The world of work has evolved dramatically. In the age of AI, employees are navigating an ever-shifting landscape shaped by digital transformation, changing skill demands and flatter organizational hierarchies.
Yet despite these seismic shifts, many organizations continue to approach career development as if nothing has changed. According to “The Career Equation,” Right Management’s first report in 2025’s The State of Careers™ series, this mismatch is fueling a growing disconnect between employers and their people, leading to insufficient career support and persistent disengagement.
In this ever-evolving business landscape, new talent engagement strategies are necessary to thrive now and in the future.
External studies reinforce this trend. According to Gallup, only 31% of U.S. employees are engaged — the lowest level in over a decade. That means nearly seven in ten workers are disengaged, costing companies billions in lost productivity, innovation and retention.
Our own research echoes this pattern but goes further by uncovering the root causes of disengagement and revealing a critical misalignment between what employees value and how organizations are trying to support them.
“Engagement is at an all-time low, the lowest it’s been in decades — but it’s not just that engagement is low, it’s that managers are also not tuned into it,” said Beth Linderbaum, Ph.D., PCC, Head of Global Coaching Excellence, during a recent Right Management webinar.
From recognition gaps and manager blind spots to work overload and a lack of clarity around purpose, the drivers of disengagement are numerous. But what it really boils down to is that leaders are failing to understand what actually drives engagement.
So, the question is: how should organizations engage and retain top talent?
Many are assuming that the same levers they pulled to attract talent — compensation, perks and logistics — can be used to retain and motivate. Our data, however, says otherwise.
One of the first consequences of this misalignment is a disconnect between leadership and their people. Leaders are often blind to the disengagement within their workforce and unaware of how deep the issue runs.
In our survey, 53% of leaders believed their workforce was fully engaged, a sentiment shared by only 37% of employees. In fact, 41% of employees admitted to being disengaged, a reality acknowledged by just 29% of leaders.
We call this disconnect the Engagement Illusion.
Why the gap? The data suggests that many leaders have simply misinterpreted what contributes to employee engagement. When asked which aspects of work most influence engagement, workers identified two key drivers: organizational fit and alignment (37%) and a meaningful career (27%). Pay and benefits ranked last, with only 9% of employees citing it as a main driver.
Leaders, while also identifying fit as a top factor (23%), underestimated its importance and ranked it only slightly higher than pay and benefits (21%) and job logistics (17%). This misunderstanding is reflected on a global scale and helps explain why so many organizations worldwide are struggling to retain key talent. Ultimately, they’ve failed to recognize the value of certain factors and are over-relying on others.
“As a worker looking for some kind of safety or continuity, you don’t just focus on the job, you focus on the company and a sense of belonging,” shared Barbera de Graaf, EMEAAP Market Leader. Her comment highlights the emotional and cultural dimensions of engagement that are often overlooked.
This disconnect becomes even more apparent as you delve further into the data. It shows that the factors influencing attraction are not interchangeable with those that drive engagement. In fact, they’re almost polar opposites.
When considering a new role, employees prioritize pay and benefits (36%) and job logistics (19%). They want to know what the job entails, what perks are available and how much they’ll be paid. At this point, whether they ‘fit’ within the organization simply isn’t a priority for most people.
However, once someone has become established in their role, their priorities shift. Employees begin looking for greater meaning to help them stay engaged. Where competitive base pay, annual leave and flexibility around work location are high on the wish list when accepting a new role, employees later want challenging and meaningful work, alignment with business values and confidence in organizational leadership and strategy to find a sustainable sense of belonging and career satisfaction.
In failing to recognize the distinct difference between what attracts and what retains talent, businesses find themselves with an unhappy workforce that is prone to high turnover rates and disengagement.
“There’s a lot going on in the world, and we now have to mirror our culture within work to match what people are seeing outside the office to keep them engaged, happy and healthy,” said Patrick McCue, Right Management’s Americas Market Leader. His point reinforces the need for organizations to evolve their internal culture to reflect the expectations and experiences of today’s workforce.
While the picture right now may appear somewhat bleak, there is a path forward for organizations that are willing to listen to their employees, learn from previous mistakes and lead according to the needs of their workforce.
Our research points to three key engagement strategies that can help organizations reimagine career development and build a more engaged, resilient workforce:
As Caroline Pfeiffer Marinho, Global Business Leader for Right Management, emphasized during the webinar:
“The future of work depends on aligning individual career aspirations with business strategy and skills needs.”
Her insight underscores the urgency for organizations to evolve their talent strategies. Career development is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a strategic imperative that directly impacts employee engagement, talent retention and business performance.
The data is clear: traditional approaches to career development no longer align with the realities of today’s workforce. In an era defined by rapid change, flattened hierarchies and evolving skill demands, organizations must rethink how they engage, develop and retain top talent.
Employees are asking for more — not just better pay or perks, but meaningful careers, cultural alignment and leadership they can trust. The companies that respond with empathy, insight and strategy will be the ones that thrive.
Watch our webinar to get all insights from our latest research. Hear directly from our global leaders and experts. They unpack the data and share talent engagement strategies to help your organization close the engagement gap and future-proof your organization for the long haul.