What the engagement gap costs Dutch companies (2026)

1. Productivity is back, but the labour market is the tightest in Europe

Dutch labour productivity rose 2.4% in 2025, the highest in twenty years, after falls in 2023 (-1.9%) and 2024 (-0.3%). Over the past ten years it averaged just 0.3% a year. Source: CBS, 21 April 2026

The Netherlands had the highest job vacancy rate in the EU in Q2 2026: 4.1%, against an EU average of 2.0%. Source: Eurostat, reported by Staffing Industry Analysts, 16 September 2026

When replacing people is this hard, getting full output from the people you already have is the cheapest growth lever you have.

2. Europe has the least engaged workforce in the world

In Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2025 report, 13% of employees in Europe were engaged, the lowest of any region, against 21% globally. Manager engagement fell from 30% to 27%, and engagement among female managers fell by 7 points. Source: Staffing Industry Analysts summary; Gallup report

3. Losing people costs more than their salary line suggests

"The cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee's annual salary." 52% of voluntary leavers say their manager or organisation could have done something to keep them. Source: Gallup

4. Hired 50/50. Led 83/17.

60% of EU university graduates are women. In the companies tracked by Women in the Workplace 2025, women are 49% of entry-level employees, falling to 29% of the C-suite. For every 100 men promoted to manager, 93 women are. These are US and Canadian figures. Source: DLA Piper; Women in the Workplace 2025

In tech, half of women leave the industry by the age of 35. Source: Accenture & Girls Who Code, via World Economic Forum

In the Netherlands, women hold 17% of executive board seats at listed companies, and 57 listed companies have no woman on the executive board. Across the EU, only 8% of CEOs are women. Source: Female Board Index 2025; DLA Piper

Since 30 June 2026, EU listed companies need at least 40% women among non-executive directors, or 33% of all directors. From 2027, Dutch employers will start reporting their gender pay gap. Source: DLA Piper; Global Workplace Insider

The number of female entrepreneurs in the Netherlands grew 62% in ten years, to 715,383. Women aren't leaving work. Many are leaving employers. Source: KVK, via Taxlive

In a 2017 American Economic Review study (Babcock, Recalde, Vesterlund and Weingart), women volunteered for a task that helped the group but not themselves about 34% of the time, against 23% for men, and were more likely to be asked. Source: American Economic Association

In McKinsey and LeanIn.Org's Women in the Workplace 2025 (US and Canada), women with a sponsor were promoted at 1.7 times the rate of women without one, and at entry level 31% of women had a sponsor against 45% of men. For every 100 men promoted to manager, 93 women were. Source: McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org

These are North American figures. In our experience the same pattern shows up in Dutch organisations.

5. What it could cost your team

Team size

people

Average salary

€ / year

Effective output

Leavers per year

Yearly output gap

Replacement cost a year

0.5× to 2× salary per leaver (Gallup)

Illustrative model. Your own numbers will differ; the Engagement Gap Check estimates your effective output from 13 questions.

6. What closes the gap

01
Measure motivation and engagement before output drops.
02
Work with both sides: your women and the leaders around them.
03
Track results on your own numbers for 6-12 weeks.