this.'

The seminar series resulted in the establishment of an Engagement Research Community subsection of the Engage for Success LinkedIn group, attracting 209 members within the first month and comprised of both academics and practitioners. It also yielded a special issue of the International Journal of Human Resource Management, published in July 2013. Members of the research team also co-edited and contributed chapters to a book for practitioners and researchers on Employee Engagement in Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2014).This brought together 29 leading scholars from the field, including William Kahn who published the original article on employee engagement in 1990.

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15 HR Analytics Case Studies with Business Impact

Analytics in HR

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

For this article, I have collected 15 of the best HR analytics case studies I’ve come across in the past two years. Each of these case studies are connected with a concrete business impact. For each case study , I will refer to their original publication. 15 HR Analytics Case Studies .

employee engagement case study for students

Employee Engagement Case Study: How Seacoast Bank Mobilizes Teams to Drive Engagement

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Through this growth, Seacoast identified the need to scale their employee engagement strategies for greater impact. This meant adding more employee listening channels outside of their annual engagement survey.

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In this new case study from Rosetta Stone®, thousands of learners were surveyed about the business impact of learning a new language. An increase in employee engagement . Luckily, there is one very simple and effective solution: language training. Increased productivity with less miscommunication.

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How Connection Drives Employee Engagement

JULY 14, 2020

And yet, research shows that 40% of employees feel isolated at work, leading to lower employee engagement . Connection in the workplace is the feeling of being part of a community engaged in something bigger than any one person. Stages of Connection that Drive Employee Engagement . Revised by Kenna Bryan.

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Case Study: How Bonfyre’s Top Manufacturing Site Improved Employee Engagement?

AUGUST 11, 2022

Results: Our client achieved the following: Bonfyre metrics: Business impact: As mentioned earlier, the client saw double-digit increases in engagement scores , including significant improvements in core employee engagement areas, such as wellbeing, recognition, and comfort speaking up, since implementing Bonfyre.

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Flimp’s 2022-23 Open Enrollment Case Study and Trends Report Sees Employee-Engagement Rate Reach 74 Percent with Use of Tech-Enabled HR Solutions

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Fourth-annual report analyzes 250 digital benefits-communication campaigns that touched nearly 775,000 employees with targeted OE messaging, educational videos and other trackable content.

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Case Study: Donaldson

DECEMBER 24, 2020

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New Case Study: Healthcare System?s Recognition Program Increases Employee Engagement by 9%

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Tidelands Health has more than 2,500 employee , physician, and volunteer partners working to promote wellness, prevent illness, encourage recovery, and restore health. Download the full case study . Increase employee engagement by giving meaningful recognition to its employee partners. The Challenge.

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Case Study: Enhancing Employee Engagement and Recognition at Virtua Health

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OCTOBER 16, 2023

About Virtua Health Virtua Health is a prominent not-for-profit healthcare system located in southern New Jersey. With over 14,000 dedicated colleagues, Virtua is committed to delivering exceptional healthcare services and resources to its community.

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For example, a projected company sale will cause speculation about job longevity and distract employees from their work. Instead of focusing on the problem of decreasing productivity , a design thinking methodology would look for ways to address concerns and increase employee engagement throughout the course of the sale.

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As someone who has worked in the HR profession, I know well the full value of stories, examples, and case studies . While much of the work we do at Lighthouse Research & Advisory focuses on quantitative research studies , we do a fair amount of qualitative research as well. Using Hackathons for Branding and Retention.

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Case Study: Supermarket chain correlates manager Bonfyre activity to store performance

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The Evolution of HR with AI Technologies

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AI also plays a crucial role in enhancing employee engagement strategies. By analyzing employee feedback and performance data, AI can identify what motivates employees , what training they need, and how to improve their job satisfaction.

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Case Study: Manufacturing Client Connects Frontline Employees

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It’s also important to know that industries with deskless workers experience very high turnover – which is inevitable when employees are disengaged and do not feel connected to their company. Why is the manufacturing employee experience so critical for business outcomes? Work email *. Bonfyre is committed to your privacy.

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Resolving Conflict: A Case Study

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Register for our March 19 webinar if you want to: Learn more about DISC Gain insight on your communication preferences Get some tools for conflict resolution Understand how DISC profiles tie into employee engagement , or Brush up on personal leadership skills. Our webinar’s going to be packed with all that and more.

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[CASE STUDY] Transforming Organizational Culture

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We recently put together a case study regarding one of our clients, Rainbow Municipal Water District (RMWD), and thought we’d share it in case you were looking for ideas on improving your own workplace culture. The post [ CASE STUDY ] Transforming Organizational Culture appeared first on Civility Partners.

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Benefits of job shadowing Benefits for the organization Enhanced employee engagement : Job shadowing can also help to enhance employee engagement by allowing employees to learn more about their colleagues and the company.

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Case Study: Bonfyre helps call center leaders to engage teams in a remote setting

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In this post, we’ll take a closer look at some of the challenges call center leaders face when engaging their remote teams and how Bonfyre has helped enable them to be successful. It was found that engaged call center employees are 21% more productive than disengaged employees . Bonfyre is committed to your privacy.

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Flimp Communications’ 2021-22 Open Enrollment Case Study and Trends Report Shows Digital Postcards Drive Extraordinary Employee Engagement Rates of 72 Percent

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May 25, 2022 Boston, MA Third-annual report offers analysis of over 200 digital benefits communication campaigns that reached 700,000+ employees with targeted OE messaging, educational videos and other trackable content Flimp Communications, the leading full-service provider of digital employee communication and engagement solutions, today revealed.

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The Best New Books on Employee Engagement

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The world of HR is constantly evolving, so it is absolutely critical for leaders and HR professionals to stay on top of emerging trends and innovative approaches to address classic conundrums, like employee engagement . . Engaged employees means productive, loyal employees . By Glenn Elliott & Debra Corey.

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Case Study: Credit Union

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Today’s case study explains how TimeSimplicity can help a typical small credit union maintain quality customer service while controlling operating expenses through automated credit union employee scheduling. We’ve just added recruiting, onboarding, benefits enrollment, performance reviews, and employee engagement !

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What is HR Analytics? All You Need to Know to Get Started

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The company encourages employees to take at least one longer period of time off per year, as well as multiple shorter breaks. For more real-world HR analytics examples, you can refer to the case studies we published in the past. This engaging , in-depth course is 100% online and self-paced.

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Learning Management Case Study: Gerber Poultry

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Specifically, they needed a tool to deliver personalized training courses to employees , track completions for compliance purposes and eliminate the manually-intensive work that was required for Gerber’s HR team.

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The Neuroscience of Employee Engagement

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Job satisfaction is at the heart of employee engagement . Today, neuroscience (the study of the nervous system) can explain the fundamentals of human motivation at a molecular level. This makes me question: how can we leverage neuroscience findings to help optimize employee engagement initiatives? Let’s explore ….

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DOES EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT MATTER TO ORGANIZATIONS WITH HIGH TURNOVER? - DecisionWise

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Recently, we have had several organizations come to us with the same basic question: What can we do to improve employee engagement if 90% of our employees stay less than 6 months? It might be tempting to think that employee engagement simply doesn’t matter in these types of scenarios. ACME Cleaning Services, Inc.,

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UAE businesses are increasingly recognizing the pivotal role of HR tech in streamlining operations, enhancing employee engagement , and fostering a culture of innovation. This collection of case studies showcases success stories where savvy UAE companies harnessed the power of HR tech to drive out of the box results: 1.

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Case Study: Meeder Investment Management

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Adding Paycor Recruiting , Onboarding and Learning Management to their HR process helped Meeder Investment Management save time and increase employee engagement . “I Paycor’s LMS helped increase productivity across the workforce by offering a consistent training experience for employees , including onboarding courses for new hires.

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New Case Study: Recognition Builds Community at Chelsea Groton Bank

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However, getting your workforce to adopt new technology poses many hurdles that management and employees must overcome to achieve the desired results.

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How to Boost Call Center Employee Engagement in 2024

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Would you like to reimagine how call centers function and improve their productivity and efficiency by increasing employee engagement ? Call centers are increasingly improving performance and customer service by boosting employee engagement . Read on to learn how you can boost employee engagement in call centers.                      

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Employee Engagement Strategy: “3 Ways to Improve Employee Engagement in Your Organization” by Marie Johnson

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Employee Engagement Strategy: Improving Work with Marie Johnson. Our eBooks, FAQ’s and case studies are packed with information about deploying an incentive program that best suits your needs. Incentive Rewards. Our Incentive rewards inspire motivation in your participants and produce the most ROI for your brand.

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The Great Resignation’s Achilles Heel: Employee Engagement

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The Great Resignation’s Achilles Heel: Employee Engagement . The lack of Employee Engagement is the basic issue you should tackle when trying to battle The Great Resignation in your organization. Read case study : Our Client Increased Employee Engagement Through Recognition. All, Best Practices.

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The Talent Slow Fade: A Case Study of Motley Fool’s Approach to Engagement

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Note: As in all case studies and stories of successful talent approaches, I don’t advise copying any of the firm’s policies or approaches and trying to integrate them into your workplace without first considering the cultural elements necessary for success and what this would look like applied to your unique culture.

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13 Employee Engagement Trends for 2020

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Employee engagement is a very abstract concept. It is the “emotional connect” that an employee feels towards its organization. Same goes for employee engagement . With every new generation in the workforce, employee engagement trends change drastically. 13 Employee Engagement Trends for 2020.

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Case Study – Zoos Victoria

NOVEMBER 30, 2020

Each of these key actions areas has key objectives linked to them, providing Zoos Victoria with the ability to align employees ’ individual responsibilities to the organisations strategy, through clearly defined objectives. Achieving the business strategy is the key success factor for Zoos Victoria.

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The Importance Of Employee Engagement In Healthcare

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The global pandemic has now led to an increase in demand for healthcare, and it has become very vital to drive employee engagement , now more than ever. Engaged healthcare professionals tend to attend their patients with genuine smiles and put an extra effort to help them with their questions and concerns. Patient Satisfaction.

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Vaco Case Study – The Journey of a Performance Culture

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Webinar Overview: To be prepared and positioned for the future, study the past. The post Vaco Case Study – The Journey of a Performance Culture appeared first on Performance Culture. Living in the COVID world presents challenges most people leaders never considered.

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Case study: How PCI leverages their intranet to improve communication and unite remote employees

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Our newest case study with PCI exemplifies what it means to be a great place to work. Click here to read the case study . Have you ever wondered what makes a workplace exceptional? Or what it takes to win a top employer award? The answer probably won’t surprise you. It’s the workplace culture.

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Faced with the same struggles as the rest of the food and beverage industry, they decided to take these challenges head-on and turn to Kazoo to implement new employee engagement ideas. The post Brewing Employee Engagement Ideas with Karl Strauss appeared first on Kazoo.

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4 Unsettling Facts That Are Disrupting Employee Engagement in Healthcare

MARCH 5, 2019

Employee engagement is a problem facing nearly every industry. The latest Gallup poll shows that just over 30 percent of the workforce claim to be engaged at work. While engagement remains low across the board, the healthcare industry seems to be getting hit the hardest. Success Stories.

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Starbucks Employee Engagement with Starbucks

Employees are the very heart of the Starbucks brand- yet despite its strong culture of “serving up good” through a global offering of social impact opportunities, Starbucks employees were lacking in awareness of these opportunities. 

Aiming to better engage store employees in the social impact initiatives led at the corporate level, Starbucks partnered with Purpose to develop a bespoke engagement strategy. Through research, focus groups, interviews & landscape reviews, Purpose created a strategy that included core values to unite corporate & in-store employees, ownable roles for every employee to play in contributing to social impact & ideas for channels and resources that could make the experience enjoyable to all.

To activate this engagement strategy, Starbucks launched a neighborhood grants program which has now received over 8,000 grant nominations from 13,000 employees- and in June 2020, The Starbucks Foundation committed $1 million in Neighborhood Grants to promote racial equity and create more inclusive communities.

Despite Starbucks’ incredible offering of social impact opportunities across the world, initiatives rarely made it into the lives of store employees — the partners at the heart of the brand.

While Starbucks has a strong culture of “serving up good” through service and community connection initiatives, the company recognized that their employees lacked information about what work was happening and what engagement options were available to them. Only 1 in 30 baristas we spoke to had ever heard of Starbucks stores doing social impact work.

Starbucks aimed to make working at the company feel like the best job in retail by offering opportunities for store partners to live their values at work by taking part in global social impact initiatives.

By supporting store partners to serve their communities, Starbucks set out to supercharge the positive impact the company makes on the neighborhoods it serves, and make working at Starbucks feel like more than just a day job.

Theory of Change

Purpose partnered with Starbucks to unearth insights about what was holding store employees back from participating in global social impact initiatives, and determine what might motivate them to take part.

Through polling, focus groups, interviews and landscape reviews, Purpose developed a bespoke engagement strategy for Starbucks to utilize when creating and implementing impact initiatives that would touch the lives of store employees.

Interviews with Store Partners

To begin our research, Purpose conducted interviews with a number of store employees — from baristas to upper management — to understand what they knew about volunteering and service initiatives at Starbucks, and how they felt about getting involved.

Interviews illustrated the awareness gap — but also showed that without time, resources, and permission allocated to social impact activities, partners days were too busy to take time out for ‘extra work.’ Social impact opportunities at Starbucks sounded exciting, but were far from accessible.

Polling Store Managers

Purpose fielded an online survey via Workplace with a focus on Store Managers to further interrogate findings and assumptions that came to light during focus groups. The survey was fielded to over 130 employees, and gathered concrete perspectives on social impact from partners across geographies.

Survey results gave us insight into why Starbucks management chose Starbucks, and what they believed made the company special. We heard that of all the reasons people join Starbucks, it’s the community, connection, and teamwork a job at Starbucks offers that makes people stay.

Barista Focus Groups

To dig one foot deeper, we facilitated four focus groups in New York City, consisting mostly of Starbucks baristas. In conversations with 30+ employees, we learned more about the issues they cared about — which ranged from animals and the environment to advancing racial equity and justice in their own neighborhoods.

However, partners told us one thing loud and clear: in order to participate in social impact, they needed to feel a personal, local connection to the cause.

With insights in hand, Purpose created a strategy for engaging employees in global social impact work moving forward.

The strategy aimed to equip corporate leaders with the values store employees need to see reflected in social impact opportunities, and the roles they can play within those opportunities. It also outlined several meaningful programmatic options for corporate to deploy.

Combined with recommendations on tools and resources required as well as how to measure impact, the final product acted as a framework for partner participation.

After the rollout of the global social impact strategy, Starbucks approached Purpose for help with qualifying their current social impact employee engagement opportunities against the new framework.

Together, we ran each of Starbucks impact initiative through assessments to ensure the programmes delivered on the accessibility, valued-based, local experiences the strategy promised. Where gaps in initiatives were identified, Starbucks reworked programmes accordingly to ensure they were right for partner engagement.

The corporate team at Starbucks was particularly excited about applying an impact-centered approach to the core of their social impact offerings. To help colleagues across marketing, store relations, and global social impact understand the new methodology, Purpose facilitated a day-long workshop to train staff on how to use a theory of change to ensure programmes are designed strategically, audience first, and with impact at their core.

Starbucks activated their engagement strategy by refreshing their Neighborhood Grants program to make employees the driver of each grant. In the program, employees were invited to nominate the local  organizations that serve the communities where they live and work, to truly center the needs and opportunities employees observe as they interact with their communities in Starbucks stores every day. Since the launch, there have been over 8,000 grant nominations from 13,000 employees, which continues to grow.

The refreshed partner engagement strategy for global social impact changed the course of community investment and employee engagement at Starbucks, for good. By making all social impact programmes tailored to partners personal passions, Starbucks became more than a place to work — it became a place for partners to bring their authentic selves to work each day, serve the communities they love, and live their values.

When Black Lives Matter protests spread across the country in the summer of 2020, Starbucks was equipped to heed employee calls for action — committing $1M in grants to racial justice organisations nominated by store employees themselves. As COVID struck, they asked partners to lead the way in determining how the company could help.

The partnership has shown us that the impact a company can make when we meet employees where they are is boundless.

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employee engagement case study for students

  • 09 Apr 2024

Why Work Rituals Bring Teams Together and Create More Meaning

From weekly lunch dates with colleagues to bedtime stories with children, we often rely on rituals to relax and bond with others. While it may feel awkward to introduce teambuilding rituals in the workplace, the truth is, the practices improve performance, says Michael Norton in his book The Ritual Effect.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 02 Apr 2024
  • Research & Ideas

Employees Out Sick? Inside One Company's Creative Approach to Staying Productive

Regular absenteeism can hobble output and even bring down a business. But fostering a collaborative culture that brings managers together can help companies weather surges of sick days and no-shows. Research by Jorge Tamayo shows how.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 15 Mar 2024

Let's Talk: Why It's Time to Stop Avoiding Taboo Topics at Work

Few people enjoy talking about succession plans, performance problems, and pay, but sometimes you must. Christina Wing offers five rules for navigating thorny conversations in the workplace, and makes the case for tackling even sensitive topics, like age, health, and politics.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 04 Mar 2024
  • What Do You Think?

Do People Want to Work Anymore?

Surveys indicate that US employee engagement and job satisfaction are down. To what degree are attitudes toward work to blame? asks James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 27 Feb 2024

Why Companies Should Share Their DEI Data (Even When It’s Unflattering)

Companies that make their workforce demographics public earn consumer goodwill, even if the numbers show limited progress on diversity, says research by Ryan Buell, Maya Balakrishnan, and Jimin Nam. How can brands make transparency a differentiator?

employee engagement case study for students

  • 23 Jan 2024

How to Keep Employees Productive: Support Caregivers

Three-quarters of US employees are balancing caregiving with their careers. If companies could prevent five of them from quitting, they could save $200,000. Joseph Fuller offers a seven-point plan for supporting the sandwich generation and beyond.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 02 Jan 2024

10 Trends to Watch in 2024

Employees may seek new approaches to balance, even as leaders consider whether to bring more teams back to offices or make hybrid work even more flexible. These are just a few trends that Harvard Business School faculty members will be following during a year when staffing, climate, and inclusion will likely remain top of mind.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 14 Nov 2023

The Network Effect: Why Companies Should Care About Employees’ LinkedIn Connections

What do Honeywell, IBM, and Pfizer have in common? Employees with strong professional networks. A study of 2 billion employee relationships on LinkedIn probes the power of such connections—and potential benefits for companies. Research by Frank Nagle.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 03 Oct 2023

Layoffs Can Be Bad Business: 5 Strategies to Consider Before Cutting Staff

Many companies are quick to reduce headcount when economic headwinds appear, but they risk weakening their businesses. A case study by Sandra Sucher explores the hidden costs of layoffs.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 14 Sep 2023

Working Moms Are Mostly Thriving Again. Can We Finally Achieve Gender Parity?

The pandemic didn't destroy the workplace advancements moms had achieved. However, not all of the positive changes forced by the crisis and remote work have stuck, says research by Kathleen McGinn and Alexandra Feldberg.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 28 Aug 2023

How Workplace Wellness Programs Can Give Employees the Energy Boost They Need

At a time when many workers are struggling with mental health issues, workplace wellness programs need to go beyond providing gym discounts and start offering employees tailored solutions that improve their physical and emotional well-being, says Hise Gibson.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 08 Aug 2023

The Rise of Employee Analytics: Productivity Dream or Micromanagement Nightmare?

"People analytics"—using employee data to make management decisions—could soon transform the workplace and hiring, but implementation will be critical, says Jeffrey Polzer. After all, do managers really need to know about employees' every keystroke?

employee engagement case study for students

  • 24 Jul 2023

Part-Time Employees Want More Hours. Can Companies Tap This ‘Hidden’ Talent Pool?

Businesses need more staff and employees need more work, so what's standing in the way? A report by Joseph Fuller and colleagues shows how algorithms and inflexibility prevent companies from accessing valuable talent in a long-term shortage.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 17 Jul 2023

Money Isn’t Everything: The Dos and Don’ts of Motivating Employees

Dangling bonuses to checked-out employees might only be a Band-Aid solution. Brian Hall shares four research-based incentive strategies—and three perils to avoid—for leaders trying to engage the post-pandemic workforce.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 16 May 2023

How KKR Got More by Giving Ownership to the Factory Floor: ‘My Kids Are Going to College!’

KKR turned around a struggling door company and sold it for 10 times its investment—giving factory workers a life-changing cut of the returns. A case study by Ethan Rouen and Dennis Campbell offers lessons for companies trying to instill an owner's mindset in employees.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 27 Feb 2023

How One Late Employee Can Hurt Your Business: Data from 25 Million Timecards

Employees who clock in a few minutes late—or not at all—often dampen sales and productivity, says a study of 100,000 workers by Ananth Raman and Caleb Kwon. What can managers do to address chronic tardiness and absenteeism?

employee engagement case study for students

  • 21 Feb 2023

Are Your Employees Passing Up Incentives? Try Promoting the Programs More

Employees who bow out of a company's wellness program or retirement savings plan might not know these perks exist. Leslie John offers advice for motivating workers to participate in incentive programs.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 17 Jan 2023
  • In Practice

8 Trends to Watch in 2023

Quiet quitting. Inflation. The economy. This year could bring challenges for executives and entrepreneurs, but there might also be opportunities for focused leaders to gain advantage, say Harvard Business School faculty members.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 05 Dec 2022

5 Companies Where Employees Move Up the Ladder Fast

IBM, Southwest Airlines, and other companies proactively help workers advance their careers to try to retain them, says research by Joseph Fuller. The findings show just how important an employer can be to future salary and job prospects.

employee engagement case study for students

  • 29 Nov 2022
  • Cold Call Podcast

How Will Gamers and Investors Respond to Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard?

In January 2022, Microsoft announced its acquisition of the video game company Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The deal would make Microsoft the world’s third largest video game company, but it also exposes the company to several risks. First, the all-cash deal would require Microsoft to use a large portion of its cash reserves. Second, the acquisition was announced as Activision Blizzard faced gender pay disparity and sexual harassment allegations. That opened Microsoft up to potential reputational damage, employee turnover, and lost sales. Do the potential benefits of the acquisition outweigh the risks for Microsoft and its shareholders? Harvard Business School associate professor Joseph Pacelli discusses the ongoing controversies around the merger and how gamers and investors have responded in the case, “Call of Fiduciary Duty: Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard.”

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Survey solution keeps turnover low in a high-turnover industry

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University benefits from robust benchmarks

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Julie Cummings, Managing Director & CHRO at BKD CPAs & Advisors

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employee engagement case study for students

Employee Engagement Best Practices and Case Studies

Delivered june 7th, 2021 . contributors: bahri s., key takeaways.

  • Employee engagement is essential in the workplace; a study found that employee engagement decreased turnover by 14.9% and increased productivity by 69% in workplaces.
  • BKD had used Quantum Workplace's platform to promote continuous coaching to employees as well as build "an inclusive feedback culture for more frequent and meaningful conversations."
  • Internal c o m m s play a key role in "ensuring a good mutual understanding and cooperation within the workforce." According to a survey by Harris Poll, over 70% of employees were engaged when their organization provided clear internal communication regarding information of value.

Introduction

B e s t practice: employees' ideas.

  • The program should be developed around employees' ideas. This can be done through employee suggestion programs and by replacing the old suggestion box.

Employee Engagement Chart

  • Similar to customer feedback programs, employee suggestion programs ( ESP ) invites employees to voice their concerns and share ideas for solutions. While many companies already offer ESP's, many of them don't utilize technology to ensure that it's as effective as possible. And although a wooden suggestion box placed on the wall is a good start, suggestions aren't always checked regularly; this risks resentment and confusion. Switching to a digital solution can increase accountability and improve the process for listening to employees' suggestions.
  • According to a study conducted by the Employee Involvement Association, organizations can expect to save almost $350 annually per employee through the implementation of an employee suggestion system.
  • According to Charles Martin, the author of Employee Suggestion Systems : Boosting Productivity and Profits, "companies that set up effective "suggestion systems are finding that employees have great ideas that can lower costs, increase revenues, improve efficiency, or produce greater quality."

B e s t Practice: Internal C o m m s

  • The company should ensure that good internal c o m m s are part of their employee engagement solution.
  • Internal c o m m s play a key role in "ensuring a good mutual understanding and cooperation within the workforce."
  • According to a survey by Harris Poll, over 70% of employees were engaged when their organization provided clear internal communication regarding information of value.
  • According to Forbes , "when employees are kept in the loop of what’s happening internally, their loyalty and satisfaction increase ultimately improving the annual revenue and reputation of the company."
  • Gallup found that companies with a highly engaged workforce outperform their competitors by 147%.
  • The Holmes Report revealed that companies with strong internal comm strategies gave shareholders 47% higher returns.
  • Trade Press Services posted an article regarding the importance of using internal c o m m s to enhance business growth. They revealed that "85% of employees said they’re most motivated when management offers regular updates on company news."
  • An example of good internal communications leading to positive outcomes can be seen in the case of Thomson Reuters. When Thomson Reuters improved its internal c o m m s , they were able to address their problem regarding how their employees are not placing enough importance on innovation. After implementing good internal c o m m s , Thomson Reuters saw "an upturn in the number of requested innovation projects."

Case Study: Microsoft

  • Microsoft is a multinational tech company that sells computer hardware, software, and related services; they are an example of a company that's successfully developed an employee engagement program for their employees. Microsoft had invested heavily in internal c o m m s and the improvement of employee experience in various departments.
  • For example, Microsoft had teamed up with Centrical to make their contact center service agents be more productive, responsible, and engaged.
  • Microsoft had implemented Centrical in its call centers for its "ability to fuel engagement through advanced g a m i f i c a t i o n , while combining learning and performance data into one platform."
  • The program would reward call center agents intrinsically as well as give them personalized goals. Using Centrical, agents are given a visual reminder showing them how every activity they do matters and would get them closer towards their goals. Microsoft would offer employee points and badges to those who exhibit positive behaviors such as adherence to schedule.
  • Soon after this program was implemented, 78% of Microsoft's call center agents expressed that they felt more empowered and ready to do better at their work, and absenteeism dropped by 12% overall.
  • Microsoft had utilized its own products (e.g. Microsoft 365 ) in order to improve communications and employee engagement.
  • The programs had resulted in more interconnected and personalized employee experiences; it has also enabled Microsoft employees to innovate, create, and collaborate seamlessly among the teams that they belong to and work with.
  • Eighty-five percent of Microsoft employees say that they are proud to be part of the company.

Case Study: BKD + Quantum Workplace

  • BKD is in the professional/scientific/tech services industry , and they are one of the largest U.S. advisory and accounting firms; they have between 2,501 to 5,000 employees.
  • According to Julie Cummings, the managing director and chief human resources officer ( HRO ) at BKD, they built their programs by listening to the themes and feedback gathered through their annual engagement survey as well as other feedback tools, and then generating action plans to support improvement." She also added that the company had identified a direct link between engagement and employee performance.
  • BKD utilized Quantum Workplace to provide a solution for performance management transformation. BKD knew that it was imperative to implement an effective solution that would drive frequent and meaningful coaching conversations. By implementing this solution , BKD could "drive employee engagement, increase performance, and help with employees' goal achievement."
  • Through their employee engagement survey data , BKD was able to identify what would most efficiently engage employees. And based on the findings, BKD implemented "one-on-ones". Within this tool, templates were created to efficiently "drive quarterly conversations between career coaches and employees, encouraging regular touchpoints and more meaningful discussion about goals and development."
  • BKD also used the same approach with feedback by providing employees with a tool they could use to request and give real-time feedback to ensure that employees were on the right path for success.
  • Through this tool , "employees could gather input from different perspectives, including from a 360° view, to provide them with a deeper self-awareness, better relationships, and professional development acceleration."
  • Key Performance Successes:
  • Eighty-six percent of employees are "proud to work with BKD."
  • Seventy-six percent of employees believe that "BKD’s people-first culture drives their overall success."

Case Study: M o l s o n Coors Beverage Company

  • M o l s o n Coors operates as a brewing company that brews and produces beer. M o l s o n Coors is an example of a company that has successfully executed an engagement plan amongst its employees.
  • Their employee engagement initiatives have produced engaged employees that were five times less likely than non-engaged employees "to have a safety incident and seven times less likely to have a lost-time safety incident."
  • Engagement had also improved sales performance at M o l s o n Coors. And as a result of the initiatives , the company had saved over $1.7 million in just one year.

Research Strategy

Did this report spark your curiosity, how to use employee motivations to increase employee engagement - emergenetics, employee suggestion systems - benefits, cost, elements of a successful suggestion system, microsoft unveils new employee experience platform — microsoft viva — to help people thrive at work - stories, microsoft engagement case study - centrical, microsoft employee engagement, reinventing the employee experience at microsoft, 7 reasons why internal communication is important in the workplace, how internal communications methods are used to enhance employee engagement -vibons, 3 effective ways to improve your internal communication to boost employee engagement, the companies nailing internal communication today: 11 inspiring examples • blink, 7 companies with great internal communications, 17 must follow employee engagement best practices for hr managers, using internal communications to enhance business growth - trade press services, internal communication is changing. are you keeping up • blink, bloomberg - are you a robot.

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Case Study: Increasing employee engagement through the HRM (Harrods)  

harrods

Increasing employee engagement through HRM

A Harrods case study

Harrods is a brand that is recognised all over the world. Its Knightsbridge store has 1 million square feet of selling space with over 330 different departments. Its global reputation and prestige is instilled through its brand values. Brand values represent what an organisation stands for. Harrods values are – British; Luxury; Service; Innovation and Sensation.

Harrods has been in business for over 160 years. It employs 4000 employees with an additional 3,500 agency and concession employees. In 2010 Qatar Holdings purchased Harrods from Mohamed Al-Fayed. The new owners are strongly committed to all of Harrods’ employees. They recognise that engaged employees are essential to the continuing success of the business. Such employees are likely to be happy and consistently high performers who want to progress their careers with Harrods. Managing employee relationships is the role of the Human Resources department.

Harrods carried out its first comprehensive employee survey to find out what they thought about working at Harrods. The employee survey has now become an integral aspect of Harrods’ Human Resource Management programme. The survey results were used to create strategic plans for change focused on improving employee engagement and trust. The four main elements were:

  • Changing Organisational Structure
  • Changing Leadership
  • Improved communications
  • Living brand values

Find out how the human resource management ensured these elements were implemented in the full case study.

There have now been four employee surveys. Each survey has seen a higher return from employees and an improvement in the indicators of employee engagement as a result of the actions the HRM team took. Significantly, 91% of employees have stated in the most recent survey that they are proud to work for Harrods and employee turnover has halved in the last five years.

This content is not owned by Engage for Success. And you can download a pdf of the report Employee Engagement at Harrods – Engage for success 2012 .

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4 Case Studies: Schools Use Connections to Give Every Student a Reason to Attend

employee engagement case study for students

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Students who feel connected to school are more likely to attend and perform well, and less likely to misbehave and feel sad and hopeless. There are even health benefits well into adulthood linked to a strong connection to school as an adolescent.

But schools are confronting a range of problems that stem at least in part from a lack of connection—perhaps most visibly: stubborn, nationwide increases in chronic absenteeism .

As they try to boost attendance and keep students engaged, some schools are turning to strategies built around the idea of connectedness. They’ve taken steps to more deliberately cultivate trusting relationships among students and adults in the building. They’ve tried to boost students’ participation in extracurricular activities to ensure they have a place at school where they feel as if they belong. And they’ve collected student feedback on what they’re learning and responded accordingly.

Principal David Arencibia embraces a student as they make their way to their next class at Colleyville Middle School in Colleyville, Texas on Tuesday, April 18, 2023.

The work lines up with school connectedness strategies the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said are effective at reducing unhealthy behaviors and strengthening students’ engagement.

Here’s how two high schools and two school districts are putting student connectedness at the center of their improvement efforts.

Dive into each case study:

  • Making 9th graders feel seen and heard
  • Probing why some students feel they don’t belong
  • Making relationships part of an early-warning system
  • Using connections to battle chronic absenteeism

A Chicago school wants 9th graders to feel seen and heard

Thomas Kelly College Preparatory, Chicago

Educators at Thomas Kelly College Preparatory have homed in on freshman year as a key time to make sure students have a strong connection to the Chicago high school.

“If you’re a 9th grader, nothing is more important to you than belonging,” said Grace Gunderson, a counselor at the 1,700-student school who leads its newly formed freshman success team. “If we can get those kids involved in band or, ‘Hey, I play on the soccer team,’ or, ‘Hey, I always eat lunch in Ms. Gunderson’s office,’ now they have a connection. They have a reason to keep coming to school.”

Kelly’s efforts began with hearing from students. In the first iteration of a survey called Elevate that the school now administers to all students quarterly, students said they didn’t think teachers cared about them, they thought classes were boring, and they didn’t think what they were learning was relevant to what they wanted to do in life, Principal Raul Magdaleno said.

With that insight, school staff—led by the five-member freshman success team—deployed a range of initiatives, both large and small, to foster belonging. They worked on making sure students had a relationship with a trusted adult, that more were participating in extracurricular activities, that the school building was inviting, and that students knew their opinions mattered.

One effort was a “Freshman Cafe,” a spring event last year where nearly all the school’s 500 freshmen sat down one-on-one with an adult for five to 10 minutes and discussed how the school year had gone, asked questions about sophomore year, reviewed attendance and grades and set goals for the remainder of the year, and talked about clubs they could join. Staff members ranging from the dean to security guards participated.

Before the current freshman class arrived at Kelly last summer, the school started sending regular communications to incoming 9th graders introducing them to the school and staff members, held community-building activities for incoming freshmen run by college mentors through a “Freshman Connection” program, and hosted an outdoor “Freshman Fiesta” with snacks and swag, where students had the chance to meet teachers.

It’s definitely still a work in progress. But I think the students understand now that we want their feedback, we genuinely want to know what they think, and they feel as if their opinions are valued.

And once the school year began, the freshman success team made sure an adult would regularly check in with students flagged as high risk in the Chicago schools’ “Risk and Opportunity” framework, which uses 8th grade attendance and grades to predict students’ likelihood of success in high school.

The school relied on teachers and other staff members in the building who volunteered to do these check-ins as well as college-age mentors working through a community group, the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, “just so they have somebody else aside from their teachers that’s talking to them, that shows them that they care, that they’re interested in their experience,” said Griselda Esparza, an assistant principal at Kelly.

In classrooms, after students said they thought classes were boring and disconnected, Kelly made this year the year of “meaningful work,” with teachers starting to rethink their instruction to make it more “culturally relevant and rigorous,” Magdaleno said.

Teachers have started working in their professional learning communities to examine whether what they’re teaching is personally relevant to students and connected to life outside the classroom. They’re also focused on whether students have opportunities to make choices about what they’re learning.

“It’s definitely still a work in progress,” Gunderson said. “But I think the students understand now that we want their feedback, we genuinely want to know what they think, and they feel as if their opinions are valued.”

A New York district probes why some students feel they don’t belong

Arlington Central School District, New York

When the Arlington Central school district in New York surveyed students after their return to campus from pandemic closures, staff discovered that older students, students of color, and students in special education felt a weaker sense of belonging at school.

So, staff from the 7,800-student district started speaking with students from those populations to get to the bottom of the problem.

In focus groups, students told staff that books they read in class weren’t relevant and that they weren’t hearing enough viewpoints in history classes. Students who weren’t athletes or musicians said they had no way to connect to their school community.

“We learned a lot, and that helped us prioritize,” said Daisy Rodriguez, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

A first response was holding high school activity fairs, bringing information to students about clubs they could join rather than having them seek it out on their own. More informally, administrators sat with kids in the cafeteria to talk to them about their interests and potential clubs to add to the school’s roster.

Working with department coordinators, the district conducted curriculum audits, looking at the texts students were assigned and exploring whether they could swap in more relevant and current selections. And the high school added career and technical education offerings.

High school students also sit on curriculum teams, Rodriguez said. “They give us immediate feedback on programs and resources that we’re thinking about and if it makes sense to them,” she said.

At the district’s middle schools, Arlington last year established regular advisory periods, with groups of students assigned to the same adviser all three years so they can form stronger connections and don’t have to hit reset every fall. The time is set aside for regular check-ins and social-emotional learning.

We know that when kids feel like they belong in school, they have better attendance, they have better academic achievement, and just greater social-emotional support.

“Students have reported that they do feel that it’s helpful for them because they actually have a space that they can go to and talk about things that they can’t talk about necessarily in other settings,” Rodriguez said.

The district wants older students to lead more of these sessions in coming years, and it would ultimately like to bring advisory periods to the high school.

At the elementary level, students now have daily morning meetings, a time set aside for social-emotional learning and work on communication skills.

So far, the district has seen some positive results—a reduction in chronic absenteeism that Rodriguez attributes at least in part to the district’s work on connectedness.

“We know that when kids feel like they belong in school, they have better attendance, they have better academic achievement, and just greater social-emotional support,” she said.

A New Mexico high school makes relationships part of its early-warning system

Manzano High School, Albuquerque, N.M.

Manzano High School in Albuquerque, N.M., relies on a dedicated advisory time so students build strong connections with staff who can then spot warning signs that a student might be falling behind.

The 30-minute advisory period that happens every Monday isn’t new to the 1,300-student high school. What’s new about it is that, over the past couple of years, advisers have been expected to check in with their advisees and, using the school’s student-information system, review their grades, attendance, and behavior over the prior week.

If a student is struggling, the adviser fills out a referral form and sends it to one of the school’s five student-success teams, each of which includes an academic counselor. That team starts working with the student to identify a root cause of their challenges and potential solutions.

The advisory period’s conversion to a key component of Manzano’s early warning, or student success, system has involved training for staff members on becoming deliberate listeners and lunch-and-learn sessions on building relationships with students, said Jeanie Stark, the school’s student-success systems coordinator.

“When you’re listening to the students, it’s listening to what they’re saying and maybe even listening to a little bit beyond that to get to that root cause,” she said. “And you may or may not respond right away.”

Image of a data dashboard.

It’s still a work in progress. The school has work to do to ensure all advisers are using the student-success system as the framework for conversations with students, Principal Rachel Vigil said.

Attendance has improved this year, and the number of students requiring student-success-team referrals has been dropping, Stark said. But a more immediate sign that the check-ins and related work have been successful is feedback from students.

Last spring, Manzano staff interviewed students whom advisers had referred to a student-success team. Of all the help they’d received, the regular check-ins were the most meaningful and helpful, the students said.

“Students were saying, ‘We do better when we have people doing those one-on-one check-ins,’” Vigil said. “Just, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ It doesn’t even have to be academic.”

Grades and attendance data are readily available through the student-information system, Stark said, but students “want a lot of communication. They want that teacher to talk to them, and they want them to tell them how they’re doing.”

Now, the Albuquerque district wants to spread Manzano’s work. It’s working with other high schools in the city to craft their own student-success systems, and some of Albuquerque’s middle schools are figuring out what a student-success system looks like for younger students, said Sheri Jett, Albuquerque’s associate superintendent for school climate and supports, a new position.

Working with the student-survey company Panorama, Albuquerque has also begun conducting regular student surveys on students’ skills, habits, and mindset. Manzano staff hope these surveys will provide them with even more student feedback they can use to tailor their student-success system.

In Washington state, a district uses connections to battle chronic absenteeism

Tacoma Public Schools, Washington state

The Tacoma, Wash., school district’s work over the past two years to cut chronic absenteeism has revolved around strategies to strengthen students’ bonds to peers and trusted adults while using student and family feedback as a guide.

“We believe the relationship is the intervention,” said Laura Allen, the director of the 28,000-student district’s whole-child department , the hub for much of the school system’s student-wellness work.

With a grant from Washington’s state education agency, Tacoma two years ago hired a district attendance and engagement counselor to lead work on boosting attendance. As part of that work, the district surveyed students and families to find out why kids attend school and why they miss it.

“The No. 1 reason why kids said they come to school was to see their friends,” Allen said. “It doesn’t mean that they don’t want to do well academically, but that friendship connection was first and foremost.”

With that knowledge in hand, schools worked on creating new clubs that could provide more students opportunities to spend time with friends and foster a sense of belonging.

District data showed that Indigenous and LGBTQ+ students were more likely to attend school irregularly, so staff helped create new affinity groups aimed at giving students from those populations a place to “feel seen and heard,” said Jimmy Gere, the attendance and engagement counselor.

Some schools formed attendance clubs to build connections with students at risk of being chronically absent and work through problems that could keep them from coming to school.

Newly formed building attendance teams—sometimes existing teams that expanded their focus to include attendance—took inventories of their schools’ existing interventions for at-risk students, held listening sessions with students and staff, and took school-specific steps to address attendance challenges.

Baker Middle School sixth graders participate in a group activity during an Embodied Leadership session on April 9, 2024, in Tacoma, Wash.

Tacoma also began working with two community organizations that provide mentors who regularly meet with students during school hours, checking in with them and working with them on social-emotional skills.

These experiences show students that “good things happen at school, whether it’s with your teachers or staff that are there every day or community partners that are set up to deliver their services within the school,” Gere said.

And one new initiative provides younger students with a safe way to get to school while giving older students a paid internship and course credit.

The Walking School Bus is an organized group of students who walk to school together each day, led by a high school student route leader or Tacoma educator, stopping at established points to pick up more students. It was a response to feedback from parents who said their kids didn’t have a safe way to get to school, presenting a barrier to attendance.

Younger students build relationships with high school students, and high school students gain a service-learning opportunity—one of the CDC’s identified strategies for building school connectedness.

“There’s an element of mentorship because elementary kids love high school kids,” Gere said.

Tacoma has seen attendance inch up since it started these initiatives. Average daily attendance has been 88.3 percent so far this year, up from 85.6 percent in 2021-22, before these initiatives began, district data show. But it’s still early, and future funding for some of the work is uncertain as the state attendance grant comes to a close alongside other federal COVID-relief money.

Still, Tacoma will be able to carry on much of the work based on building connections, Allen said. For students, she said, “it is all about making sure that they know that they’re seen and that they’re loved.”

VIDEO: How Schools Can Harness the Power of Relationships

employee engagement case study for students

Students raise their hands during an assembly at Yates Magnet Elementary School in Schenectady, N.Y., on March 28, 2024.

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Case Study: Creating Value through Employee Empowerment

HEC Professor and Holder of the Webhelp Chair ‘Human Capital & Performance’ Charles-Henri Besseyre des Horts, has written a case study on the Indian IT Company ‘HCL Technologies’ whose former CEO, Vineet Nayar, has developed the ‘Employees First, Customers Second’(EFCS) philosophy. The case study highlights HCL’s journey from EFCS to ‘ideapreneurship’ and mentions employee culture at HCL as a key catalyst for its healthy performance.

HEC Prof. Charles-Henri Besseyre des Horts

"HCL Technologies since the Global 2008-2009 Crisis: Creating Value through Employee Empowerment" is HEC Professor Charles-Henri Besseyre des Horts’ most emblematic case study so far in his research for the ‘Human Capital and Performance Chair’. In this study, the professor shows how "management's focus on employee culture as a competitive differentiator has led to a remarkable turnaround in HCL’s market share and mind share, over a period starting from 2005 till date."

HCL’s ‘transformation journey’ began in 2005 with the definition and implementation of the ‘Employees First, Customers Second’ (EFCS) model, a new radical management philosophy driven by the charismatic Vineet Nayar. Charles-Henri Besseyre des Horts describes the key tenets of the ‘Employees First’ philosophy - which became a core value for HCL - and also explains how EFCS’ approach has led to the implementation of a number of systems and processes.

This concept of EFCS in turn led to the notion of ‘ideapreneurship’: "the culture of grass-roots, business-driven, customer-focused innovation, in which each employee has the license to ideate. It encourages employees to become idea-led entrepreneurs, who think of new ideas and also drive them to fruition". Charles-Henri Besseyre des Horts explained that: "It was during the tough times of 2008-2009 when HCL was able to outperform its peers in the IT industry, led by the right kind of employee empowerment.’ A noticeable pattern started to emerge in employee behavior, right at the grassroots level. This was being driven by HCL’s ‘Employees First’ values, which collectively empower and encourage individual employees to come up with innovative solutions to operational and customer challenges. Today, HCL employees are ‘ideapreneurs’ working in an entrepreneurial environment.

Charles-Henri Besseyre des Horts concluded that "Vineet’s ground-breaking vision seeded the idea that value creation does not occur in the managerial ranks but mostly through employees who are in daily contact with the customers." Vineet Nayar stepped down from his position on January 17th 2013, and many challenges await his successor, Anant Gupta, who will have "to keep the momentum of the ‘ideapreneurship’ model in order to deal with some critical issues such as the general slowdown of business opportunities, the global economic crisis, and growing competition in India and abroad."

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employee engagement case study for students

Charles-Henri Besseyre des Horts' research interests focus on the relationships between human resources management and business strategy, the...

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Google Boosts its Employees’ Engagement

Case Study: How Google Boosts its Employees’ Engagement

You might have heard about this mantra: ‘happy employees produce better results.’ this is the mindset of google to keep its employees productive and satisfied. this article explains more..

Let’s say you’re a company providing software development services . If your developer’s team isn’t enthusiastic about their projects every day, you’re not going to achieve excellence. This is productivity’s power. But remember productivity is dependent on the company’s culture.

Why is everyone talking about Google’s culture or work environment? We know that Google is one of the most influential and powerful companies around the globe. The company follows a pretty well unique culture instead of corporate culture.

It has something that every big organisation needs to follow to level up their employees’ engagement or morale. The culture of any company is vital to its success and Google is perfectly right on the track.

It has one sole purpose:  Keep the employees happy and keep up the productivity.

Google has been at number ONE place from the past six years and featured on  Fortune’s  annual list of  ‘Best Companies to Work For.’  And this is not it. Google has also been named as the tech company with the best culture. (Reported by Forbes) Furthermore, Google has a 4.4 rating on  Glassdoor  based on 6000+ employees reviews.   

Google’s morale

This is what the employees of Google answered the questions asked about their work culture.

  • Acknowledged for the efforts?

Yes: 61 % Employees

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No: 39% Employees

  • Job Security?

Very Secure: 34 % Employees

Neutral: 19% Employees

Insecure: 8% Employees

Very insecure: 5% Employees

  • Work Environment?

Positive: 85% Employees

Negative: 15% Employees

  • Excited about going to work daily?

Yes: 80% Employees

No: 20% Employees

So, without further ado, let’s move towards the ways Google uses to boost its employees’ engagement .

“There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week. But if you love what you do, it (mostly) doesn’t feel like work.”- Elon Musk.

How Google Keeps Its Employees Productive And Engaged?

Exclusive perks.

Today, employees want a job in a company that makes them love what they do. Never for financial benefit or intellectual recognition. Yet instead of chance to add to the common good.

The major differentiator is to make a real difference.

Google offers different perks to its employees to show them that they are not only investing in their overall health but their future as well.

  • Chef-prepared free organic food (breakfast, lunch, and dinner);
  • Free dental and health checkup;
  • Free and unlimited dry cleaning;
  • Subsidised massages;
  • Several foosball, ping pong, video games stations;
  • On-site physicians;
  • Gyms/swimming pools memberships;
  • Free haircuts from professional hairdressers;
  • In-house nap pods;
  • Death benefits to deceased employees’ families, and;
  • Hybrid car subsidies.

Flexibility

Google has been one of the very first companies that had a vision of understanding the employees’ needs. It lets its workers have a flexible schedule so that they can work on their terms and enhance creativity and productivity. They have given their employees complete freedom to work in a way that is most suitable to them.

Knowing the employees well

Google had gone through a series of laboratory tests to figure out the productivity of their employees. They had four different experiments that included 700 participants. All the employees were treated to free drinks, fruits, and chocolates or shown a comedy movie clip.

They also enquired some of the participants about the family tragedies as a part of their assessment. After this, they found that happiness is the reason for 12% more productivity.

Google promotes an innovative and diverse organisational culture that has been a part of its employee’s life. A positive creative atmosphere and a safe working space offered by Google to its workers keep them comfortable and happy at work. The concept that being a part of Google is about being smart and wise encourages the employees to think openly and keeps them productive.

Nowadays, there are different creative coworking spaces which are known to be a perfect alternate to a workplace. These spaces are believed to deliver various advantages such as strong networking and increased engagement.

Google’s founders were researchers who had a belief in innovation and freedom of thinking. This is one of the main factors that influenced the style of Google’s leadership.

According to Brassfield, 2013, a positive leadership style stimulates inspiring and motivating employees to develop innovative ideas and inventions.

Keeping people inspired

Future Workplace, in 2017, demonstrated in a study that one of the biggest threats to employees’ engagement is employee burnout. It has also been found out that many proficient workers are often overburdened with the tasks that lead to halted innovation, incomplete work, etc.

What does Google do about keeping its employees productive, inspired, or motivated? Google’s strategy for this is  20% time . Every employee devours up to 20% of his time at work each week on ventures that inspire him.

This concept inspires employees as it allows them to concentrate on things they love or are passionate about. It can prevent burnout, decrease turnover, increase engagement.

Google tablet

Image: Pexels

Career development

Google provides an extensive professional growth program that is successful and creative and guarantees long-term performance for all the employees. The career development program of Google is one that ensures incentives are provided to employees to meet their professional and personal progression.

Google has adopted a unique way to promote the professional development of all its employees. CareerGuru  is a career coaching that provides all the details to the employees by Google’s leaders about working at a specific role in the company.

Creativity Encouragement

The companies that believe in fostering a culture of creativity have happy, satisfied, and motivated employees. Google leads the way in promoting creativity in their employees.

They are free to express their ideas as a solution to any problem. Moreover, employees are encouraged to work wherever they are comfortable in the workplace. Google has a set up where rather than just considering an applicant’s professional background, they look to recruit people who are normally inquisitive and fond of learning.

Trusting Employees

Google believes in trusting their workers because trusted employees feel more valuable. It can also boost the sense of job satisfaction and can also decrease the rate of staff turnover.

In a survey by PwC, reliable employees are 76% more engaged in their work than those in a low trusting environment. Trusted employees are happier and they have the urge to go the extra miles.

Culture based on qualitative data

Google has always been searching out different ways to optimise the performance of its employees while ensuring their happiness and satisfaction. Everything done at Google is based on real data. They use the qualitative and quantitative facts to set up processes and every single rule that is streamlined.

Google has additionally performed researches to discover how much paid time off new mothers would need and ways of building an improvised and better culture.

Fun workplace

Have you ever been allowed to design your own workstation at your company?

Probably not. But Google does it. It lets the employees design their desks or workstations.

When you see the pictures of the workplace, it seems an interesting adult play and work area and not a dull and lifeless space.

Google has always tried to push the boundaries of its workspace.

Collaboration of coworkers

At Google, the employees are urged to collaborate. They have a program called ‘Googler to Googler’ to keep them productive and promote skills such as management, public speaking, orientation, or extracurricular activities.

It is crucial to build a sense of community to create a positive culture. The company has arranged several micro kitchens around the whole workspace where coworkers can have a little chit-chat session. No one has to spend time on deciding where to eat because Google has various break-out spaces for lunch.

Google’s way of listening

Google employees have developed great software and projects that include Gmail, AdSense, Google News, etc. and all these big projects were originated because of its staff productivity approach. Google has a way of collecting employees’ feedback and listening to their suggestions that is  gDNA.

  • The employees utilise a device ‘Google Moderator’ , the result of 20% time strategy, to inquire about something and vote on inquiries of others;
  • The company holds a meeting, every Friday, where the managers react to the most famous inquiries of the week;
  • Leaders or managers utilise a charting instrument called Google-O-Meter to measure the prominence of various worker bits of advice;
  • Leaders likewise plan “Fixits” to comprehend huge, critical issues; and,
  • Fixits are 24-hour runs where team members give their full focus around discovering solutions for explicit issues.

So, can Google teach us anything?

If you are planning to adopt these learnings at your organisation just like Google keeps its employees productive, it’s essential to test the progressions first and measure the results.

It’s a great deal of work, however, the engagement advantages will make the difficult function admirably justified.

About the Author

Usman Akram is a digital marketer and SEO specialist who’s passionate about experimenting and discovering new SEO tactics and strategies to dominate search rankings while bringing an unmatched user-experience. As of now Usman is serving Buzz Interactive , a leading digital marketing agency as the head of SEO.

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