The engagement gap: what the data tells us, and what you can do about it
As employee engagement continues to fall across the global workforce, the pressure on leaders to close the gap has never been greater. Karen Anders, Communications Director, Powered by Humans, shares what the data reveals about where organisations are falling short - and the practical steps that can move the needle.
Global employee engagement sits at 21%. In the UK it is 10%, costing the global economy an estimated $10 trillion a year in lost productivity.[1]
The gap between good and great employee experience is almost entirely determined by one thing: the quality of leadership. And yet nearly half of all leaders have received no formal training.[2]
Here are six areas where the evidence is strongest and the opportunity to act is greatest.
1. Support your leaders before you expect more from them
Leaders are more likely than those they manage to report stress, anger, sadness and loneliness on a daily basis. They experience less laughter and less enjoyment at work.[3] Yet we expect them to show up as inspiring, authentic and empathetic - the qualities that correlate most strongly with employee trust.
Emotional wellbeing is the prerequisite for the kind of leadership that actually moves people. You cannot communicate authentically from a place of depletion.
- A focused half-day 'leader health check' - built around where leaders feel most underprepared - surfaces the real blockers faster than any survey. If you are designing a leadership programme, build the emotional capacity layer in and treat it as a behaviour-change experience, not a training course.
2. Define your culture, then actively maintain it
Only 36% of employees feel their company culture is well-defined and actively drives performance. The rest describe something reactive, inconsistent or absent from their daily experience of work.[4] Undefined culture is one of the most cited reasons for exit.[5]
Culture does not maintain itself, particularly in a hybrid era. It requires deliberate, visible, consistent effort.
- Ask a diverse cross-section of your people: "What does our culture feel like day to day?" Audit the gap between your stated values and their lived experience, then close it.
3. Communicate your AI approach - clearly and often
71% of CEOs report experiencing imposter syndrome, with AI identified as a primary driver.[6] If that is happening at the top, anxiety on the ground is likely to be worse.
Only 41% of UK employees say their employer has clearly communicated how AI is being used responsibly. In companies with more than 10,000 employees, that figure drops to 29%.[7] The gap is creating anxiety, eroding trust, and - according to a 2025 study from MIT and Carnegie Mellon University - measurably diminishing critical thinking and problem-solving ability.[8]
Some organisations are now deliberately reintroducing friction into workflows to rebuild the judgement that over-reliance on AI erodes.
- This is not a technology problem. It is a communication problem. Employees who receive clear AI communication are twice as likely to feel comfortable with AI being used in their workplace.[7] A published internal statement on how AI is used in your organisation is a straightforward place to start.
4. Stop investing in wellbeing programmes. Start changing conditions.
83% of workers report some degree of burnout.[9] Today, burnout is not primarily about workload. It is driven by cognitive overload, fragmented digital environments, constant context-switching, and the emotional strain of adapting to change faster than organisations can support people through it.
54% of employees who want their employer to take a stand on something name mental health as the priority - ahead of climate change, workers' rights and gender equality.[10]
- Organisations are spending £6 billion a year on wellbeing in the UK, in an environment where poor mental health costs the economy £51 billion. Too much of that spend goes into programmes that give people somewhere to go when work has already broken them, rather than changing the conditions that break them. The test is simple: does your programme change how work feels, or does it treat the symptoms?
5. Close the feedback loop - and tell people you have done it
Fewer than half of organisations close the loop on feedback. Employees who feel their feedback is genuinely welcomed and acted on show advocacy levels of 90%. For those who do not, it is 23%.[11]
The irony is that many organisations are acting on feedback. They are simply not communicating that they have. Employees do not feel unheard because they are being ignored - they feel unheard because no one tells them otherwise.
- After your next pulse survey, communicate within 30 days: here is what you told us, here is what we are doing, here is when you will see it.
6. Measure what actually matters
Only 12% of organisations currently measure the impact of their employee experience investment.[12] Without measurement, EX teams cannot secure budget, board visibility, or the mandate to act.
- Set clear KPIs across three dimensions: behaviours and actions, knowledge and learning, and connection and culture. Together, they tell you whether experience is landing - and give you the evidence to prove it.
Experience changes everything. Now you can prove it.
When the moments that matter are designed well - when hearts, minds and actions change - the data follows.
Sources
[1] Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026.
[2] Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 (advance findings); Gallagher, Workforce Trends 2026.
[3] Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026. Manager wellbeing data.
[4] DHR Global / Gallup synthesis, 2025-26 culture and engagement reports.
[5] Gallagher, Workforce Trends 2026.
[6] Source: survey of 10,000 business leaders - originating publisher to be confirmed before publication (likely KPMG CEO Outlook or Deloitte Global survey).
[7] Gallagher, Workforce Trends 2026. AI communication transparency data.
[8] MIT and Carnegie Mellon University, 2025. Specific citation link to be added before publication.
[9] Hunt Scanlon Media / HRD Connect, 2025-26. Burnout data.
[10] Achievers Workforce Institute, 2025.
[11] Quantum Workplace / Achievers advocacy data.
[12] Gallagher, Workforce Trends 2026. IC measurement maturity data.