According to Gallup’s 2026 Report, global levels of engagement now match the level we hit in 2020, when only 20% of the global workforce was engaged at work.
And that drop “cost the world economy approximately $10 trillion in lost productivity, or 9% of GDP.”
Gallup defines engagement as the psychological attachment workers have to their work, their team and their employer and has proven repeatedly that disengaged employees lead to less profitable organizations, which translates to lower economic growth.
But let’s also be real.
Global engagement had only climbed to an average of 23% since 2020, which is also an appalling number and sadly, the highest engagement has ever been.
It’s also interesting (and sad) to note that the gap between managers and employees has shrunk to 3%. In 2022, the gap was 11% (31% of managers were engaged compared to 20% of employees).
But increasing engagement is not an impossible goal. Organizations engaged in engagement best practices see an average of 79% of managers being engaged at work — nearly quadruple the global average. No doubt that has positive financial implications for those employers.
Increasing Employee Engagement is Not That Hard
It can feel hard in the thick of daily tasks, complaints, poor morale, and a scary economy. And it can feel particularly hard if you’re not starting with data and instead throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it sticks.
We spoke to one potential client, for example, who was spending half of her budget on a social event to increase engagement survey scores. I begged her not to force disengaged people to come to a party where they’d be, well, disengaged, but she insisted and I wish her well.
Step 1. Gather Data
If engagement is psychological attachment to one’s workplace, it makes sense that the greater the attachment, the harder and more productive one will be, and the more profitable the company will be.
Keep in mind, however, that psychological attachment is one outcome of culture, but the words engagement and culture are not to be intertwined (though they so often are!).
Your engagement score tells you something about how employees feel about their workplace. It doesn’t necessarily tell you why they feel that way.
That’s why your first step has to be gathering the right data.
A good workforce survey should help you understand the employee experience underneath engagement. How psychologically safe do people feel? What are their relationships with their managers and coworkers like? Do they believe communication is effective? Do they feel included? Are they satisfied with their jobs? Learn more about our Workforce Survey here.
And depending on what you uncover, you may need to dig deeper through interviews, focus groups, or other qualitative methods.
You’re trying to understand what is happening in your culture before you decide how to change it. Because if you skip this step, you end up spending half your budget on a party.
Step 2. Figure Out What the Data Is Actually Telling You
This is where I see organizations get stuck. They did the survey. They got the results. Maybe they even presented a beautiful dashboard to the executive team.
And then someone asks, “Okay. What do we do now?” That question is much harder to answer than it sounds.
If employees score communication poorly, for example, “improve communication” isn’t an action plan. You need to understand what poor communication actually means in your organization.
Are leaders withholding information? Are managers inconsistent about what they share? Are employees overwhelmed with communication but still missing the information they need? Are decisions being made without explanation? Do people feel uncomfortable asking questions?
Those are entirely different problems requiring entirely different solutions. The same goes for low scores around trust, recognition, psychological safety, leadership, teamwork, or growth.
The survey identifies the smoke. Your job is to find the fire.
Step 3. Build a Roadmap Instead of Launching Random Initiatives
Once you understand what is driving the results, resist the urge to fix everything at once. This is another place where good intentions get organizations into trouble.
Leaders see 15 things they want to improve and launch 15 initiatives. Six months later, everyone is overwhelmed, managers have another pile of responsibilities, employees aren’t sure what’s actually changed, and HR is exhausted trying to keep everything moving.
Instead, build a roadmap.
Determine which issues create the greatest risk or have the greatest impact on the employee experience. Identify what you can realistically influence. Decide what needs immediate attention and what belongs in the longer-term plan. Then get specific about what change actually looks like.
If employees say they don’t receive enough feedback, for example, your goal shouldn’t simply be to “improve feedback.”
What behaviors need to change? Do managers need to hold more frequent conversations? Do they need skills for delivering difficult feedback respectfully? Do employees need clearer expectations? Does your performance management process need to change?
Now you’re moving from survey results to action. Organizations aren’t necessarily failing at engagement because they don’t care. Many simply haven’t been intentional about connecting the data to specific changes in organizational systems, leadership behaviors, and individual behaviors. And without that connection, engagement becomes a series of activities instead of a strategy.
Step 4. Look Closely at Your Managers
Managers are responsible for creating much of the day-to-day employee experience, but organizations routinely promote people into management and assume they’ll somehow figure out the “people” part along the way.
Suddenly they’re expected to give meaningful feedback, navigate conflict, coach performance, recognize good work, communicate organizational decisions, build trust, create psychological safety, hold people accountable, and support employee development.
That’s a lot to ask from someone whose leadership development consisted of, “Congratulations on your promotion.”
So if your survey tells you employees don’t feel supported, heard, recognized, developed, or psychologically safe, don’t immediately conclude that you have an employee engagement problem.
You may have a manager capability problem. That’s why manager development needs to connect directly to the data you’ve gathered.
Our Manager Evolution Lab, for example, focuses on developing managers over time rather than sending them to one training and hoping something sticks. Managers need opportunities to learn, practice, apply, and strengthen the behaviors that actually shape the employee experience.
If the survey tells you where employees are struggling, your manager development strategy should help managers build the skills required to change that experience.
Step 5. Measure Again With the Right Things
Eventually, yes, you should survey employees again. But don’t wait until the next annual engagement survey to find out whether anything changed.
If your roadmap focuses on improving feedback, measure whether employees are receiving more useful feedback. If you’re working on psychological safety, look for changes in employees’ willingness to speak up, ask questions, admit mistakes, or raise concerns. If you’re developing managers, measure whether employees experience changes in manager behavior.
You want to know whether the actions in your roadmap are actually changing the conditions that contributed to disengagement. That also gives you an opportunity to adjust.
Engagement Requires Intentionality
Maybe the fact that global engagement remains so low shouldn’t surprise us.
Organizations spend enormous amounts of time measuring engagement, talking about engagement, and trying to improve engagement. But measurement alone doesn’t create change.
And neither do perks, pizza parties, wellness apps, or another inspirational leadership training if they have nothing to do with what employees are actually experiencing.
Engagement improves when organizations become intentional about the culture they’re creating. You know what to do next because your data told you.
And if you’re reading this thinking, “Great, but who has the time or expertise to do all of that?”
We do.
At Civility Partners, this is literally what we do. We can survey your workforce, dig into what’s driving the results, build your roadmap for change, and develop your managers to help make that change stick. You don’t have to piece together five different solutions or stare at another survey report wondering what comes next. Just take a look at our case studies here.
So what are you waiting for? Just send us an email or set up a time to talk with one of our workplace culture experts. Let’s look at what’s happening in your organization, figure out what needs to change, and build a plan to actually change it.
Your engagement scores aren’t going to improve because you hope they will.
Let’s get to work.
PS: Do you want to share your expertise with the Civility Partners community? We’re looking for experts to guest our Workplace Intelligence Series’ bi-monthly webinars and Culture Forward Show. If you have insights our audience of HR professionals and leaders needs to hear, we’d love to connect. Fill out this quick form, and we’ll send you more information about guest opportunities!
