In today’s competitive market, understanding how to improve employee loyalty and engagement is crucial for business success. This article features insights from a Founders, CEOs, and a other leaders, offering real-world advice to enhance workforce commitment. The discussion opens with the importance of creating genuine growth opportunities and concludes with the value of soliciting feedback and acting on it. Get ready to explore sixteen expert insights that can transform your company’s approach to employee satisfaction.

  • Create Genuine Growth Opportunities
  • Prioritize Trust and Transparent Communication
  • Build a Culture of Authentic Recognition
  • Foster Psychological Safety and Collaborative Success
  • Foster Human Agency and Responsibility
  • Offer Flexible Work and Mental Health Support
  • Earn Loyalty Through Trust and Transparency
  • Personalize Benefits to Increase Loyalty
  • Develop Leadership at Every Level
  • Give Employees a Stake in Success
  • Cultivate Deep Connections with Employees
  • Align Roles with Employee Passions
  • Act as True Partners in Employees’ Lives
  • Train Managers for Effective Leadership
  • Build an Inclusive and Safe Workplace
  • Solicit Feedback and Act on It

Create Genuine Growth Opportunities

I’ve found that authentic employee loyalty stems from creating genuine growth opportunities rather than implementing superficial engagement programs. Our breakthrough came through establishing our Captain Development Program, which creates clear advancement pathways where entry-level staff can progress from $25 to $40 per hour in management positions based on demonstrated performance.

Drawing from my mortgage lending background, I recognized that like financial investments, employee loyalty compounds when backed by tangible value. We’ve built a merit-based system that rewards excellence while providing comprehensive training and development support. This approach has proven remarkably effective, maintaining a 99.6% staff retention rate across over 300 shifts while consistently serving major clients like Microsoft and Netflix.

The key focus should be on creating transparent career progression paths supported by continuous skill development opportunities. Rather than occasional team-building events or surface-level perks, invest in systematic professional development that directly ties performance to advancement. This strategy has enabled us to achieve consistent million-dollar revenue years while building a loyal, highly skilled workforce.

Our experience proves that true employee loyalty emerges from a culture of genuine opportunity rather than forced engagement initiatives. By focusing on tangible career growth and merit-based advancement, companies can build sustainable loyalty that drives both employee satisfaction and business success.

Daniel MeursingDaniel Meursing
Founder/CEO/CFO, Premier Staff

Prioritize Trust and Transparent Communication

One way we’ve improved employee loyalty and engagement is by prioritizing trust and transparent communication. We realized that without trust, even the best perks fall flat.

To build this trust, we started monthly “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) sessions with leadership. Employees get a safe, open forum to ask questions about any company direction, growth opportunities, or concerns. This approach helps them understand the “why” behind decisions and feel genuinely heard.

Another effective strategy is employee-led one-on-ones with their managers. The employee sets the agenda for these meetings, not the manager. This way, employees know their challenges, goals, and ideas are the focus. It shifts the conversation toward their needs, not just business targets.

These two simple changes have strengthened employee trust, improved engagement, and made people feel more connected to our mission. When employees feel their voices matter, loyalty grows naturally.

Vikrant BhalodiaVikrant Bhalodia
Head of Marketing & People Ops, WeblineIndia

Build a Culture of Authentic Recognition

The most important thing I’ve focused on is creating a culture of authentic recognition and support. Acknowledging employees for their contributions, whether big or small, builds a sense of belonging and makes them feel valued. It’s not just about a pat on the back—it’s about recognizing their hard work, skills, and ideas in ways that go beyond a formal review.

One approach that’s worked well is making personal connections with each team member. Understanding their individual goals, challenges, and personal milestones shows that I care about them as people, not just employees. Whether it’s celebrating personal achievements, offering professional development opportunities, or just listening to their feedback, these actions build trust and make employees feel invested in the company’s success.

The key to this strategy is consistency—employee engagement isn’t just a one-off initiative, it’s a continuous practice. When employees know they’re heard, supported, and appreciated on a regular basis, they’re more likely to stay loyal, remain motivated, and give their best. This approach has helped me build a dedicated, passionate team, which I recommend to any business looking to foster a positive work environment and retain top talent.

Kristin MarquetKristin Marquet
Founder & Creative Director, Marquet Media

Foster Psychological Safety and Collaborative Success

The most important thing to focus on when improving employee loyalty and engagement is creating an environment of psychological safety and aligned, collaborative success. This goes beyond perks or policies—it requires leaders to fundamentally change how they think, act, and lead.

To build loyalty, employees must feel safe enough to challenge ideas, share perspectives, and take ownership of their actions without fear of retribution or dismissal. Equally important, they need to feel safe navigating moments of discomfort—whether seeking alignment, understanding another’s point of view, or processing feedback constructively—without falling into adversarial or victim roles. Psychological safety isn’t about shielding individuals from discomfort; it’s about fostering trust, empathy, and mutual accountability and respect.

Start by focusing on understanding and empowering individuals rather than addressing groups or symptoms. Help leaders develop the internal capacity to respond rather than react. When leaders model this empowerment, they inspire teams to follow suit, creating workplaces that thrive through trust, engagement, and innovation.

Practical advice:

  • Teach leaders to look inward first. Equip them with tools like my RESPOND framework to transform reactive behaviors into thoughtful, long-term choices.
  • Emphasize respectful and compassionate communication that acknowledges and values every voice.
  • Encourage discomfort as a growth opportunity. When employees see challenges handled constructively, they feel safe to grow and contribute fully.

When companies prioritize these internal shifts, they create a ripple effect. Employees stay not because they have to, but because they want to—because they see the purpose and potential in themselves and the organization. Ultimately, loyalty and engagement start with leaders who prioritize personal transformation and model the change they wish to see.

Cheryle HaysCheryle Hays
Founder & CEO, InPower Strategists

Foster Human Agency and Responsibility

Loyalty and engagement, along with mission alignment are among the biggest concerns I hear from leaders. The most often knee-jerk responses are to clamp down, micromanage, add lots of oversight into all activities to make sure there’s never a moment of disengagement or infidelity. But just like any relationship, those responses create what you’re trying to avoid. The leader interviews in my book repeatedly show that you build your community better by fostering human agency.

Give your people the skills and tools they need, along with the responsibility to create solutions and to ask for help when needed. Since it’s tough to develop that trust muscle, build it a little at a time. This will help prove to you that your staff can complete the work, and signal to the staff that they own their output. Before long, you’ll begin to see greater loyalty and engagement.

Douglas SchererDouglas Scherer
Business Advisor and Author, F.O.R.G.E.D.

Offer Flexible Work and Mental Health Support

To improve employee loyalty and engagement, focus on fostering a culture of recognition and growth.

Key actions to take:

  • Prioritize employee well-being: Offer flexible work options, mental health support, and work-life balance initiatives.
  • Recognize contributions: Implement regular recognition programs to celebrate achievements, both big and small.
  • Provide growth opportunities: Invest in upskilling, mentorship, and clear career advancement paths.
  • Encourage open communication: Create channels for feedback and act on suggestions to show employees their voices matter.

Why it matters:

Engaged employees feel valued, connected, and motivated to contribute. Loyalty stems from knowing their work is meaningful and that they are supported personally and professionally.

Advice:

Focus on creating an environment where employees thrive—recognition, growth, and trust are the foundation of sustained engagement and loyalty.

Patrick ReganPatrick Regan
Senior Recruitment Consultant, Enlighten Supply Pool

Earn Loyalty Through Trust and Transparency

Employee loyalty doesn’t come from perks; it’s earned through trust. Most organizations focus on engagement activities when they should focus on engagement fundamentals. Free lunches and team-building events might create short-term excitement, but they don’t fix the deeper issue: do employees feel valued, supported, and heard? Transparency, meaningful work, and genuine recognition aren’t just nice-to-haves, they’re the foundation of a workplace people don’t want to leave. When you prioritize these fundamentals, loyalty becomes a byproduct—not because employees have to stay, but because they want to. And that is the difference between retention tactics and true employee engagement.

Andrea MillerAndrea Miller
CEO, LeadWell Company

Personalize Benefits to Increase Loyalty

Post-COVID has rendered the traditional one-size-fits-all approach to employee management obsolete. Each employee has unique life circumstances, motivations, and needs.

Key recommendations:

  • Flexible Work Arrangements
  • Implement hybrid work options where feasible
  • Allow flexible hours when possible
  • Focus on outcomes rather than time spent at desk
  • Trust your employees to manage their time professionally

Consider personalized benefit options like:

  • Enhanced healthcare vs. higher salary
  • More vacation vs. higher bonus potential
  • Educational benefits vs. childcare support
  • Wellness programs vs. professional development

Key Implementation Advice:

  • Start small
  • Set clear boundaries
  • Regular review

Flexibility and personalization pay dividends through increased loyalty, productivity, and innovation. This isn’t just about being nice—it’s about building a more resilient, adaptable, and successful organization for the long term.

Bo BeaumontBo Beaumont
Director, Kukoo Creative

Develop Leadership at Every Level

Leadership development is the key to greater employee loyalty and engagement. We must develop our leaders at every level.

Do your managers and directors have the competence and confidence to lead today’s new workforce, or have they been left to fend for themselves as employee expectations have continued to evolve over time? We’ve found in our leadership development courses that even the most seasoned leaders are unable to bridge today’s widening generational gaps in the workplace without a greater understanding of why others show up to work differently.

And there’s an even greater disconnect growing between executives and their frontline employees. It’s like they live in different worlds, having been raised so differently over various decades. One leader in a recent Retention Retreat realized this of his younger team members saying, “I was never their age in their era,” because he was raised in a different time.

Training leaders on generational dynamics, various behavioral styles, emotional intelligence, and why they should take more ownership of employee engagement and retention creates a tremendous ROI for organizations.

Cara SillettoCara Silletto
President & Chief Retention Officer, Magnet Culture

Give Employees a Stake in Success

As an employee-owned roofing company, our approach to engagement centers on giving our team members a real stake in our success. We’ve found that treating our craftsmen as true professionals, not just laborers, makes a significant difference. This means investing in their growth through regular training, seeking their input on project approaches, and ensuring they understand how their work quality directly affects the company’s reputation. When people take pride in their craft and feel valued, loyalty naturally follows.

Tony MirzakhanyanTony Mirzakhanyan
President, Prime American Roofing

Cultivate Deep Connections with Employees

Companies that are interested in improving employee loyalty and engagement should focus on improving their level of connection with each employee. To cultivate meaningful deep connections in the workplace, I recommend using a tool or assessment, like the Kolbe ATM Index. Whatever assessment you select, be sure to fully engage in the process.

Employees and leaders complete the selected assessment to gain a better understanding of each other’s personalities, motivations, and how they go about accomplishing important goals and tasks. As a follow-up to completing an individual assessment, team members should gather together to engage in discussions and activities, exploring best practices in communicating with one another, tackling shared goals, and resolving conflict (based on the results).

Using an assessment, like the Kolbe ATM, is a unique and enlightening way to boost productivity by learning more about how each team member gets things done in their own way. When employees see that the Company, and their direct supervisor, are interested in who they are, what they need to succeed, and are focusing on success through each team member’s unique contribution, loyalty, engagement, and productivity soar. Employees will want to take care of the Company if the Company is truly taking action to take care of them.

Niki RamirezNiki Ramirez
Founder & Principal Consultant, HRAnswers.org

Align Roles with Employee Passions

To improve employee loyalty and engagement, companies should prioritize creating an environment where employees can connect deeply with their work. Marcus Buckingham’s “Love & Work” emphasizes the importance of discovering what individuals naturally love doing and aligning their roles to amplify those strengths. Leaders should actively engage with employees to uncover their unique passions, enabling them to do more of what energizes and fulfills them.

The most important focus should be fostering authentic connections between leaders and employees. Leaders who lead with love prioritize empathy, trust, and genuine curiosity about their team members’ interests and aspirations. By weaving meaningful work into the day-to-day experience and celebrating each employee’s unique contributions, companies create a culture of belonging. When people feel seen and valued for what they love, they’re more likely to stay committed, engaged, and passionate about the company’s mission.

Kevin DawsonKevin Dawson
Culture Consultant, Leaders & Lagers

Act as True Partners in Employees’ Lives

When companies act as true partners in their employees’ whole lives, not just their work lives, engagement naturally follows. Employee loyalty thrives when companies recognise that work is just one part of life. They can empower teams with flexible schedules, financial wellness programs, and opportunities to prioritize health and personal growth.

There is an expected standard of living for people at different points in their career. A corporation needs to be aware and make adjustments if their Senior Associates are not able to keep up on bills, Managers aren’t buying houses, and VPs aren’t taking yearly luxury vacations. It might seem antiquated but the discontentment really sets in when they are advancing in their career but their life is stagnant.

My role as a nomadic coach is to help employees who are sick and tired of their 9-5 transition out of corporate life. Time and time again I hear the same complaints from employees and companies are just dropping the ball on evolving to what a modern day employee wants.

Veronica HansonVeronica Hanson
Motivator for Moms Who Are Stuck, Nomad Veronica LLC

Train Managers for Effective Leadership

According to decades of employee engagement research done by Gallup, engaged employees produce better business outcomes than other employees—across industry, company size, nationality, and in both good and bad economic times. However, their research has shown that only 23% of employees worldwide and 33% in the U.S. fall in the “engaged” category.

There are many components needed for achieving employee engagement and loyalty, but I believe the most essential is leadership training for ALL levels of management. Gallup states that 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by managers, and according to a 2024 survey by LinkedIn, nearly 70% of people said they would quit their jobs over a bad manager.

Managers are responsible for ensuring that employees know what work needs to be done, as well as supporting and advocating for their staff. To understand and succeed in that responsibility, managers should be trained on how to lead and have effective, ongoing coaching conversations with employees. By providing managers with essential training, tools, and feedback, organizations position themselves to achieve true employee loyalty and engagement.

Amanda FischerAmanda Fischer
CEO & Executive Career Coach, AMF Coaching & Consulting

Build an Inclusive and Safe Workplace

If companies want to improve employee loyalty and engagement, they need to stop treating employee engagement as a one-time initiative and start viewing it as an ongoing commitment to their people. The most important thing to focus on is building an inclusive and psychologically safe workplace because without that foundation, every other effort will fall flat. Inclusion and psychological safety are necessary to foster trust, which is the cornerstone of engagement and loyalty.

To get there, leaders need to actively listen to their employees, not just through annual surveys but through regular, meaningful conversations. Ask them what they need, what’s holding them back, what would make their experience better, and then take action. What it boils down to is loyalty and engagement happen when employees feel seen, heard, and valued. Focus on creating that, and everything else will fall into place.

Tamica SearsTamica Sears
HR Consultant, Sears Coaching

Solicit Feedback and Act on It

Regularly solicit feedback and, more importantly, act on it—employees need to see that their input leads to tangible changes. Use tools like anonymous surveys or one-on-one check-ins to get honest insights into how they feel about their roles and the workplace. Listening is step one, but responsiveness is what truly strengthens trust.

Never underestimate the power of recognition—celebrate achievements, big and small, both privately and publicly. Acknowledging effort and success makes people feel seen and valued, which is foundational for long-term engagement. People stay where they feel appreciated—it’s as simple as that.

Alari AhoAlari Aho
CEO and Founder, Toggl Inc