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45 Best Employee Engagement Quotes to Motivate Your Employees

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If you are searching for inspiration to increase engagement, you can pick from our employee engagement quotes that will strike a chord with your team.

With these employee engagement quotes, you not only foster engagement but also give your employees a principle to live by.

So, without further ado, let’s move on to the next section!

When to Use Employee Engagement Quotes

Employee engagement quotes should be used in a context. Otherwise, they won’t be as impactful. Furthermore, when you share these quotes frequently, your employees will question your sincerity because they will sound like clichés.

You can present these employee engagement quotes as an ‘inspiration for the day’. With this practice, your employees will start their day by feeling motivated and confident to tackle their tasks.

45 Inspiring Employee Engagement Quotes

1. Mark Samraj: Author

“It is better to be a stepping stone than a stumbling block.”

This one is one of the team engagement quotes since it emphasizes the importance of collaboration. Employees should be supportive by letting their colleagues achieve because, in the end, it’s about the success of their organization.

2. Simon Sinek: Author of “Start With Why”

“When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.”

When you build employee engagement by creating an emotional connection, your staff will want to go above and beyond because they become personally attached to the idea of the future success of your company.

3. Sybil F. Stershic: Author

“The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel.”

Excellent customer satisfaction is all about employee engagement. Why? Because, when your employees are engaged they will treat your customers well.

employee engagement quotes

4. Tom Peters: Author of “In Search of Excellence”

“The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.”

Among our engagement quotes, this one highlights employee recognition‘s link to productivity. Just paying attention to what your employees are doing can do wonders when it comes to increasing productivity because your employees will realize that you value their contributions.  

5. Kenneth Thomas: Author

“To build a culture of engagement it is important to incorporate training on intrinsic motivation and employee engagement into management development programs.”

When planning for management development you should also take intrinsic motivation into account. Why? Because when your employees are intrinsically motivated, they will never lose this motivation.

6. Peter Senge: Author “The Fifth Discipline”

“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.”

Among our quotes for employee engagement, this one highlights the importance of having a broader perspective. You can more easily solve your business-related problems by gaining a holistic perspective on them.

7. Mark Samraj: Author

“By letting your employees grow, your company will also grow exponentially.”

Put simply, your company’s growth is the collective development of your employees.

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8. Betty Bender: Author

“When people go to work, they shouldn’t have to leave their hearts at home.”

If your employees are consistently reluctant to come to work, there must be something wrong with your employee engagement strategy.

9. Thomas Edison

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.

Why stop trying when there is so much more to learn and grow? This quote will help your employees realize that they shouldn’t limit themselves based on their failures but focus on solving the problem by adopting an alternative approach.

10. José Mourinho: Former Football Player

You win by effort, by commitment, by ambition, by quality, by expressing yourself individually but in the team context.

Winning is the result of dedication, ambition, and the authenticity to be your true self. It’s about putting in the effort and contributing effectively within a team. So, you should build a workplace culture that praises these values and creates engagement.

11. Sheryl Sandberg: Philanthropist and Writer

Let me fall if I must fall. The one I become will catch me.

Among our quotes on employee engagement, this one sees the good in the negative and conveys the message that some mistakes are growth opportunities.

12. Dale Carnegie, Writer and Lecturer

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 never be yours. – Dale Carnegie, writer and lecturer

Put simply, you create your happy work life by being fully immersed in it.

13. Nicole Shepherd: Author

“You never regret being kind.

No one would regret acting kindly toward someone who needs it. On top of that, kindness at the office will help create a positive workplace culture. 

14. Amelia Earhart: American Aviation Pioneer and Writer

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.

It’s important to remind ourselves that the most challenging step is often just getting started. Once you overcome that initial challenge, the rest of the process will flow more quickly.

15. Anita Roddick: Human Rights Activist

If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.

You can be impactful even if you don’t think that you will.

16. Lao Tzu

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

Among the employee engagement quotes, this one has a more philosophical approach. It conveys the idea that when you stop categorizing yourself, you open doors to possibilities for the new you.

17. Mary Kay Ash: American Businesswoman

Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.

Who knows what you might become? So, you should avoid limiting beliefs and always remind yourself that whatever you believe will be your reality.

18. Charles Darwin

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

According to Darwin, people who adapt to change have the biggest advantage when it comes to survival. This quote will inspire your employees to be more agile and responsive to change.

19. Tom Rath: Coauthor of “Strengths Based Leadership”

“If you spend your life trying to be good at everything, you will never be great at anything.

Among our employee engagement quotes, this one concentrates on employee growth by saying, to truly master a skill, it’s important to concentrate your efforts and energy. Instead of pursuing numerous skills, you should channel your focus into one specific area.

20. Mark Twain

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.

Everyone experiences fear but if you want to be courageous you just have to master your fear.

21. Seth Godin: Author of “Purple Cow”

“In a battle between two ideas, the best one doesn’t necessarily win. No, the idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it.

We think that the best idea always wins but according to Seth Godin this is false. To win, one must fearlessly dedicate oneself to their vision.

22. Albert Einstein

“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.

When you value principles instead of success, you will have a more solid foundation and your path to success will become more straightforward.

23. Seth Godin

If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.

Fear shouldn’t stop us because when we look at the lives of successful people we can see that they have failed many times.

24. Maya Angelou: Memoirist, Poet, and Civil Rights Activist

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

Creativity is like a muscle so, as long as you keep using your creativity, there will always be more great ideas to come up with.

25. John F. Kennedy

“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.”

The first step to success is the decision to try something. So, decide to try even if you don’t believe in yourself because you might achieve it!

26. Madam C. J. Walker: American Entrepreneur and Philanthropist

“Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.”

This emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurship. Instead of waiting for opportunities, take the initiative to create your own opportunities.

27. William Arthur Ward: Motivational Writer

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

Wrapping a present and not giving it sounds absurd. Feeling gratitude for your employees’ contributions and not praising them sounds just as counterproductive.

28. Larry Page: Co-founder of Google

“Always work hard on something uncomfortably exciting.”

This quote encourages employees to embrace exciting opportunities outside their comfort zones because they will create personal growth through valuable learning experiences.

29. Ian Hutchinson: Author of “People Glue”

“Employee engagement is an investment we make for the privilege of staying in business.”

As one of the straightforward employee engagement quotes, this one says that you have to invest in your employees to achieve success as an organization.

30. Meghan M. Biro:  HR Tech Thought Leader

“Employees engage with employers and brands when they’re treated as humans worthy of respect.”

Everyone should be treated with respect and this will motivate employees to engage with their brands and employers.

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31. Timothy R. Clark: Organizational Anthropologist 

Highly engaged employees make the customer experience. Disengaged employees break it.

Employee engagement is not only a key contributor to customer experience but it also has the power to break it.

32. Kevin Kruse: American Historian

Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and and its goals.

This one is among the straightforward engagement quotes and it simply gives the definition of employee engagement.

33. David Zinger: Author

Create caring and robust connections between every employee and their work, customers, leaders, managers, and the organization to achieve results that matter to everyone in this sentence.

The secret to achieving organizational success is creating strong connections and boosting engagement.

34. Patrick Lencioni: American Author of Books on Business Management

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.

This is one of the quotes about employee engagement that reveals the nature of successful leadership. It suggests that the key to employee engagement, morale, growth is being genuinely interested in the people you manage.

35. Bob Nelson: Author & Keynote Speaker

Take time to appreciate employees and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways.

This quote on employee engagement suggests that the positive impact of employee recognition on engagement and productivity is undeniable.

36. Aristotle

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle claims that excellence is all about doing things repeatedly.

37. Jorge Paulo Lemann: Businessman

The greatest asset of a company is its people.

Employees when dealt with effectively can become a company’s greatest asset.

38. Marilyn Carlson: American Businesswoman

On what high-performing companies should be striving to create: A great place for great people to do great work.

This quote on employee engagement simply highlights the importance of creating a great place to work so you can attract great people.

39. Darryl Dioso: HR Consultant

Employee engagement is the degree to which an employee feels that they are truly part of a company, have a voice in its decisions and feels respected.

This is one of the employee engagement quotes that emphasizes the significance of creating a sense of belonging in your company to boost engagement.

40. Amit Kalantri: Master Magician

If you fulfill the wishes of your employees, the employees will fulfill your visions.

This one is among the engagement quotes for work that suggests when it comes to turning company visions into reality, employee engagement is a key contributor.

41. Francis Hesselbein:  American Businesswoman

Dispirited, unmotivated, unappreciated workers cannot compete in a highly competitive world.

To arm your employees up in the highly competitive business climate, you need to appreciate them.

42. Mary Kay Ash: American Businesswoman

Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don’t keep it a secret.

This is one of the employee engagement quotes that highlights the importance of employee recognition.

43. Aaron Tucker: Organizational Change Executive

Environments that support their employees in the right way will naturally foster employee engagement.

This is among the employee engagement quotes that suggests that supporting your employees will automatically result in employee engagement.

44. Matt Charney: HR Influencer

The key element of engagement is trust; building trust requires companies to provide workers with as much autonomy and flexibility as possible.

This is one of the employee engagement quotes that highlights the significance of giving your employees autonomy in building an engaged workforce.

45. Jill Christensen: International Keynote Speaker

Engagement occurs when workers trust leaders and feel an emotional connection to the organization – the same way they did their first day on the job.

Employee engagement is a consequence of having trust in the leadership and feeling an emotional connection to your organization.

How to Measure Employee Engagement by Conducting Employee Engagement Surveys

Here you can find four steps of conducting your employee engagement surveys:

Step 1: Define Your Goals

First of all, you should clearly outline what do you need to measure with your survey. You may wish to focus more on job satisfaction, work-life balance, or career development.

After identifying the objective, you can determine the scope of the survey.

Step 2: Craft the Survey

Once you establish a clear outline with the goals, you can start including qualitative and quantitative questions to create a well-rounded survey.

This step involves making sure that your questions are relevant to the goals in the survey. You can consider benchmarking the survey results so you can make comparisons later on.

Keep in mind that to avoid survey fatigue, you should keep the survey to a reasonable length.

Step 3: Administration Method

Now you can decide how to administer your survey as it can be online, paper-based, or you can combine both.

Remember to communicate the purpose of your survey and emphasize that survey results will be confidential. Make sure to allocate certain periods for survey distribution, completion, and data analysis.

Step 4: Analyze the Results

After collecting the responses, you can analyze the results. You need to ensure transparency regarding the survey results and acknowledge areas for improvement.

Keep in mind that employee engagement is an ongoing process so you need to conduct employee engagement surveys regularly to collect data and compare the results continuously.

Measure Employee Engagement in Microsoft Teams!
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Closing Remarks

Sharing quotes that will inspire employees is an easy method of creating employee engagement.

Another way of leveling up your employee engagement is using Teamflect.

Teamflect will incorporate the most useful employee engagement strategies into your daily work routine, you won’t even notice it! In other words, engaging your employees will become effortless!

The great news is you can try it without signing up and for free. Try Teamflect inside Microsoft Teams now and inspire your employees to be the engine of growth for your company.

Written by Duygu Soysanli

Duygu is a content writer who enthusiastically writes useful content about the dynamic world of HR.

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