You may have noticed that many leaders are starting to ask some deep questions about their people. Like these two, for instance:
- How do we continue to drive productivity on top of AI gains?
- What actually keeps employees connected, committed and contributing at their best—day after day?
To get the answers, we first need to be clear on one thing:
What is Employee Engagement, Really?
At its core, employee engagement is the emotional commitment a Team Member has to their organization and its goals. It’s not just about job satisfaction—it’s about showing up with passion, feeling proud of the work, and caring about the bigger picture.
Engaged employees don’t just do their jobs—they elevate them. They solve problems, lift others up, and stay longer.
But here’s the challenge: traditional engagement tactics often treat symptoms, not root causes.
Why Traditional Activities Fall Short
Birthday cakes, yoga classes, and Slack shoutouts are nice—but they rarely lead to lasting engagement. Why? Because they’re surface-level. They make people feel seen, but not always significant.
To truly engage your team, it turns out (perhaps not surprisingly) that you need to connect their work to something bigger. You need to make it connected to that ‘something bigger’ and you need to make it meaningful.
The Overlooked Engagement Driver: Impact
One of the most overlooked but powerful employee engagement ideas is helping your team feel they’re making a positive impact — something way beyond their job description.
That’s where a workplace giving program can be transformative.
Instead of one-off charity drives or occasional volunteer days, what if creating impact became part of how your business operates? What if every milestone—every sale, every project, or indeed every great meeting — automatically triggered a small act of global good?
That’s not just philanthropy or just an act of kindness. That’s culture-building.
