Planning a leadership offsite or away day for 2027? UK data shows line managers move engagement. How to design the day, choose the speaker and measure change.
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Most leadership offsites are designed for the people in the room: the executive team, a day of strategy, a keynote after lunch and dinner in the evening. The strategy then leaves the room. Whether it reaches the teams depends on a group that was rarely invited: line managers.
A leadership offsite is a day or more away from the normal workplace, where leaders set direction, work through problems and build working relationships. An away day is usually the shorter, team-level version. This piece is for UK HR and L&D leads planning one for 2027. It sets out what the data says about line managers, and how to design an offsite, or its follow-on, around them.
Start with a question that rarely appears in the brief: who has to act differently on Monday morning?
If the answer is the executive team, a senior offsite is the right format. If the answer is the teams, the people who translate the plan into their week are line managers. The design should follow that answer.
UK engagement is low, and managers sit at the centre of it.
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
UK employees engaged at work | 10% (Europe 12%, global 20%) | Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, three-year rolling average |
UK employees who felt a lot of stress the previous day | 46% | Gallup 2026, UK country data |
Global manager engagement | 27% in 2024, 22% in 2025 | Gallup 2026 |
Share of the variance in engagement across business units explained by the manager | At least 70% | Gallup, 2015 (US study) |
Managers who entered the role without formal management training | 82% | CMI, 2023 |
UK employees whose manager gives them useful feedback | 57% | CIPD Good Work Index 2026 |
The CIPD's latest data shows what the gap costs. In the Good Work Index 2026, among employees with the weakest line management, 38% are satisfied with their job and 21% would recommend their employer. Where line management is strongest, the figures are 89% and 81%. The CIPD names line management among the factors with the biggest effect on all five business outcomes it tracks.
Managers are also stretched. In a Gartner survey published in April 2026, 47% of managers said they are working harder than a year ago and 62% felt obligated to protect their teams. Managers spent an average of nine hours a week on employees' personal and emotional concerns.
Harvard Business Review put it bluntly as far back as 2006: "It is the rare management team that can say its strategy off-site truly changed the way the business is run."
Offsites do work when they change who talks to whom. A 2024 HBR study of eight years of annual offsites at one large global firm found that attendees received 24% more new requests for collaboration after the offsite.
Put the two findings together. The offsite builds connections among the people in the room. If line managers are outside the room, the connections that carry the plan to the teams stay unbuilt.
Three models work in practice:
| Model | How it works | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
Two-tier offsite | Senior team on day one; line managers join for day two | The strategy is set and needs translating into team plans |
Cascade away days | A senior offsite, then half-day away days for groups of line managers within four weeks | Larger organisations with several sites |
Line manager offsite | A dedicated day for line managers, opened by an executive session | Engagement or retention problems concentrated in specific teams |
Whichever model you choose, give line managers four things:
1. Pre-work from their own team. Ask each manager to bring one real team challenge. The day's exercises then work on live problems.
2. Their version of the plan. Time to answer "what does this mean for my team?" and to write it in their own words.
3. Practice for the hard conversations. Uncertainty, performance and role changes. The CIPD feedback figure suggests many teams feel the gap here.
4. Peers. Managers facing the same pressures hear each other's solutions. The HBR offsite study suggests these new connections are among the day's most lasting results.
A single day gives shared language. Behaviour change needs follow-up: a short session four to six weeks later, where managers report what they tried. Our piece on four formats and four different outcomes sets out what each format can deliver.
A keynote works best at an offsite when it sets up the work that follows. Brief the speaker on who is in the room, what attendees will do after the session and what the data says about your teams. Our guide on how to write the speaker brief covers the rest.
Speakers from our UK roster who work on this ground include Blaire Palmer on leadership and the future of work, Kevin Gaskell on leadership and change, and Bill Benjamin on emotional intelligence in leadership.
A short showreel of Blaire Palmer's keynote work on leadership and the future of work:
Blaire Palmer keynote showreel 2026 (YouTube)
If the offsite is meant to move engagement, measure it where engagement lives: in the managers' teams.
| Measure | How | When |
|---|---|---|
Manager feedback and support | Team questions such as "my manager gives me useful feedback" | Before, and three months after |
Team plans written | Share of attending managers with a written team version of the plan | At the four-to-six-week follow-up |
New connections | Managers who have contacted a peer from the offsite since | At the follow-up |
If you also want a team climate baseline, our psychological safety guide sets out a short team scale.
A day or more away from the normal workplace, where leaders set direction, work through problems and build working relationships. An away day is usually a shorter, team-level version.
Line managers translate the plan into their teams' work. Gallup found that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in engagement across business units, and the CIPD Good Work Index 2026 links strong line management to much higher job satisfaction and willingness to recommend the employer.
Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 puts UK engagement at 10% on a three-year rolling average, against 12% for Europe and 20% globally. 46% of UK employees said they felt a lot of stress the previous day.
A speaker who sets up the work that follows the session. Brief them on who is in the room, what attendees will do afterwards and what your data says about your teams. For line manager groups, look for experience with leadership, change and difficult conversations.
They can change who works with whom. A 2024 HBR study at one global firm found attendees received 24% more new collaboration requests after annual offsites. Changing how the business runs needs follow-up beyond the day itself, which is why line managers and a follow-up session matter.
Measure in the managers' teams: feedback and support scores before and three months after, the share of managers who wrote a team version of the plan, and whether managers have kept in touch with peers they met at the offsite.
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