The HŪMNZ Element: Issue 05

The numbers now confirm what most leaders feel anecdotally: people are still on payroll, but their energy, attention, and initiative are quietly exiting the business. This edition focuses on where that lost focus starts and what operators can do about it.

Author

Jaxon Travis
December 05, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

🌟 Editor's Note
We’ve treated engagement and “quiet quitting” as sentiment issues for years. The new data reframes them as a very specific EBITDA leakage problem: unclear expectations, weak purpose, and clunky operating models that prevent people from doing their best work. The angle this week is deliberately unromantic: treat silent attrition like any other operational loss and redesign around it.

PC: Andrea Piacquadio

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Bottom line: Budgets are tight and expectations are up. Fractional and interim leaders are a practical way to add capacity without adding fixed cost.

What changed: Credible signals show rapid normalization of fractional leadership at the top of the house. HBR outlines when and how fractional leadership actually works, while SHRM documents the rise of “C-suite twins”—paired fractional leaders who increase capacity without doubling cost. Axios reports that one-third of new CEOs in the first half of 2025 were interim, and Fortune cites Heidrick & Struggles data showing a 310% surge in demand for interim leaders since 2020.

Why it matters: Shifting a portion of senior roles from fixed to variable cost preserves EBITDA and accelerates change without long-cycle hiring.
This week’s four signals cover the playbook, proof of adoption, and where to aim first. Light tie-ins: HŪMNZ fractional operators, fractional AI advisors, and EOS-style implementers focused on throughput and unit economics.

Engagement stuck around 30–32% = structural productivity drag

  • Evidence: Gallup reports U.S. engagement at 31% in 2024, with 17% actively disengaged and roughly 8 million fewer engaged employees than in 2020. A mid-2025 update shows engagement essentially flat at 32%, with Gallup estimating about $2 trillion in lost productivity annually from disengagement. Axios’ coverage of the same data labels today’s workplace “the sad office,” highlighting fewer workers who know what’s expected of them or feel cared for.

  • Implication: Even without headcount changes, roughly two-thirds of your payroll is operating below full discretionary effort, with a material EBITDA impact.

  • Action: Quantify your own engagement-productivity gap; treat it as a line item in the operating plan, not an HR dashboard.

“C-suite twins” are boosting capacity without doubling cost.

  • Evidence: SHRM Executive Network describes paired fractional leaders, growth in “fractional” profiles, and operating guardrails.

  • Implication: You can scale leadership bandwidth for transformation sprints without permanent headcount.

  • Action: Pilot a CFO+COO fractional pair for cash, pricing, and working-capital sprints.

Interim C-suite is becoming increasingly common.

  • Evidence: Axios reports 33% of new CEOs in 1H 2025 were interim, per Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

  • Implication: Stakeholders increasingly accept temporary top roles during volatility and major transitions.

  • Action: Add “interim CEO/GM” to contingency plans for carve-outs, restructurings, or post-merger holds.

Demand for interim leaders is up 310% since 2020.

  • Evidence: Fortune cites demand surge for interim leadership, led by finance and transformation.

  • Implication: Market depth exists to source specialized operators quickly.

  • Action: Pre-qualify a bench of fractional CFOs, COOs, and AI leads with rate cards and start-ready scopes.

Stat of the Week

Through June 2025, 15.9% of incoming CEOs were appointed on an interim basis, up from 9.0% in the same period 2024. Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas

Need a Fractional C-suite? We can help!

If you want to quantify silent attrition as a P&L item, reply with “FOCUS AUDIT” and your headcount size. I’ll draft a simple 2-page operator brief that connects your likely engagement levels, operating model gaps, and purpose signals to an estimated productivity and EBITDA impact, with 90-day actions.

Until next time,

The HŪMNZ Element - Bi-Weekly Pulse

If someone on your team owns “engagement” but not “EBITDA,” forward this and ask: “Where do you see silent attrition in our org, and what would it cost us to fix?”