How the Cost of Disengagement estimate is built
Written for the person who will be asked to sign off on the number. It sets out what each line measures, the published research behind it, what is assumption and what is data, the limits of the method, and how to replace our estimate with your own figures.
In one paragraph. The calculator takes the managers, team size and average salary you enter, scores your management layer on eight statements, and applies published cost factors to five lines: lost productivity, preventable turnover, rework, manager time absorbed by people problems, and stress-related absence. Each line is reported as a low-to-high range rather than a single figure. The factors come from public research (Gallup, Gartner, DDI, SHRM, CMI). How the eight answers are weighted, converted and banded is the Mind Shift Management Effectiveness Index and is proprietary. Nothing in the estimate uses data you did not enter.
1. What goes in
| Input | What it does |
|---|---|
| Number of managers / team leaders | Sizes the manager-time line and, with team size, the people in scope |
| Average team size | People in scope = managers × average team size |
| Average salary | Prices every line. Fully loaded cost gives the truer number; base salary gives a conservative one |
| Eight statements, 0 to 10 | Produce the Management Effectiveness Index and scale each line. They are HR's judgment; in a pilot the team's own pulse answers replace them |
| Regretted leavers and stress days (optional) | Replace our assumptions on the turnover and absence lines with your figures |
2. The five lines and the evidence behind each
| Line | What it measures | Published anchor |
|---|---|---|
| Lost productivity | Output lost from people who are at work but not engaged, across the people in scope | Gallup: a disengaged employee costs around 18% of salary in lost productivity; global engagement is 20% (State of the Global Workplace 2026). We apply a range below that figure, scaled by your answers |
| Preventable turnover | The share of regretted exits a better manager would have prevented, at replacement cost | Gallup: 42% of voluntary leavers say their manager could have prevented it. Replacement cost from the conservative end of SHRM's 50% to 200% of salary |
| Rework and missed deadlines | A small share of payroll lost to work done twice, scaled by your read on execution quality | No defensible cross-industry figure exists, so this line is kept deliberately small. Replace it with your own quality data if you have it |
| Manager time absorbed by people problems | Manager hours a week spent on the team's personal and emotional concerns, at loaded manager cost | Gartner, April 2026: managers spend up to nine hours a week on these. We apply a range up to that figure, scaled by your answers |
| Stress-related absence | The part of sickness absence attributable to how people are managed, at daily salary | CMI and UK HSE data link manager quality to work-related stress absence. We apply an attributable share to the days you enter, or a conservative default |
The five lines are added to give the low and high totals. "Salaries equivalent" is the mid-point divided by average salary; "per person" is the mid-point divided by people in scope. All figures are rounded to three significant figures.
3. What is assumption, and what is data
- The published factors above are averages across industries and countries. They are indicative for a specific company, not exact.
- Where you leave the optional fields blank, conservative defaults stand in for attrition and absence. Entering your own figures always overrides them.
- The lines are treated as additive. In practice a disengaged leaver appears in both productivity and turnover; the small overlap is accepted for readability.
- The Index bands (Exposed, Leaking, Steady, Strong) are Mind Shift's labels for communication. They will be calibrated against our dataset as it grows.
4. Replacing the estimate with your own numbers
- Productivity. Use your engagement survey's "not engaged" share, or run the free two-week team pulse, which measures it directly for one team.
- Turnover. Enter regretted leavers, and use your own cost-per-hire plus ramp time in place of the SHRM band.
- Rework. Use your quality, defect or overtime data and set this line aside.
- Manager time. Ask five managers to log one week. Gartner's figure is usually confirmed within a day.
- Absence. Enter recorded sickness days per FTE from payroll.
Inside a Leadership Lab pilot this substitution happens automatically: the anonymous team pulse replaces the estimate, month by month, against the baseline, and the monthly report to HR and Finance shows the movement.
5. Limits
- An estimate for planning conversations, not an audit. Accuracy depends on what is entered.
- HR tends to rate managers higher than their teams do. Expect a pulse to come in above the estimate.
- The model has not yet been calibrated against a client dataset; ranges will tighten as pilot data accumulates.
6. Sources
- Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026. gallup.com
- Gallup, manager development research (70% of engagement variance; 42% of exits preventable; cost of a disengaged employee). gallup.com
- Gartner, HR survey, April 2026 (manager workload, hours on personal and emotional concerns, span of control). gartner.com
- DDI, Global Leadership Forecast 2025. ddi.com
- SHRM, replacement cost guidance (50% to 200% of salary).
- Chartered Management Institute, accidental managers research, 2023. managers.org.uk
Mind Shift Management Effectiveness Index and this methodology © 2026 Mind Impact Ltd trading as Mind Shift. Published factors remain the property of their publishers and are cited for transparency. Version 1, September 2026.