The great re-Engagement: Rebuilding culture in an age of burnout and uncertainty

We’ve all heard of The Great Resignation: a mass exodus driven by burnout, reflection, and shifting priorities in 2022/23. That was quickly followed by a tide of redundancies, restructures, economic uncertainty, a push for return-to-office policies, and yet another wave of change.

Nearly five years on from the start of the pandemic, we’re still riding the waves of uncertainty. While the external conditions have shifted, the underlying theme remains: change. People teams are being called to lead through this complexity, often with fewer resources and greater expectations. And while the headlines change, the challenge persists: how do we keep our teams engaged, connected, and thriving?

I believe we’ve now entered what I’m calling The Great Re-Engagement.

A new era for People Leaders

The demands on HR have evolved dramatically. Today, we’re not just building policies or running performance cycles: we’re career coaches, culture architects, mental health advocates, internal comms experts, and agents of change.

We’re supporting employees who:

• Crave the stability of pre-recession times.
• Are navigating personal impacts from global events, from the pandemic to war, to rising living costs and unsettling political landscapes
• Have faced burnout, disconnection, and disengagement.
• Have been affected by restructures and now question whether they can really trust the business again.

And sometimes, we’re navigating all of that within the same team.

Why Engagement still (and Always) matters

What hasn’t changed is the need to engage and retain our high performers. But the “how” looks very different. Engagement isn’t ping-pong tables or Friday drinks anymore: it’s about trust, meaning, and connection. It’s about helping people feel seen and supported in the day-to-day, not just in the milestones.

If we want our people to bring their whole selves to work, we need to create environments where that’s not only possible, it’s safe.

Lessons from the field: Re-engaging in practice

Over the last 18 months, my team and I have gone back to the roots of what meaningful engagement looks like and we’ve done it while balancing cost constraints, shifting business goals, and post-restructure recovery. Here’s what’s been core to our approach:

1. One size does not fit all

Engagement isn’t a template. Different people are motivated by different things. We started asking more questions and really listening. What matters to one team may be irrelevant to another. Being curious is your secret weapon.

2. Create safety before expecting honesty

Employees navigating fear about the future won’t offer open feedback, they’ll stay quiet, and disengage silently. We created spaces for open dialogue, and when needed, brought in neutral facilitators to hold that space.

3. Move from performative care to genuine curiosity

It’s easy to say “bring your whole self to work,” but harder to mean it. We focused on knowing our people: their aspirations, their stressors, their wins, and celebrating them meaningfully. By listening more and building programs that capture people’s real concerns, businesses show their commitment to culture.

4. Rebuild trust slowly, and with intention

If your organisation has been through job cuts, know that trust doesn’t rebuild on its own. Be transparent, manage expectations carefully, and don’t overpromise. Under-promising and over-delivering becomes powerful. You don’t have to respond to every demand but certainly to the ones that are most meaningful to your team. Personalise the approach wherever possible.

5. Get allies on board

Culture isn’t the job of one People team. We partnered with leaders, managers, and culture champions to build a network of support. When others model re-engagement, it ripples further than any HR-led initiative.

6. Master the art of doing more with less

Resources are tight so we doubled down on high-impact, low-cost strategies. Think career development workshops using internal talent, manager upskilling, recognition programs built around peer nominations. Good technology can help massively here if used right and not for the sake of adding another tool that doesn’t get adopted. Get deliberate about why you’re choosing a tool and the impact you’re looking for - what is the problem it’s solving and is it positively affecting a large enough sample of the team?

7. Own your mistakes

It’s okay to say “we tried, and it didn’t work.” We were open with our teams about what was working and what wasn’t. That transparency created stronger connections and more forgiveness when things didn’t go to plan.

Re-engagement is not a project. It’s a practice.

This isn’t something with a neat 6-month implementation plan. Re-engagement is ongoing, human, and evolving. It’s a mindset shift — from one-off initiatives to a continuous commitment to listening, adjusting, and building back trust.

So if you’re leading a People team in 2025, I see you. The job is hard, the demands are high, and the wins can feel quiet but they matter deeply.

Engagement, in this new era, looks less like quarterly surveys and more like creating a workplace people want to be part of not just for the perks, but for the purpose, the people, and the promise of being seen and heard.

And if we can get that right? We won’t just re-engage our teams. We’ll build workplaces ready for whatever comes next.