Analytics and advisory company Gallup surveyed 263,810 employees from across the world as part of its State of the Global Workplace 2026 report. The study, which examines employee engagement and its impact, found that global engagement had declined to its lowest level since 2020, and that employees in UK businesses are currently engaged at the same rate that they have been for the last four years. This means that just 10% of UK-based employees are engaged.
In addition, stress has increased in 2025 to an all-time high for United Kingdom-based respondents. 46% of UK workers reported feeling stressed in the 24 hours before the survey.
A lack of engagement and negative feelings impact all businesses. The report states, “While engagement occurs at the team level, employees who are not engaged or actively disengaged lead to less profitable organisations, which, in turn, translates into lower economic growth.”
Given that SMEs make up 99.85% of UK businesses, it is clear that disengaged workplaces will have a negative impact on national business growth and the economy.
Declining leadership engagement is not inevitable
The report finds “Lower engagement among managers accounts for most of the recent downturn in employee engagement.
“Managers used to enjoy an ‘engagement premium’ at work, but they are increasingly only as engaged as those they lead.”
Fortunately for businesses, “Declining manager engagement is by no means inevitable. Organisations of all sizes can achieve high levels of manager engagement. In 2025, Gallup found that within best-practice organisations, 79% of managers were engaged at work — nearly quadruple the global average. These world-class workplaces span all regions and industries, prioritising employee engagement.”
How to engage managers?
Danny Buckley, Director of Studies at Loughborough Business School, wrote his thoughts on disengaged managers and how the issue can be addressed:
“When managers disengage, their teams follow. The manager-employee relationship is the single biggest factor in whether people engage or switch off: whether they find their work meaningful, feel safe to speak up, and have what they need to do their job well.
“When engagement drops, people do not always resign. Many stay but stop trying, a pattern widely known as “quiet quitting.” When they do leave, they leave the manager, not the job. Left unchecked, disengagement becomes the culture. Managers are not immune either: when overwhelmed and unsupported, they cannot develop their teams, and the cycle deepens.
“Part of the challenge is that managers are often promoted for technical ability, not people skills. Without development, their approach defaults to what they have seen and experienced rather than what their team needs.
“This also drives manager disengagement: feeling underprepared erodes confidence and purpose. Programmes like Help to Grow: Management close that gap, helping leaders move from doing the work to developing the people and systems around them.
“The same principles that engage employees also engage managers. They need to be applied at every level:
Invest in manager training. A promotion is not a development plan.
Make one-to-ones non-negotiable. Senior leaders need quality conversations with their managers, not just managers with their teams.
Give managers real authority, not just accountability. If they own the results, they need the freedom to act.
Act on feedback. Ask managers what they need, then act on it.
Watch for manager burnout. Their stress becomes their team’s stress.”
If you want to engage or develop yourself or your senior managers so that you have a more productive workplace, the Help to Grow: Management Course is for you. Find out more here.
