What's killing your team's engagement in 2025?

Engagement isn't just a feel-good factor—it has measurable business outcomes. According to Gallup, engaged teams show an 18% increase in productivity and a 23% increase in profitability. Meanwhile, low engagement is linked to higher turnover and lower performance, which can significantly impact a company's bottom line.

So how can HR and L&D foster a thriving workplace culture and drive meaningful engagement? We spoke with three industry leaders - Ster Hutten, Founder and CEO of Up Learning, Kyle Norman, Sales Enablement Leader at Fair Harbor and Silvia Cosma, L&D Marketing Manager at Lepaya to find out.

What's killing engagement?

As organizations continue to prioritize employee engagement, it’s clear that HR and L&D have a central role in shaping the culture that drives long-term success. In a recent discussion with industry leaders, we explored key challenges in driving engagement and creating impactful learning environments.

We surveyed a group of L&D and HR leaders to identify the main challenges they face with employee engagement, and the results highlighted two key barriers that emerged as particularly significant:

1. Inadequate recognition and quality of feedback
2. Misalignment of organizational culture and values.

Nearly 30% of respondents selected each of these options, signaling that engagement is not solely dependent on job perks or opportunities for growth, but also on deeper issues tied to organizational culture and feedback practices.

As Ster Hutten, CEO of Up Learning, explained:
"When employees feel their efforts go unnoticed, their motivation wanes. Recognition, both formal and informal, is a powerful tool to keep engagement levels high. But it’s not just about saying ‘good job’ - it’s about ensuring that feedback is constructive, timely, and aligned with company values."

Recognition matters - but so does belonging. When the values on the wall don’t match the culture in the halls, people check out.

Kyle Norman, Sales Enablement Leader at Fair Harbor, emphasized:
"A misalignment of values can lead to disengagement, especially if employees feel disconnected from the company’s mission. It’s crucial to foster an environment where personal and organizational values align—this is fundamental to sustaining long-term engagement."

And these aren’t the only barriers. Respondents also pointed to:

• Underdeveloped managers
• Lack of growth opportunities
• Inflexible or unclear work models
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All of them feed the same problem: a disconnect between what employees need and what the organization delivers.

Driving engagement through learning: What’s getting in the way?

If engagement is the engine of a thriving workplace, then learning is the fuel that keeps it running. Engaged employees don’t just show up - they grow, adapt, and contribute at higher levels. But that only happens when learning is seen not as a checkbox, but as a core part of the employee experience.

When we asked HR and L&D leaders to name their biggest challenge in driving impactful learning, one answer rose to the top: organizational culture. It wasn’t the absence of tools or talent. It was the environment in which learning happens - or doesn’t.

Close behind were three more persistent blockers:

• Unclear employee skill gaps
• Low team leader buy-in
• Decreasing learner engagement

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The pattern is clear: without a strong cultural foundation, even the best learning programs fall flat.

Silvia Cosma, L&D Marketing Manager at Lepaya, put it succinctly:
"Culture shapes how employees approach learning. If the culture supports continuous learning and development, employees are more likely to engage. But when the culture doesn’t value development, no amount of training can drive the kind of impactful engagement we’re looking for."

In other words, it’s not just about creating learning opportunities—it’s about creating the mindset and environment where learning sticks.

Another major challenge? A lack of clarity around skill gaps. Without a clear understanding of what employees need to learn, L&D efforts risk becoming generic and disconnected from real business priorities.

And even the most targeted programs can’t succeed without support from the top. As Kyle Norman emphasized:
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"For learning initiatives to have impact, leaders must champion them. When team leaders aren't fully on board, it’s nearly impossible to achieve meaningful engagement. They are the ones that can inspire their teams to make the most of learning opportunities."

Finally, the issue of declining engagement in learning programs is a growing concern. As distractions multiply and attention spans shrink, sustaining learner interest requires more than just content - it demands relevance, personalization, and continuous reinforcement.

How to turn learning into a lever for engagement

Many organizations struggle with disengaged employees, not due to a lack of engagement initiatives, but because those initiatives often feel disconnected from daily work and broader company goals. Real engagement starts with behavior change, and learning is one of the most effective levers to influence it.

“Mandatory training won’t solve the problem. People need meaningful, relevant learning that helps them adapt and succeed,” Ster Hutten.

To truly drive engagement, learning must feel personal, purposeful, and practical. It needs to be woven into employees’ workflows, aligned with business goals, and grounded in behavioral outcomes, not just knowledge transfer. When learning is thoughtfully designed and delivered with intention, it becomes a daily catalyst for motivation, alignment, and growth.

These five strategies can help turn learning into a sustained engagement driver:

• Co-create learning programs with managers and target learners to ensure relevance
• Use adaptive, personalized learning paths to meet individual needs
• Reinforce learning through timely feedback and recognition from managers
• Clearly communicate the “what’s in it for me” for every initiative
• Align learning with both short-term business goals and long-term culture-building

Making learning a shared responsibility

To make it work, engagement can’t be owned by HR or L&D alone. It requires cross-functional collaboration, with team leaders and executives playing an active role.

“When employees feel the company is investing in their growth, they’re more likely to give back,” said Kyle Norman, referencing Cialdini’s principle of reciprocity.

To build true shared ownership of learning and engagement:

• Engage managers early in the design process to surface real team pain points
• Equip leaders to foster psychological safety and promote continuous learning
• Position HR as a strategic partner to advocate for L&D at the leadership level
• Share ownership of engagement KPIs across functions to drive accountability

Building a learning culture that lasts

The #1 barrier to employee engagement isn’t lack of content or training, it’s a weak learning culture. Even the best-designed programs fall flat when they’re treated as side projects rather than embedded into the daily rhythm of work.

As Kyle Norman put it:

“Culture doesn’t come from one team. It needs top-down support and bottom-up engagement.”

A strong learning culture doesn’t happen by accident. It must be intentionally designed and actively sustained across the organization. Here are 4 steps to do so:

• Involve leadership in championing learning initiatives
• Integrate learning into the flow of work rather than treating it as a separate task
• Use internal advocates and social proof to generate momentum
• Translate learning outcomes into business impact to secure ongoing investment

By focusing on behavior, collaboration, and culture, HR and L&D teams can move beyond one-off programs and become true drivers of engagement and performance.

To truly drive engagement, HR and L&D leaders must act as architects of behavior change- not just facilitators of learning. This requires breaking silos, collaborating cross-functionally, and embedding learning into the rhythm of everyday work.

By aligning learning with business values, making it visible, and empowering managers to champion it, organizations can transform engagement from a challenge into a competitive advantage.

Key takeaways for HR leaders:

• Design with impact in mind: Build programs that solve real-world problems and drive behavioral shifts, not just knowledge transfer.
• Make learning visible and relevant: Align initiatives with daily work and communicate value clearly to boost adoption.
• Partner with managers: Equip and involve managers early to amplify the reach and reinforcement of learning.
• Think like a marketer: Use storytelling, personalization, and social proof to boost participation and engagement.

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