8 Common Employee Engagement Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)
Employee engagement initiatives fail far more often than they succeed. Not spectacularly - most don't implode in ways that make headlines or trigger crises. They simply fade into irrelevance, joining the long list of corporate programmes that consumed resources, generated initial enthusiasm, then quietly disappeared without delivering promised results.
The frustrating part? Many failures follow predictable patterns. Organisations repeat the same mistakes their predecessors made, ignoring warning signs that become obvious in hindsight. They launch engagement surveys without plans for acting on results. They implement recognition programmes nobody uses. They communicate strategy changes that employees don't understand or believe.
These aren't failures of effort or intent. Most organisations genuinely want to improve engagement. They fail because they make fundamental mistakes about how engagement actually works, what drives it, and how to create sustainable change rather than temporary enthusiasm.
Here are eight mistakes that consistently undermine engagement efforts - and more importantly, how to fix them.
1. Treating Engagement as an HR Initiative Rather Than Business Priority
The Mistake
Many organisations position engagement as HR's responsibility - something the people team manages whilst everyone else focuses on "real work." Leadership mentions it in town halls, managers attend training sessions, but engagement remains fundamentally siloed within HR rather than embedded across business operations.
Why This Fails
Engagement isn't an HR programme. It's a business outcome influenced by every interaction employees have with their work, managers, and organisation. When only HR owns engagement, the levers that actually drive it - leadership behaviour, manager capability, work design, recognition, development opportunities - remain outside the change effort.
The Fix
Position engagement as a business priority with clear ownership at executive level. Establish that engagement drives business outcomes leadership cares about: productivity, innovation, retention, customer satisfaction. Make engagement performance part of leadership and manager objectives, measured and discussed alongside financial and operational metrics.
When engagement becomes something the business owns rather than HR manages, you unlock resources and attention necessary for genuine impact.
2. Surveying Employees Without Clear Plans for Action
The Mistake
Organisations launch engagement surveys, collect extensive feedback, share results... then struggle to determine what to do with the information. Action planning becomes vague commitments to "work on communication" or "improve recognition." Employees see little change resulting from their input. Survey fatigue and cynicism set in.
Why This Fails
Surveying creates expectations that feedback will drive improvement. When nothing meaningfully changes, employees conclude their opinions don't actually matter. Future surveys generate lower response rates and less honest feedback. The measurement tool intended to improve engagement instead damages it.
The Fix
Never launch surveys without clear processes for translating results into specific actions. Before surveying, establish who will review results, what decision-making authority they have, what resources are available for improvements, and how changes will be communicated.
Better to survey less frequently with clear action plans than survey constantly without meaningful response. If you're not prepared to act on feedback, don't collect it.
3. Implementing Generic Best Practices Instead of Addressing Actual Issues
The Mistake
Engagement scores decline, so organisations implement "solutions" they've read about: peer recognition platforms, casual Fridays, free snacks, mindfulness apps, employee resource groups. These might work elsewhere, but they don't address the specific issues affecting engagement in your organisation.
Why This Fails
Engagement drivers vary by organisation, industry, workforce composition, and culture. What's critical in technology startups may be irrelevant in manufacturing. What engages early-career employees often differs from what matters to experienced professionals. Generic solutions ignore your specific context.
The Fix
Start with diagnosis before prescription. What specifically is driving disengagement in your organisation? Is it lack of development opportunities? Ineffective managers? Unclear strategy? Poor communication? Workload stress? Each requires fundamentally different interventions.
scarlettabbott approaches engagement by diagnosing root causes through research and listening before designing interventions. This ensures efforts address actual issues rather than implementing trendy programmes that miss the mark entirely.
4. Focusing Exclusively on Scores Rather Than Behaviours
The Mistake
Organisations obsess over engagement scores - tracking percentages, benchmarking against competitors, setting numerical targets. The goal becomes improving the score rather than changing the behaviours and beliefs that scores measure.
Why This Fails
Scores are lagging indicators reflecting employee sentiment at a moment in time. They tell you whether engagement exists but not necessarily why or how to improve it. Focusing exclusively on scores encourages gaming the system - making employees happier temporarily without addressing underlying issues.
The Fix
Shift focus from scores to the behaviours and beliefs you're trying to create. What does engagement look like behaviourally in your organisation? Perhaps it's employees proactively solving problems, collaborating across boundaries, staying through challenges, or innovating within their roles.
Define these target behaviours specifically, then design interventions to encourage them. Measure both behaviours and scores, recognising that sustainable engagement comes from genuine behaviour change rather than temporary satisfaction boosts.
5. Neglecting Manager Capability Development
The Mistake
Organisations invest heavily in enterprise-level engagement programmes - surveys, communications, recognition platforms, cultural initiatives - whilst leaving managers to figure out team-level engagement independently. When programmes don't translate to daily experience, organisations blame manager execution rather than recognising the capability gap.
Why This Fails
Most engagement happens through daily manager-employee interactions. Managers who can't effectively communicate strategy, provide meaningful recognition, offer development opportunities, or create psychological safety will struggle with engagement regardless of organisational programmes.
The Fix
Make manager capability development central to engagement strategy. This doesn't mean generic leadership training - it means equipping managers with specific skills and tools for driving engagement within their teams.
Effective manager enablement includes practical guidance on translating organisational initiatives to team context, frameworks for difficult conversations, coaching on recognition and feedback, and support for creating team-level engagement rather than just cascading corporate messages.
6. Creating Communication Campaigns That Talk At Employees
The Mistake
Many engagement communications follow broadcast models: leadership decides what employees need to know, messages get crafted and distributed through multiple channels, success is measured by reach and open rates. Employees remain passive recipients of information rather than active participants in conversation.
Why This Fails
Engagement requires employees feeling heard, not just informed. One-way communication might improve awareness but doesn't create connection. When communication flows only downward, employees conclude their perspectives don't matter - the opposite of engagement.
The Fix
Design communication as dialogue rather than broadcast. Create genuine listening mechanisms - focus groups, feedback channels, pulse surveys with open-ended questions, forums enabling upward communication. Demonstrate that employee input shapes decisions and direction.
Close the loop visibly: "You told us X was problematic. Here's what we've done about it." When employees see their voice creating tangible change, engagement increases regardless of whether every suggestion gets implemented.
7. Launching Initiatives Without Sustained Support
The Mistake
Organisations launch engagement initiatives with fanfare - significant communication, leadership visibility, initial resources. Then attention shifts to other priorities. The initiative continues nominally but without sustained leadership focus, adequate resources, or ongoing momentum. It gradually fades into background noise.
Why This Fails
Engagement isn't a project with defined endpoints - it's an ongoing commitment requiring sustained effort. Initiatives that start strong but lose leadership attention signal that engagement isn't actually a priority, just something to be seen doing. Employees become cynical about future programmes.
The Fix
Before launching initiatives, secure commitments for sustained support - not just initial resources but ongoing attention, regular reviews, continued leadership visibility, and long-term investment. Design for sustainability from the start rather than assuming initial momentum will carry through.
Better to implement smaller initiatives with genuine sustained support than launch ambitious programmes that collapse when attention moves elsewhere.
8. Expecting Quick Results From Culture Change Efforts
The Mistake
Organisations implement engagement initiatives and expect measurable improvement within months. When scores don't increase immediately, they conclude efforts aren't working and shift to different approaches. This creates constant initiative churn without giving anything sufficient time to take effect.
Why This Fails
Genuine engagement improvements require behaviour and belief changes that take time. Awareness shifts quickly - within months. Behaviour changes need longer - typically 6-12 months of consistency. Cultural embedding requires 12-24 months minimum. Expecting quarterly results from initiatives targeting culture change sets impossible expectations.
The Fix
Set realistic timelines acknowledging that meaningful engagement improvements take time. Measure progress through leading indicators - behaviour observations, participation rates, manager feedback - rather than waiting for annual engagement scores to validate effectiveness.
Commit to sustained effort over multiple years rather than expecting transformation within quarters. The organisations achieving genuine engagement improvements are those willing to invest consistently over extended periods rather than expecting quick fixes.
Why Choose Scarlett Abbott
Scarlett Abbott helps organisations avoid these common mistakes by combining behavioural science with strategic insight and creative execution. We don't implement generic programmes or quick fixes. We diagnose what's actually affecting engagement in your specific context, design interventions grounded in evidence about how behaviour change actually works, and partner with you through implementation to ensure initiatives achieve sustainable impact.
Our approach addresses root causes rather than symptoms, builds genuine capability rather than temporary enthusiasm, and creates lasting cultural change rather than superficial improvements that fade when attention shifts. When you're ready to move beyond common mistakes toward engagement work that genuinely transforms your organisation, we can help.
