The solution to employee disengagement is human
By MARCUS MARSDEN
The Business Times, 2 July 2026
THE Singapore Workplace Report 2026 confirms what many leaders already know: Engaged people do better work, and disengaged people cost organisations dearly.
The scale of the issue is striking. According to the report, 86 per cent of employees in Singapore are disengaged, at an estimated annual cost of US$73.6 billion in lost productivity.
At that level, engagement belongs firmly on the business agenda.
Disengagement changes the texture of an organisation. Work becomes transactional, with employees doing what is required and little more. Energy drops, initiative fades and creativity narrows.
The organisation keeps moving, while something vital slowly disappears.
Some employees leave. Others stay and quietly withdraw. The latter is more dangerous. Employees are physically present and psychologically absent.
In a knowledge economy such as Singapore, where value depends on judgment, trust, collaboration and creativity, that cost matters.
Many companies have responded with benefits, wellness programmes and engagement initiatives. Some of these are useful, and they can play a part in the broader employee experience.
Management matters
The deeper work, however, sits closer to the daily reality of management.
People experience the organisation largely through their supervisors. It is shaped by how a manager listens, responds, challenges, supports, explains and behaves under pressure.
Too many managers have the attitude of “you are paid to be engaged, so be engaged”. If employees are disengaged, then that is feedback for their manager.
Manager capability is therefore a strategic business issue. It deserves the same seriousness organisations give to financial, operational and technological capability.
Across Asia, many managers are promoted because they were strong individual contributors. The best salesperson becomes the sales leader. The strongest engineer becomes the team lead. The reliable technical expert becomes responsible for people.
The assumption is understandable, but technical excellence and leadership effectiveness ask different things of a person.
Managing people requires a different set of capabilities. In our experience, many managers across the region have had little formal development in the human side of leadership.
The first capability is self-awareness.
Emotional intelligence and the capacity to build productive, engaging relationships are predicated on an awareness of self.
As human beings, we all necessarily have patterns of behaviour. The pressure of producing results on a daily basis highlights those ingrained routines. Self-aware managers are better able to notice their own habits and course-correct.
The second is the ability to listen effectively.
Many workplace problems begin with missed signals, unclear expectations, unspoken concerns and unresolved tensions. A manager who listens beyond the immediate task is better able to understand what is really happening in the team.
Finally, managers need to coach as well as direct.
Direction has its place, and so does clarity. Good leaders also build capability in others. They ask better questions, develop judgment and help people take ownership of outcomes.
It starts with leaders engaging
These are practical skills, and they develop through practice, feedback and reinforcement.
Organisations that take engagement seriously build leadership development into the rhythm of management itself.
Managers need spaces to practise. They need honest feedback. They need peer learning. They need performance conversations that examine how results are achieved, and whether they were achieved.
The surrounding systems also need to support the same message. When organisations assess managers on leadership effectiveness, talent development, team engagement and collaboration, people leadership becomes part of the real work rather than an optional extra.
Boards and senior leaders have a particular responsibility here.
Engagement is a leadership issue with direct consequences for performance, retention and culture. It deserves attention at the level where priorities are set, resources are allocated and behaviour is rewarded.
Culture is formed through repeated behaviour, especially by those with authority.
When senior leaders invest time in people, seek feedback, welcome bad news and promote those who develop others, the organisation learns what matters.
People watch what leaders do. They notice what gets rewarded. They notice who gets promoted. Over time, those signals become the culture.
As companies invest more heavily in technology, automation and artificial intelligence, the human capabilities that make organisations work become even more important.
Judgment, trust, listening, courage, accountability and development remain central to sustained performance.
Employee engagement grows when managers have the capability to build productive relationships.
The uncomfortable truth is that happens through conversation. The inconvenient truth is that AI can’t do it for you. In the end, the solution to employee disengagement is human.
The writer is managing partner for The Coach Partnership and The Works Partnership. He is an International Coach Federation-certified executive coach with more than 30 years of business and management experience.