By Russell Ward, Co-founder of Meta Team
As we come into 2025, businesses are facing a serious wake-up call regarding employee engagement. The latest Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2024 reveals a disengagement crisis that may be costing companies far more than they realise. Alarmingly, the findings in Europe show that 72% of workers are disengaged, with 16% actively disengaged, and only 13% of employees are truly engaged.
In the UK, the situation is worse: 90% of workers are not enthusiastic about their work, with 60% participating in a growing trend of quiet quitting—where they do the bare minimum while staying in their roles. The consequences of these statistics go beyond just the headline numbers – they represent a material risk to both company culture and your bottom line.
The silent drain of disengagement
The cost of disengaged employees isn’t always visible, often manifesting in the form of lost productivity and higher turnover. Consider a team of eight employees with an average salary of £70,000 with total salary costs of £637,280. If 16% of those employees are actively disengaged the risk to the business is £101,965 in salary cost alone. This is just one example of how disengagement can profoundly impact a company’s financial health.
According to Gallup, disengaged employees have 37% higher absenteeism, 18% lower productivity and 15% lower profitability. This translates into 34% of a disengaged employee’s annual salary. This is higher for actively disengaged employees.
Although harder to quantify, quiet quitting is damaging in different ways. These employees may stay in their roles, but their effects on company culture and motivation are tangible and equally harmful.
If you look at the above table which shows the latest UKGov figures on the number of employees in UK companies (and we have not included the 5.45 million companies that employ less than 50 people) with our estimate of low average salaries and average number of employees per company, the immediate challenges and impact of disengagement can quickly spiral out of control.
If you consider just the wage bill, let alone the cost of replacement, lost productivity etc we have highlighted below, then British businesses of over 50 employees currently have well in excess of £133 billion of their investment in human capital at risk, we call this Value at Risk (VAR). This estimate is based solely on 16% of workers who report as actively disengaged i.e. actively looking and interviewing for a new job. The actual picture is far far worse.
The Value at Risk within your business
The Minimum Impact: Lost Productivity and Recruitment Costs
The costs of disengagement are not just theoretical—they are measurable. If an employee is actively disengaged, they will be unproductive and will be interviewing for another job. This results in a loss of at least three months of productivity.
Once they hand in their notice, the company loses at least another two months as they search for a replacement. Onboarding and training the new hire will take a further couple of months, bringing the total to a minimum of 7 months of lost productivity and then there is the minimum cost of recruitment of 15% of employee’s salary and national insurance.
So, for someone earning £70,000 + NI the cost of 7 months loss of productivity in terms of their wage alone is £46,468. Recruitment @ 15% is £11,200 so a total cost of £57,668.
This does not include pension, benefits, office and equipment costs, holidays or most importantly, the opportunity cost to the company.
For a company with 1,000 employees, just the salary and recruitment value at risk cost alone for just 16% disengagement of their staff could result in a minimum loss of £13 million, asubstantial financial burden. However, the good news is that this cost can be mitigated.
How focussing on team development can help
The reality is that disengagement is not inevitable—it can be addressed with the right strategies. The causes of disengagement are many, but one of the most common is poor team dynamics, particularly when employees don’t feel supported by their managers.
Meta Team’s 12 years of research shows that 41% of teams struggle with collaboration, 26% are unaware of their shortcomings, and 79% report distractions due to competing priorities.
At Meta Team, we believe that strong teams are the foundation of a successful organisation. Team culture and leadership are critical factors that influence engagement. When expectations exceed a team’s abilities, friction arises, leading to disengagement.
Conversely, when abilities exceed expectations, employees may become bored and disengaged. The key to productivity is ensuring that expectations and abilities are aligned, creating an environment where employees are motivated and engaged.
Our performance optimisation programme focuses on improving team dynamics and leadership, helping teams unlock their full potential. For an investment of as little as £5000 per team that needs development, companies can significantly reduce disengagement, resulting in substantial savings and a more motivated workforce. In the case of a 1,000-person company, the £13 million VAR loss can be transformed into profit by addressing disengagement and turning average teams into high performing ones.
Conclusion: Disengagement Is Costing You More Than You Think
The data is clear: disengaged employees are costing UK businesses billions in lost productivity, turnover, and missed opportunities. Companies that fail to address disengagement risk seeing their bottom lines erode due to a disengaged, demotivated and underperforming workforce.
The solution is simple: invest in employee engagement. By recognising the importance of team cohesion, leadership development and employee recognition, businesses can reverse the tide of disengagement and unlock the true potential of their workforce.
Meta Team’s performance optimisation programme is a proven solution offering measurable returns on investment by improving team cohesion, collaboration, candour and performance thus boosting morale, and reducing draining disengagement-related costs.
Let’s make 2025 the year we prioritise employee engagement and unlock the true potential of our teams.
