35 Employee Engagement Quotes to Drive Organisational Success

Have your employee engagement efforts hit a brick wall? If you’re looking for a little motivation and inspiration, we’ve compiled a handy list of 35 employee engagement quotes from experts, authors and business leaders. Each quote can teach us about employee engagement and how it impacts performance, productivity, morale and business success.

We have divided the quotes into five sections, in accordance with our PEARL™ employee experience model. Our model has been created by combining business experience, occupational psychology, extensive literature reviews and statistical analysis of over 20 million data points. Take some time to consider Purpose, Enablement, Autonomy, Reward and Leadership and you will notice a marked improvement in employee engagement and employee experience.

After this post, you might want to read our post on company culture quotes

Purpose (Integrity and Alignment)

You really can’t overestimate the importance and significance of purpose for empoloyees, both in terms of their individual roles and the overarching purpose of the company. A clear sense of purpose provides a whole host of benefits that contribute to the overall success and wellbeing of both employees and the organisation. Employee engagement is one of the biggest benefits. 

When employees understand and connect with the purpose of their roles, and believe in the overall purpose of the company, they are more likely to be engaged and satisfied with their work. A sense of purpose gives them a deeper reason to come to work, beyond just completing tasks and being paid, leading to increased motivation and a positive attitude.

Check out these quotes about purpose and employee engagement:

1. “Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organisation. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity and meaning in their job.” — Ken Blanchard
2. “If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.”  — Simon Sinek
3. “There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organisation’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction and cash flow. It goes without saying that no company, small or large, can win over the long run without energised employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.” — Jack Welch.
4. “When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.” — Simon Sinek
5. “Employee engagement is the art and science of engaging people in authentic and recognised connections to strategy, roles, performance, organisation, community, relationship, customers, development, energy and happiness to leverage, sustain and transform work into results.” — David Zinger.
6. “You cannot be successful doing something you don’t love. If you genuinely love your job and are emotionally connected to the higher purpose of a company, you will do great work.” — Steve Jobs
7. “A group of people get together and exist as an institution we call a company so they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not accomplish separately – they make a contribution to society, a phrase which sounds trite but is fundamental.” — David Packard

Enablement (Resources and Community)

In order for your employees to do their jobs well, they need to be well-equipped. The workday shouldn’t be a struggle to succeed – we’re all a team, and we should arm each other with the tools and materials we need to thrive. This includes everything from flexible working to training and the means to forge meaningful working relationships. We know that companies with good social connections enjoy higher levels of employee engagement, and we also know that employee engagement thrives with increased training and development. So everyone wins.

Below are our favourite quotes on enablement and engagement:

1. “Instead of giving managers all the power, the best customer experience companies arm all employees with the tools to fix customer problems and empower them to make decisions.” — Blake Morgan
2. “Create caring and robust connections between every employee and their work, customers, leaders, managers and the organisation to achieve results that matter to everyone in this sentence.” — David Zinger
3. “For most of them, it can be summed up by one of four things: They love what they do (their JOB), they love the Disney brand (their ORGANISATION), they love their manager (their BOSS) or they love the people they work with (their SQUAD).” — Pete Blank
4. “Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilisation work.” —Vince Lombardi
5. “Humans, because of necessity, evolved into social beings. Dependence on and cooperation with each other enhanced our ability to survive under harsh environmental circumstances. Although the survival threats of these circumstances have lessened in today’s world, people continue to have a need to affiliate with others. Indeed, the lack of such connections can lead to many problems, including loneliness.” — Shoba Sreenivasan
6. “To build a culture of engagement it is important to incorporate training on intrinsic motivation and employee engagement into management development programs.” — Kenneth Thomas
7. “Many employees say that learning and development opportunities are a more decisive factor for remaining in a job than receiving a raise” — Dom Murray

Autonomy (Mastery and Wellbeing)

Employee wellbeing is more important than ever. It’s a core element when discussing employee engagement, and one you need to consider when looking at your overall employee experience.

1. “Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.” — Napoleon Hill
2. “The key element of engagement is trust; building trust requires companies to provide workers with as much autonomy and flexibility as possible.” – Matt Charney
3. “You must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work … You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That’s the secret of success.” ― Chef Jiro
4. “Healthy and engaged employees, in concert with a strong workplace culture, are the secret sauce for business success.” — Naz Beheshti
5. “An effective workplace well-being programme can deliver mutual benefit to people, organisations, economies and communities. When people are happy and well, businesses can thrive and societies flourish.” — CIPD
6. “Good health IS good business.” — Paul Drechsler
7. “We are embedding health and well-being at the heart of our business strategy because our people are our greatest asset, and we recognize that a healthy, happy and committed workforce is vital to our business success.” —  Alex Gourlay

Reward (Growth and Recognition)

It’s not that people want to be fawned over. They just want to know that their efforts are seen and that they matter. A little appreciation goes a long way. The last thing you want, as a business leader, is to lose a valuable member of the team, simply because you never expressed to them that they are, in fact, valued. Time taken to publicly or privately recognise great efforts or accomplishments can result in huge boosts to overall employee engagement.

1. “People want to know they matter and they want to be treated as people. That’s the new talent contract.” — Pamela Stroko
2. “The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers.” — Sybil F. Stershic
3. “Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don’t keep it a secret.” — Mary Kay Ash
4. “What if you train your people and they leave? Worse is not training them and they stay.” —  Henry Ford
5. “Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job and being let in on things that are going on in the company.” — Zig Ziglar
6. “Recognition is not a scarce resource. You can’t use it up or run out of it.” — Susan M. Heathfield
7. “People work for money but go the extra mile for recognition, praise and rewards.” — Dale Carnegie

Leadership (Senior Leaders and Line Managers)

By now, we all know that relationships with management account for a huge variance in employee engagement, thanks to the now-famous statistic from Gallup. Leadership can make or break an organisation, and a surprising amount of a leader’s success is down to “soft skills”. Managers need to know how to listen. They need to be empathetic and they need to listen to employees beyond the words they are saying, encouraging them to open up and communicate. This is the most effective way of boosting employee engagement in the long run.

1. “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.” — Max DePree
2. “Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.” — Stephen Covey
3. “Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee — are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.” — Anne Mulcahy
4. “When leaders throughout an organization take an active, genuine interest in the people they manage, when they invest real time to understand employees at a fundamental level, they create a climate for greater morale, loyalty, and yes, growth.” — Patrick Lencioni
5. “The real damper on employee engagement is the soggy, cold blanket of centralised authority. In most companies, power cascades downwards from the CEO. Not only are employees disenfranchised from most policy decisions, they lack even the power to rebel against egocentric and tyrannical supervisors.” — Gary Hamel
6. “You manage things; you lead people.” — Grace Hopper
7. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” — Jack Welch

Looking to boost levels of employee engagement within your organisation? Download our PEARL model of employee engagement for free to understand how to best measure employee engagement. And to accurately measure levels of employee engagement within your business (so you’re better equipped to improve them), get in touch with us for an employee survey.