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Some things I am doing which I think help:

1. Active learning (slides which I annotate as the task in the lecture). This is viewed very positively by students, who get pushed to do a well-scaffolded activity for the whole session.

2. Saying hello to everyone by the entrance for 5min before the lecture starts.

I had a calculus professor who brought his dog to class every day.

Honestly....points. We use PollEV. If they respond to 90% or more of the questions over the semester, they get full credit for attendance/participation. And then once they're there, active learning/flipped classroom w/ emphasis on how this practice will help them learn the material.

Obvious caveats apply here for students who have accommodations for more absences or who are going through life things that make it difficult to get there.

Giving them time to get work done — work that would have to be done outside of class — while working together with other students The community and the time-efficiency make going to class a better option for them

In the dying days of my last job I ran totally flipped classes, a hybrid of mini lectures plus worked examples at the board plus group/individual work, or some proper lectures. The 'n' wasn't great for good stats but IMO it made no real difference whatsoever.