Last month, Alta had the pleasure of hosting a virtual roundtable in partnership with Execs In The Know, bringing together a group of CX leaders from across industries to discuss one critical question: What’s really holding engagement back—and how can we move forward?

The conversation was candid, insightful, and surprisingly unified. Despite representing different verticals, participants echoed many of the same challenges, and began outlining similar strategies to address them.

1. Survey and Leader Fatigue Are Eroding Impact
 The group acknowledged that while employee surveys are well-intentioned, they’re often overused or under-leveraged. Employees grow weary of providing feedback that doesn’t lead to visible change, and people leaders—already stretched thin—struggle to find the time and support needed to act on results.

2. From Data to Action: A Missing Link
 Many attendees noted that the gap between collecting data and actually using it is still a major hurdle. Several shared stories of strong participation rates but little follow-through. The takeaway: without practical tools, guidance, and accountability, insights often stay in dashboards instead of driving behavior.

3. Engagement Isn’t an Event—It’s a Habit
 One of the roundtable’s recurring themes was the need to normalize engagement as an ongoing effort, not an annual campaign. Leaders discussed shifting from one-time survey pushes to embedding engagement into everyday team routines, such as regular check-ins, coaching sessions, and leadership touchpoints.

4. Executive Visibility Matters
 Even the best frontline programs fall flat without senior leadership buy-in. Participants agreed that when executives actively champion engagement—by communicating its value, modeling openness, and following up on results—it creates permission and momentum for managers to do the same.

5. Micro-Actions Create Macro Impact
 Several attendees are leaning into smaller, more frequent nudges: short videos, one-pager toolkits, quick conversation guides, and leader prompts. These bite-sized resources are proving easier for teams to use and more effective in sustaining engagement across busy operations.

Moving Forward, Together
 The roundtable highlighted what so many of us know to be true: engagement isn’t a siloed HR function—it’s a shared responsibility. And while no one has it all figured out, there’s power in coming together to learn, listen, and challenge each other to do better. Alta is grateful to have hosted this discussion with Execs In The Know, and we look forward to more honest conversations like it in the future.