Yes, work engagement pays off. Teams with engaged, involved employees are more profitable and more productive, have less absenteeism and lose fewer people. And conversely, a lack of engagement costs the world economy a fortune every year. So work engagement is not only good for people, it is also simply good for business!
Engaged people get satisfaction from their work, are highly dedicated and feel vigorous and proud. That is how work engagement contributes to our mental and physical health. Engaged employees feel mentally and physically healthier and perform better at work (UBES manual). Just as important: work engagement makes people more productive and more innovative.
What does work engagement deliver?
Gallup has been researching the link between engagement and business outcomes for decades. The latest meta-analysis, the 11th edition from 2024, combines 736 studies at 347 organisations, covering more than 183,000 teams and over 3.3 million employees. Compared with teams in the bottom quartile for engagement, teams in the top quartile do better on these points:
- 23% higher profitability;
- 18% higher productivity in sales;
- 10% higher customer loyalty;
- 78% less absenteeism;
- 21% less turnover in high-turnover sectors, and as much as 51% less in low-turnover sectors;
- 63% fewer safety incidents;
- 32% fewer quality defects.
Source: Gallup Q12 meta-analysis, 11th edition.
When you think about it, the business side of these figures is not that remarkable… after all… we ourselves also enjoy doing business with someone who does their work with shining eyes and enthusiasm. Right?! A company with engaged, involved and proud employees therefore holds an important competitive advantage!
The lower absenteeism is easy to understand too… engaged people get a lot of satisfaction from their work, feel strong and are proud of what they do. They fit the company and its goals. They experience every day that they do meaningful work and they enjoy it. It is not hard to guess that these people drop out less often.
What does a lack of engagement cost?
Now the other side of the coin. According to Gallup's latest State of the Global Workplace report, only 20% of employees worldwide were engaged at work in 2025. That is the lowest level since 2020, and for the first time it fell two years in a row. Gallup estimates that low engagement cost the world economy around 10 trillion dollars in lost productivity in 2025, roughly 9% of global GDP (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026).
And Europe? There the picture is even more worrying. With 12% engaged employees, Europe scores lowest of all regions (Gallup, regional data). The Netherlands does slightly better, with an average of 14% over 2023 to 2025, but here too more than eight in ten employees are not engaged or even actively disengaged (Gallup, the Netherlands). So there is still a big opportunity!
What stands out is where the decline comes from: managers. Manager engagement fell worldwide from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025. At the same time, Gallup shows that it can be different. In organisations that really treat engagement as a strategy, 79% of managers were engaged, almost four times the global average (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026). So engagement often starts with the leader.
Investing in work engagement
Engaged people are more productive, more involved, more customer-focused and less often ill. What's more, engagement is almost always visible and contagious. An engaged manager or employee has a positive influence, often unconsciously, on colleagues and customers. So it is no surprise that more and more companies are working to increase the engagement of their people. Also read more about the difference between employee satisfaction and work engagement.
As far as we are concerned, investing in work engagement is one of the best investments you can make in your people. More positive energy at work and better business results go hand in hand. Perhaps it is an idea to include engagement scores in the annual report, alongside revenue and profit. Who dares?!
Investing in engagement doesn't have to cost a lot of money. A few ideas:
- formulate and communicate an inspiring higher purpose (purpose);
- give employees more say and more room to organise their own work;
- invest in your managers, because their energy carries through the whole team;
- celebrate successes and show people what their work means.
So work engagement is good for people and business! Tip: start by measuring. Map how engaged each team is, discuss the results together and choose one or two things to work on. Good luck!
