Workforce Engagement: What It is & How to Measure & Best Software

Workforce engagement has a significant impact on almost every aspect of your business, from profitability and employee turnover to overall customer experience. Beyond the surface meaning, it’s rooted in the sense of connection employees feel to their work, roles, teams, and the company’s strategic vision. It’s about fostering a proactive “ownership” mindset where employees spare no effort to drive business success.

This article explores the definition, key drivers, and importance of workforce engagement in depth. Besides, it also discusses the difference between workforce engagement management (WEM) and workforce management (WFM) and shares the best workforce engagement management software.

What is Workforce Engagement

Workforce engagement is a practical degree that embodies the level of enthusiasm, commitment, and dedication employees have towards their organization’s goals. It can be used to measure how connected employees feel towards their roles, mission, colleagues, and the company’s culture.

A highly engaged workforce is crucial for any organization as it positively affects employee satisfaction, retention, productivity, turnover, and overall business success. Engaged employees have a strong sense of responsibility, so they are more likely to take ownership of their work and actively contribute to their company's goals.

Here are three typical levels of workforce engagement:

• Highly engaged workforce: This level of workforce means that employees are highly proactive, motivated, and emotionally connected to their work, striving to help the organization achieve its strategic goals.
• Moderately engaged workforce: Most employees are generally satisfied with their roles but lack genuine enthusiasm or passion for their work. As a result, they tend to do the minimum required to keep their positions.
• Disengaged workforce: Employees in this category are emotionally disconnected from their organization. They lack intrinsic drive, consistently deliver low productivity, and face a higher risk of voluntary attrition.

Why Workforce Engagement Strategy Matters

A formal workforce engagement strategy is critical to businesses’ survival and growth as it directly drives employees’ productivity and long-term profitability. According to the recent Gallup study, “business units with top-quartile employee engagement create 23% higher profitability than those in the bottom quartile.

• Enhance Productivity and Performance: Engaged employees deliver stronger performance than their disengaged peers as they make fewer mistakes and take ownership of outcomes. The strategy ensures all employees have clear goals, tools, and feedback to succeed.
• Reduce Employee Attrition: Low engagement is one of the strongest reasons for employee turnover. Workforce engagement management strategy addresses the root cause behind this attrition, reducing recruitment costs while protecting institutional knowledge.
• Better Customer Experience: An engaged workforce is closely related to customer satisfaction, especially for service-driven departments like customer service. This is because engaged agents provide more efficient, empathetic service, leading to higher customer loyalty.

Key Drivers of Workforce Engagement

Workforce engagement can be affected by multiple drivers. These drives can be grouped into hard (structural or environmental) and soft (relational or psychological) conditions. For that:

Hard Conditions

1. Work Environment: A safe and comfortable environment makes employees focus on doing their best work. It usually includes good air quality, ergonomic desks, the right safety equipment, etc.

2. Technology and Tools: Many supportive technologies and tools, like office software, communication tools, HR self-service, and AI assistants, are necessary to ensure basic operations and high working efficiency.

3. Internal Communication Channels: Clear communication channels keep employees informed about company updates, help them grasp the impact of decisions on their teams, and let them understand the definition of success. They foster strong alignment with the organization’s goals.

Soft Conditions

1. Leadership: If leaders are visible, inspiring, and genuine, employees tend to have a strong sense of pride in their teams. So, employees gain a clear understanding of the company’s direction and contribute to its success.

2. Fairness: It’s another important driver for workforce engagement. To make employees feel treated equitably, it’s necessary to offer fair growth opportunities, workload, pay, recognition, and access to workplace tools.

3. Company Culture: An inclusive company culture lets every employee feel respected, seen, and empowered to do their best. It helps foster a deep sense of the company.

Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) vs. Workforce Management (WFM)

What is Workforce Engagement Management (WEM)

Workforce engagement management (WEM) is a strategic framework that includes a set of tools designed to optimize the employee experience, so it focuses on boosting employee satisfaction, performance, and retention. The core functions include quality management, gamification, and performance coaching. It can integrate with Workforce Optimization (WFO), Quality Management, and Performance Management.

What is Workforce Management (WFM)

Workforce Management (WFM) is an operational management approach to the "right person, right place, right time." Its core functions involve forecasting needs, creating schedules, tracking time, managing leave, and adhering to labor laws. The main goal is to optimize human resources at the lowest cost. So, it often uses specialized software to automate these functions and improve efficiency.

How to Measure Workforce Engagement Effectively

Measuring workforce engagement is critical for identifying gaps, tracking improvement, and aligning strategies with organizational goals. Here are 3 simple methods to help you measure that effectively:

1. Gather Employee Engagement Surveys and Feedback

An engagement survey should cover key dimensions, such as job satisfaction, organizational culture, leadership support, career development, growth opportunities, etc. To collect valuable feedback, you can set up a survey that includes the following common questions:

• On a scale of 1-5, how valued do you feel for your contributions?
• Do you see a clear career growth path in this company?
• Do you have the tools necessary to perform your job effectively?
• Is your manager responsive to your concerns?
• What one change would most improve your engagement?

2. Monitor Agent Performance and Productivity Metrics

Agent performance and productivity metrics also reflect workforce engagement levels. Disengaged employees often show a "performance slide" long before they quit. Here, focus on analyzing the four key KPIs related to workforce engagement:

AHT (Average Handle Time): Engaged agents typically spend less time solving problems. Shorter AHT often signals high engagement: agents are committed to improving service efficiency and aligning with their mission.

FCR (First Contact Resolution): High FCR usually indicates that agents take ownership to resolve customer issues on the first try. It can be used to measure their engagement.

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction): Workforce engagement level is also strongly correlated with CSAT scores as engaged agents deliver more genuine service, which directly enhances customer satisfaction.

QA Scores: High quality assurance scores mean that agents adhere to high-quality standards consistently. To some extent, it reflects their greater attention to detail and organizational commitment.

3. Analyze Employee Retention and Attrition

Employee attrition has a direct relationship with engagement. Gallup research shows that disengaged or actively disengaged employees are far more likely to seek a new job or explore new opportunities than engaged employees.

Tracking department-level employee attrition alongside engagement surveys helps you uncover critical factors impacting engagement. For instance, a department with 30% attrition and low "leadership support" scores may indicate a targeted engagement issue.

Strategies to Improve Workforce Engagement

Improving workforce engagement requires consistent effort, not one-time initiatives. The following key strategies optimize engagement at both the employee and organizational levels.

1. Value Employee Work-Life Balance

We can’t have all work and no life! A healthy work-life balance is crucial for maintaining employee engagement. It’s advisable to encourage employees to prioritize personal life by offering flexible schedules, remote work options, and paid time off. These initiatives demonstrate that the company values employee well-being and understands the importance of work-life harmony.

2. Empower Managers with Modern WEM Tools

Managers also play a critical role in daily workforce engagement. Modern workforce engagement management tools can provide them with real-time performance data, coaching forecasting, effective communication channels, and employee feedback—all of which enable meaningful conversations. Beyond that, regular one-on-one coaching sessions help employees feel supported and valued.

3. Encourage Employee Participation and Empowerment

Engaged employees are those who feel valued and committed to their work. To encourage and empower these employees, it’s crucial to provide opportunities for them to contribute their ideas, opinions, and suggestions. More importantly, recognize and reward their achievements, and offer ongoing training and development opportunities to support their personal and professional growth.

Best Workforce Engagement Management Software

1.NiCE CXone

What it is: NiCE CXone provides AI-driven workforce engagement management software, primarily designed for large-scale contact centers and enterprises. The platform integrates quality management, analytics, performance tracking, and other robust tools, giving a 360-degree view of your workforce engagement.

Why It’s Great: Its "Enlighten AI" engine analyzes every interaction to detect employee sentiment and stress levels automatically, allowing managers to intervene before attrition occurs.

Standout Features:

• Integrated WEM tools
• AI-powered omnichannel interaction
• Enlighten AI for employee feedback
• Real-time coaching assistance

2. Verint

What it is: Verint’s workforce engagement management solution is a comprehensive suite designed to optimize both employee experience and operational performance. It breaks down departmental silos by managing work and engagement across back-office, branch, and contact center operations.

Why It’s Great: It stands out for its excellent flexibility and operational visibility, particularly suitable for companies needing to balance labor costs and employee work-life harmony.

Standout Features:

• Automated quality management
• AI employee scheduling and forecasting
• Performance management dashboards
• Mobile access and schedule autonomy

3. Lattice

What it is: Lattice is a well-known HR engagement suite that helps organizations measure, improve, and sustain workforce engagement across the employee lifecycle. Unlike the above two platforms, Lattice is designed for HR teams and managers to run performance reviews, track OKPs, and foster a culture of continuous praise.

Why It’s Great: It’s widely used by HR teams to convert engagement insights into action. Its strength lies in combining engagement surveys, continuous feedback mechanisms, and performance reviews.

Standout features:

• Customizable engagement surveys
• Continuous feedback and sentiment analytics
• Integrated performance reviews and goal tracking
• Engagement trends analysis

How Solvea is Redefining Customer Experience

Solvea is a leading AI-powered customer experience (CX) tool that offers instant 24/7 support for customers in multiple languages. With human-like accuracy, the agent can understand what customers really need and improve their satisfaction. Since its release, lots of companies, such as Z Gallerie, VirgoCX, and Issyzone, have integrated it into their workflows, pushing response rates up to 95% and boosting customer satisfaction by 30%.

FAQ

1. What are the 5 R's of engagement?

The 5 R's of engagement refer to Responsibility, Respect, Relationships, Recognition, and Rewards. Together, they represent the foundational elements that influence how employees perceive their value, motivation, and connection to work.

2. What is compliant workforce engagement?

Compliant workforce engagement is the practice of increasing employee involvement while adhering to labor laws, data privacy (like GDPR), and union regulations. It includes transparent policies, legal compensation practices, protected employee feedback channels, and compliance with anti-discrimination laws in engagement programs.

3. What is remote workforce engagement?

Remote workforce engagement focuses on fostering motivation and connection for distributed teams. It involves virtual communication tools, remote recognition programs, flexible work policies, and ensuring remote employees have equal access to growth opportunities and organizational support.

4. Can workforce engagement tools support remote teams?

Yes, most workforce engagement tools support remote teams. Key features like real-time analytics, virtual coaching, and learning platforms help break down geographical limitations and maintain engagement in remote or hybrid environments.