Covering workplace challenges such as The Great Detachment, solutions to foster engagement as a leader and training opportunities around the industry.
06/18/2025
Workplace Challenges for 2025
According to an article from Gallup titled “7 Workplace Challenges for 2025,” U.S. employee engagement reached an 11-year low in 2024. While employee quit rates have not increased, the concern about a weaker job market and inflation may have workers sticking with their current employer even though they feel disconnected. This trend is being referred to as the Great Detachment. Reengaging the workforce and rebuilding employee commitment is a critical challenge those at the leadership level will have to overcome.
Responding to the Great Detachment
In response to the Great Detachment, Forbes outlined four key actions leaders can take to drive change and foster engagement:
- Have a clear future growth narrative: Clearly articulate the organization’s ongoing journey—reflect on the past, assess the present and envision the future. This will help connect employees to the mission, vision and key strategies.
- Communicate a clear workplace value proposition: Establish a clear value proposition for how specific work arrangements and tech augmentation can drive desired outcomes in performance, productivity and innovation.
- Envision a clear user engagement approach: With many employees feeling that leadership does not prioritize user-centric strategies, leaders should establish a transparent and compelling user promise to guide all organizational efforts that is communicated both internally and externally.
- Reimagine careers and development pathways: With the traditional career ladder (linear promotions) being replaced by the career lattice (sideways and lateral moves), leaders should prioritize an individual approach to performance and career management—shifting focus from ranking and rating to coaching and development.
Training Around the Industry
- Hydraulic Institute (HI): HI offers e-learning courses, instructor-led trainings, webinars and pump system certifications. The learning path is also broken down into introductory, basic, intermediate and advanced levels to help build knowledge as users progress. Learn more at training.pumps.org.
- Submersible Wastewater Pump Association (SWPA): SWPA offers SWPA University, an online training hub for water and wastewater. It also offers in-person, hands-on training seminars, allowing users to interact with and learn from industry experts. Learn more at swpa.org/live-training.
- Water Environment Federation (WEF): The WEF Learning Center offers webcasts, online courses, exam prep, workshops and leadership and professional development. Learn more at learn.wef.org.
- National Rural Water Association (NRWA): The NRWA hosts monthly webinars covering upcoming events, technologies and important industry news. Learn more about upcoming webinars and view previous webinars at nrwa.org/training.
- Pumps & Systems (P&S): P&S partners with experts around the industry to offer informational webinars on varying topics. Find upcoming and on demand webinars at pumpsandsystems.com/webinars.
