New report identifies falling manager engagement as driver of decreasing overall engagement
Global employee engagement slid for the second consecutive year to hit 20% in 2025, with managers being the strongest driver of this decrease, according to a new report.
Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace report revealed that global employee engagement has dropped to its lowest level since 2020.
"This is the first time global engagement has dropped for two consecutive years," the report read. "The largest drop was in South Asia (-5 points). No region of the world increased engagement in the past year."
The report also found that 64% of employees are not engaged, while 16% are actively disengaged at work.
"Engagement measures the psychological attachment workers have to their work, their team and their employer," the Gallup report read.
"While engagement occurs at the team level, employees who are not engaged or actively disengaged lead to less profitable organisations, which, in turn, translates to lower economic growth."
Last year, low engagement cost the world economy approximately $10 trillion in lost productivity, or nine per cent of GDP, according to the report.
Manager engagement drives decline
The report attributed the declining engagement levels to falling manager engagement.
Since 2022, manager engagement has dropped by nine percentage points, with the biggest year-on-year decline recorded last year, with a drop of five points.
"In short, managers used to enjoy an 'engagement premium' at work, but they are increasingly only as engaged as those they lead," the report read.
But falling manager engagement can still be prevented, according to the findings, as it noted that 79% of managers in best-practice organisations are engaged at work.
According to the report, engaged managers experience negative emotions at lower rates than individual contributors. They are also more likely to be thriving in their overall life than the average leader.
AI could also boost global employee engagement by improving management practices at scale.
"Effective people management is a skill. But few managers have natural management talent, and many have not received the training they need to successfully coach teams and individuals toward high performance," the report read.
"AI tools have the potential to provide real-time, personalised manager advice grounded in the best management science. Such capabilities could be a game-changer for the world's workplace."
