Ashish KothariMake flourishing your competitive edge

Only 30% of employees are genuinely engaged at work

12 Oct 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:18

In this YouTube monologue, Ashish Kothari highlights that only 30% of employees are truly engaged, meaning 70% are merely present without contributing at their full capacity—a phenomenon he labels as presenteeism. He argues that this is not a motivation or talent issue but a systemic problem that incurs massive hidden costs. Kothari quantifies the impact: disengagement, stress, conflict, and meeting overload erode 25‑50% of a company's human‑capital value, while decision‑fatigue‑driven quality losses shave another 5‑10%. For a medium‑sized S&P‑listed firm, 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‑sites cannot close the performance gap; instead, the organization must redesign the work system itself to unlock the untapped potential of its existing workforce.

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.