Ten percent. This is the proportion of employees in Germany who still feel strongly emotionally tied to their employer, according to the Gallup Engagement Index 2025. The index is published annually and the survey takes place in autumn. The current figures are based on surveys from November and December 2025, published in March 2026. The value is therefore only one percentage point above the historic low of the previous year, when the number reached nine percent, reaching single digits for the first time since measurements began in 2001. According to the index, 77 percent of employees perform their duties according to regulations, and another 13 percent have internally resigned. According to Gallup, the latter cause economic productivity losses of up to 142 billion euros. For the year 2025 alone, mind you.
This could be classified as an economic phenomenon. Economic uncertainty, pressure to transform, shortage of skilled workers. All of that certainly plays a role. But then we look at a second number from the same index, which is even more disturbing: The Gallup Engagement Index 2024 showed that only 21 percent of employees trust their manager completely. In 2019 it was 49 percent, in 2022 at least 41 percent. The value has more than halved within five years. This is not just a minor economic dampener. This is a structural problem and a serious signal for employer attractiveness.
What we promise and what we deliver
Many employer promises sound something like this: We are a company where people can grow. We value openness. We live appreciation. We offer meaning. These promises are usually well-intentioned. And people in HR and communications often spent months refining it. Sometimes they are even true. However, the problem is not with good intentions. It lies in what actually happens between the intention and the daily experience of the employees.
The problem is the “promise gap”, the distance between what companies communicate about themselves, for example on career pages, in job advertisements, in employer branding campaigns, and what is experienced on a daily basis. From employees who are in the company. From applicants who get an idea. From former colleagues who have long since worked elsewhere but continue to act as ambassadors. In conversations, on rating platforms and in your own network. The promise gap arises between what is described as corporate culture and what actually comes across in everyday work. Between the intention of managers and the lived experience of everyone who comes into contact with the company.
This gap is not a communication problem that can be easily solved with better texts, videos or more reach. It does not arise because the message is formulated incorrectly, but because the message and reality drift apart. The greater this gap, the more each new campaign undermines the company’s credibility as an employer because the communication raises expectations that everyday life cannot fulfill.
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Then take a look at our dossier on the topic. There we continually put together studies, deep dives and best cases for you. How attractive a company is perceived depends largely on the employer brand. Learn how to show externally and internally what makes your company culture and career opportunities unique.
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Three consequences that count now
What follows from this? The obvious reaction would be to invest in a new campaign, revamp the careers page or make the job advertisements more emotional. This may make sense in individual cases, but it does not solve the actual problem. If you don’t know the gap, you can’t close it. Anyone who knows him and still communicates to the outside world as if he doesn’t exist actually accelerates the loss of trust in cases of doubt. So here are three consequences that I think are unavoidable.
1. Look within before communicating externally
Many employer brands are developed or updated without seriously asking employees what they experience on a daily basis. This is exactly what can be measured quite well and easily. Regular employee surveys, pulse checks and structured feedback discussions are methods that provide data on how big the gap actually is and where it arises. A simple initial question is enough: What did we promise you, and what are you really experiencing? The answers are often uncomfortable. And that’s exactly why it’s so valuable. If you don’t know your gap, you’re working blindly.
2. Employer branding happens in everyday life, not in campaigns
Appreciation cannot be reproduced at the push of a button. It arises in conversations after the probationary period, in dealing with mistakes, in the way a manager listens, or in the way they explain decisions that no one approves of. These are the moments that determine emotional connection. They do not arise in marketing, but in the daily interaction between people. No budget in the world can replace these moments. But if you understand that this is exactly where employer attractiveness is created or lost, you don’t have to plan a budget for it. Instead, it takes attitude.
3. Honesty as positioning
In times when many employers make very similar promises, authenticity becomes the strongest differentiation. This does not mean writing weaknesses in the job advertisement. But it means only promising what can actually be delivered. Anyone who promises less and consistently delivers more closes the gap and builds something that no claim can replace: real trust in the employer brand.
What nine percent really means
Nine percent of emotionally attached employees is not an isolated HR issue. They are a symptom of the fact that a gap has arisen between what companies say about themselves and what people experience there every day, which grows deeper with every further promise without corresponding reality. Employer branding that ignores this is not branding. It’s noise.
Knowing the gap, recognizing it and closing it systematically is the real task. And it doesn’t start with a new campaign. It begins with two honest questions that every company should ask itself before formulating its next message: What are our employees, our applicants and our former colleagues really experiencing? And: Does this still correspond to what we promise?
