Improve Leadership and Culture and improve employee engagement

25 August 2025|blog culture leadership

When looking to increase employee engagement, I would be looking at organisational culture and leadership first, as I believe these two things will have the greatest impact to the advantage or detriment of employee engagement. Once the organisational culture and leadership within the organisation are effective, you can reassess, and the rest will probably take care of itself.

If employee engagement is about employees being advocates for the organisation going the extra mile, having positive attitudes and behaviours, being committed, working with passion, feeling a profound connection to the organisation and aligned to organisational values. Then how else can you do it without focusing on organisational culture and leadership?

So, if we look at organisational culture, we know that a positive organisational culture assists with employees understanding how to behave and what to base decisions on, collaborate and putting extra effort in and employees are happy to be at work. The organisational culture allows them to identify with the organisation and are therefore more likely to be engaged, motivated and productive. A positive culture naturally fosters employee engagement. However, also engaged employees contribute to a positive culture and therefore a cycle for success.

Now if we look at leadership. Effective leadership is crucial for employee engagement. When a leader is; a positive role model in beliefs, communication and values; have a vision for the future inspire others to go on the journey with them; looks for change and learns from mistakes; empowering others and supporting them; and genuinely recognise and encourage the team – this can only lead to increased employee engagement because the team then feel valued, motivated and engaged. This is backed up in a Forbes article it reported that 76% of employee who have empathetic manager are very engaged at work, when leaders make genuine employee recognition a priority, employees are 40% more engaged, when employees feel that their work has a purpose they are more engaged and the highest driver of engagement is whether employees feel their leaders genuinely care about them.

Signs of employee engagement or the level of, can be seen in attitude, worth ethic, meeting expectations, communication, collaboration, innovation, teamwork. Effective Leadership and Positive Culture can greatly impact these areas amongst other things. Whilst employee engagement is a two-way street and therefore an organisation can not control how much an employee decides they will be engaged, an organisation can impact it by making sure their leadership and culture gives the employee the best opportunity to provide high levels of engagement.

With a positive culture and effective leadership, communication, feedback, recognition, rewards, flexibility and collaboration will all improve as a result. Hence why I believe starting with working on your culture and leadership within the organisation and employee engagement will improve. And employee engagement we know increases productivity, loyalty and profitability.

At HR Business Direction we can help with moving employees from just doing their jobs to helping move the business forward. We work with you with energy, care, authenticity and a holistic approach. Contact us here.

Leisa Messer BBus(HRM); GradDipIR; FCPHR
Managing Director | HR Strategist
leisa.messer@hrbd.com.au
07 3890 2066
hrbd.com.au