The news headline is almost unthinkable. How could people, HR, culture and employee engagement cost us $8.8 trillion annually. A shocking number at 9% of the GDP in total.

You might have seen the headlines and thought that is shocking but now what. As Gallup shared, employees who are not engaged or who are actively disengaged cost the world $8.8 trillion in lost productivity, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace.  

Ultimately we are talking about people at work. Interesting, to think that cost all of us when companies get it wrong with their employees.

The History, Covid and Now

As noted in the report, employee engagement had been rising for the past decade, but the pandemic stalled that steadily increasing trend.

Leaders are now responsible for creating new work environments that are more resilient and adaptable to global shocks. The future trajectory of employee engagement will be one measure of their success and, with increases recorded for the past two years, it appears to be showing signs of recovery.

Engagement can be created & tracked. Why should you?

For years HR leaders have tried to convince the world employee engagement is a real thing. Many for years got blank stares as the ROI question was left on the table with a sense of illusion or delusion from some skeptics.

“Engagement is not a characteristic of employees, but rather an experience created by organizations, managers and team members.” ~Gallup

Creating and measuring engagement has now become easier. Fortunately, now technology has helped both create engagement opportunities and measure the real impact. This can actually be viewed in hard numbers, in real-time thanks to new technology.

Now showing good signs of progress in employee engagement is a sign of success for all sizes. Harvard reported in 2024 that 92% of leaders now say employee engagement matters and it is a core focus for 2025.

Employee Engagement: the Pitfall Many are Facing Here is where most teams get it wrong. HR, CSR, Citizenship, Communications teams all know the need, but here is where many fall into a pitfall that if not careful can add to the $8.8 trillion problem.

Employees are not engaged one day of the year. They are also not engaged through surveys and they are not engaged with words on a paper that tells them to be engaged.

However obvious that seems, for the past 20 years corporate infrastructure has pointed programs to one-time events and 360 feedback with engagement tracking to answer a problem that is much less complicated than it seems. After Covid created new dynamics for HR, the lever of remote work showed a lot of promise because it felt real to employees and more than words.

The pitfall of employee engagement is not that you do nothing, but that you do engagement all together wrong.

The one word you must build engagement around: Purpose

Science, for the past 34 years, has shared in clear results what drives lasting motivation and it is not profits or programs.

Purpose and Meaning are proven as the number one engagement driver for all types of employees

Now we see investment teams like the largest global brand Blackrock stating things like they wont invest in companies who don’t recognize purpose at their core. This to an investment team is a call to act on the science because it has been proven. That is amazing for employees looking for real meaning in their work.

Again, this seems obvious, but unfortunately our companies haven’t had the technology to know what to do about the proven research until only the last 10 years.

So if we have the technology. What now?

The Technology: Know the Difference

The fun begins when there is a solution to the problem, but there is a vast difference in the types of technology available for companies to fix the $8.8 trillion problem. Some ignore purpose and meaning altogether. Some put purpose and meaning at the center but do it once or twice a year. Neither will be a lasting solution to the real problem.

However, there is a niche of platforms, like Noonday, that is now designed fully and completely for the problem of engaging employees in purpose and meaning all year long. This takes different tools than a once-a-year event or e-mail blast.

If you are looking at bringing purpose to life at your workplace and evaluating technology to help, ask these questions:

• How does the technology foster community among employees?
• How does the technology educate and roll-out campaigns to employees?
• How does the technology keep an employee returning more than once-a-year?
• How does purpose & meaning go beyond giving and volunteering traditional programs?
• Is there some sort of challenge element (the #1 engagement tool) built into the platform?
• Is there a focus on building a culture or completing a task?
• Can you start for free?

It is tough to choose a technology and there is none more important than one that connects your people to purpose & meaning. Let us help you with our ROI calculator and our feature comparison charts if you need a hand.