19%.
That is India's employee engagement rate in 2025. Down from 24% in 2024. The steepest single-year fall of any country in the world, according to ADP Research's People at Work 2025 report.
India was already well below what is possible — best-practice organisations globally achieve 70%. This fall does not represent a blip. It represents a structural breakdown in how Indian organisations are managing their people.
ADP Research · People at Work 2025 · 38,000 respondents · 34 countries
India just recorded its worst employee engagement rate in years. This is not a global trend — it is a specifically Indian collapse. Here is what is driving it, what it costs, and what the companies reversing it are doing.
Why This Year Is Different
Gallup has been tracking global engagement since 2009. In that time, the global rate has fallen only twice: during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and again in 2024. India's decline is more severe than either. A five-percentage-point fall in a single year is not normal variance — it is a signal.
ADP Research identifies several converging factors in India specifically: the post-pandemic return-to-office friction, which was handled badly at many large Indian organisations; the burnout hangover from the 2021–2022 hiring boom and subsequent layoff cycles in IT; and a generational shift in what India's younger workforce expects from work — expectations that most HR teams have not yet caught up with.
The Cost Nobody Puts in the P&L
Gallup's 2025 report calculates that the 2024 decline in global engagement cost the world economy $438 billion in lost productivity. That is a global figure — India's contribution, given the severity of the decline here, is disproportionately large.
At the company level, Gallup puts the cost of a disengaged employee at $16,000 per year in lost productivity. For a 500-person Indian company at 79% disengagement, that is approximately ₹52 Crores per year in invisible productivity loss — before a single person has resigned.
What Is Driving the Fall
Manager disengagement cascading to teams
Gallup's 2025 data shows the primary driver of the global decline is a fall in manager engagement — from 30% to 27%. In India, where managers are often promoted for technical excellence rather than people skills, this dynamic is amplified. 70% of team engagement variance sits with the manager. When managers are checked out, their teams follow.
Return-to-office friction without cultural investment
The post-pandemic return-to-office was handled as a logistics exercise at most Indian organisations — not a culture exercise. Employees returned to offices without the social fabric that made offices worthwhile being rebuilt. The commute came back; the connection did not.
Generational expectations unmet
India's under-35 workforce — which will be the majority within five years — expects their employer to invest in their experience as a whole person, not just their productivity. Gym subsidies and free meals are baseline. They want meaningful work, visible development, and a team that feels like something worth showing up for.
Recognition deficit
68% of HR professionals believe recognition is a primary driver of retention, but most Indian organisations have no systematic recognition infrastructure beyond annual awards. Employees who feel invisible disengage. The research is unambiguous: employees who are recognised are 45% less likely to leave within two years.
What the Companies Reversing It Are Doing
The gap between India's 19% and best-practice organisations' 70% is real, but it is not inevitable. Here is what the companies in India moving in the right direction are doing differently — consistently, not occasionally:
Recurring shared experiences. Not one annual event. Quarterly at minimum. The relationship between frequency and engagement is not linear — it compounds. A team that has a shared reference point from last month is more resilient than a team whose last shared experience was nine months ago.
Cross-functional connection. Engagement falls when people feel isolated in their department silo. The organisations reversing the trend deliberately create reasons for people across departments to interact, collaborate, and build relationships that transcend their reporting lines.
Visible recognition built into the system. Not the annual gala. Recognition that is specific, timely, and public — happening regularly, not ceremonially.
What the data shows across FORJ events
-18%
Attrition delta · 12 months post-event
FORJ internal · 50+ events
NPS 78
Avg participant NPS
Industry benchmark: 34
94%
Rebook intent · 6 months post-event
FORJ post-event surveys
50+
Corporate events across India
Delhi-NCR · Bangalore
From 19% to a number worth talking about
Start reversing the engagement decline in your organisation.
We design the recurring sport-based experiences that create the cross-functional connection and shared stakes that engagement research consistently points to.