Mind the gap!

The report then breaks down the data by region. Europe has an incredibly low engagement rate at only 13%. Drilling down further to country level, the UK’s employee engagement rate is just 10%. 

Where is this decline in employee engagement showing up? 

Managers. 

The report states: 

“Manager engagement fell from 30% to 27%. Individual contributor engagement remained flat at 18%.
No other worker category — male or female, young or old — experienced as significant a decline.
However, two types of managers were particularly affected: Young (under 35) manager engagement fell by five percentage points; female manager engagement dropped by seven points.” 

Leaders, take heed. 

The disconnect between managers and executives is real. It may not be at the same levels as the UK — that remains unclear — but we know, through many conversations with leaders, that this disconnect is anecdotally true here in the Channel Islands. 

As leaders, you rely on your managers to support and motivate their teams, produce quality outcomes on time, back up leadership direction and decisions, stay within budget; and operationalise reductions and restructures. Managers are key to achieving your vision and organisational goals. Disengagement at the management level will, at best, constrain your goals and at worst, derail them. 

Some common indicators of disengagement at the manager level: 

• Underperformance within teams — reduced quality/output, missed deadlines 

• Increased absence rates 

• Low morale and energy levels — a negative “vibe” 

• Negative cultural shifts — increased complaining and blaming 

• Higher tolerance of poor behaviours 

• Defensiveness 

• Everything just seems harder! 

As a leader, you have the power to create the conditions where managers can thrive again — and this doesn’t necessarily require a salary increase (although that may be welcome too). 

Here are three ideas to help keep managers engaged: 

1. Listen well
- Listening is a dying art in leadership. Leaders often cite a lack of time to listen well and connect meaningfully with their teams — but this mindset comes with risk.
Managers are the ones who operationalise the vision and strategy. They know their teams. They have ideas about achieving organisational goals and living out core values — and they likely know what might derail those efforts, too. When leaders can harness this insight without viewing it as obstructive or negative, there's a greater opportunity to collaborate and design effective solutions or at the very least, ground decisions in operational reality.

2. Communicate clearly
- Managers need clarity around the organisational vision and strategy. As leaders, you’ll need to communicate it repeatedly, in different ways, and ensure it “lives” beyond a paragraph on your website.
Communicating the rationale for key decisions, especially difficult ones, is essential. Keeping managers in the loop and explaining why certain suggestions weren’t taken forward is just as important as communicating what is going to happen and why.

3. Provide the resources they need: (Not Just What You Think They Need)
Many managers feel they aren’t equipped for the role, they often feel they stumbled into it, and it’s not what they expected.
Leaders: equipping your managers for the full breadth of their responsibilities is fundamental to setting them up for success. What training might they need now and as they grow in the role? What tools or systems might you need to invest in to make their stretching goals achievable?

Re-engaging managers isn’t a quick fix, but it starts with intention. Leaders who genuinely listen, communicate with clarity, and equip their managers for success will not only close the engagement gap, they’ll unlock the full potential of their people and their organisation. 

What will you do today to begin to close the gap?