Your Managers Are Disengaged Too. Here’s Why It Matters
While employee engagement is falling, a more critical issue is emerging beneath the surface. Manager engagement is declining even faster. As the people shaping daily team experiences lose connection, productivity, retention, and performance all begin to slide. Here’s what the data reveals, and why re-engaging managers is now essential to your company’s success.
According to Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace report, only 22% of managers were engaged at work in 2025.
But the real risk is not just disengaged managers. It’s the ripple effect they create across the organization.
Managers shape the day-to-day employee experience, making this disengagement incredibly harmful to teams.
Disengaged managers create disengaged teams
Managers are the single biggest driver of team engagement. Research shows that team engagement is largely influenced by their manager, making managers’ roles critical. When managers are disengaged:
- Team morale weakens
- Feedback becomes inconsistent
- Productivity varies across teams
- High performers are more likely to leave
Organizations often focus heavily on employee programs while overlooking the role of managers in sustaining engagement.
Incentives alone are not enough
Many organizations attempt to drive manager engagement through incentives or performance bonuses. While these can have a short-term impact, they do not address the root of the issue.
Across APAC, this challenge is particularly visible in sales-driven and target-heavy environments, where managers are rewarded for outcomes.
The result of these incentives? Managers prioritize hitting numbers over building engaged, high-performing teams.
Managers need more than outcome-based rewards. They need the right tools and support to lead effectively.
Enabling managers to drive engagement
Organizations that are seeing strong results are focusing on empowering managers through:
- Training and capability building: Equipping managers with skills to lead, coach, engage and recognize teams
- Real-time feedback tools: Enabling managers to give and receive feedback consistently
- Embedded recognition: Making recognition a part of leadership behavior, not an occasional activity
- Aligned performance metrics: Evaluating managers on how well they engage their teams
The impact of engaged managers
Organizations that prioritize manager engagement are seeing up to 79% of managers engaged at work.
Programs implemented by BI WORLDWIDE demonstrate how engaging managers drives engagement across teams.
In a global recognition program, 97% of managers actively participated in giving recognition to teams once equipped with the right tools and structures.
Employees in these environments were 3.7 times more likely to recognize their peers and 6 times more likely to recommend their organization as a great place to work, showcasing how manager-led behaviors cascade across teams and boost retention.
Investing in manager engagement creates a multiplier effect across teams, improving employee engagement, performance, and retention.
Integrating Manager Engagement Across the Asia Pacific
One of the biggest barriers to manager engagement in APAC is regional and local complexity.
Organizations must navigate:
- Multiple languages and cultural norms
- Varying levels of manager capability
- Different market maturity levels
- Hybrid and frontline-heavy workforces
Many global programs fail because they are deployed uniformly across the region without localization. These programs, in turn, result in low adoption, inconsistent participation, and limited impact.
BI WORLDWIDE addresses this fragmented multi-country execution through:
- Localized program design that reflects cultural nuances
- Flexible platforms that adapt to different markets
- Data-driven insights to continuously optimize manager participation and effectiveness
Manager engagement is no longer optional. It is a critical driver of business success and a clear competitive advantage.
To see how BI WORLDWIDE helps organizations strengthen manager engagement learn more here.
For more information on how BI WORLDWIDE can help your organization focus on employee recognition, visit www.biworldwide.com.sg or contact us at enquiries@sg.biworldwide.com.