The end of work-from-home and poor tracking of staff engagement levels is driving disastrous staff churn-rates. Traditional, annual engagement surveys risk missing the real-time warning signs before staff disengage and companies lose millions.

Traditional engagement surveys are falling short 

With the last work-from-home policies ending, employees have brought higher expectations of their well-being and engagement standards to the table, but many companies have not adapted. Many organisations still rely on annual or quarterly staff surveys to measure workplace sentiment. The problem is these snapshots are often completely outdated by the time they’re analysed.

“Employee engagement is fluid and impacted by everything from seasonal changes to management shifts. If businesses rely solely on periodic surveys, they end up chasing ghosts,” says Andrew Cook, Founder of HeadsUp, a simplified AI-driven employee engagement platform that provides businesses with actionable insights to better understand their workforces. “You’re essentially making decisions based on a point-in-time assessment that may no longer reflect reality.”

Another obstacle is the very nature of traditional engagement metrics. Many companies use benchmarks like the Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), but while such metrics provide an overall sentiment, they offer little actionable insight. “It doesn’t tell you what’s causing disengagement or where to intervene,” Cook explains.

Employee disengagement comes at a cost

The consequences of undetected disengagement go far beyond low staff morale.

High attrition rates driven by employees who no longer see a future with their employer, directly contribute to lower customer experience scores as even remaining employees stop going the extra mile. The phenomenon of silent quitting, where employees ‘check out’ and do only the bare minimum required to keep their jobs, erodes productivity even when no overt staff-exodus is occurring.

“Disengagement has always been difficult to measure because, in large organisations, there are so many places for its indicators to hide,” emphasises Cook.

“It takes proactive leadership to identify when an employee is just going through the motions. And with massive lags between engagement tracking efforts, businesses risk missing the warning signs,” he explains.

“Instead of asking employees the same generic questions, short, more frequent pulse surveys can help organisations get a faster, more realistic picture of the real issues affecting engagement. Do employees feel like they have the right tools and resources to do their jobs? Is there a perceived lack of career development? Are burnout-levels rising? Waiting until next quarter (or next year, for that matter) to find out is asking for trouble. Modern employees, especially after the reprioritisation of work-life-integration and well-being during the height of the work-from-home era, are acutely aware of threats to their engagement at work, and it changes quickly. Companies who want to address their staff’s needs while also protecting their bottom-line, need real-time, actionable insights to their staff’s engagement levels.”

Engagement tracking should therefore not only be an exercise in collecting data. Cook says companies also need to act on it.  “With recruitment and onboarding costs averaging between five and eight times an employee’s monthly salary, the value of early intervention speaks for itself.

“Our data shows that companies using real-time engagement tracking have reduced attrition rates by an average of 13%.

“In one case, a company with 2,000 employees reported a $400,000 return on investment, equivalent to over R7 million, within 18 months from reductions in absenteeism and resignations,” he notes. 

Workplace shifts and balancing productivity and culture

Cook says productivity and company culture are driving the global shift back to the office. “While some employees thrive in remote work environments, others prefer closer mentorship, in-person feedback and collaboration. In many organisations, the next level of leadership is no longer being developed internally as before. Companies are therefore now hiring externally because mentorship through ‘osmosis’ is no longer happening. These are real challenges that don’t lend themselves to a one-size-fits-all answer.”

At the same time, company culture remains a crucial engagement factor. Businesses with a remote-first approach have built their cultures around dispersed teams, but organisations that traditionally relied on in-person interactions have struggled to replicate those dynamics remotely in the same efficient manner. “One of the biggest indicators of churn among employees under the age of 28 is declining levels of social connection in the workplace. If someone doesn’t have what they consider to be a good friend at work, the likelihood of them resigning within the next three to six months is much higher even than if they’re feeling burnt out.”

Getting ahead of disengagement

For businesses looking to avoid the quiet creep of disengagement, the starting point is closely listening. “If you’re not listening to your employees in real time, you’re already at a disadvantage. Relying on outdated engagement surveys is like trying to drive forward while only looking in the rear-view mirror,” concludes Cook.