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What Three Things Would You Do to Make Your Company a Better Place to Work?

The three changes with the strongest support in Gallup's research are better everyday management, visible action on employee feedback, and work that employees can sustain. Here is how to start and what the numbers do and do not show.
From TheFinanceBase Team5 min to read
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If you could change three things about your workplace, the evidence points to three areas: everyday management, visible follow-through on employee feedback, and work that employees can sustain without burning out. Gallup’s research supports all three as plausible priorities. It does not say they will be the right three for every employer, so the choice should rest on what your own employees tell you.

Change 1: Improve everyday management

Gallup identifies role clarity, adequate resources, recognition, development and a sense of connection to purpose among the conditions associated with employee engagement. In its workplace guidance from 2024, Gallup attributes 70% of the variance in team engagement to managers. That figure describes how much of the difference between teams is linked to the manager, not how much of an individual employee’s experience a manager controls. Read it as a reason to start with managers, not as a precise measure of their impact.

For a manager, the practical version of this change usually includes four habits:

  • Set clear expectations. Employees should be able to say what success looks like in their role and what they are not responsible for.
  • Give feedback that is useful and timely. Feedback close to the event, tied to a specific piece of work, does more than an annual summary.
  • Recognize good work specifically. Naming what someone did and why it mattered is more useful than a general thank-you.
  • Make development conversations routine. Growth discussions should happen on a regular schedule, not only when a promotion or problem comes up.

If you are not a manager, you can still raise this. Ask your manager for a short conversation about what would make your next three months clearer, or propose a regular fifteen-minute check-in on priorities. Requests framed around specific outcomes tend to be easier to act on than general complaints about management.

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Change 2: Listen, then visibly act

Gallup describes listening to employees and translating their feedback into action as a practice among organizations it recognizes for workplace culture. The key word is visibly. Employees who give feedback and never hear what happened to it are less likely to believe that speaking up is worthwhile. A company that asks and then goes quiet can do more harm than one that never asked.

A workable sequence looks like this:

  1. Ask a specific question. Use regular check-ins or a short survey to ask what is getting in the way of good work. Broad questions like “How are things?” tend to produce vague answers.
  2. Read the results and group them. Look for repeated themes rather than reacting to the most vocal comment.
  3. Report back. Tell employees what you heard, including the points you will not act on and why. A brief written summary is enough.
  4. Name an owner and a next step. Each action should have one person responsible and a date for the next update.
  5. Close the loop. At the next check-in or survey, report what changed. If nothing changed, say so and explain the constraint.

Employee voice has value only when leaders communicate what they heard and follow through. The step that most organizations skip is the report-back, so it is the one to protect.

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Change 3: Make work more sustainable

The third area is about whether people can keep doing their work well over time. Gallup’s analysis associates enjoyment of work, a perceived contribution to others and a meaningful degree of choice with stronger wellbeing and engagement. In its 2026 global summary, based on 2025 data, Gallup reports that 34% of employees worldwide were thriving in life. That is a global average, and it says nothing about your specific team.

Sustainability has three practical components:

  • Meaningful work. Employees should be able to see how their tasks connect to outcomes others care about. Where that link is unclear, a manager can explain it, or the team can reconsider which tasks take priority.
  • Appropriate choice. Choice might cover how work is scheduled, which projects someone takes on, or how they approach a task. The amount of choice that is realistic depends on the role.
  • Flexibility fitted to the role. Flexible schedules or locations work well for some jobs and poorly for others, such as roles that require coverage, physical presence or real-time coordination. A policy that ignores operational needs will generate resentment in teams that cannot use it.

The trade-off is real. Choice and flexibility can strain coverage, handoffs and team cohesion if they are granted without a plan. The sustainable version is usually a set of agreed norms for each team rather than a single company-wide rule.

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Recognition: specific, not generic

Recognition appears in both the management and engagement guidance, and it deserves its own caution. In September 2024, Gallup and Workhuman reported that employees who received high-quality recognition in 2022 were 45% less likely to have left their job by 2024. The figure came from a study tracking more than 3,400 employees from 2022 to 2024. It describes an association in that cohort, not a guarantee that a recognition program will reduce turnover at your company. The finding is most useful as a reason to make recognition specific and meaningful rather than to launch a program for its own sake.

How to choose which change to start with

Gallup’s global figures show how widespread the problem is, but they cannot tell you which problem is yours. Use a simple filter before committing to a plan.

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Question What a good answer looks like If the answer is no
Does local feedback point to this need? Several employees raise the same issue, unprompted Gather more input before acting
Can someone own the action? One named person with time and authority Pick a smaller first step
Can employees see follow-through? A dated update they will receive Do not launch it yet; visible action matters more than scope
Does the change fit the role and operations? Teams can use it without creating coverage gaps Adapt it per team

Start with the change that addresses the most frequently raised need, is owned by someone who can deliver it, and produces a result employees will notice within a few months.

Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Support on Ko-Fi

What the figures do and do not show

Figure Source and date Scope and qualification
21% of employees worldwide engaged at work in 2024 Gallup, April 2025 Global average; down two percentage points from 2023
20% of employees worldwide engaged at work in 2025 Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 Global average and the most recent annual figure in the Gallup sources cited here
34% of employees worldwide thriving in life in 2025 Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 Global average; a wellbeing measure, not a workplace diagnosis
70% of the variance in team engagement attributed to managers Gallup workplace guidance, 2024 Describes variance between teams, not a precise effect of any one manager
45% less likely to have left their job Gallup and Workhuman, September 2024 Association among employees who received high-quality recognition in 2022; tracked 2022 to 2024; more than 3,400 employees
736 studies, 347 organizations, 53 industries, 90 countries Gallup Q12 meta-analysis, May 2024, updated July 2024 Describes the study base for the engagement and outcomes analysis; it is not a single company’s result

These numbers establish that engagement and wellbeing are measured, varied and linked to management and recognition in large datasets. They do not establish that any one set of three initiatives will work everywhere. Your own employee feedback is the test that matters.

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For managers who want further reading, Gallup names It’s the Manager by Jim Harter as relevant. Check the current edition and availability before buying, and treat it as background rather than a plan.

Changing a workplace takes time, and the first visible result is often the most important one. Pick one change, make it visible, and then decide what comes next.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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