6 Ways to Decrease Employee Engagement (and How to Avoid Them)

Are You Unknowingly Doing Things that Decrease Employee Engagement?
After over three decades in the employee engagement field and running over 500,000 employee engagement surveys per year, we have seen what happens to decrease employee engagement and what is needed to increase discretionary effort, advocacy, and intent to stay.

Employee engagement is one of the most powerful predictors of organizational performance — driving productivity, retention, innovation, and customer satisfaction. Yet despite billions spent annually on engagement initiatives, Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace report found that only 23% of employees worldwide are actively engaged. Why? Because too many organizations unintentionally do the very things that destroy engagement in the first place.

Six Proven Ways to Decrease Employee Engagement
Unfortunately, we know from organizational culture assessment data that too many companies, leaders, and managers say and do things that decrease employee engagement. Here are six proven ways to decrease employee engagement—and the practical lessons every leader should learn from them.

1. Fail to Connect Work to Meaning
   Nothing drains engagement faster than work that feels meaningless. When employees cannot see how their daily efforts contribute to a larger purpose, motivation declines and cynicism grows. Purpose gives context, meaning, and direction — it turns routine tasks into meaningful contribution.

   A McKinsey & Company study found that employees who find their work meaningful are four times more engaged and five times more likely to stay with their organization. When leaders fail to connect the dots between purpose and performance, they create teams that simply go through the motions.

   What to do instead:
   Clarify the organization’s purpose and help every employee see how their role contributes to it. Recognition and communication should consistently reinforce that connection.

2. Ignore or Micromanage Your People
   Few things disengage employees more quickly than feeling ignored — or worse, controlled. When leaders withhold feedback, avoid recognition, or hover over every decision, they signal a lack of trust. Micromanagement kills initiative and innovation, while neglect leaves people feeling invisible.

   Research published in Harvard Business Review shows that employees who feel ignored by their manager are twice as likely to be disengaged as those who receive even negative feedback.

   What to do instead:
   Replace micromanagement with coaching. Set clear expectations, check in regularly, and focus on outcomes rather than activities. Recognition, autonomy, and trust go a long way toward fueling engagement.

3. Tolerate Poor Leadership or Toxic Behavior
   One of the fastest ways to lose engagement is to tolerate poor leadership. Toxic managers who hoard credit, play favorites, or fail to hold others accountable create resentment and drive away top talent. According to MIT Sloan Management Review, toxic culture is 10 times more predictive of turnover than compensation.

   What to do instead:
   Address leadership gaps head-on. Train, coach, and evaluate leaders not only on results but also on how they achieve them. Cultural alignment and emotional intelligence should carry equal weight with business outcomes.

4. Ignore Development and Growth Opportunities
   Stagnation kills engagement. When employees feel there is no room to grow or learn, energy and creativity fade. LinkedIn’s recent Workplace Learning Report found that 94% of employees would stay longer if their company invested in their career development.

   What to do instead:
   Create visible career pathways, provide skill-building opportunities, and encourage internal mobility. When people see a future for themselves inside the organization, they stay motivated and committed.

5. Do Not Follow Through on Employee Engagement Survey Results
   While this seems like a no-brainer, according to CEB research, 80 percent of business leaders do not believe that engagement initiatives are driving business outcomes.  And when we ask employees, over 50 percent do not believe that the company took meaningful employee engagement actions after their latest survey.

   What to do instead:
   If you decide to ask for employee feedback, make sure that you are prepared to do something about it.  Employees who see action taken after a survey are 12 times more likely to be engaged the following year compared to those who do not see follow-up.  

6. Have Unclear Performance Expectations
   Few factors undermine organizational performance faster than unclear expectations. When employees are unsure of what success looks like, they can’t prioritize effectively, make informed decisions, or take accountability for outcomes. Over time, confusion breeds frustration, disengagement, and inconsistent performance across teams.

   Ambiguity in performance expectations creates ripple effects that go far beyond individual confusion. It erodes trust, slows execution, and weakens alignment across the organization. According to Gallup’s recent State of the Workplace report, only about half of employees strongly agree that they know what’s expected of them at work — a staggering indicator of how often organizations miss the mark on clarity.

   What to do instead:
   Provide clear direction regarding:

   — The company’s plans for future success.
   — Their team’s goals and accountabilities.
   — The line of sight to the company strategy.
   — How they fit into the company’s future plans.
   — How their job helps the organization achieve success.

The Bottom Line
Employee engagement doesn’t fail by accident — it fails by neglect. The quickest way to decrease employee engagement is to ignore purpose, micromanage talent, tolerate poor leadership, and stifle growth. The organizations that thrive do the opposite: they build meaning, trust, and opportunity into the employee experience. Engagement is not a perk; it’s a performance strategy that separates high-performing cultures from those merely getting by..

To learn more about how to better engage top talent, download Are You Aimlessly Engaging Your Employees?