Engagement work usually targets employees. The data says it should target their managers first.
Gallup reports that manager buy-in in India fell from 39% in 2024 to 30% in 2025, a sharper decline than the workforce overall.
Why does the manager number matter most?
Because a manager sets the conditions their team works in. Expectations, feedback, workload and whether anything raised gets fixed all run through one person.
Gallup says "23% of Indian employees were engaged in 2025 — the lowest point in four years — while 18% were actively checked out (based on three-year rolling averages)." A checked out manager cannot lift that, whatever scheme sits above them.
What does a checked out manager look like?
- Cancels one-to-ones when busy, which is always
- Gives feedback only at appraisal time
- Passes down decisions without explaining them
- Escalates problems rather than resolving what they can
- Stops asking for anything on behalf of the team
The last one is the clearest signal. A manager who has stopped asking has concluded that asking does not work.
What are the four habits that work?
| Habit | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| A regular catch-up | Short, frequent, and not cancelled. Fortnightly beats quarterly |
| Clear hopes | The person can state what good looks like in their own words |
| Feedback close to the event | Within days, not at the review |
| Visible follow-through | Something raised gets fixed, and the team sees it |
None of these require a platform. They require a manager with enough time and enough authority to act on what they hear.
Are your managers given either?
Often not. A team lead carries a full workload plus 8 direct reports. The one-to-ones go first. Nobody notices at once.
If you want the habits, protect the time. Otherwise you are asking for behaviour the set-up prevents.
What does the wider picture look like?
Gallup says "Twenty percent of employees globally are engaged, according to the State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report." India at 23% is marginally above that, and South Asia sits at 21%.
So this is not a local failure. It is a widespread one, which means copying another company's buy-in scheme is unlikely to be the answer.
How do you support managers practically?
Give them one view of their team. Presence, leave, goals and review history. No ticket needed. A manager who cannot see their team's leave balance cannot plan around it.
Fix the basics underneath too. The Employees State Insurance Corporation says "ESIC provides 70% of average daily wages in cash during medical leave, upto 91 days in two consecutive benefit periods", and a manager handling a sick team member should not be guessing at that.
What should you measure?
Attrition inside 90 days by manager, not by company. The share of direct reports with a documented catch-up last quarter. And whether manager buy-in itself is tracked at all, since most firms measure everyone except the layer that decides the outcome.
PF and ESI records sit with the Employees Provident Fund Organisation and the framework with the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Giving managers one view of their team is what 247HRM performance and buy-in are built for.