Coaching and employee engagement

Employee engagement is the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in both their work and workplace. Only 21% of employees globally are engaged, according to the State of the Global Workplace: 2025 Report (Gallup). Global employee engagement in 2025 fell, costing the world economy US$438 billion in lost productivity. Global manager engagement fell from 30% to 27% in 2024. Young managers and female managers experienced the largest declines.

This worrying trend affects all employees globally. 62% of employees are not engaged, and 17% are actively disengaged. 33 % of employees around the world are thriving, 58% are struggling, and 9% are suffering. 30% of employees in Europe say they are watching for or actively seeking a new job.

The biggest drop in engagement is amongst managers. Since the pandemic, managers have been asked to square the circle of new executive demands and employee expectations. These results show that we starting to see the toll. Manager engagement affects team engagement, which affects productivity. Business performance — and ultimately GDP growth — is at risk if executive leaders do not address manager breakdown.

Solutions exist : 3 priority actions for leaders & managers

The 2025 Gallup report offers 3 solutions to support managers and promote engagement:

1. Train all managers: managerial development can halve disengagement.

2. Manager coach training: training managers in coaching enhances managerial performance by 20 to 28 %.

3. Support managers' well-being: continuous development can increase the levelof managers' fulfillment by 32 % to 50 %.

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