Impact of Employee Engagement on Performance by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services

Employee engagement remains one of the strongest predictors of organisational success, but sustaining engagement requires more than measurement alone. Companies that excel at engagement often foster strong workplace cultures, meaningful recognition, and effective leadership practices. Learn how leading organisations are approaching these challenges in the 2026 Harvard Business Review Analytics Services: Improving business performance through appreciation report, which explores the connection between culture, employee experience, and business performance.

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In 2020, most executives had identified a clear need to improve employee engagement, many had yet to develop tangible ways to measure and tackle this goal. However, a growing group of best-in-class companies said they were gaining competitive advantage through establishing metrics and practices to effectively quantify and improve the impact of their engagement initiatives on overall business performance.

These are among the findings of the 2020 Harvard Business Review Analytic Services report of more than 550 executives around employee engagement—research that features in-depth interviews with 12 best-practice company leaders.

Download the 2020 report now to see how employee engagement has evolved.