What Leaders Can Do to Address Employee Disconnect

Every organization at its core is a group of people working together toward common objectives. Within the most successful organizations, people feel connected to one another and align their efforts toward shared objectives. This is indeed one of the primary jobs of leadership.

But today, millions of employees feel disconnected from their organizations, driving them to put forth less effort, mentally check out and physically withdraw from work. This “employee disconnect” poses significant risks to employees and organizations alike.

The good news is there are tried-and-true leadership behaviors that can bring employees back into the fold, reconnecting them with the organization and its objectives. But to ensure employees stay connected, leaders must identify the common sources of disconnect, understand the environments that facilitate it and take action. Much like trust, connection is much harder to regain once lost. So, what can leaders do?  

Understand the Environment and the Sources of Employee Disconnect

The external environment in which organizations currently operate is incredibly volatile, stemming from exponential technological advancement, geopolitical conflicts, abrupt policy changes and more. Both leaders and front-line employees acknowledge the dizzying speed at which things are changing. And these changes bring about massive uncertainty, which can wreak havoc on the human brain. 

Change and uncertainty create conditions that make human-to-human connection more challenging. As a simple example, thanks to globalization and communication technologies, many workers are more physically disconnected than in past decades and people are leaning on AI to replace what would have historically required collaboration with others. 

Workforce research over the last few years has illuminated several sources of employee disconnect, all of which stem from rapidly changing environments:  

• Broken “psychological contract.” Recent research by SAP SuccessFactors points to severed psychological contracts among many workers. The term refers to the unwritten agreement — constructed in the minds of employees — that outlines the mutual expectations of the employee-employer relationship. In the minds of many employees, the most basic expectations of the psychological contract, such as equipping competent and supportive managers, aren’t being met. Another recent source has been what many employees perceive to be sudden and intractable RTO mandates. 

• Lower trust. According to multiple sources, trust is a human currency that’s in short supply. Our research, for example, shows that only about half of the global workforce believes their leaders make decisions in the best interest of other people (a core aspect of trustworthiness). Making matters worse, due to its biological roots, trust can be naturally harder to earn and maintain during times of rapid change and uncertainty. It’s incredibly difficult to bring people together without the social glue of trust.

• Increased pressure. In our most recent study of the global workforce, 38% of employees reported increased pressure from their employers. The vast majority of these workers also felt under-appreciated and under-supported by their leaders. The feeling that one’s company expects more without reciprocal support, drives perceptions of unfairness and a tendency to withdraw. 

3 Ways to Avoid and Repair Employee Disconnect

As organizations face ever-more change — fertile ground for disconnect — proactive action of leadership is critical.

1. Invest in human skills of managers. In the age of AI, what used to be called “soft skills” — active listening, showing empathy, emotional intelligence — are the essential human skills in the workplace. Managers are the linchpin. According to SAP’s research, basic managerial behaviors such as expectation-setting and providing clear communications are foundational to the employee experience. After all, for employees to feel connected to the organization and its objectives, they must first understand the objectives and how their work contributes.
2. Prioritize ongoing conversations. Employees, like all humans, need to feel valued by the groups they’re part of. One of the most basic ways organizations show employees they belong is by listening to them, continuously and with intention. Conversations, whether 1:1, in group-settings, or via scalable technologies (i.e., employee listening), serve as bridges. And as we’ve learned, times of change and uncertainty are precisely the times when employees need to feel heard the most. When employees feel heard by their organizations and see action taken in response, they report higher engagement, resilience and well-being — tell-tales signs of connection.
3. Publicly celebrate employee contributions. During times of constant change and uncertainty, negative emotions swirl. Social recognition — especially when it’s unexpected and public — is an extremely powerful buffer and helps to infuse positive emotions. All human emotions are highly contagious, so spurring positive emotions counters the effects of negativity. Effective celebrations do two things: 1) explicitly connects employees’ efforts with objectives and 2) makes them feel like valued members of the group. 

Connected Organizations Are Successful Organizations

Change is hard. And the speed at which things are changing may naturally push people out of the fold. But employee disconnect is neither inevitable nor irreversible.  

In order for groups of people to work effectively together toward common objectives, they must feel connected. This starts with leaders. After all, what is a leader’s job if not to bring people together toward a common mission? 

Editor's Note: Read more takes on designing better workplaces for the current moment:

• The New Playbook of Employee Experience — Organizations that treat engagement as an outcome of good design, not a program to fix, will build meaningful employee connections.
• Work Design Is How Performance, Engagement and Well-Being Scale — When leaders organize work around how people actually collaborate, they'll drive performance and help workers finish their days with energy, not exhaustion.
• The Real Workplace Crisis Isn't Loyalty — It's Lack of Psychological Safety — AT&T CEO John Stankey's memo suggests loyalty is dead. Loyalty isn't dead, it’s earned by leaders who foster trust, fairness and psychological safety.

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