The silent crisis undermining your workforce: why engagement and wellbeing are crashing

Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace paints a stark picture we see daily: the workforce is struggling.

Not just with burnout — but with a deeper erosion of purpose, connection, and vitality. This isn’t just a bad quarter. It’s a global leadership challenge.

This isn’t just a post-pandemic slump — it’s a structural crisis. Managers, especially those under 35 and women, are experiencing the steepest declines in engagement, with manager engagement falling from 30% to 27% in 2024 — and they are our driving force!

Here are the four headline insights from the Gallup report that leaders and HR must act on.

1. Most employees are quietly disengaged

Only 21% of employees are engaged globally. This means almost 80% are checked out, performing on autopilot, or worse, actively undermining outcomes. In Europe, engagement is just 13%.

Engagement is not about free coffee. It’s about emotional connection to the work and the mission.

2. Stress is at a record high

Around four in ten employees globally experienced a lot of stress the previous day. This number hasn’t dropped in years — and it’s worse for women and younger workers. Managers are also reaching burnout levels, with only 27% of them engaged in 2024 — down sharply.

Stressed people don’t perform better long-term. They leave. Or they stay and slowly disintegrate.

3. Most people are not thriving

Just 33% of the global workforce is thriving in life. That’s not just a health issue. It’s an organisational risk — because wellbeing drives productivity, innovation, and loyalty.

Wellbeing and engagement are inseparable. You can’t fix one without the other.

4. Flexibility helps — but it’s not the full answer

Most remote-capable employees want flexibility. But here’s the nuance: flexibility works only when paired with purpose, connection, and great management. Without these, remote work leads to isolation, mission drift, and more disengagement.

The location is not the issue. Leadership is.

So what can you do?

For CHROs and C-suite leaders, here’s what’s working now.

Rebuild the middle: re-skill your managers

Managers drive 70% of the variance in team engagement. But many are untrained for today’s hybrid complexity. Give them the tools, time, and trust to lead, not just manage or push people back to the office.

• Weekly check-ins (not just status meetings)
• Coaching skills over control habits
• Psychological safety as a baseline, not a bonus

Create purpose at every level

Remote and hybrid teams lose touch with the why. Reconnect them to your company’s strategy.

• Show how their role connects to impact
• Make sure the strategy is clear and aligned
• Celebrate customer wins, not just KPIs

Build predictable flexibility

Hybrid works best when it’s predictable and aligned.

• Let teams co-design their model
• Anchor flexibility in team needs, not individual preferences only

Treat wellbeing like a core KPI

This isn’t just HR’s job. Tie it to performance. And start asking better questions.

• How supported do people feel?
• What gets in the way of energy — not just output?

One final thought

This isn’t a moment for tweaks. It’s a call to transform how we engage, support, and lead people. Not for trends — but for sustainable results.

If you’re in HR or leadership, this isn’t someone else’s problem. This is your call.

First published by Kasia Biernacka on LinkedIn in April 2025. Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2025.

Kasia Biernacka is an organisational psychologist and leadership advisor based in Belgium, with more than 20 years in HR and leadership development. She has talked about the hidden cost of living in “I’ll manage” mode in interviews for Onet and iKobiece.pl (both in Polish).