July 21, 2025
“I love my job.”
Seems like a simple enough statement, and yet how often do you hear it? For many people, work is work. And yet we spend so much time working that it sure would be nice to actually love what we do every day.
Instead, burnout and disengagement are high, and many leaders do little to reverse the trend. For some, the focus on making work engaging and motivating may seem like the “soft” part of business, something to address but not necessarily with a full-court press.
Yet the employee engagement data is very clear: engagement is a key driver of organizational success. To make our organizations thrive, improving the employee experience deserves our full attention.
What Is Employee Engagement?
Employee engagement is the emotional and psychological connection employees feel toward their work, their team, and the organization. When that connection is strong, it drives a host of benefits – higher performance, more collaboration, and stronger retention.
Engaged employees are more likely to look forward to work, feel their contributions matter, and see their role as meaningful. They show up with energy, creativity, and a desire to go above and beyond – not because they have to, but because they want to.
That’s the power behind positive employee engagement statistics – they reflect an environment where people are truly invested. And behind every positive employee engagement statistic is a leader who’s creating the conditions for that connection to thrive.
Why Does Employee Engagement Matter?
According to Gallup and other sources of leading employee engagement data, there’s a direct connection between how employees feel and how a company performs. When that data is overlooked, organizations often miss red flags until it’s too late.
Top company leaders often point to engagement as a key contributor to a company’s success. Consider the reflections of three prominent leaders on engagement:
- “It goes without saying that no company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.” – Jack Welch, former CEO of GE
- “To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace.” – Doug Conant, former CEO of Campbell’s Soup
- “Leadership is hard to define, and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader.” – Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo
Critically, leaders often miss the signs of employees who’ve checked out and begun to search for a new and better role. McKinsey researchers aptly addressed this reality in a piece titled, “Help your employees find purpose – or watch them leave.” Researchers wrote, “Employees expect their jobs to bring significant purpose to their lives. Employers need to help to meet this need or be prepared to lose talent to companies that will.”
15 Key Employee Engagement Statistics to Consider Now
Over the past several years, a mound of evidence has piled in on the importance of engagement. Here’s a snapshot of the data we’ve found to be most compelling:
1. U.S. Employee Engagement Levels Are Dismal
U.S. employee engagement fell to its lowest level in a decade in 2024, with only 31% of employees engaged, according to the latest research from Gallup, which has tracked engagement for decades.
An alarming number – 17% of employees – are “actively disengaged,” Gallup’s research says. The numbers reflect a “growing trend of employee detachment from organizations,” particularly among workers under 35, Gallup says.
2. U.S. Employees and Managers Are Burnt Out and Checked Out
More than 75% of employees and 63% of managers report feeling burned out or ambivalent in their current position, according to a study we conducted in partnership with The Harris Poll. Clearly, these feelings are highly connected to employee disengagement.
Further, the study found managers aren't recognizing just how overwhelmed their employees feel, with 89% of managers saying their employees are thriving compared to the actual thriving figure of 24% – a more than 3-to-1 discrepancy.
3. Global Employee Engagement Levels Are Also Historically Low
Global employee engagement fell by two percentage points in 2024 – from 23% to 21%, according to Gallup. Engagement has only fallen twice in the past 12 years, in 2020 and 2024.
4. Disengaged Managers Have a Trickle-Down Impact on Employee Engagement
Gallup’s 2024 global research found manager engagement falling from 30% to 27%. Managers under the age of 35 reported a five-percentage-point decline. Female manager engagement fell by seven percentage points.
“In recent years, managers have been squeezed between new executive priorities and employee expectations. Many organizations experienced workforce changes after the pandemic, characterized by high turnover, rapid expansions, and layoffs in some sectors,” Jim Harter, Ph.D., and Chief Scientist of Workplace for Gallup, wrote in releasing the findings. “At the same time, employees have new demands for flexibility and remote work based on their pandemic experiences, but some companies have rolled this flexibility back. All of this eventually takes a toll on the world’s managers, who are struggling to make it all work.”
5. Employees Need Supportive Managers in Order to Thrive
Our 2024 research with The Harris Poll found that managers play a critical role in moving employees from burned out and checked out to thriving. For employees who say they are thriving, the top indicator is a manager who is "invested in their success."
Employee thriving is driven by three key drivers:
- A manager invested in my success (61%)
- An empathetic manager (57%)
- Approachable senior leadership (53%)
6. Disengaged Employees Are a Serious Flight Risk
A whopping 90% of organizations are concerned about employee retention and the need for learning opportunities to further engage employees, according to the 2024 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report.
The report also found that employees crave growth and development opportunities to become more motivated and engaged, including leadership development support, mentorship, individualized career plans, and more chances to move into new roles.
7. The Explosion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Causing Concern Among Employees, Impacting Engagement
A 2025 Pew Research Center survey of AI in the workplace found widespread concern among employees about the potential impact of AI. When asked about their feelings about how AI might be used in future work sites, 52% of respondents said they were “worried,” while just 36% said they were “hopeful” about it.
In a Washington Post piece about the study, Hatim Rahman, associate professor of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said workers are worried about their jobs being replaced.
“In absence of the clear vision of increasing productivity [with AI], people are legitimately scared that the organization may justify laying them off by saying AI can do this job,” said Rahman, who studies AI effects on work.
8. To Be Engaged, Gen Z Wants More from Their Employers
Gen Z is hungrier for advancement. 53% want learning options to progress in their career, compared to 37% for other generations, says LinkedIn’s recent Workplace Learning Report.
Workers younger than 35 were five points less engaged in 2024 compared to the year prior, according to Gallup’s annual survey. Gallup found notable declines in the Gen Z generation on a number of engagement measures, including a lack of clarity on expectations, poor recognition, and not having opportunities to do what employees feel they do best.
Our recent research with The Harris Poll on employee burnout levels reached similar conclusions. The study found that younger generation employees are nearly 3x more likely than older generations to say that interpersonal conflict hinders working conditions and drives feelings of burnout (16%).
Younger generations are also more than 2x as likely than older generations to cite a toxic work environment (16%) and communication overload as contributing to burnout (17%), the study found.
9. Employee Disengagement Has Serious Business Impacts on the World Economy
Global employee engagement fell by two percentage points in 2024, costing the world economy an estimated $438 billion in lost productivity, according to Gallup’s 2024 State of the Workforce report.
10. Engaged Employees Produce Better Business Results
Gallup research has consistently shown that engaged teams do better on several key performance measures. Gallup’s latest employee engagement research found that business units and teams scoring in the top quartile in engagement had the following impressive differences in business outcomes when compared to the lowest quartile group:
- 78% less absenteeism
- 21% less turnover for normally high-turnover organizations
- 51% less turnover for low-turnover organizations
- 28% less theft
- 63% fewer safety incidents/accidents
- 32% fewer quality defects
At the same time, Gallup finds that engaged employees achieve multiple positive impacts for the business:
- 10% higher customer loyalty/engagement
- 18% higher productivity according to sales data
- 14% higher productivity through production records and evaluations
- 23% higher profitability for their organizations
- 22% higher organizational participation from employees
11. Engaged Employees Bring More “Discretionary Effort”
Higher engagement can lead to a 57% improvement in discretionary effort, according to the Corporate Leadership Council, a division of the Corporate Executive Board.
On average, engaged employees see a 20% individual performance improvement and an 87% reduction in the desire to leave.
These outcomes show the value of even a single compelling employee engagement statistic can shine a light on the ROI of an engaged workforce and help guide smarter leadership decisions.
12. Managers Who Spend More Time with Their Employees Improve Engagement
More time with one’s leader leads to higher engagement for employees, according to recent research from Leadership IQ, which surveyed 32,410 American and Canadian executives, managers, and employees.
Specifically, the research team found:
- Nearly half of people spend three or fewer hours per week interacting with their direct leader
- The optimal time spent with one’s leader is 6 hours
- Employees with 6 hours of leader communication are 29% more inspired and 30% more engaged than those with 1 hour per week with a leader
- People who spend 6 hours per week interacting with a leader are 16% more innovative than people with 1 hour of weekly interfacing
13. To Be Better Engaged, Employees Crave Acceptance and Belonging
Only 36% of employees feel engaged, and just 24% feel psychologically safe at work, according to a 2025 report from Achievers Workforce Institute.
14. Getting Feedback Helps Retain and Engage Employees
Employees who take the time to frequently survey their employees and use multiple forms of feedback channels tend to report higher employee engagement levels, according to research from Achievers.
15. Better Communication is Essential for Employees to Thrive
Overall, better communication is a huge key to higher employee engagement, according to multiple research studies. As experts in leadership communication, we could not feel stronger about communication as a vital piece in the engagement puzzle.
Our recent research with The Harris Poll found that thriving employees reported working for senior leaders who provided clear direction and authentic communication.
How to Improve Employee Engagement
One of the best answers for how to engage employees is to simply make work feel motivating. Often, that means connecting employees not only to a sense of purpose but also trying to more directly match employee talents with their work.
In a recent Harvard Business Review piece, Marcus Buckingham, head of people and performance research at the ADP Research Institute, shared insights from companies he’s extensively researched because of their success with engaging employees.
Buckingham said a key driver of success is talking more with employees about what they love to do. He cited a Mayo Clinic study that found if less than 20% of your work involves the things you love to do, you’re far more likely to experience physical and psychological burnout.
Buckingham, who authored the book Love + Work: How to Find What You Love, Love What You Do, and Do It for the Rest of Your Life, also shared the example of Lululemon, which encourages employees to set both career and personal goals. He attributed that focus to helping the company achieve 90-day retention and first-year employee engagement scores twice as high as industry averages.
Other exemplary programs for engagement that Buckingham admired include:
- Lifelong learning programs, which include direct payment for college degrees
- Student loan reimbursement programs
- Discretionary time to pursue personal projects
- Team-building trips connected to the company’s purpose (such as Patagonia hosting team-building hiking trips)
5 Key Strategies Behind Successful Employee Engagement Programs Today
In our work with clients of The Grossman Group, we’ve seen firsthand many examples of winning programs that help drive employee engagement. Here are some highlights of the key strategies that are working for our clients today:
1. Getting Teams Connected to the Change
Whenever a company is experiencing massive change (which is the case with most large companies today), employees often feel disconnected from the reasons behind the shift. Yet when leaders bring in the internal communications team as part of the change process, there’s a much better chance the change goes smoothly.
For example, we worked with a large university to shore up its communications team during a time of change. The team then had the support of leadership to develop a plan for a highly successful town hall that brought together many more employees than the organization had ever gathered for one meeting. Simultaneously, the university provided leadership training for top leaders, so they could carry forward the messages from the town hall with their teams on a regular basis.
As a result, the entire leadership team was sharing a similar message about the direction of the university for the future. Singing from the same songbook, unified and directed in its approach to the future.
2. Building a Coherent Story During a Merger
Historically, one of the biggest stresses on employee engagement is a major change, such as a merger, and these changes are obviously happening much more frequently.
It’s important to address the pain points employees often feel during such a big time of transition, and one great tool is a unified “platform” of messages, a clear story that has all leaders singing from the same songbook.
That platform needs to be open about the challenges ahead and speak to the top questions on employees’ minds. A prepared Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document can help leaders stay in tune with the top questions employees have.
3. Cultivating Ambassadors
When a big change or new strategy is involved, it’s easy for employees to be naysayers and disengage. Change can be exhausting, and it’s easy to simply resist or complain.
Yet when organizations can equip managers or other influential employees with the communication tips and training to share the context behind a change, employees can feel more informed – and ultimately supportive – of the new direction.
4. Focusing on Inspired Meetings and Themes
All too often today, employee communication is bland and routine. Leaders deliver emails written without much thought for the employee audience and what’s on their minds. The “What’s in it for me?” question isn’t even considered. Organizations that take the time to truly listen to employees can do a much better job at inspiring and engaging them.
For example, we worked with a global healthcare organization to plan a town hall like nothing employees had experienced before. While the meeting was online and for an audience of thousands of employees across the globe, months of planning went into it.
Inspirational keynote speakers were brought in, along with leaders who spoke to how the organization was helping transform the lives of patients around the world. Employees working on successful projects that impacted patients were recognized, and details shared of what’s working and where improvements need to be made.
Employees shared that the meeting was one of the most memorable and engaging experiences they had ever had with the company. Many employees said they learned new insights about the mission and its impact on employees and patients. It was a great win for the communications team and for employees.
5. Embrace Flexibility and Work-Life Balance
Work demands have steadily increased over the years, leaving many employees feeling overworked, stressed, and burned out. Organizations that acknowledge this reality and respond with greater flexibility – like offering more autonomy and paid time off – tend to see stronger engagement and retention.
Many are going a step further, introducing creative benefits such as additional time off, flexible work locations, performance bonuses, equity incentives, or customized schedules that give employees more control over how they manage their time.
How The Grossman Group Can Help
If you’re seeing the signs of disengagement – lower morale, quiet quitting, higher turnover – it’s time to take action.
At The Grossman Group, we work with leaders to uncover the root causes of low engagement and build a communication strategy that strengthens trust, connection, and performance. From analyzing your internal employee engagement data to activating leaders with the skills and messages they need to inspire teams, we bring a proven approach that’s tailored to your organization’s needs.
Let’s partner to turn insights into outcomes – and help your employees feel seen, heard, and motivated to contribute their best. Our expertise and data-driven approach ensure that we’re not just improving culture – we’re improving the numbers reflected in your employee engagement statistics and business results.
The Bottom Line
Employee disengagement is undoubtedly a serious concern for organizations today, yet there’s an incredible opportunity for all organizations to turn that around. It comes down to the most important aspect of any organization’s lifeblood – the employees.
When more attention is paid to what employees need to do their jobs better, and what truly motivates them, companies can take their organizations further than they ever imagined.
Which of these statistics resonated most for you, and what do you think organizations can do to improve employee engagement?
—David Grossman
Get insights that you can use to show your team they genuinely matter. When you do, those employees will be more engaged, producing stronger results for the business. Download your free copy of the eBook – A Persona of Today’s Employee – here.
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