Boosting face-to-face collaboration and employee engagement is a growing challenge for employers in hybrid and remote work environments. The technology you put in front of people can help, but only if you pair it with a culture that gives them a reason to show up and connect.
Employee engagement is the level of involvement and enthusiasm employees have in their work and workplace, and it is a strong predictor of how well teams collaborate, perform, and stay.
The numbers explain the urgency. Gallup’s tracking shows global engagement has declined for two years running. In 2025, global employee engagement declined for the second year in a row, down from its 2022-2023 peak.
A company’s level of employee collaboration is an important factor in workers feeling engaged in their work and workplace.
The relationship runs both ways. Engagement also shapes collaboration. Disengaged or poorly engaged employees have little motivation to invest time and effort in working with others.
Companies are increasingly looking to technology to improve engagement and collaboration. That works when the technology sits on top of a culture and workplace practices that give people a reason to engage in the first place.
This article covers what builds a company culture where employees thrive, followed by 10 ways to improve employee collaboration and engagement through technology.
Gallup defines employee engagement as “the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in both their work and workplace.”
Employee engagement shows up in two ways.
First, there’s the degree to which workers are invested in the work they are doing:
Second, there’s workplace engagement:
Worker engagement is critical to a company’s success. So what contributes to it?
Employee engagement may seem like a nebulous concept, but specific factors drive it. These include:
How well a company’s culture and work environment support these experiences largely decides how engaged people feel. This is exactly what the employee experience manager exists to build.
Many employees feel their need for a supportive work culture is not being met, and engagement suffers for it.
Gallup’s US engagement research tells a hard story. U.S. employee engagement fell to its lowest level in a decade in 2024, with only 31% of employees engaged and 17% actively disengaged, matching levels last seen in 2014. Detachment is growing fastest among workers under 35.
Globally, the picture is worse. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace data shows engagement fell to 21% in 2024 and declined again in 2025, its second straight annual drop. Much of that recent decline comes from managers, whose engagement is sliding toward the levels of the people they lead.
The cost is real: low engagement costs the world economy roughly $10 trillion in lost productivity, about 9% of GDP.
Learn more about some important digital transformation trends here.
When engagement drops, collaboration quality tends to drop with it. It takes extra effort and skills to collaborate well with others, and few people make that effort when a weak culture or work environment has already worn down their motivation.
Company culture influences engagement. Engagement influences collaboration. And how well employees collaborate has a big impact on their productivity and satisfaction. All of that helps any business grow.
With that in mind, here’s how to improve employee collaboration and engagement through technology.
Related read: Designing Your Way to Success: How Office Layouts Can Boost Employee Collaboration and Engagement
New workplace technologies make it easier to engage employees and support collaboration on tasks and projects. They also help people build more valuable work relationships.
Here’s an overview of 10 key technologies that change how employees engage in the modern workplace. Technology is also at the core of a successful digital transformation strategy.
HR departments have had to adjust to workers who expect to handle a good deal of HR interactions online.
From hiring new employees and walking them through onboarding to delivering job-related training, HR management software brings these procedures into one place and cuts the manual work.
HR software also improves internal communications, and communication is where a lot of engagement is won or lost. In a Fierce, Inc. poll cited by Pumble, 86% of employees, executives, and educators said ineffective communication is a major cause of workplace failures. Poor communication from leadership is one of the most common complaints employees raise.
Software that supports better communication is worth the cost.
Examples of HR management software include ADP Workforce Now, Gusto, BambooHR, and Deputy. You can also see some digital transformation examples and how companies use various technologies to run their workplaces more efficiently.
Projects keep getting more complex, especially when employees work from home across different time zones.
For employers, project management software helps organize and assign tasks and track progress in real time.
Employees stay on track using built-in calendars and timelines, color-coded task assignments, and due-date alerts. Messaging options round out the ease of collaborating on projects.
These tools are built for different audiences: large versus small businesses, onsite versus hybrid teams. Pick one that matches your company’s structure and needs.
Project management software examples include Slack, Asana, ClickUp, Monday, Zoho Projects, Teamwork, and SmartSheet.
One of the biggest challenges managers face today is getting employees to collaborate face to face.
In-person interactions in the office play a significant role in improving productivity.
So how do you give employees a real reason to come in?
OfficeRnD Workplace is hybrid work software that makes office days easier to plan and coordinate, with a set of collaborative scheduling features. It lets you:
Watch the video below to see the product in action:
It’s especially useful for hybrid companies that share desks to make the most of their space while reducing expenses.
Workplace analytics help office managers and admins right-size their offices and resources, and the scheduling and connectivity tools help managers get more from their team’s productivity.
OfficeRnD Workplace helps employees collaborate by connecting them with the right coworkers and supervisors at the right times, in the right physical spaces.
As more work goes virtual, the office water cooler fades. The need for employees to connect informally does not.
Like formal collaboration, informal interactions give employees a chance to just “hang out.”
Employees feel more engaged, and employers benefit from the sense of well-being that comes from chat options that keep people connected. This matters more in remote and hybrid teams, where Gallup finds loneliness runs highest among fully remote workers.
Chat program examples include Twist, Ryver, Google Chat, Rocket.Chat, and MS Teams.
Whether employers like it or not, “bring your own device” (BYOD) keeps growing. Tablets, smartphones, desktops, and laptops are all in play.
According to Zippia, 75% of employees use their personal cell phones at work. Most do so with permission, but over 17% use personal devices for work without telling IT.
Beyond convenience, 75% of employees say personal devices make them more productive, and 69% of companies report a rise in productivity and collaboration when they allow BYOD.
The trade-off is security. Confidentiality breaches and malware spreading through personal devices are real risks.
Given the upside in productivity and engagement, it’s worth looking into technology that lets you run BYOD safely for both your business and workforce.
BYOD security software examples include N-able N-sight and ManageEngine. Managed well, they help teamwork and collaboration rather than getting in the way.
One of the most annoying parts of collaborating online is the maze of passwords employees have to juggle across different tools.
Online password vaults solve this. They store your company’s passwords securely and let you share them with the people who need them, so employees hit far fewer login hassles.
It’s not just passwords. You can give employees secure access to protected documents and even payment details. These tools also track data breaches and alert you to unauthorized use, so you can update compromised passwords fast.
Examples of password management software include LastPass, 1Password, and Keeper Security.
Time-tracking is a must for payroll and labor cost calculations, but it’s no one’s favorite task. Many employees find it stressful, especially when it’s manual.
Time-tracking software takes the tedium out of daily entries for employees and gives supervisors accurate, on-time reporting on how time is spent.
Watch the features when you choose: whether it’s built for small or large businesses or for mostly remote teams, and whether it’s a stand-alone tool or part of a wider HR suite.
Time-tracking software examples include Clockify, Time Doctor, Toggl, Timely, and BambooHR.
You can also read our guide on mastering workplace occupancy.
HR departments hold every kind of organizational form: PTO policies, time-off requests, complaint forms, resolution procedures.
File-sharing software puts those forms within reach. Employees find what they need online instead of walking to HR every time.
HR benefits too. Staff stop emailing individual forms on request, and they can update forms in one place so no one uses an outdated version.
Examples of file-sharing software include Sync, Zoho WorkDrive, Google Drive, and MS OneDrive.
Recognition for good work is one of the factors that most influences engagement, and Gallup’s research consistently ties feeling recognized to whether people stay engaged.
Management used to own recognition on its own. That’s changing with peer-to-peer (P2P) recognition, and software is making it routine.
Many employees enjoy giving shoutouts to colleagues for a job well done. It builds a sense of appreciation and camaraderie, and a coworker’s praise landing on your screen when you least expect it goes a long way.
Examples of P2P recognition software include Kudos, Motivosity, and Bonusly.
Employees expect a workplace built for modern technology. Companies deliver that with current hardware and a fast wireless network.
Smart technology matters for an intelligent workplace too. A flipchart works in a conference room, but an interactive digital whiteboard that supports remote collaboration and document saving does far more for a team working through ideas together.
Desk-sharing software is now common, since more employees work remotely and offices sit half empty.
OfficeRnD Workplace, for example, improves the modern workplace experience and supports engagement and collaboration through desk booking, room scheduling, and workplace analytics in one place.
Watch the short video below to see how OfficeRnD Workplace helps enable and manage a hybrid workplace.
AI is arriving in the workplace at the same moment engagement is falling, and Gallup’s CEO framed that timing as the central test for leaders. Whether AI helps or hurts engagement depends heavily on managers. Gallup’s Q1 2026 U.S. workforce survey found that the strongest predictor of whether employees actually use AI, aside from technical integration, is whether their direct manager champions it.
The lesson for HR, IT, and facility teams: adding AI tools won’t lift engagement on its own. Give managers the support and clarity to lead the change, and the technology has a chance to help people rather than unsettle them.
Employee engagement is how involved and enthusiastic employees are about their work and their workplace. Engaged people feel connected to what they do, care about the outcome, and give their best effort.
Technology removes friction that wears people down: scattered communication, hard-to-find forms, clunky scheduling, and login hassles. It also creates connection through group chat, peer recognition, and tools that show who’s in the office so teams can plan time together. The tools work best when they support a culture that already values engagement.
Gallup found U.S. engagement at 31% in 2024, a decade low, with 17% of employees actively disengaged. Global engagement fell to 21% in 2024 and declined again in 2025, its second straight annual drop. Much of the recent decline is driven by falling manager engagement.
OfficeRnD Workplace combines desk booking, meeting room scheduling, collaborative scheduling, and workplace analytics in one product. Employees can see who’s in the office, invite teammates in for meetings, and follow favorite colleagues, which makes office days easier to plan and more worth the trip. It works inside tools teams already use, like Microsoft Teams, Slack, Outlook, and Google Calendar.
Using technology to support employee collaboration and engagement is now table stakes. But tools alone won’t move the numbers. The teams that pull ahead pair the right software with managers who are equipped to lead and a culture that gives people a reason to engage.
At OfficeRnD, we help customers enable and manage hybrid work with software that’s easy to use, well integrated, and reliable, and that supports collaboration without adding cost or complexity.
Get started for free with OfficeRnD Workplace or book a live demo and talk to our workplace experts.
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