Employee engagement is often discussed as an HR priority, but the example of Dubai Airports shows how it can become part of everyday business performance and workplace culture.

In 2025, Dubai Airports received the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award (GEWA), reaching the 75th percentile for employee engagement. In 2026, it was recognised again, reaching the 77th percentile with a reported employee engagement score of 74%. Dubai Airports is now a two-time consecutive recipient of the award and the only airport on Gallup's 2026 winners list.

For employers across the UAE and wider GCC, the interesting question is not simply why Dubai Airports won an award. It is what its approach to employee engagement and wellbeing can teach other organisations.

The answer goes beyond employee activities or occasional wellness campaigns. Dubai Airports' own communications point to a broader approach involving engagement, wellbeing, leadership, development, collaboration and employee capability.

Quick Answer

Dubai Airports' approach to employee engagement combines people development, leadership, collaboration, wellbeing and a strong connection between employees and business performance. Its 2026 Gallup recognition shows that engagement can be embedded into how an organisation operates rather than treated as a one-off HR initiative. For UAE employers, the key lesson is to make employee engagement and wellbeing part of the wider employee experience and business strategy.

What Makes Dubai Airports' Approach Different?

Dubai Airports operates in a highly complex environment. Its people work across airport operations, corporate functions and multiple partner organisations, all contributing to the passenger experience.

That makes employee engagement more than an internal HR concern.

At Dubai Airports, the connection between people and performance is explicitly recognised. In its 2026 Gallup announcement, Chief People Officer Meshari Al Bannai described engagement as being embedded into the way the organisation operates, including leadership development, talent development, accountability, service and innovation.

This is an important distinction.

A workplace can run individual wellness activities, employee surveys or team events without necessarily creating an engaged workforce.

A stronger approach connects:

Employee experience → engagement → wellbeing → capability → performance

That connection is particularly relevant for organisations with large, diverse or operationally demanding workforces.

Why Employee Engagement Matters to Business Performance

Employee engagement refers to the level of connection, involvement and commitment employees have toward their work, team and organisation.

It is different from simply being satisfied with a job.

An employee may be satisfied with their salary or workplace benefits but still feel disconnected from their role. An engaged employee is more likely to understand what is expected, feel supported by their manager, see meaning in their work and contribute actively to team goals.

Gallup's latest Q12 meta-analysis examined data from more than 183,000 business and work units, representing more than 3.35 million employees across 347 organisations, 53 industries and 90 countries. It found a consistent relationship between employee engagement and several organisational outcomes.

Compared with bottom-quartile business/work units, top-quartile units showed median differences including:

• 23% higher profitability
• 18% higher sales productivity
• 10% higher customer loyalty/engagement
• 21% lower turnover in high-turnover organisations
• 78% lower absenteeism
• 70% higher employee wellbeing

These are relationships observed at the business/work-unit level, not promises of specific results for every organisation.

The wider lesson is straightforward: engagement should be measured and managed as part of organisational performance, not treated simply as an employee satisfaction score.

What Dubai Airports Does Well

Dubai Airports' approach provides several useful examples for organisations building their own employee engagement strategies.

1. It connects people and performance

The 2026 GEWA recognition highlights the organisation's focus on the connection between how people are led, developed and empowered and how the airports perform.

This is important because employees are not separate from business performance.

For a service organisation, employee behaviour directly affects customer experience. For an operational organisation, employee capability and collaboration can influence consistency, safety and resilience.

The practical lesson for HR leaders is to avoid positioning engagement as a standalone HR programme.

Instead, ask:

• What business outcomes should engagement support?
• Which employee behaviours contribute to those outcomes?
• What prevents employees from doing their best work?
• How can managers create better conditions for performance?

2. It invests in employee development

Dubai Airports' current people strategy includes leadership development and talent development. Its 2026 announcement highlights programmes such as Future Faces and Rising Stars for Emirati talent, alongside a wider promote-from-within approach.

Development matters because engagement is not only about making employees feel good at work.

People also want to understand where their career can go.

Useful workplace practices can include:

• Clear career pathways
• Manager development
• Mentoring
• Skills development
• Internal mobility
• Leadership programmes
• Regular career conversations
• Recognition of employee growth

For UAE organisations, this can be particularly valuable when employers are trying to attract, develop and retain both Emirati and international talent.

3. It treats wellbeing as part of the employee experience

Dubai Airports has also publicly demonstrated a broader approach to wellbeing.

In 2024, its month-long wellbeing campaign included activities addressing physical and mental health, employee education, health screening and awareness. The organisation described employee wellbeing as an important focus and said its wellbeing programme included activities addressing different aspects of the individual experience.

This demonstrates an important principle:

Wellbeing works best when employees can engage with it in different ways.

Not everyone will respond to the same initiative.

One employee may prefer physical activities. Another may value mental wellbeing resources. Someone else may be more interested in professional development, financial education or social connection.

A broader workplace wellbeing strategy can therefore reach more employees than a single wellness activity.

4. It builds collaboration into the culture

Dubai Airports has repeatedly highlighted the role of its wider oneDXB community and the collaboration required across the airport environment. In 2025, the organisation described its performance as the result of coordinated effort across its teams, government partners, airlines and commercial operators.

This offers an important lesson for large employers.

Employee engagement is not created only through individual initiatives. It is also influenced by how people work together.

Organisations can encourage collaboration through:

• Cross-team projects
• Team challenges
• Peer recognition
• Shared wellbeing activities
• Knowledge-sharing sessions
• Employee communities
• Leadership communication
• Social connection opportunities

5. It keeps leadership visible

Leadership involvement sends a strong signal about organisational priorities.

When senior leaders talk about employee engagement but managers behave as though only output matters, employees receive conflicting messages.

Visible leadership support can include:

• Participating in wellbeing activities
• Discussing employee experience in leadership meetings
• Recognising employee contributions
• Listening to employee feedback
• Supporting manager development
• Connecting wellbeing with business priorities

The goal is not for executives to attend every employee activity.

It is to make it clear that people are part of the organisation's performance strategy.

7 Employee Engagement Lessons for UAE Employers

Dubai Airports' example can be translated into practical actions for HR and people leaders.

1. Make engagement a business priority

Do not limit employee engagement to an annual survey.

Define what engagement should improve within the organisation and make it part of regular leadership discussions.

2. Listen before designing programmes

Employee needs differ by department, role, age, location and working environment.

Use surveys, feedback, participation data and manager conversations to understand what employees actually need.

3. Give employees different ways to participate

A single programme will not work equally well for everyone.

Offer a mix of:

• Digital resources
• Challenges
• Workshops
• Team activities
• Learning
• Social experiences
• Wellbeing support
• Health education

Choice can make participation more accessible.

4. Make managers part of the strategy

Managers have a major influence on the day-to-day employee experience.

Train managers to:

• Have meaningful check-ins
• Recognise contributions
• Discuss workload
• Encourage development
• Listen to concerns
• Signpost available wellbeing support

An employee engagement strategy that ignores managers is unlikely to reach the everyday employee experience.

5. Connect wellbeing to real workplace needs

Avoid offering wellbeing activities simply because they are popular.

Instead, ask what the workforce is experiencing.

For example:

If employees report high workload → consider workload, recovery and manager practices.

If participation is low → examine accessibility, communication and relevance.

If teams feel disconnected → consider social and team-based activities.

If employees struggle to see career opportunities → strengthen professional wellbeing and development.

6. Measure participation and outcomes

Participation alone does not tell the full story.

HR teams should consider a combination of measures, such as:

• Employee engagement
• Programme participation
• Employee feedback
• Retention
• Absenteeism
• Wellbeing indicators
• Manager effectiveness
• Internal mobility
• Team-level trends

The objective is not to collect more data for its own sake.

It is to understand whether the strategy is reaching employees and where support needs to improve.

7. Make engagement consistent

A campaign can create initial excitement.

Culture is built through repetition.

Employee engagement should therefore appear in regular conversations, leadership decisions, team practices, development plans and wellbeing activities.

That is how a programme becomes part of the employee experience rather than another initiative that employees forget after a few weeks.

The Role of Employee Wellbeing in Engagement

Employee engagement and employee wellbeing are closely connected, but they are not the same thing.

Engagement focuses on how employees connect with their work and organisation.

Wellbeing looks more broadly at the conditions that support people across different areas of life and work.

These can include:

• Physical wellbeing
• Mental and emotional wellbeing
• Social wellbeing
• Financial wellbeing
• Professional wellbeing
• Nutritional or lifestyle wellbeing

This broader view matters because an employee's ability to engage at work can be affected by factors outside a narrow definition of job satisfaction.

Gallup's 2024 meta-analysis found that the relationship between engagement and wellbeing was particularly strong among the outcomes studied.

For employers, this means wellbeing should not be treated simply as a collection of benefits.

It can be part of the wider system that helps employees participate, connect, perform and remain with the organisation.

What This Means for UAE and GCC Employers

The Dubai Airports example is particularly relevant to the UAE and wider GCC because many organisations operate with diverse, multicultural and geographically distributed workforces.

That creates several practical considerations.

A multicultural workforce needs inclusive engagement

Employees may have different languages, cultural expectations, working patterns and preferences.

Communication and programme design should therefore be accessible and relevant to different employee groups.

For regional employers, bilingual communication and culturally appropriate content can help make wellbeing initiatives easier to understand and participate in.

Operational teams need flexible options

Not every employee works behind a desk.

Healthcare, aviation, hospitality, retail, logistics, construction and other operational sectors may have employees working across shifts, sites and different schedules.

A workplace wellbeing programme should account for these realities rather than assuming everyone can attend a lunchtime workshop or access a desktop portal.

Wellbeing should work across locations

Large GCC employers may have employees working across offices, sites and remote environments.

That makes digital access useful, but digital tools should ideally complement—not replace—real-world connection.

The strongest approach can combine digital experiences with team activities, workshops, challenges and other forms of participation.

How Should Employers Measure Employee Engagement and Wellbeing?

There is no single metric that tells an organisation whether its workforce is engaged and well.

A stronger measurement approach combines employee feedback with participation and organisational indicators.

Employee experience measures

Use regular surveys or pulse checks to understand:

• Whether employees feel supported
• Whether they understand organisational priorities
• Whether they feel connected to their teams
• Whether managers provide adequate support
• Whether employees see opportunities to develop

Participation measures

Track engagement with wellbeing activities and programmes.

For example:

• Participation rates
• Repeat participation
• Challenge completion
• Workshop attendance
• Content engagement
• Team participation

Workforce indicators

Where appropriate, compare engagement and wellbeing insights with organisational indicators such as:

• Retention
• Absenteeism
• Internal mobility
• Employee feedback
• Team performance

The goal should be to identify patterns and opportunities—not to reduce employee wellbeing to a single score.

How VIWELL Can Support a Workplace Wellbeing Strategy

For organisations looking to move from individual wellbeing activities to a more structured approach, VIWELL provides a workplace wellbeing platform designed to bring employee experiences, engagement and organisational insights together.

The platform supports employees across offices, sites and remote teams through an employee wellbeing app, HR dashboards and real-world activation.

Relevant capabilities include:

• Personalised wellbeing experiences
• Health assessments
• Daily check-ins
• Wellbeing content
• Challenges and social activities
• Arabic support
• Professional support through EAP
• Workforce-level engagement insights
• Programme and challenge reporting
• Real-world and virtual wellbeing activities

VIWELL's workplace solution also provides HR and leadership teams with a higher-level view of participation and engagement trends by areas such as location, department or segment. The platform states that data is presented in segments rather than at individual level, supporting employee privacy.

This approach can help employers move from:

One-off initiatives → ongoing participation → measurable workforce insights

The important point is that technology should support the strategy, not become the strategy itself.

A successful employee wellbeing platform should make it easier for organisations to understand workforce needs, activate relevant experiences and continue improving their approach over time.

Key Takeaways for HR and Business Leaders

Dubai Airports' journey offers several practical lessons for organisations across the UAE and GCC.

The biggest lesson is that employee engagement is not created by one survey, one event or one wellbeing campaign.

It develops through the everyday employee experience.

A strong approach combines:

1. Visible leadership support
2. Employee development
3. Workplace wellbeing
4. Meaningful communication
5. Team collaboration
6. Employee participation
7. Measurement and continuous improvement

Dubai Airports' latest recognition provides a useful regional example. In 2026, the organisation was recognised as a two-time consecutive Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award winner, with its engagement score reaching 74% and placing it in the 77th percentile.

But the real takeaway for other employers is not the award itself.

It is the approach behind it: engagement becomes stronger when organisations invest in people, develop leaders, support wellbeing and connect employee experience with business performance.

For UAE employers looking to strengthen this connection, the next step is to assess where their workforce currently stands and build a wellbeing strategy around actual employee needs.

Explore VIWELL's workplace wellbeing solution to see how a personalised wellbeing approach can support employee participation, engagement and workforce insights.