Employee engagement workplace numbers haven’t looked this bad since 2014, shares Jill Barth. Disengagement often starts with something as ordinary as a notification ping. Some come as often as every 15 minutes.
The biggest offenders, according to Unily’s research, are video conferencing systems, email platforms and instant messaging applications. But the problem isn’t any single tool, rather, it’s what happens when too many of them are nagging employees from different directions.
Source: HR Executive, June 5, 2026. Link. “Engagement has become a shared responsibility across the business. HR plays an important role, but so does leadership, IT, communications and managers, says Jenny Shiers, Unily.
INSIGHTS: The affect of interruptions cannot be overstated. In just two seconds, we can lose our focus, our attention is ripped away, momentum is lost and progress stops. Research from UC Irvine <Link> shows the length of our recovery time can range anywhere from eight minutes for simple tasks to 25 minutes for complex ones.
Related: The shocking cost of workplace distractions, TALKBOX from mamava. Link. When a human encounters something unexpected, a brain system called the Subthalamic Nucleus engages causing them to make an abrupt stop so that they can observe and react quickly to the potential threat they’re facing.
The subthalamic nucleus not only causes you to physically make an abrupt stop, but it also causes your mind to abruptly halt ALL thought so that it can focus . . . “
Image: Link.
Leave a Reply