India's employee engagement crisis is real — and getting worse. In 2025, ADP Research's People at Work report recorded India's employee engagement rate at just 19%, down from 24% the year before. That is the steepest single-year fall of any country in the world. It means 4 in 5 of your employees are going through the motions. The traditional playbook is not working. Sport is.
19%
of Indian employees are engaged at work in 2025 — the steepest fall of any country globally.
ADP Research · People at Work 2025
$438B
in lost productivity from disengagement globally in 2024 — matching the COVID-19 decline.
Gallup · State of the Global Workplace 2025
73%
lower employee turnover in organisations with a robust team bonding strategy.
Deloitte Research · 2025
The Traditional Engagement Playbook is Broken
Most Indian companies run their employee engagement calendar from a familiar template: annual offsite, quarterly town hall, Diwali party, birthday recognitions, and a Flexi Friday once a month. These are not bad programmes. They are just insufficient — and increasingly, employees see through them.
The issue is structural. Traditional engagement programmes are passive — employees are an audience, not participants. A Diwali party is something that happens to you. A cricket final you are playing in is something you are part of. That difference is psychologically profound.
Research from Deloitte's 2024 Global Human Capital Trends report found that employees who participate in employer-sponsored physical activities report 2.1x higher engagement scores than those who only attend social events. The mechanism is straightforward: physical activity together creates shared vulnerability and genuine emotional memory in a way that watching a DJ at a corporate party does not.
What India's Best Companies Are Doing Differently
The companies in India running the best engagement programmes share a pattern. They have moved from events for employees to experiences with employees. The distinction sounds small. The impact is significant.
Old approach
Annual sports day (reactive)
New approach
Recurring sports league (ongoing)
Old approach
Department-level activities (silo-reinforcing)
New approach
Cross-functional teams (connection-building)
Old approach
Passive attendance (employees watch)
New approach
Active participation (employees play)
Old approach
One-size-fits-all (town halls, parties)
New approach
Sport-based experiences (voluntary, energising)
Old approach
Engagement measured by attendance
New approach
Engagement measured by repeat participation
Old approach
Photography for internal use only
New approach
Content shared externally for employer brand
The FORJ Model: What We See in the Numbers
Across 50+ companies we have worked with in India, three metrics consistently improve after sport-based engagement programmes:
89%
of participants say they feel more connected to colleagues they did not previously know well
Measured 30 days post-event
2.4x
higher re-participation rate for sport-based programmes vs. traditional social events
Based on 50+ FORJ clients
41%
of FORJ clients report a measurable improvement in cross-team collaboration in the quarter after an event
Self-reported by HR leads
The Five Elements of a Sport-Based Engagement Programme That Works
Mixed Team Composition
Do not let people self-select into teams with their existing friends. HR assigns teams deliberately — mixing departments, seniority, tenure. This is the single highest-impact structural decision.
Recurring Format (Not One-Off)
A league, not just a day. The relationships that form from one sports day are real but shallow. A six-week league builds something deeper — shared history, inside jokes, genuine investment in outcomes.
Visible Recognition
Trophies, medals, individual awards. Public recognition of performance and contribution — separated from the performance review process — is deeply motivating. The MVP of a corporate cricket tournament remembers it for years.
Leadership Visibility
Senior leaders participating (not just attending) sends a message that the company genuinely values this. A CEO batting in the first over creates a moment that becomes company lore.
Content Creation
Professional photography and video from every event. Share it externally (LinkedIn, employer brand channels) and internally (intranet, all-hands decks). The content has a long tail — it continues building engagement and brand long after the event.
What the data shows across FORJ events
-18%
Attrition delta in 12 months post-event
FORJ internal · 50+ events
NPS 78
Average participant NPS score
Industry benchmark: 34
94%
Rebook intent at 6 months post-event
FORJ post-event surveys
50+
Corporate events delivered across India
Delhi-NCR · Bangalore
Build Your Engagement Programme