A happy, engaged manager makes for a happy, engaged team.

That was one of the takeaways written in bold in Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report, which examines workers’ mental health and well-being. The thumbs up was great news for companies teeming with engaged managers. But for the rest of the workplace, the report card was not so rosy.

Overall, Gallup found that global employee engagement stagnated in 2023 and employee well-being declined. A mere 23% of employees reported being engaged with their jobs, which was the same as the previous year, while 62% reported being “not engaged” — three points higher than 2022. Meanwhile, 41% of employees reported feeling “a lot of stress” and 20% said they experienced loneliness daily.

In particular, younger workers have been struggling. Twenty-two percent of employees under 35 said they experienced daily loneliness, compared with 19% of those above 35. Fully remote employees were significantly more likely to feel lonely (25%) than those who work fully onsite (16%). And workers in South Asia (29%) were most likely to feel lonely.

The toll of all this is enormous. Aside from the human suffering (which is not to be minimized), Gallup estimates that low employee engagement costs the global economy $8.9 trillion, or 9% of the global GDP.

What can your company do to improve the health and productivity of your employees and create an environment where people are actively engaged? For successful approaches and more insights from Gallup, read on.

If you want more engaged employees, focus on empowering managers

Being a manager has always been hard. Since the pandemic, it’s become even harder. Managers are still trying to figure out how to oversee employees in remote and hybrid environments. And there’s now an increasing number of employees having mental health problems. The need for managers to inspire employees has become more urgent than ever.

Gallup found that only three in 10 managers around the world are engaged — meaning that they feel involved and enthusiastic — in their jobs themselves. So, the chances that they’ll engage and improve the well-being of their employees are low.

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