The 2025 State of the Global Workplace report from Gallup titled Understanding Employees, Informing Leadership presented a global workplace on the “cusp of a seismic change.” This includes a sizeable downturn in employee engagement as artificial intelligence (AI) disrupts everything in its path.
Ready or Not
The Gallup report posed a number of questions including how the disconnection felt by employees, particularly managers, will impact the future of a workplace shaped by AI and other engagement and performance tools. The report shows a level of disruption that is already affecting the workplace and its employees in ways seen and yet unseen. It also questions how global workplaces can master it in ways designed to spark growth, provide resources to help employees and managers succeed, and how to create a shared mission.
Pivotal Point
The crux of this is that technology is accelerating at a point that’s impossible to quantify. How can humans begin to digest these changes and effectively implement them in the workplace? It is a quandary few know how to answer. Yet, as the report points out, the time is now as the workplace is on the brink of a precarious and unknown outcome. The need and desire to bring these issues to the forefront is largely dependent on improving the engagement of employees.
In 2024, the global percentage of engaged employees fell from 23% to 21%, according to the report. While 2 percentage points might not seem newsworthy, it’s worth noting that engagement has only fallen twice in the last 12 years – 2020 and 2024. The decrease in 2024 is equal to the decline in 2020 when lockdown and shelter-in-place were mandated.
Lynch Pin
A key decline lies in manager engagement, which fell from 30% to 27%. This was pronounced among managers under the age of 35 and in female managers. These individuals outlined feeling extreme pressure and a sense of disconnection from executives dictating near-impossible tasks. This is further hampered by a lack of resources and often-changing directives. Engagement from individual contributors remained flat at 18%.
We know managers can make or break a department. Additionally, disengaged managers breed disengaged teams and less-engaged individual contributors. This ripple effect includes a decrease in wellbeing and the inability to switch off. Life evaluations of global employees fell to 33% in the last two years. Rising inflation and economic instability also contribute to a feeling of dissatisfaction with burnout playing a prominent role.
Seize the Moment
Here are a few ways to be pro-active and ensure your managers have all the tools they need to succeed.
- Ensure all managers receive training to cut extreme manager disengagement.
- Teach managers effective coaching techniques to boost manager performance.
- Increase manager wellbeing through ongoing manager development.
*Gallup
