Dive Brief:
- Staffing levels are the No. 1 barrier to providing customers exceptional products and service, according to a Gallup survey of 23,000 employees during Q3 2025.
- Across employment positions, 37% of employees cited having the right number of people to do the work as the top barrier; notably, leaders, managers and project managers saw staffing as a larger problem than individual contributors. Another 16% of employees cited training and having the right skills to do the job, while only 16% said there were no barriers.
- Staffing concerns have increased at the same time that employees say employers are reducing headcount, Gallup found.
Dive Insight:
Gallup found an imbalance between what employees perceive is their responsibility for customer experience and their confidence in their organizations to meet customer needs.
More than 2 in 5 employees strongly agree that they feel great responsibility for customer experience. But only about one-quarter strongly agreed that their organization delivers on the promises it makes to customers.
Staffing cuts appear to be one large part of that, according to Megan Mulherin, a research analyst at Gallup.
“Our findings suggest that employees care deeply about delivering for customers, but many don’t feel they have the staffing or operational support to do it well,” Mulherin said in an email.
Nearly one-quarter of U.S. employees said their organization is reducing headcount, and nearly two-thirds said employees who work directly with customers were most affected. Close to two-thirds said employees have been charged with additional responsibilities.
“When teams are stretched thin, employees often absorb customer frustration stemming from long wait times, delays or service breakdowns,” Mulherin said. “Over time, that disconnect between being held accountable for outcomes and not having sufficient resources can lead to mounting stress, frustration and ultimately burnout.”
As a recent Qualtrics report found, when employers cut costs on employment models and onboarding, whether by hiring part-time and gig work or by other means, it often creates disengaged employees. That’s particularly the case for those who work directly with customers.
“We often see organizations prioritize the customer experience while inadvertently sidelining the very people who deliver it,” Georgie McIntyre, employee experience adviser and organizational psychologist at Qualtrics, said in the report. “When frontline and part-time staff feel disempowered, that apathy eventually reaches the customer, potentially triggering a cascade of service failures.”
