Why your best people are leaving (and how to stop it)

We’re facing a quiet crisis at work. Not just in how people engage—but in whether they’re willing to stay at all.

Gallup reports that employee engagement is at a decade low, with just 33% of people feeling genuinely connected to their work. That leaves nearly 70% either coasting, emotionally checked out, or actively disengaged—and disengagement is the first step toward employee turnover.

The signs have been there for a while. Post-pandemic reshuffles, burnout, unclear hybrid expectations, and a constant drumbeat of change have left many employees not just wondering where to work—but why they work the way they do.

This isn’t about free snacks or remote options anymore. It’s about meaning, motivation, and the breaking point of what people are no longer willing to tolerate. And when engagement drops, retention follows.

Employee engagement isn’t a metric. It’s a mirror.

Having led culture in high-growth companies, I’ve seen how easy it is to miss the signs—until your top performers walk out the door. We chase engagement scores, but forget that engagement isn’t a number; it’s a feeling. And when we use outdated tools to measure it, we’re often left reacting too late.

So what is employee engagement?

Gallup defines it as “the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace.”

True engagement isn’t measured in checkboxes. It’s felt on Monday mornings, in team energy, in how supported someone feels during hard weeks. It’s driven by trust, clarity, and recognition—and it’s deeply personal.

Their Q12 framework outlines 12 questions linked to performance and loyalty. Some of my favourites:

• Do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
• Does my manager care about me as a person?
• Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

These are deceptively simple. But they hold the secret to both employee engagement and retention.

When those emotional needs go unmet, people don’t always complain. They disconnect. They stop caring. And eventually, they leave.

Why disengaged employees become ex-employees

Burnout is only part of the story. The deeper issue? Emotional fatigue. Changing expectations. Lack of clarity. Systems that reward visibility over value. And middle managers caught in the middle—expected to hold everything together while their own wellbeing unravels.

Worse still, many companies are relying on traditional employee engagement surveys that are slow, vague, and unactionable. A score comes in. Maybe there’s a heatmap. Then… nothing changes.

That’s how you lose good people—quietly.

Traditional engagement tools don’t help with employee retention

If your engagement strategy relies on an annual survey, you’re too late. By the time the data lands, your best people are polishing their LinkedIn profiles.

Engagement isn’t about the survey. It’s about the signal. And the speed at which you act on it.

We don’t need another 50-slide PowerPoint. We need real-time insight and human-centred action.

What if your culture could talk back?

That’s where AI can be game-changing—not as a buzzword, but as a listening tool.

Imagine your employee experience platform flags a rise in team fatigue—not a month later, but this week. A nudge goes to the manager:

“Your team is showing signs of burnout. Cancel non-critical meetings and check in 1:1.”

This is what smarter employee engagement and retention strategies look like. Small, clear actions that meet humans where they are. AI doesn’t replace leaders. It helps them lead better—with more empathy, not more dashboards.

What the best cultures are doing differently

The companies who retain their best people aren’t the ones with the loudest values deck. They’re the ones with the quietest listening.

Here’s what they do right:

1. Make engagement continuous

Not a one-off event. They use AI-powered tools to spot friction and act fast.

2. Support managers, don’t just expect them to cope

Middle managers are the key to retention. Empower them with coaching, not just KPIs.

3. Prioritise clarity

People don’t leave companies—they leave chaos. Great cultures reduce noise and increase focus.

4. Lead from the front

Executive energy sets the tone. Calm, clear leaders create safe, steady cultures.

Retention begins with how people feel

In every team I’ve led, the breakthrough came when we stopped separating performance from wellbeing. We made room for honest conversations. We simplified goals. We acknowledged the human behind the role.

Because engagement builds retention. And retention protects culture.

If you’re wondering where to start, ask yourself:

Are we truly listening—or are we just surveying?

If you’re building a people-first culture and want support turning engagement into retention, let’s talk. Our calendar is always open.

💛
Anitta