Employee Engagement Statistics 2025 – Everything You Need to Know

Highly engaged employees are 21% more productive than those who have lower engagement. However, recent employee engagement statistics show that many workers aren’t as engaged as companies would like. Employees who are committed to their work often outperform their counterparts, leading to better business outcomes.

This guide explains employee engagement and its importance in the workplace and examines employee engagement-related statistics and their meanings.

What Is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement is a measure of how connected and committed a worker is to the company they work for. Essentially, employees who are engaged actually care about the work they do and are invested in the success of the company.

While many employees just go through the motions and show up to work for the paycheck, engaged workers believe in the direction, missions, and goals of the company.

The Importance of Employee Engagement in the Workplace

Some of the reasons why employee engagement in the workplace is so important include:

• Increased productivity and profitability
• Improved employee retention and loyalty
• Higher levels of job satisfaction among employees
• Elevated workplace culture
• Improved relationships and collaborations at work

Key Employee Engagement Statistics You Need To Know

If you’re a business owner looking to improve employee productivity, these are the crucial employee engagement statistics you’ll need to know to help you scale.

1. Only 30% of American Employees Are Engaged

Less than a third of US employees feel engaged at work. Sadly, this means that well over half of workers are either unengaged or even disengaged with their jobs.

This is relatively similar to what it was around a decade ago. This figure briefly climbed to 36% in 2020 but has fallen back since. While this might not seem like a major drop, each percentage point represents around 1.6 million workers, so there are millions more unengaged or disengaged workers than only a few years ago.

2. 17% of Employees Are Actively Disengaged

Of the group that isn’t engaged, 17% are actively disengaged. Being actively disengaged means workers are open about how much they dislike their job, management, or the direction of the company or make a variety of other complaints.

These workers often gossip, speak badly about the company to others (both in and out of the office), and could ultimately bring down other employees, as well. Their work often suffers as they aren’t motivated to do well and are more likely to be absent.

If businesses want to turn this around, some ways to improve engagement include:

• Offering recognition, rewards, and incentives to employees
• Providing opportunities to develop and build or hone skills
• Being open to receiving feedback and taking everything into account
• Prioritizing well-being and truly caring for workers

3. Low Engagement Cost the Global Economy $8.9 Trillion

While there are many downsides to having actively disengaged workers, one of the largest is that a disengaged or unengaged workforce costs their companies a lot of money. This is due to higher absenteeism, lower productivity, and more errors.

Low engagement translates to a loss of $8.9 trillion, which represents around 9% of the global GDP. An engaged workforce is likely to be far more productive and lead to better business outcomes, such as greater profit.

4. Only 34% of Workers Feel They Have All the Proper Materials and Equipment To Do Their Job Correctly

Many employees require certain tools or machinery to do their jobs well. However, only 34% of American workers feel they have all the right equipment and materials to perform their jobs properly. This number is the lowest it’s been since 2011 and has dropped by 6% in less than a year between May 2023 and February 2024.

A lack of proper equipment often leads to inefficient or sloppy work, which negatively impacts employee engagement and leads to other issues like lost productivity or unhappy customers.

If you’re a manager or owner looking to boost engagement, ask your workers if they have everything they need or if getting additional equipment or tools will make their jobs easier.

5. Less Than Half of All American Employees Know What’s Expected of Them in Their Job

A major factor of employee engagement is clear expectations. Workers need to know what their managers expect of them and want clear guidelines and/or instructions to ensure they’re doing the right thing.

Unfortunately, only 44% of respondents answered “Strongly Agree” to the statement, “I know what is expected of me at work” in a recent Gallup survey.

This is a 15% drop from the statistics for 2014, which is a worrying sign that shows many modern employers are unclear about what they want or expect from workers.

6. Only 38% of Workers Feel Cared for at Their Job

Another major part of keeping employees engaged is prioritizing their well-being and truly caring about them as people. Despite this importance, only 38% of workers feel cared for at their jobs.

This figure was 47% in 2020, so there’s been a dramatic drop in a few years. In fact, the current numbers are the lowest they’ve been in over a decade.

7. Most Workers Don’t Feel They Have the Opportunity To Learn and Grow at Work

A big part of the employee experience for many workers is having the chance to build their knowledge and skills through workshops, courses, and other training opportunities. Engaged employees will feel their workplace supports their growth, and won’t hold them back from bettering themselves.

However, only 31% of US employees strongly agree with the statement, “This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.” This number is tied with the stats from mid-2022 as the lowest of the last decade.

8. Organizations That Prioritize Employee Engagement Enjoy Much Lower Employee Turnover

According to Gallup, organizations with higher levels of engagement see much less employee turnover. When staff are engaged, high-employee turnover organizations, such as restaurants and retail stores, see 21% less employee turnover, and low-employee turnover organizations, such as government and construction, see 51% less.

Employee turnover is a major problem for businesses, as they lose not only solid workers but also money. Hiring new employees is much more expensive than employee retention. In fact, it generally costs between half and two times an employee’s salary to replace them.

Without properly engaging your top talent, you run the risk of losing them to businesses that will.

9. Only 28% of Remote Workers Feel Strongly Connected to Their Workplace’s Purpose and Mission

Feeling connected to your workplace and its purpose and mission is a big part of being engaged. Unfortunately, only 28% of remote employees strongly agree with the statement, “The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.”

This means nearly three-quarters of remote workers struggle to connect to their employer’s goals, which makes it hard to be fully engaged every day. There are also different engagement levels among hybrid workers and those who work on-site but are capable of working remotely.

These groups are slightly more engaged at 35% and 33%, respectively, but a majority of these workers still feel disconnected from their employer’s purpose and mission. Not only that, but the numbers for all the working arrangements mentioned have gone down by at least 5% or more since 2019.

Conclusion

Employee engagement statistics show that businesses still have a lot of work to do when it comes to creating an emotional commitment between the company and its employees. Whether it’s a lack of clarity on expectations, improper equipment, or no opportunities for advancement, there’s certainly room for improvement.

Businesses looking to improve engagement should recognize employees often, offer development opportunities, receive feedback, and prioritize well-being to ensure workers feel as valued as possible.

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