It's Time to Move Past Employee Engagement

"For over two decades, organizations have chased the holy grail of employee engagement. Billions of dollars have been poured into surveys and consultant-driven initiatives that promised to transform workplaces and inspire greater organizational performance. But somewhere along the way, we lost sight of the mission. We celebrated percentages instead of people, treated marginal improvement as wins, and ignored all the warning signs around us: soaring burnout, rising stress, overwhelmed managers, and employees quietly losing faith that their voices mattered."

"The truth is that most organizations never truly committed to improving engagement at its source-by strengthening the leadership practices that shape the daily employee experience. Instead, they reduced the effort to a box-ticking exercise, with no one ever made accountable for making meaningful change. As proof of this, global engagement remains stuck at roughly the same level it was over a decade ago-just 21 percent."

"In America, engagement has fallen to 31 percent, its lowest point in a decade. At the same time, burnout and stress are at all-time highs, and the term "quiet cracking" has suddenly entered the vernacular to describe workers who haven't yet quit but are slowly buckling under the weight of impossible expectations. The verdict is clear: It's time for organizations to stop spending valuable time and energy on antiquated employee engagement metrics and focus instead on worker well-being."

Organizations invested billions in employee engagement surveys and consultant programs but focused on percentages rather than people. Engagement became a box-ticking exercise with marginal improvements celebrated and no accountability for meaningful change. Global engagement has remained around 21 percent, and U.S. engagement fell to 31 percent, while burnout, stress, and overwhelmed managers have increased. Many employees experience "quiet cracking"—staying employed while slowly buckling under impossible expectations. Leadership practices that shape daily employee experience were not strengthened. Prioritizing worker well-being and holding leaders accountable are necessary to address stagnant engagement and rising burnout.

Read at Psychology Today