Feeling part of a project not only has an emotional impact on the morale of the professionals within a company; it also translates into performance, stability and greater creativity. These are factors that, in an SME, can make a significant competitive difference and can even be quantified in numbers.

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Madrid, October 31, 2025.

Companies whose employees feel connected to the project and feel part of it can be up to 20% more productive and are absent from work less often than those who do not feel motivated. In addition, organizations with strong bonds of belonging among their employees reduce turnover by up to 50% and improve job satisfaction. “These data from studies by consultancies such as Gallup and Deloitte demonstrate the importance of the sense of belonging in organizations,” says Emmanuel Djengue, CEO of Kaatch.co, a leading HR-as-a-Service platform, “especially in SMEs which, generally, cannot compete at the same salary level as large companies, and attract and retain talent through innovation, employer branding and corporate culture.”

The sense of belonging is so important that when it drops, companies pay a price. According to data from Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report, global engagement fell by around 21% in 2024, resulting in a productivity loss valued at 438 billion dollars. These figures not only quantify the impact of employees’ emotional commitment to their companies, but “also reflect the importance of designing good corporate policy models, choosing the right brand values, and defining the desired work environment so that professionals remain motivated,” points out Álvaro Jiménez, CCO of Kaatch.co.

“The sense of belonging does not arise from grand speeches or costly benefits,” says Djengue, “but from small gestures and daily experiences that make people feel valued, heard and part of something meaningful.” For this reason, engagement does not depend on large organizational charts but on “a good communication strategy that considers employees’ opinions and defends safe spaces for dialogue; close leadership; recognition of achievements that shows professionals their work matters; real participation in changes that affect teams; policies of equality, inclusion and respect; training and career development plans, and of course, coherence between what is said and what is done,” adds the CEO of Kaatch.co.

Reaching this balance between good people management and business focus is not immediate. “It requires consistency, coherence and leadership,” says Jiménez, “and often demands a mindset shift from leaders.” For the CCO of Kaatch.co, achieving a strong connection between employees and the company is not a project — it is a journey, “a process built with a workplace climate plan that requires continuity, measurement, adjustment and rebalancing whenever any factor deviates from the objective.” It is continuous evaluation that begins with implementing a corporate policy model and defining company values. And often, this initiative emerges and is led from the company’s management, especially in small and medium-sized companies, without any People or Engagement expert to support its development and implementation. “We work daily with SMEs facing the challenge of implementing policies that resonate with employees, and we know that although some proactive managers do everything they can to align plans with their values, it is always faster and more effective to have People professionals who streamline the process and focus on the most critical points,” says Jiménez. Because “engagement is not a program or a plan, but a management approach that requires method and follow-up.”

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Smart engagement

One of the most effective and sustainable ways to build engagement in an SME, or in any growing company, “is through the temporary incorporation of a People expert to design and implement the initial model,” says Djengue, “because it avoids common mistakes such as copying practices from large companies or conducting surveys without an action plan; it provides structure, methodology and proven tools; it saves time for the founder and other leaders; and it is this expert who designates someone internally to take charge of follow-up, ensuring continuity.”

And it does not require much time. “At Kaatch, we have seen that a good model can be designed and launched in about six months, from the moment the expert joins the team until the system and habits are established,” says Jiménez. “In just over half a year, after completing key steps such as a solid cultural diagnosis through surveys, interviews and focus groups; defining purpose, values and cultural rituals; designing an employee journey map; creating communication routines; training leaders; and defining KPIs, a documented cultural operating system with simple processes and templates can be up and running.”

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