Ashish KothariMake flourishing your competitive edge

Only 30% of employees are genuinely engaged at work

14 Oct 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:18

In this YouTube talk, Ashish Kothari argues that only about 30% of employees are truly engaged, while the remaining 70% exhibit presenteeism—showing up physically but performing far below their potential. He emphasizes that this is not a motivation or talent issue but a systemic problem rooted in how work environments are designed. Kothari quantifies the hidden cost of presenteeism: performance losses from disengagement, stress, conflict, and meeting overload erode 25‑50% of a firm’s human‑capital value, and additional quality losses from decision fatigue and distraction shave another 5‑10%. For a typical medium‑sized S&P‑listed company, these losses translate to $228‑$335 million in annual productivity loss, all from employees who never left the organization. He concludes that traditional wellness perks or off‑site retreats cannot close the gap between current output and employee capability; instead, organizations must redesign the systems and processes in which employees work to unlock this untapped asset.

Chapters

Only 30% of employees are genuinely engaged at work. That means 70% of your workforce is showing up without really showing up, attending the meetings, hitting the baseline, doing what is required while performing well below what they are actually capable of. This is not a motivation problem, friends. It is not a talent problem either. This is a presenteeism problem, and it is far more expensive than the attrition you and everyone else is focused on. Here is what presenteeism actually costs you. Performance losses from disengagement, stress, conflicts at work, and meeting overload erode 25 to 50% of the human capital value. Quality losses from decision fatigue and distraction reduce another 5 to 10%. For a medium-sized S&P company, these losses can amount to $228 to $335 million in lost productivity annually. From people who never left. The people who stayed are your biggest untapped asset, and the gap between what they're producing and what they're capable of, that is not closed by a wellness benefit or a team offsite. It is closed by redesigning the system they work inside.