You’re running EOS because you’ve seen how it transforms businesses. The framework works—it brings structure, accountability, and clarity. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: your Rocks aren’t the biggest EOS implementation problem. Your people feeling disconnected from them is.
Research from Gallup shows that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement. Yet most EOS software treats the people component as an afterthought—quarterly check-ins, static people analyzers, and spreadsheet-based reviews.
Meanwhile, only 31% of employees report being engaged at work. That’s 70% of your workforce operating below capacity, and it’s costing you in ways that go far beyond missed quarterly rocks. High turnover disrupts momentum, erases institutional knowledge, and according to SHRM research, costs between 50-200% of an employee’s annual salary to replace them.
We built Strety differently because we lived this problem—and we knew employee engagement to be central to the people component of EOS, not a side feature.
The BrightGauge Story: When Retention Became Our Bottom Line
Back in 2016, we discovered EOS while building BrightGauge, our previous company. The methodology brought tremendous clarity to our growing team. But as we implemented EOS, we noticed something critical: employee engagement directly determined whether people stayed and thrived, or left and cost us dearly.
We realized that quarterly People Analyzer™ assessments weren’t enough. People needed to feel connected to the vision and core values daily, not just during formal reviews. When team members could see how their work connected to company goals, retention became easier. Engagement became the bridge between having the right people in the right seats and actually executing on our vision.
After selling BrightGauge, we rebuilt Strety from the ground up with this conviction: employee engagement is the foundation of the people component in EOS. It deserves the same level of integration and excellence as every other part of your operating system.
Why Employee Engagement is Crucial to the EOS People Component
The people component in EOS starts with Right People, Right Seats. But engagement is what keeps them there. Without engagement, even the right person in the right seat will eventually walk out the door.
The numbers tell the story. According to Gallup’s latest research, only 31% of employees report being engaged, enthusiastic, and energized by their work. That means roughly 70% of your workforce isn’t operating at full capacity. For EOS companies committed to execution and traction, this represents both a massive challenge and an opportunity.
The opportunity is significant. Research shows that highly engaged teams achieve 21% greater profitability. When people are engaged, they bring discretionary effort. They solve problems proactively. They make your quarterly rocks achievable instead of aspirational.
The manager multiplier effect
For EOS companies: your managers are the key. Gartner research found that employees who report to managers who coach effectively are 40% more engaged, exhibit 38% more discretionary effort, and are 20% more likely to stay at their organizations.
Think about what that means for your Accountability Chart™. Every manager you have is either multiplying engagement across their team or inadvertently degrading it. To make sure engagement is headed in the right direction, you need to give your managers better tools to support their people.
The engagement-execution connection
When organizations effectively support managers in engagement action planning, research from Gartner shows they can increase employee engagement by 51%. That’s not a marginal improvement—it’s transformational.
For EOS companies, this means your people component directly impacts your ability to execute on every other component. Engaged employees make your vision real. They care about the data in your scorecard. They surface issues proactively. They follow your processes because they understand why those processes matter. They achieve their rocks because they’re connected to the bigger picture.
How We Built Employee Engagement Into EOS Software
We built Strety with a conviction: the people component deserves the same level of integration, usability, and excellence as every other part of your operating system. Here’s how we did it.
Making Core Values Actionable, Not Decor
Core values in EOS are central to determining if someone is the Right Person. But in most organizations, they’re poster material—inspiring in theory, ignored in practice.
We built core values directly into every people tool in Strety. Your people analyzer evaluates employees against your specific core values. Quarterly conversations include structured discussion of how someone is living those values. 1:1 meetings can reference core values as decision-making criteria. 360 reviews assess value alignment from multiple perspectives.
The impact matters. Research from Great Place to Work shows that companies with great cultures have three times better stock market performance than those without. When your tools reinforce values daily, those values become real behavioral expectations rather than abstract ideals.
Continuous Development Over Annual Reviews
The corporate world is abandoning annual reviews, and for good reason. In 2016, 82% of companies used annual reviews. By 2019, that number had dropped to just 54%. Organizations realized that once-a-year conversations don’t drive development—they document history.
Companies that replace annual reviews with continuous feedback see remarkable results: 40% higher employee engagement and 26% improvement in performance. The difference isn’t doing more work—it’s doing the right work at the right frequency.
We designed Strety around this reality. Quarterly conversations provide structured check-ins aligned with your EOS quarterly planning rhythm. 1:1 meeting tools make weekly or biweekly touchpoints easy and productive. 360 reviews gather comprehensive feedback without creating administrative burden.
The challenge is that managers often lack confidence in their coaching abilities. Gartner found that 45% of managers don’t feel confident developing the skills their employees need. Our tools help bridge that gap. Templates provide structure. Integration provides context. Automation handles the logistics so managers can focus on meaningful conversations.
Reducing Manager Burden While Increasing Impact
Here’s a counterintuitive finding: more coaching doesn’t equal better results. Gartner research revealed that “Always-On” managers—those who provide constant, indiscriminate feedback—actually degrade employee performance by up to 8%. These managers overwhelm their team members with a firehose of input on everything.
The managers who drive real results are “Connectors”—those who guide employees to the right resources and people at the right time. Connector managers improve performance by up to 26% and increase employee engagement by up to 40%.
We built Strety to help managers be Connectors. The platform Integrates with the tools your team already uses daily—Microsoft Teams, Slack, project management systems, CRMs. When someone needs support, managers can create To Dos, connect them with resources, or flag issues for team discussion without leaving their workflow.
Managers typically spend only 9% of their time on employee development. We can’t create more hours in the day, but we can make that time dramatically more effective. Automated reminders ensure follow-through. Context is readily available without searching through email threads. Documentation happens naturally as part of the conversation.
Tracking Engagement in Real Time
Engagement isn’t something you measure once a year and hope for the best. It requires continuous attention, and that’s where our survey tools make a difference.
We built engagement surveys in Strety to catch culture and engagement issues before they escalate. Our Vibe Check surveys run monthly, giving you a real-time pulse on how your team feels. Gartner found that only one-third of employees believe their organization will act on their feedback. Our system is designed to close this action gap.
Here’s what makes our approach different: when you see something concerning in survey results, you can immediately create To-Dos, Issues, or Headlines directly from the data and either send it to a personal or team space, L10 agenda, or 1:1 meeting agenda. No switching platforms. No losing context. No wondering three weeks later what you were supposed to do about that engagement dip in the engineering team.
When engagement drops or specific issues spike, leadership knows immediately and can address them before they derail rocks or damage culture. A manager sees that their team’s scores dropped on “feeling valued”? They can create a 1:1 meeting agenda item to discuss it that same week. The leadership team notices a trend across departments? It becomes an Issue in the next Level 10 meeting, with full context about which teams are affected and what people actually said.
This integration between measurement and action is what prevents engagement initiatives from becoming empty exercises. Your team sees that their feedback leads to real conversations and tangible changes. That builds trust. And trust drives engagement.
The Integration Advantage
The real power emerges when performance management and EOS execution work as one system.
As one Strety customer explained:
“The ability to create that To Do in Strety and have integrations to put that in as a ticket inside the PSA eliminates this option of ‘Hey, oh, we forgot about doing that.’ It’s completely transformed the way my employees interact with EOS.”
When engagement meets execution, the results compound. Performance data informs which rocks to prioritize and which people need support. EOS decisions inform individual development plans. Your quarterly planning sessions have real context about team capacity and capability. Your people feel like their growth matters to the organization’s success—because it demonstrably does.
The Result: EOS Software That Develops People
We built our EOS software with a simple belief: the people component deserves as much attention and integration as vision, data, issues, process, and traction.
Traditional EOS software helps you run better meetings and track your rocks. That’s table stakes. The best EOS software goes further—it helps you build and develop the team that makes everything else possible.
The research validates this approach. When organizations effectively support managers in engagement action planning, they see a 51% increase in employee engagement. That’s not just better engagement scores—it’s better execution, lower turnover, and higher profitability.
Getting traction is about developing the people who make your biggest Rocks achievable. It’s about creating a culture where people understand the vision, feel connected to the mission, and bring their best every day.
That’s why we built Strety with employee engagement at the core. Because Right People, Right Seats only works when those people stay, grow, and remain engaged in building something remarkable.
See how our tools work together to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Book a demo to explore how Strety integrates employee engagement into every component of EOS.
Or jump in and start using Strety today with a free 30-day trial. Because the best time to invest in your people is now.