How to Engage Your Employees in the New Year:
Keep Your Staff Energized and Motivated in 2026
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Over the years, we’ve heard plenty of grumbles about employee engagement, with some senior leaders and HR acting as if it were a Sisyphean task or a compliance issue. We’d argue they are missing the point. Aligning employee engagement with your company values isn’t only the smart thing to do for healthy staff relationships, but it’s also the smart business thing to do.
Let’s recap why.
Why does employee engagement matter?
In a nutshell? Employee engagement:
~Improves your workplace culture
~Decreases turnover
~Increases productivity
~Builds better workplace relationships
~Improves customer relationships
~Attracts new talent
~Increases workplace safety
~Decreases workplace accidents and errors
~Affects your profit margins
~Turns employees into your best brand ambassadors
A company with an engaged workforce isn’t just a great place to work—it’s a place customers love to visit and keep coming back to. So, with 2025 coming to a close, it’s time to start thinking about ways to engage and re-engage your employees in the New Year.
Yes, this is a New Year’s resolutions post. (We couldn’t resist.)
Fail-Proof Resolutions to Engage Your Employees in the New Year:
Here goes.
Don’t make resolutions
Yes. You read that right. You were expecting a magical list of beautiful ideas, but the most important idea we can share is this:
RESOLUTIONS DON’T WORK.
A resolution is often an informal goal, and usually highly personal. There aren’t any real consequences for no follow-through. That’s why they’re so popular! And so flimsy.
A policy, however, has meat in it. It’s a formal set of guidelines, written down (whether in your strategic plan, mission, vision, values, job descriptions etc.), with clear expectations and enforcement mechanisms.
4 Business Policies to Engage Your Workforce in the New Year
Fair enough. It doesn’t have that whimsical sound to it. It does, however, sound like success. We tapped into some of our favorite business guides, including Harvard Business School, SHRM, and Forbes to come up with a list of meaningful ways to prioritize employee engagement in 2026.
Set Personal and Professional Goals with Your Staff:
Have each employee begin the New Year with clear goals and a map on how to reach them. This might include attending conferences, participating in projects, courses, workshops, and mentorship programs. By connecting the dots between individual goals, learning opportunities, and the company's mission and vision, you’re giving your employees the compass they need to stay on track, improve their performance, and advance in their careers.
Create a Company Culture of Gratitude:
Recognition and gratitude should be an integral part of your organization’s culture. Create formal and informal recognition programs, including everything from shout-outs on Slack to a creative bonus program (gift cards, a half-day off, lunch with a mentor, etc.). Start meetings with success stories (of all sizes). Go beyond performance. Highlight how employees’ attitudes, work ethic, and kindness have improved the workplace. Gratitude can be built into every level of the organization.
Develop Great Leaders:
Make 360-degree feedback a standard of leadership development. Organization leaders often come from the staff, having been promoted. So, leadership skills should be a core part of all employee training. This is called bench strength! Focus on these four core leadership skills:
~Communication and negotiation
~Strategic thinking and decision-making
~Emotional intelligence
~Adaptability and managing change
Create a Vibrant, Adaptable Learning Ecosystem:
The only certainty now is change. Digital disruption of the workforce is a constant, and it can feel like we’re all running the Red Queen’s Race. Don’t despair! Agile, adaptable organizations will succeed, and they require agile, adaptable employees. Forbes writes, “Experts estimate that a learned technical skill today has a half-life of as little as 2.5 years before it’s time for the skilled person to update or refresh their skills or risk falling behind in their productivity.” Every job position now requires policies to upskill and reskill (this means there must be a budget to do so). It’s essential, not only for your workforce, but also for your organization.
Why the New Year?
Behavioral psychologists have studied the best time to make a change, and there is a best time. The beginning of the week, a month, a new year – these are all natural markers for “fresh starts.” (Hence, the New Year’s resolution). They are called “notational boundaries”. Think about gym memberships skyrocketing in January – losing weight and getting in shape are the most popular resolutions. Attendance slowly peters off, and most people return to their routines.
So, as a company, you can capitalize on these time periods to nudge your staff into not only continuing with their personal and professional goals, but also turn growth, gratitude, change, and development into lasting habits.
At CustomInsight, we wish you and your organization success in the New Year!
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