Gallup recently published their “State of the Global Workplace: Understanding Employees, Informing Leaders,” 2025 report. According to Jon Clifton, the CEO of Gallup, “we are witnessing a pivotal moment in the global workplace – one where engagement is faltering at the exact time artificial intelligence is transforming in its path.”
Gallup’s data shows that in 2024 the global percentage of engaged employees fell from 23% to 21% and that engagement has only fallen twice in the past 12 years, in 2020 and 2024. The research states that last year’s two-point drop in engagement was equal to the decline during the year of COVID-19 lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders.
What’s behind this decline? The primary cause was the drop in manager engagement which fell from 30% to 27%. Individual contributor engagement remained flat at 18%.
Gallup lists the below disruptors over the last five years that has influenced this drop in engagement:
- Post-pandemic retirements and turnover
- A hiring boom and bust
- Rapidly restructured teams and departments
- Shrinking budgets as stimulus programs ended
- Disrupted supply chains
- New customer expectations
- Digital transformation and AI tools
- New employee desires regarding flexibility and remote work
If managers are disengaged, their teams are too. Gallup states “this relationship is so strong that it shows up in country-level data: Countries with less engaged managers are more likely to have less engaged individual contributors.” We also know that manager engagement affects team engagement which affects productivity and overall business performance.
