Employee Engagement: Soccer and the Power of Culture, Belonging

Every month, companies around the world spend millions of dollars trying to increase employee engagement, and over the years, they have become more creative and competitive with each other. They offer wellness and mindfulness programs, workplace nurseries, remote work, extra paid time off. The more laughable companies enlist free coffee, t-shirts, and promotional items as a strategy for retention.

A misconception is the belief that engagement is something employees need to feel when they arrive at a company. For soccer clubs, it begins long before any participation happens. Early fans already know the chants, the colors, or the legends. Engagement measures the psychological attachment employees have to their work, their team, their leader, and their employer. According to Gallup's “State of the Global Workplace Report 2026,” global employee engagement declined for a second year to its lowest level since 2020, and low engagement cost the world economy approximately US$10 trillion in lost productivity.

But how do soccer clubs measure engagement? Mainly through ticket sales for match games, broadcasting rights, and jersey sales. Companies need to develop new measures regarding how committed employees are, including employee referral rate, boomerang employees, internal promotions rate, retention of high and outstanding performers, and volunteerism for projects and initiatives, including success over cross-functional projects.

At the same time, millions of soccer fans around the world are spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on certain competitions to support their clubs. Why do we perceive a greater sense of engagement and loyalty among soccer fans? Who genuinely dominates the concept of engagement?

Soccer clubs build a permanent loyalty despite offering no financial reward to supporters. I believe engagement has less to do with satisfaction and much more to do with identity and feeling proud. That’s why supporters speak about their club, saying things like, "we won," or "we are the best." They feel like they are part of something bigger and that they are helping to shape the future. When a game is lost, a supporter might say, “If we lose, that’s OK — there will be another chance.” Companies don’t think in the same way. They even impose penalties when a target isn't met.

How do you create a place where people feel they belong, even when things are not going well?

The answer will probably be very uncomfortable and surprising for executives: engagement is not a program managed by the human resources department, and it does not require more HR programs. When culture is protected only by HR, it’s fragile. When it’s protected by all employees, it becomes self-sustaining. Companies need symbols worth protecting, and when employees defend company values without being asked, culture becomes self-sustaining.

A soccer club does not build loyalty through programs, it builds loyalty because every person becomes a guardian of the club's culture. The same principle applies to organizations. Employees want an identity built every day through shared purpose, meaningful rituals, trusted leadership, and a story that they are proud to tell. People do not give their best because they are paid, they give their best when they feel they are part of something worth winning, something meaningful.

Companies can redesign employee engagement from scratch, not by handing out perks, benefits, or wellness programs, but by following what Real Madrid, Boca Juniors, or Manchester United have been building for over a century: the sense of belonging in individuals, making them feel like the company is an integral part of their identity. The traditional HR model starts with Attract > Hire > Train > Evaluate > Compensate > Retain. Changing engagement from a process into a culture needs to start with Belonging > Living the Culture > Supporting > Celebrating > Promoting > Leaving a Legacy.

New colleagues should feel they joined something that is bigger than themselves as individuals. They need to know that people in the company are proud to belong to that company. It is more than simply a job. Examples include Patagonia, a company whose employees strongly identify with environmental values and purpose, or NVIDIA, where employees identify with a mission of advancing AI and accelerated computing, paving the way for the innovation of the future. This is similar to how fans identify with a club's philosophy.

Soccer clubs do not always hire the best player available; they prioritize recruiting players who fit the club's identity. Similarly, companies should evaluate skills, values, and cultural fit with the same weight as competencies.

How to Understand Engagement, Rebuild Plans

A legendary onboarding experience: New soccer fans are born every day, and each one goes through a unique journey: they may see a player do something incredible; they may share the excitement of a victory even before becoming a fan of the team; someone they admire may be a fan of that team; or they may simply identify with the neighborhood, community, and values associated with the team. That’s where their curiosity begins: learning about the team’s history, rivalries, and legends. Imagine an onboarding experience that begins with: “Tomorrow you will become part of our story that began 45 years ago,” instead of, “Here’s your ID badge, computer, and cellphone. Welcome”

Soccer clubs excel at rituals, chants, and victory celebrations. There are also the Hall of Fame, traditions, and most importantly, a clear target. Every soccer fan knows who their rivals are. Companies should avoid internal rivalries, but create healthy external ones and compete. People remember rituals far more than PowerPoint presentations.

Leaders are the first role models and protectors of culture: Employees do not learn culture from internal campaigns or posters on the wall; they learn it from the daily actions of colleagues and leaders. When leaders fail to model the company's culture and tolerate or promote disrespect or dismiss its values, they are feeding the real culture, one based on disrespect rather than collaboration. That’s why culture is what employees consistently see communicated, rewarded, and accepted.

Every manager is a potential coach: In most cases, they are naturally teachers, talent developers, and mentors. What would happen if their performance were measured based on the number of talented individuals they promoted and their effectiveness in building high-performing teams, rather than just on their role as performance evaluators? They'd probably be more concerned about their team and performance.

Membership for life instead of employment: A great taboo for executives and HR leaders is having contact with former employees; companies often stop caring when employees leave, sometimes because of the way they were treated when they left, other times because it's not common.

That’s why it’s important to create communities, invite former employees to key events, and celebrate their success, because with that kind of recognition they will become lifetime ambassadors. Companies need to remember their contributions and the part these former employees played back then, just as they do for current employees.

When employees and former employees begin to speak about the company with pride, engagement becomes part of the organization's identity. That is the level of commitment companies should aspire to.

Engagement is contagious, but so is disengagement. Great cultures celebrate behaviors like helping other colleagues to succeed, demonstrating integrity under any circumstance, and living the organization's values even when it’s difficult. These actions will become the norm; all the employees receive a powerful signal: this is how success is achieved here, always.

Organizations that aspire to that level of engagement must stop thinking of culture as an HR initiative and start treating it as a shared responsibility. Every interaction with a new employee is an investment in culture.