TL;DR

Employee engagement hit a five-year low of 20% in 2025, costing $10 trillion globally. GroupTogether co-founder Julie Tylman argues that formal recognition programs miss the most meaningful source of appreciation: peers who see the effort firsthand. She advocates for embedding small, repeatable rituals like group cards into daily work to make connection visible across distributed teams, and believes the organizations that thrive through AI disruption will be those that invest in human connection alongside efficiency.

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report shows employee engagement fell to 20% in 2025, its lowest level since 2020, with disengagement costing the global economy an estimated $10 trillion annually. Research also shows that engagement is closely tied to how employees experience their workplace relationships. Gallup’s workplace research found that highly engaged teams achieve 23% higher profitability, 14% higher productivity in production roles, and significantly lower absenteeism and turnover compared with less engaged teams.

As hybrid and remote work have become embedded in modern organizations, a structural shift has taken place in how employees experience connection. What was once built through proximity is now mediated through screens and scheduled interactions. Julie Tylman, co-founder of GroupTogether, argues that something fundamental has been lost in the process.

“I think we lost the spontaneous moments: chatting across the desk about a shared problem, water cooler talk about a show you are both watching, the cake in the break room for someone’s birthday, and drinks with colleagues for no reason at all,” Tylman says. “These interactions are what turn the people you work with into colleagues you enjoy being around.”

Studies show that as digital communication has increased, employees are not necessarily feeling more connected. While online interactions have replaced many in-person moments, they often deliver lower levels of engagement, satisfaction, and social connection.

In response, many organizations have invested in formal recognition programs, often driven by leadership or tied to structured incentives. Tylman believes these approaches frequently miss the most meaningful source of appreciation.

“It comes back to becoming a team,” she explains. “Your manager or the company is not in it with you every day, solving problems, talking things through, and listening when something is hard. Your colleagues see firsthand the effort you put in and the passion you bring to the job.”

This proximity gives peer recognition a level of authenticity that formal systems struggle to replicate. “When colleagues recognize you, a shout-out, a celebration, and a kind word mean more because you know they actually understand what that effort cost you,” she says. “A job well done from your manager still carries weight, but at times it can feel transactional, like a box is being ticked. Recognition from a colleague never feels that way.”

Research increasingly shows that recognition is a critical driver of employee engagement. A 2025 study analyzing data from 25,285 employees found that recognition had a significant positive relationship with engagement, with engagement itself linked to higher job satisfaction. The findings reinforce the idea that feeling valued is central to how employees experience their workplace. Yet in many workplaces, appreciation remains infrequent and highly structured.

Tylman advocates for embedding recognition into the everyday fabric of work through small, repeatable rituals. Moments when teams celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, farewells, baby showers, and retirements can become consistent signals of belonging when they are shared collectively. According to her, group cards provide a simple mechanism to make these moments visible and inclusive across distributed teams.

“Culture does not come from one-off initiatives,” Tylman says. “It grows from small, repeated actions that make people feel seen over time.”

Her perspective is shaped by direct experience. Having operated GroupTogether across teams in Sydney and Austin, she has long worked in an environment where colleagues rarely meet in person. “Working with people you rarely see in person has been our normal for years,” she says. “What is changing now is that this is becoming the norm for everyone else.”

Within this context, she has observed the emotional impact of peer recognition at scale. “From a personal perspective, it has been an absolute honor to watch people celebrate each other,” she notes. “What colleagues say really matters. No hype; it can bring people to tears. More than 17,000 thank you notes were written on our platform in the past year. It shows how much appreciation often goes unspoken until a moment invites it.”

Looking ahead, Tylman believes organizations are entering a period of transformation shaped by artificial intelligence and changing workforce expectations. While many companies remain in a wait-and-see phase, she sees a clear distinction emerging between those that prioritize efficiency and those that invest in human connection.

“We are in the middle of an AI disruption, and most companies are still waiting to see how it settles,” she says. “What the best organizations will do differently is use that shift to build workforces that lean on judgment, creativity, and collaboration to grow.”

In that environment, connection becomes a strategic advantage. “Connection will be paramount, along with learning how to meaningfully recognize the wins, notice the hard weeks, and celebrate the small stuff, no matter where someone logs in from,” Tylman explains. “That is the part no algorithm will ever do for you.”

Ultimately, Tylman returns to a principle that sits at the core of workplace culture. “Culture does not start with the big stuff,” she notes. “It starts the moment small stuff gets noticed. It is about putting meaning back into recognition instead of points.”

In a workplace increasingly defined by distance and digital interaction, that shift may determine which organizations can build cultures that are not only productive, but deeply human. As Tylman puts it, “Long live celebrations, big and small.“