Welcome to this week’s blog that considers the working world, what we do,

and what it takes to work with purpose, lead with impact, and engage with people in a way that really makes a difference. In our ‘Work Unplugged’ podcast last week, Amrit spoke on some of the statistics in the latest ‘Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report’, which inspired the topic of ‘re-engaging the disengaged’.

Now of course this is a topic close to our hearts because our whole mission is about making the world of work a better place, and as Amrit shares in the podcast, this is why he started up the company in the first place! He was so fed up of seeing over the years, the troubling pattern across organisations when it comes to employee engagement. It’s seems to be the norm, to categorise people based on survey scores, highly engaged, neutral, and disengaged. And then when it comes to that last group, the disengaged, we don’t just ignore them, we write them off entirely. And that needs to change. It is just not fair!

Both Amrit and I, in our previous corporate lives, remember analysing engagement surveys where we’d be expected to skim past the disengaged category like it was a lost cause. Amrit shared recalling a report from a third-party supplier describing these colleagues as “well poisoners”, people working against the organisation from the inside, poisoning the well. This is the kind of language that fuels this belief that the disengaged are a lost cause, and at worst, poison to the health of the organisation.

The focus seems to be pointed towards nudging the “neutrals”, those who respond “neither agree nor disagree”, into the “slightly agree” category. Why? Because it’s easier, and it makes the numbers look good. But that’s not transformation, that’s manipulation.

This frustration with surface-level fixes and the statistical spin is why we do what we do here at &Evolve. We’re not here to play games with numbers. We’re here to face the truth and fix what’s broken. For the people in our societies, for the children that will one day face the world of work, and who could find themselves mistreated and then totally written off. It may sound dramatic to you, but this is the reality, and we can choose where to put our plight right?!

Let’s be clear: nobody joins an organisation disengaged. Disengagement is a reaction to experiences, often the result of poor leadership, broken promises, and cultures that fail to live up to their values. When we label people as “saboteurs,” we absolve ourselves of responsibility and miss the point entirely that we created the disengaged! By ‘we’ we mean previous leaders and managers potentially, a bad culture, change that went unexplained and where people felt ‘done to’, and now maybe ‘we’ are left with the broken pieces.

Whatever the reason, the ‘we’ is facing into the fact, that as the leaders and managers of an organisation, the buck stops with us. ‘We’ are the ones to fix it. It is up to us to earn the trust back through action, compassion and empathy.  

The insights that I shared on a LinkedIn post that prompted Amrit to speak on this subject were as follows:

• Only 21% of employees globally are actively engaged at work, down from 23%.
• Engagement among managers dropped from 30% to 27%.
• In the UK we sit even lower, with just 10% of employees engaged, one of the lowest rates in the world. That disengagement is costing the UK economy an estimated £257 billion in lost productivity.

It’s time to face reality: we have a problem. And we can’t fix it by ignoring the most disengaged. In fact, that is where, if we are brave enough, we will find answers and redemption! We need to step back and understand, where did the disengaged people come from? How did they get to that point? They joined the organisation with hope and optimism. Where and when did these qualities leave them?

First, we stop pretending the disengaged don’t matter. We don’t “triage” people based on how easy they are to influence. We stop writing people off and start listening.

And here’s the game plan:

1. Call Out the Truth - Warts and All

Leaders must have the courage to say: “We’ve heard you, and we’re not proud of what we’re hearing.” It’s uncomfortable, yes. But if senior leaders can’t acknowledge reality, why should anyone believe they’ll change it?

2. Take Ownership

Disengagement is not an individual flaw. It’s an outcome of systemic issues, bad leadership, and broken trust. If we created the problem, we have a moral obligation to fix it.

3. Rebuild Trust Through Action

Words won’t cut it. Disengaged employees have seen initiatives come and go. If we’re serious about turning things around, we must commit to tangible, time-bound actions. Tell your people: “Here’s what we’re going to do. Here’s how we’ll be held accountable.” Even if it’s just three clear promises, stick to them. And ask only three questions in the next engagement survey: Are we delivering on those promises?

And let’s not forget the squeezed middle. Managers are under immense pressure. They’re trying to shield their teams from top-down demands while managing their own frustrations. They often become scapegoats for organisational failings, and many are burning out. They need support too. Not just tools and training, but realistic workloads and space to lead effectively. If we don’t support our managers, we undermine the very people who could turn engagement around.

Let’s actually talk to people and not just survey them. We don’t need to wait for the next engagement survey to find out how people feel. Walk the floors. Run open conversations. Create a safe space for truth, and when people tell you what’s wrong, believe them. Yes, people are cautious. Disengaged employees want things to be better, they’ve just stopped believing they can be. Our job is to restore that hope, one action at a time.

This isn’t about semantics. It’s about people. Real people. People who started out excited to join your organisation and lost that spark along the way. We can turn that around, but not by writing them off. We can fix this. Let’s choose to.

Click here to listen to the podcast!