Stop Measuring Employee Engagement. Start Maximizing It!
Posted Sep 14, 2026 by Rick
Employee engagement is falling at the very moment organizations need more trust, agility, and resilience to cope with what I’m calling the “New Ab-Normal” pace of workplace change and disruption. The leaders who will thrive in this climate are not the ones who measure engagement more often. They are the ones who manage the workplace conditions that create it.
Evidence of this strain shows up in nearly every study of employee wellness. One of the clearest signals is Gallup’s Global employee engagement survey. Its State of the Global Workplace 2026 report finds that global employee engagement fell to just 20% in 2025, while manager engagement dropped sharply from its recent peak.
We are good at measuring engagement. But to thrive — or even survive — in today’s climate, leaders must get much better at maximizing the conditions that create engagement: trust, communication, participation, support, and shared purpose.
For leaders, that distinction matters. Measuring engagement tells you where the organization is hurting. Maximizing engagement means changing the day-to-day leadership behaviors, communication norms, and decision-making practices that determine whether people feel safe enough to contribute, adapt, and innovate.
Culture Is the Key
I’ve spent a career in change management across both the public and private sectors. Anyone who helps organizations navigate change eventually learns the old maxim: “Culture eats change management for breakfast.” That is why team-building, training, project management, and other event-based strategies are not enough anymore. The pace of change now demands that leaders address the deeper operating system underneath those efforts: culture.
That’s why I’ve been focused in recent blogs on our research-based “Six Traits of Agile Organizations:” Transformational Leadership, High Organizational Justice (trust),Positive Communications, Participatory Management, Social Support, and Group (tribal) Engagement. These traits are not abstract ideals. They are research-based leadership behaviors and levers that shape workplace climate — and, over time, help curate a more agile organizational culture.
The Elements of Culture
Research tells us that culture forms in layers. Three elements matter most:
What we see. Policies, structure, processes, workspace, rituals — and what actually gets measured, funded, and rewarded.
What we say. Stated mission, values, and strategy — leader and manager behavior either validates them or exposes them as slogans.
What we assume. Shared, learned beliefs about “how things really work here,” taught to newcomers as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel.
Leader and manager behaviors are where culture becomes visible in daily work. They translate shared values into the climate people actually experience – the trust, communication, participation, support and shared purpose that determine whether employees feel safe enough to adapt, speak up, and contribute. Culture may take years to fully change, but climate can begin to shift in months. That is where leaders should begin.
So, if we want a more agile, adaptive workplace culture, the work starts with leadership — not someday, and not after the next engagement survey, but now.
A New Model for Leadership: Culture Curator
Leaders at every level shape culture through the behaviors they repeat, reward, and tolerate. You can pay attention to culture intentionally, or you can live with the culture you already have. In today’s dynamically shifting marketplace, the second option is often a path toward disruption.
Organizations that prioritize agility, innovation and creativity in their workforce need to move beyond measuring employee engagement and begin to manage it. That starts with a realistic assessment of your current state.
How do employees experience leadership in your workplace? Is there an aspirational future vision that is understood and shared at every level — from the boardroom to the mailroom? Do employees trust senior leadership to have their best interests in mind? Do they trust their immediate supervisor to have their back? Do people feel engaged in decision-making, or does that work still happen mostly from the top down? Do workers feel a sense of community and support? Do they feel safe today — and confident they will be safe tomorrow?
Start by measuring these traits informally. Walk around. Talk with people in private conversations. Compare what you hear from different levels of leadership with what you hear from the people they lead. What patterns are emerging? Does your vision sound different on the front line than it does in the C-Suite meeting? Where is the message breaking down?
Then look at last quarter’s meeting agendas at various levels of the organization. Do the topics reflect your stated priorities? Is the message reinforced consistently? Just as important, who is doing the talking — and are team members at every level given a meaningful voice?
This is a critical element of building a culture that can compete and win in this “New Ab-Normal” workplace. Successful enterprises – successful governments – will act NOW to shape a culture that can work at the pace of change.
What’s Next?
The next step for leaders in this New Ab-Normal is to make organizational agility measurable so it can become manageable. In the coming months, we will introduce a new assessment– AHC’s Agile Culture Scorecard -- Powered by the Six Traits of Agile Organizations to help leaders identify where leadership behaviors are enabling speed, learning, and innovation — and where fear, silence, or hesitation may be slowing the organization down.
If you want a more agile organization, start by answering this question: Do your people feel safe enough to help you build it?
I’d love to hear how you are shaping a more adaptive organizational culture — and what questions this raises about the new – AHC’s Agile Culture Scorecard -- Powered by the Six Traits of Agile Organizations. If this topic is on your leadership agenda, let’s connect.
^Schein, E. H., & Schein, P. A. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership (5th ed.). Wiley.