Insights

Employee engagement doesn’t improve with perks or themed social events. It improves when teams understand where the business is heading, feel connected to its outcomes, and trust the people leading it. We’ve seen this time and again in our work with growing SMEs. If you’re looking to improve employee engagement, it starts with clarity and credibility at the top.

If you’ve noticed morale dipping, productivity slowing, or staff turnover climbing, it might not be a staffing issue but rather than a communication one. When people lose clarity, they disconnect. And when they disconnect, performance suffers.

This guide walks through how to improve employee engagement by focusing on two of the most impactful levers: consistent leadership and structured communication. These are what keep teams aligned, focused, and motivated as your business grows.

Why Is Employee Engagement Falling Flat in So Many SMEs?

Disengagement rarely starts with individuals. In SMEs, it’s often driven by broader issues in structure or culture.

We frequently see:

• Unclear business priorities or shifting goals
• Leadership that sends mixed messages
• Reward or development pathways that no one really understands
• Communication breakdowns between departments

These issues create uncertainty and uncertainty breeds disengagement. You might see employees doing their jobs, but without direction or buy-in, momentum stalls.

Owner-led businesses often assume that culture maintains itself. But once you’re past 10–15 employees, dynamics shift. Communication styles that worked at five people don’t scale. Departments emerge. Teams start solving their own problems in silos. Engagement begins to slip through the cracks.

Some early warning signs:

• Employees hitting targets but showing little energy or initiative
• Leadership making announcements with no follow-up questions
• High performers resigning without much notice

In our experience, these are signs a business has lost internal alignment something we often uncover during leadership reviews. See how we support business growth.

How Does Leadership Influence Employee Engagement?

Disengaged teams don’t happen overnight. Often, it’s a slow erosion of trust, energy, and accountability driven by unclear leadership.

Can Leadership Style Directly Improve Employee Engagement?

Yes, and we’ve seen it firsthand.

Strong leaders:

• Communicate expectations with clarity and context
• Follow through on commitments
• Invite challenge, not just compliance
• Build trust by owning decisions and feedback loops

We often start by adjusting how leadership teams meet and share decisions. Once that structure is in place, you see teams begin to re-engage.

When leadership doesn’t connect, people stop investing in outcomes. They may still show up, but innovation slows. Collaboration becomes territorial. Accountability fades.

At Evoke, we work with business owners to rebuild these foundations. Whether through fractional Commercial Directors or leadership support, we guide teams out of passive compliance and into active contribution. Our work often begins with an effort to improve employee engagement at the root.

How Can Better Communication Improve Employee Engagement?

Is your team disengaged or simply unclear on priorities? We help rebuild the communication structures that bring people back into alignment.
Book a free 30-minute call

What Communication Practices Actually Improve Employee Engagement?

You can’t fix disengagement with more emails or longer meetings. We’ve seen teams try that and it rarely works.

In practice, what works is consistent, structured communication (short, relevant, and predictable).

We recommend:

• Transparency over volume: Share decisions and explain the why. Employees don’t need all the details, just enough to feel informed.
• Two-way feedback: Schedule regular 1:1s. Use pulse surveys. Make time for upward input.
• Cross-functional visibility: Don’t let teams operate in isolation. Align goals and timelines across departments.
• Adapting message to audience: A factory floor briefing needs a different format than a senior management update.

When people know what’s happening and why it matters, they make better decisions and stay engaged doing it.

Not sure where to start measuring engagement?

Let us help you implement practical metrics that make sense for your team size and business model. Meet a Part-Time Commercial Director

What Are the Financial Costs of Low Employee Engagement?

Disengagement is expensive but not always in obvious ways.

Yes, it can mean higher turnover. But more often, it shows up as work being done with half the effort and twice the friction. Projects stall. Clients lose confidence. Internal conflict eats up time.

Data shows disengaged employees cost up to 34% of their salary in lost productivity.

What’s the Best Way to Measure Employee Engagement in SMEs?

If you’re not measuring engagement, you’re working off assumptions. We’ve helped businesses change this.

Here’s what we often implement with clients:

• Surveys: Fast way to understand overall trust and sentiment.
• Employee Pulse check-ins: Lightweight tools to track trends across time.
• Regular 1:1s: Useful not just for feedback, but for surfacing friction early.
• Goal tracking + collaboration metrics: See how cross-functional teams are working or not working together.

Once you have a baseline, you can introduce improvements and see what moves the dial.

Can a Fractional Director Help Improve Employee Engagement?

Yes. And for SMEs, bringing in a fractional Commercial Director often creates faster more focused change than hiring a full-time HR function.

A fractional Commercial Director:

• Audits existing engagement barriers (cultural, structural, or strategic)
• Redesigns reporting lines and communication flows
• Coaches leadership on trust-based communication
• Helps embed clarity into every level of the business

One sales-led business we supported was losing staff every quarter. Leadership blamed salary. But after reviewing internal practices, we found unclear expectations, inconsistent communication, and zero feedback structure. Within six months of putting a plan in place, attrition dropped by half.

For many clients, a Commercial Director has been the missing link in their strategy to improve employee engagement.

Partner with Evoke Management and Improve Employee Engagement

If your business has outgrown its original culture, or you’ve noticed engagement slipping as the team grows, now is the time to reset.

Teams perform best when they’re invested instead of just being present. That shift starts with how you lead.

Book a free consultation to explore what’s holding your team back.