“We’re in a disengagement crisis!!”

You’ve probably heard the statistic: 62% of employees are not engaged, and 15% are actively disengaged (Gallup). But are we, the comms cohort, who cried ‘crisis’? What do people actually mean by disengagement?

Define engagement?

Depending on who you ask, employee engagement can mean multiple things, but by and large it speaks to absorption in work, enthusiasm for the job position, commitment to the workplace, and a willingness to go the distance for fellow colleagues.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) defines engagement as “a combination of commitment to the organisation, its values and a willingness to help colleagues”. The devil is in the details and how one weights engagement with the wider organisation and community versus engagement in the work at hand is a significant variable in interpretations of disengagement.

Gallup’s definition

Gallup’s report that we cited earlier went the distance to find good data, asking a range of questions to give more complexity to answers away from “strongly agree” or “strongly disagree.”

Responses to the survey were tallied and grouped into employees that were Thriving, Struggling or Suffering:

• Thriving = colleagues have a positive view of their present life situation and positive view of the next five years.
• Struggling = colleagues struggle with their present life situation and have mixed feelings about the future
• Suffering = colleagues report they can’t afford basic necessities and are “miserable.

Whilst you need a north star to navigate major data samples, the labelling of these groups arguably errs towards negativity. There’s a huge spectrum between meeting basic job necessities and having the next five years mapped out. By this logic, a whole heap of workers would be clubbed together as Struggling, even though there might be only one or two things they’re not satisfied with. Communicators need a more tailored approach.

We measure engagement to consistently improve the working environments we create and to improve colleague’s lives through support designed to make their jobs easier. We can’t do that impactfully without recognising their own goals and motivations with the consideration they deserve.

Priority shift for colleagues

Alongside this, there’s warning signs of what’s being called the “Big Stay.” Although it sounds like a long weekend as the UK resignation rate dropped to from 3.6% to 2.6% in 2024, meaning people stay in their roles longer.

In light of this shift, we need to understand the complexities of people’s career motivations, even when they go against established routes. This can mean granting greater freedom of diagonal career progression that draws colleague’s interest.

Other times, it means developing consistent output where they are, without desire to advance further or take on managerial responsibility. According to data from Randstad, 42% of workers would turn down a promotion if offered, with analysis citing overworked employees and difficulty of management.

Conclusion

It’s clear that defining disengagement is tricky and highly variable, which perhaps leaves interpretation vulnerable to a ‘crisis’ bias. Sometimes we need to get back to basics.

Why is it important for people to be engaged? If we know that answer to that question, we can make sure we are taking steps to that achieve the desired output rather than expending effort on engagement for engagement’s sake.