50 Employee Engagement Quotes, and How to Use Them

Do you have an employee engagement problem at your company?

Ask yourself: Does your team want to work for your company? Do they believe in the mission of your organization? Are they motivated to give their all on a daily basis?

If the answer is no, you probably have an employee engagement problem.

According to recent research by Gallup, companies that employ an engaged workforce are 17% more productive and 21% more profitable than companies that employ a disengaged workforce.

The question is, how do you fully engage your team members in their jobs? You can assign them work that matches their individual personalities and skill sets. Or invest in employee engagement software. Or start with something simple like share employee engagement quotes.

In this article we share 50 quotes about employee engagement. Some of them can be shared with company leadership to teach them how to engage their respective teams. Others can be shared with staff members to increase their job satisfaction.

Tips for Writing Employee Engagement Quotes

Later in this article we’re going to share 50 employee engagement quotes from business leaders and authors. But what if you want to craft your own quotes on this topic? Keep these three tips in mind:

Be Honest

Honesty is key when crafting employee engagement quotes.

If your quotes reflect genuine sentiments, they’ll hit harder. After all, people can sense insincerity. It’s like a bad vibe that doesn’t sit right. Truth, on the other hand, earns trust. And trust leads to engagment.

When writing your own quotes, ground them in real-world experiences. This will give them more emotional weight and help you inspire action in your employees.

The more honest you are, the more likely your message will connect with your team.

Stay Positive

If possible, use a positive tone of voice when you write your employee engagement quotes.

Positive quotes inspire motivation and build team spirit. They remind employees of their value and potential, which can help foster a sense of belonging and purpose. On the flip side, negative quotes can dampen morale and create a toxic atmosphere.

Plus, words that focus on the bright side of a situation usually resonate on a deeper level. And the positivity you generate will likely spread to others, creating a supportive environment.

Choose a Theme

Choosing a theme for your employee engagement quotes can also make a big difference. Why? Because it can help channel your message and give it focus.

Think about the idea or feeling you want to convey to your team. For example, if you want to highlight your company’s goal to improve customer satisfaction, your quotes can emphasize each employee’s role in delivering top-notch service.

This approach not only engages employees, but also ties their work to the bigger picture.

10 Example Employee Engagement Quotes

1. “Engaged employees are the heartbeat of our success, which is why it’s crucial to build an environment where everyone feels valued.” 
2. “Listening to your team is key. When they know they’ve been heard, they’ll invest their hearts and minds in their work.” 
3. “Recognition goes a long way. A quick ‘thank you’ can motivate an employee to go the extra mile.” 
4. “Set clear goals and share the vision. When everyone knows their role, employee engagement will naturally follow.”
5. “Do your best to encourage open communication. A transparent workplace builds trust and commitment among the team.” 
6. “Your input matters! Each idea can spark innovation, so don’t hesitate to share your thoughts.” 
7. “Embrace challenges; they’re opportunities to grow. Your engagement can lead to amazing breakthroughs.” 
8. “Find joy in your work. A positive attitude will uplift not just you, but the entire team.” 
9. “Remember, your role is vital to our mission. We’re all in this together, and your efforts make a difference.” 
10. “Take ownership of your tasks. Engaging fully in your work can lead to personal satisfaction and incredible achievements.”

15 Employee Engagement Quotes From Real Leaders

1. “To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.” – Doug Conant, former CEO of Campbell’s Soup
2. “Highly engaged employees make the customer experience. Disengaged employees break it.” – Timothy R. Clark, founder and CEO of LeaderFactor
3. “When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.” – Simon Sinek, author and speaker
4. “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 M. Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox
5. “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, Founder of Quality Service Marketing
6. “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, sales leader, author and motivational speaker
7. “Everyone talks about building a relationship with your customer. I think you build one with your employees first.” – Angela Ahrendts, former SVP at Apple
8. “The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.” – Charles M. Schwab, President and Chairman of Bethlehem Steel
9. “Take time to appreciate employees and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways.” – Bob Nelson, author and speaker
10. “People want to know they matter and they want to be treated as people. That’s the new talent contract.” – Pamela Stroko, Former VP at Oracle, speaker, and author
11. “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
12. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle, Greek philosopher
13. “Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.” – Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
14. “We think it’s important for employees to have fun. It drives employee engagement.” – Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos
15. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple

15 Employee Engagement Quotes for Large Teams

1. “The greatest asset of a company is its people.” – Jorge Paulo Lemann, investment banker and businessman
2. “Business and human endeavors are systems… We tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system. And wonder why our deepest problems never get solved.” – Peter Senge, Founder of the Society for Organizational Learning
3. “Dispirited, unmotivated, unappreciated workers cannot compete in a highly competitive world.” – Frances Hesselbein, businesswoman and writer
4. “To build a culture of engagement it is important to incorporate training on intrinsic motivation and employee engagement into management development programs.” – Kenneth Thomas, author and speaker
5. “It all came down to employee engagement. It all came down to recognition. It all came down to leadership… You can ask a team to accomplish a mission but can’t order excellence.” – Mike Abrashoff, former Naval Commander and author
6. “When people go to work, they shouldn’t have to leave their hearts at home.” – Betty Bender, author
7. “The key element of engagement is trust; building trust requires companies to provide workers with as much autonomy and flexibility as possible.” – Matt Charney, marketing and communications expert
8. “Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise.” – Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart
9. “Environments that support their employees in the right way will naturally foster employee engagement.” – Aaron Tucker, speaker
10. “Employee loyalty begins with employer loyalty. Your employees should know that if they do the job they were hired to do with a reasonable amount of competence and efficiency, you will support them.” – Harvey Mackay, businessman and author
11. “When employees join executives in truly owning the responsibility for business success, an exciting new sense of teamwork takes hold.” – Punit Renjen, former CEO of Deloitte
12. “Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. 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, Founder of The Ken Blanchard Companies
13. “Culture is about performance, and making people feel good about how they contribute to the whole.” – Tracy Streckenbach, Operating Partner at Gridiron Capital LLC
14. “If you fulfill the wishes of your employees, the employees will fulfill your visions.” – Amit Kalantri, author and magician
15. “Employees engage with employers and brands when they’re treated as humans worthy of respect.” – Meghan M. Biro, CEO of TalentCulture

10 Employee Engagement Quotes to Inspire Your Team

1. “We can never fall short when it comes to recruiting, hiring, maintaining, and growing our workforce. It is the employees who make our organization’s success a reality.” – Vern Dosch, Former President of the National Information Solutions Cooperative
2. “The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.” -Tom Peters, author
3. “Your mission statement, vision statement, core values, and service standards provide a clear focus for all while keeping your team humble and hungry. It creates that family environment in which your employees enjoy coming to work and dealing with the challenges they face.” – Amber Hurdle, brand strategy and leadership expert
4. “Throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could be yours.” – Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People
5. “TURNED ON people figure out how to beat the competition, TURNED OFF people only complain about being beaten by the competition.” – Ben Simonton, author and speaker
6. “Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.” – Buddha
7. “On what high-performing companies should be striving to create: A great place for great people to do great work.” – Marilyn Carlson, former CEO of Carlson Companies
8. “Customers do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they’ll take care of your customers.” – Richard Branson, Co-Founder of The Virgin Group
9. “I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.” – Maya Angelou, author and poet
10. “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” – Ronald Reagan, former U.S. President

How Do I Pick the Best Employee Engagement Quote?

There are so many good quotes about employee engagement. So, you might be wondering, “How do I choose the right quote for my team?” Simple. Use this three-part framework:

Know Your Audience

First, think about your audience.

Who do you want to share an employee engagement quote with? It could be someone in a leadership position. Share quotes that define what employee engagement is, why it’s critical to the success of your company, and how to achieve it.

Or maybe your quote will be shared with employees. Choose one or two that will help your workers engage with their roles and stay motivated to give maximum effort.

If you tailor your message, your recipients will connect with the content and internalize the ideas you present to them. Choose wisely for most impact!

Understand the Situation

Next, consider the situation you find yourself in.

When sharing employee engagement quotes, context is everything. Not every quote works in every situation. You need to match your message with current experiences.

For example, in times of uncertainty, quotes that emphasize support and togetherness can foster caring and robust connections among team members. When times are good, inspirational quotes can encourage further achievement.

Learn From Past Experience

Last but not least, lean on past experience to choose employee engagement quotes.

Reflect on how your team received previous quotes. Did the messages resonate, inspire, or motivate your employees? When you understand their typical response, you can choose quotes that will have the desired effect.

The more you get to know your team, the easier it will be to craft messages that stick.

How to Use Employee Engagement Quotes

Once you choose an employee engagement quote, you need to share it with your employees. 

There are plenty of ways to distribute quotes. For example, you could simply speak them during team meetings. Or send them via email or Slack. Or add them to a group card or shout out board.

This last idea is particularly powerful. Group eCards are a fun way to engage team members, recognize them for their work, and inspire them to keep pushing toward company goals.

Tools like Kudoboard make it easy to create and distribute group ecards. Simply create a Kudoboard account, invite your team to join the service, and send the cards with specific quotes. Choose an image or GIF to really make the message pop.

Why Does Your Company Need Engaged Employees?

We know what you’re thinking:

“The employee engagement quotes you shared are awesome! But finding the right quotes for my team seems like a lot of work. I’m already slammed. I just won’t worry about engagement.“

That would be a mistake. Employee engagement is incredibly important. Here’s why:

Better Performance

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, engaged employees are more productive. This is one reason why companies with engaged workforces are 21% more profitable. When your team makes an emotional commitment to their work, they’ll perform better.

Less Turnover

According to Gallup, companies with low engagement scores experience 18% to 43% higher turnover rates. This is a problem because it can cost up to 213% of a person’s salary to replace a departing employee. That’s a lot of money that could be spent on other, business-building initiatives.

More Success

At the end of the day, engaged and satisfied employees perform better and stick around for longer. They also help create satisfied customers, which will boost your company’s bottom line. There’s no downside to employee engagement. Achieve it and watch your company flourish.

Crush Employee Engagement With Kudoboard

There’s no doubt about it, employee engagement is important. While the quotes we shared above will help you engage your team, you’ll need more than fancy words. Kudoboard can help!

Our platform was specifically designed to recognize employees for their contributions, engage them in their work, and build a thriving company culture that people want to be a part of.