In a conservative working environment where open communication is not the standard, how do you encourage employee engagement?

In an environment where you are trying to change the culture and encourage more employee engagement, it is important to inculcate certain deliberate behaviours.

• "Brown bag lunch meetings" are great in that they allow you to meet in a more informal setting and hold less rigid discussions. They could start out as discussions over the culture of the organization. They should be consistent as what you are trying to do is build trust.
• Team building goes a long way in demystifying the myths between gradesm departments and individuals as a whole. Once again, these should be regularly scheduled and there should be a budget for it. 
• Roping in employees from different departments and of different grades to the same project then allows them to get to know one another better. 
• From an HR perspective, I have discovered that assigning HR Business Partners endears HR to the various business units as it allows the team members in that unit access to HR without too much bureaucracy but at the same time allos HR into that business unit as a trusted unit and not suspicious. 
• It is important to be able to implement changes recommended by employees, no matter how small as long as they are in line with corporate strategy and organizational goals - this shows the employees that they are taken seriously and gives them a sense of ownership as well.