Voices in Leadership • 7 MIN READ
Manager Quality Is the Only Engagement Lever That Matters
JUN 1, 2026
After analysing five years of engagement data, one Head of People shares why every other engagement initiative is secondary to investing in your managers.
What the data shows
After five years of running quarterly pulse surveys across a business of 2,500 employees, the single clearest finding in our data is this: the team's engagement score is almost entirely explained by the manager's score. Teams with the same role types, the same pay, the same office location, and the same access to benefits can have engagement scores that differ by 40 percentage points, depending solely on who leads them. We have high-engagement teams in functions that historically score poorly across the industry, and low-engagement teams in functions that typically score well. The function matters far less than the manager.
What we stopped spending money on
We stopped investing in perks and wellness apps as primary engagement interventions. Not because they have no value, but because they have near-zero value in a team with a poor manager. An employee who does not feel respected, recognised, or developed by their manager will not be meaningfully engaged by free fruit or a gym subscription. We redirected that budget into manager development: structured coaching programmes, peer learning groups for managers, and honest feedback from their teams through 360-degree surveys. The return on investment has been measurably higher.
What makes a great manager, in our data
The behaviours most correlated with high team engagement in our data are: regular, specific recognition; honest and timely performance feedback; genuine interest in each team member's development; willingness to advocate for the team with senior leadership; and consistency between what they say and what they do. None of these requires significant resources. All of them require skill, practice, and accountability. That is why manager selection and development is the highest-leverage thing HR can do for engagement.
