What's Really Behind the Drop in Employee Engagement?
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When engagement is low, the instinct is often to hand the problem to HR or People and Culture. I've seen it countless times. HR leaders are asked to return to the executive team with a list of initiatives designed to lift engagement. Flexible working arrangements, reward and recognition schemes, wellbeing programs, team events and other workplace perks often make the list.
While these initiatives may create some positive movement, their impact is limited if the day-to-day experience the people you lead have with you remains unchanged. They may appreciate the benefits on offer, but if they don't know what's expected of them, are rarely recognised for their contribution, receive little feedback or development, or feel left in the dark about decisions that affect their work, engagement is unlikely to improve in any meaningful or lasting way.
Engagement isn't primarily driven by workplace perks. It's shaped by the day-to-day experiences the people you lead have with you.
The Leader's Influence
Research consistently shows that the direct manager has a significant influence on engagement, with Gallup suggesting that managers account for around 70% of the difference in engagement levels between teams. Yet many leaders don't realise just how much influence they have. When engagement is low, it's easy to point to organisational culture, restructuring, workload or external pressures. What is often overlooked is the role you play in shaping the everyday experiences that either build or erode engagement.
After 30 years in leadership and 20 years coaching and facilitating, I've come to believe that many engagement strategies miss the mark because they focus on engagement itself rather than the experiences that create it.
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The Experiences That Create Engagement
The people you lead want clarity around what is expected of them. They want to know their contribution matters. They want opportunities to learn, grow and have meaningful input. They want to feel supported when challenges arise and recognised when they do good work.
When you consistently create these experiences, engagement tends to follow. It isn't something that can be manufactured through a survey, a reward program or a wellbeing initiative. It is the outcome of how well you connect with, support, challenge and develop the people you lead.
Making Relationships a Priority
Engagement needs to be a priority for you as a leader, not something delegated to HR. Not something measured once a year. And not something addressed only when survey results decline.
It starts with making relationships a priority. Taking the time to understand who the people you lead are, what matters to them, how they work best and where they want to grow. It means showing them you see them, noticing their effort, acknowledging their contribution and being genuinely present in your interactions, not just when things go wrong. In practice, that means protecting one-on-one time, not as a status update, but as a genuine conversation about how they're going, what they need and where they want to head. It means getting curious about what drives them, how they prefer to work and what support actually looks like for them personally. And it means making their growth a priority, not an afterthought. That might mean having a conversation about where someone wants to be in two years or simply asking what would make their current role feel more meaningful. Small, intentional moments that signal you are invested in them as a person, not just as a performer.
These aren't complicated leadership practices, but they are often the first things sacrificed when workloads increase, deadlines loom and competing priorities take over. Yet they are the very things that help the people you lead feel valued, supported and connected to their work.
Engagement Follows Connection
You can continue to invest in initiatives, surveys and workplace programs, and many of them have value. But none of them can replace the influence you have on the experience of the people you lead. Because engagement isn't built through initiatives.
It's built through relationships.
Leadership
Tags: Culture, Engagement
Kylie Paatsch, author of The Connect Effect, is a sought-after leadership coach, speaker and facilitator who has worked with thousands of senior leaders across Australia and internationally. She helps senior leaders lead themselves, their leaders and those around them with greater clarity, confidence and impact.
