You can optimize your cost structure, pivot your strategy, and launch new initiatives, but if your people aren’t emotionally and cognitively “all in,” you’ll never capture full value.
What if the highest-leverage ROI decision you could make this year wasn’t a product launch or AI investment, but ensuring your people feel appreciated, clear on purpose, and aligned on direction?
Disengaged employees cost the global economy trillions.
According to Gallup, low engagement drains US $8.8 trillion in lost productivity every year, about 9 % of global GDP. In 2024, global engagement dropped to 21 %, costing roughly $438 billion in output losses (Gallup 2024 State of the Global Workplace). In the U.S., engagement hit a decade low at 31 %, while manager engagement fell to 27 % (source).
Because about 70 % of the variance in team engagement is driven by the manager (Gallup research), disengaged leadership leaks value faster than any system or strategy error.
So the real question isn’t whether you can afford to invest in engagement, it’s how much longer you can afford not to.
What happens when you “flip the switch” on engagement
When people become truly engaged, emotionally invested, connected to purpose, and supported by their manager, results compound fast:
- Profitability climbs. Teams in the top quartile for engagement show 23 % higher profitability than those in the bottom quartile.
- Productivity rises. Engaged employees are about 14–18 % more productive, depending on the role or sector.
- Customer loyalty grows. Engaged teams drive a 10 % boost in customer satisfaction and retention.
- Turnover and absenteeism plummet. Organizations with engaged teams see 21–51 % lower turnover and up to 78 % less absenteeism.
- Safety improves. Highly engaged workplaces record 63 % fewer safety incidents.
- Innovation flourishes. When people feel heard and valued, they bring forward more ideas, take calculated risks, and solve problems faster.
These findings are drawn from Gallup’s meta-analysis of over 100,000 teams, showing that engagement isn’t a soft concept, it’s a hard performance system.
Why engagement is the ultimate customer experience ROI
Every process, SLA, or workflow aims to create better customer outcomes. But no process outperforms an engaged human being who genuinely wants to help.
When employees are engaged, they listen more deeply, care more personally, and solve problems faster. They see customers not as transactions but as people, and that emotional intelligence can’t be automated.
Gallup’s research shows that highly engaged business units achieve 10 % higher customer loyalty and engagement. Those customers, in turn, spend more, stay longer, and recommend the brand more often.
Engagement doesn’t just improve how employees feel, it shapes how customers experience your company. It turns routine interactions into relationship-building moments that strengthen trust and revenue alike.
What forward-thinking leaders start doing now
You don’t need a complex HR program to start. The most progressive leaders I work with take engagement into their own hands. Here are five things they do:
- Run small, regular pulse surveys: 5–8 questions, quarterly or monthly, to track energy, clarity, and recognition.
- Host weekly 1:1s that matter: 15–30 minutes to discuss goals, barriers, and wins. The consistency matters more than the script.
- Invest in manager coaching: build skills in feedback, trust-building, and empathy; the manager is the multiplier.
- Recognize frequently and specifically: people don’t need grand gestures, they need to feel seen.
- Share results transparently: even imperfect scores spark progress when leaders show they’re listening and acting.
These steps take a few hours a month, not a new department, but they change everything about how people show up.
A call to action
Every week of disengagement is lost innovation, lost client goodwill, lost performance.
If you want to create value, improve customer experience, and generate ideas that move the needle, start by energizing the humans behind the work. Don’t wait for HR to make it policy. Be the leader who makes engagement a leadership practice, not a survey.
Because when your people feel appreciated, purposeful, and clear, they won’t just work harder, they’ll build something worth staying for.
That’s the real superpower most organizations and their leaders overlook.
