Business & Economy

Keeping employees engaged ‘isn’t about gimmicks, it’s about listening’


  • In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady on how to keep employees engaged.
  • The big story: Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement begins at 4 p.m. ET.
  • The markets: Nervous anticipation.
  • Analyst notes from Goldman Sachs’ on hiring, Ark Invest on the xAI and X merger, and Apollo on the U.S. consumer.
  • Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. A perennial challenge for leaders is how to keep employees engaged. After all, what makes a company a great place to work is personal. There have been times in my life when my need for flexibility trumped my desire for travel, or pay meant more to me than the power to drive change. What’s consistent among the leaders of Fortune’s 2025 ranking of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, based on Great Place to Work’s survey of 1.3 million U.S. workers, is their attention to building a culture of trust and respect at work.

As my colleague Orianna Rosa Royle writes in her opening essay, employees are clear: engagement “isn’t about gimmicks, it’s about listening.” Orianna also wrote about worker wellness and work-life balance as part of our editorial package.

Be sure to also check out Sara Braun’s article on Atlassian’s “Team Anywhere” remote work policy and a story by Beth Greenfield on the employee volunteer program at Cisco, as well as Brit Morse’s look at the parental leave policy at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the changing DEI landscape in corporate America.

I will be heading to the Great Place To Work For All Summit in Las Vegas next week, where I will speak with Penny Pennington about her strategy in leading Edward Jones. I’ll also speak with Jim Kavanaugh, co-founder and CEO of WWT, and Marriott International CEO Tony Capuano about what got their companies on the list, and how they’re leading in this environment. We’ll be joined by members of the Fortune CEO Initiative and other leaders of companies on this year’s list.

If you can’t make that, I invite you to join us on April 30 at 12 p.m. EST for a live webinar with Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian and Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work. We’ll talk about redefining leadership and mastering change in a complex world.  Here’s a link to register for that event.

More news below.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com


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2025-04-02 09:49:10

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