Top trends in employee engagement

Since its peak in 2020, U.S. worker engagement has been on a crash course, according to recent data from Gallup. 

While worker engagement remained unchanged in 2025 from the previous year, it has dropped from 36% in 2020 to 31%, Gallup found. That’s an estimated 8 million fewer workers who were actively engaged over five years. 

The greatest declines were recorded regarding clarity about what is expected at work and feeling cared about as a person, the data showed.

The trend was starkest among younger workers. From 2020 to 2025, the percentage of Generation Z and younger millennials who were engaged at work fell eight points; among older millennials (those born from 1980 to 1988), engagement dropped nine points, Gallup said. That compares to a six-point decrease in engagement for Generation X and no change in engagement for baby boomers. 

Gen Z and younger millennials were 13 points less likely over the five-year period to strongly agree that “My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person,” Gallup said. Likewise, the percentage of those who agreed that “This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow” dropped to 37% in 2025 from 48% in 2020.

A recent General Assembly report had a similar finding: While most millennial workers say they are satisfied in their current roles, they also would be willing to leave for better pay, clearer paths to growth or better learning opportunities if the job market allows. 

Adecco also recently found that workers want “robust” employer support for agility, resilience and engagement.

Gallup offered some insights to help employers address worker disengagement. More than a third of workers said better communication would best help them understand expectations at work, while others said better direction from leadership, more development and recognition and cultural improvements would help. 

Likewise, more than a third of employees said supportive relationships, communication and respect would help them feel more cared about at work, while lesser shares named pay, benefits and security; work environment and balance; and growth and future opportunities as helpful. 

“Employee engagement has declined after a decade of steady improvement leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data suggest that many of the gains organizations made in clarifying role expectations, developing people and improving the day-to-day experience at work have stalled — and, in some cases, have begun to reverse,” Jim Harter, a chief scientist at Gallup, wrote. “During periods of ongoing change and uncertainty, clarity becomes more important, not less.”

Nearly three quarters of human resource leaders (73%) said they’re feeling optimistic about their organization’s future in 2026. However, 66% said they expect more change despite their generally positive outlook after experiencing a difficult 2025, according to the latest Wiley Workplace Intelligence report.

The survey of 1,500 HR and L&D leaders in North America found that 30% cited organizational culture improvement as well as employee engagement as top challenges for the year ahead. Meanwhile, 35% of respondents said learning technology would be a top priority.

Communication will also be important for organizational efforts involving change and improvement, per the survey, with 64% of respondents naming it the most important leadership skill.

The research suggested that many employees lack confidence in their organization's ability to adapt to change, Wiley said in a release, adding that there was a potential disconnect between leadership outlook and workforce reality.

A 2025 study from The Conference Board found that while 73% of HR leaders and 60% of workers reported being prepared for change and confident about their organizations’ ability to manage it, HR leaders were less likely to see past change efforts as successful. Instead, they identified gaps in measurement, communication and alignment. The report concluded that change initiatives can often sputter due to people-related challenges.

Many workers didn’t feel confident about their organization’s ability to adapt to change, but still said they were optimistic about their futures with their companies, per the Wiley report. This disparity offers leaders an opportunity to “harness this momentum” and bring people into their decision-making process through transparency and trust, the report added.

"This optimism is real, but it's also precarious," Tracey Carney, a Wiley researcher who headed the study, said in the release. "Leaders have a brief window in 2026 to convert that optimism into action by rebuilding trust, improving communication, and reinvesting in their people. Organizations that don’t seize this moment may risk letting it slip away."

Many managers and employees suffered from significant stress and burnout during the past year as a result of “near constant change” resulting mainly from uncertainty and apprehension surrounding artificial intelligence adoption, Wiley said in the release, adding that only “a small fraction of employees truly thrived.”

Other factors in 2025 that led to challenges for organizational culture and employee engagement included rapid change, instability and return-to-office mandates, per the release.

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By ezCater

Workplace perks have entered a new era of accountability, where they’re expected to deliver real, measurable impact. For HR leaders, that means finding perks that help boost onsite attendance, rebuild connections across hybrid teams and strengthen culture while budgets face increasing scrutiny. That kind of pressure raises a practical question: Which perks actually influence behavior and performance?

ezCater research points to one clear answer: food. In a recent survey, 44% of employees surveyed by ezCater named free food as the perk they want most, yet only 19% report their employer currently offers it. And when it is offered, the impact is hard to ignore: 37% of workplace leaders say free or subsidized meals deliver some of the strongest ROI of any benefit, while 29% describe food as a low-cost perk with high return value.

That rare alignment — something employees genuinely want and leaders can defend in a tight budget — is promoting more organizations to rethink food’s role in the workplace. Instead of treating meals as occasional perks, many HR teams are beginning to view them as a strategic part of the employee experience.

What today’s employees really value in perks

If the past few years have taught HR leaders anything, it’s that return-to-office plans and onsite participation rarely succeed on policy alone. Employees need a tangible reason to show up — something that makes the commute worthwhile. And more than any policy or mandate, food is what gets people in the door.

According to ezCater research, 75% of hybrid employees say they would work onsite more often if lunch were provided. When asked to name the one perk that would encourage them to come in more often, employees most often selected food ahead of education benefits, commuter stipends and even additional vacation time.

The value is especially high for younger employees. Among remote or hybrid Gen Z workers, 28% say food would be the single biggest reason to come in more frequently. For HR leaders trying to “earn the commute,” the message is simple: food changes employee behavior, not just moods.

How food impacts productivity and performance

Getting employees back into the workplace is only half the equation — helping them do their best work once they’re there is just as critical.  

Lunch breaks, in particular, are closely tied to how employees function throughout the day, with 94% of workers saying a lunch break improves their performance and 85% reporting stronger afternoon productivity after eating.

The benefits extend beyond output, too. Employees report feeling happier, less burned out and more creative after stepping away to eat. But when employees push through the day hungry, the opposite effect can take hold — the productivity-killing combination known as “hanger.” The majority of employees (88%) say feeling hangry at work negatively impacts their performance, leading to:

• 43% longer task completion times
• 39% more mistakes
• 31% lower-quality work

For HR leaders focused on productivity, quality and burnout risk, these aren’t soft metrics. They’re direct inputs into performance.

Turning workplace meals into a strategic benefit

If food consistently influences attendance and performance, it can’t be treated like an occasional pizza party. Like any effective HR initiative, workplace meal programs work best when they’re intentional, inclusive and measurable. Here’s how to do just that.

1. Make food part of key in-person moments

At a time when 60% of employees see the office as a place for collaboration and connection, food helps bring people together. Reinforce that sense of connection by offering meals during the moments that naturally gather teams, such as

• Collaboration days
• Onboarding groups
• Trainings and all-hands
• Manager-led team meetings

When food consistently shows up in these in-person moments, it reinforces that coming into the workplace is worth the trip.

2. Design for equity

A meal program that only works for some employees can quickly undermine trust and morale. To support culture, food has to feel fair and accessible across roles, locations and preferences. That means building equity into the program from the start:

• Account for all dietary and cultural needs
• Rotate cuisines so options continue to feel fresh
• Extend access beyond headquarters through meal stipends or coordinated remote options
• Consider different schedules and shifts so frontline and non-traditional hours aren’t left out

3. Measure what matters

Treat meals like a strategic program, not just a perk, by tracking the signals that show whether they’re working:

• Usage: Who’s participating, how often and in which locations
• Attendance: Differences in in-office headcount on food days versus non-food days
• Culture: Employee sentiment around connection, belonging and the overall workplace experience

Rethinking food in the modern workplace

Employees are clear about what they value: practical perks that support their daily workflow, help them feel connected,and make office days worth the commute. ezCater data shows that food does all three. As you calculate which benefits truly “move the needle,” consider treating meals less like a nice-to-have and more like a core part of the workplace experience.

Sixty-nine percent of U.S. employees say their skills aren’t being fully realized in their current positions — a problem Resume Now's Untapped Talent Report says can lead to stalled career growth, disengagement and turnover. 

Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed said they’d look for a new job if they felt consistently underutilized, while 67% would consider leaving the company within a year. Additionally, 77% said not being used to their full potential has slowed their career progression, according to the results of Resume Now’s survey.

“When employees consistently feel underused, job searching feels rational, not reactive. Even otherwise acceptable jobs can lose their appeal when growth and contribution feel capped,” the report found.

The potential turnover risk from failing to fully realizing workers’ capabilities leaves little room for error, the report found. 

“When employees feel their skills are consistently underused, most do not envision staying long-term, and many anticipate leaving within months,” Resume Now said. 

Of the more than 1,000 U.S. adults surveyed, 67% said they would leave their company within a year if their skills continued to be underused; nearly half put the timeline within six months, including 17% who would leave in less than three months. Only slightly more than a third of workers said they’d stick around longer than a year. 

“Feeling underused accelerates how quickly employees envision leaving, shrinking what might have been a long-term role into a short-term stop,” the report found.

Employees overwhelmingly pointed to a lack of leadership action regarding the problem. Of those surveyed, 80% said leaders either don’t realize they aren’t given an opportunity to reach their full potential or they do and don’t act on that knowledge, the report found. 

“Many organizations have an incomplete picture of what their employees are actually good at, leading to roles that don't fully reflect and leverage individual strengths. This misalignment can leave employees feeling overlooked and miscast in their own jobs,” Resume Now said. 

In a May 2024 report, Mercer and Marsh identified ineffective leadership as the biggest people risk facing U.S. companies. HR and risk professionals surveyed raised concerns about leaders having an effective workforce strategy to acquire, grow and deploy talent based on their skills.

Global employee engagement dropped for the second consecutive year, declining from a peak of 23% in 2022 to 20% in 2025, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report. 

Sinking engagement among managers is driving the downturn, the report said. Between 2022 and 2025, manager engagement dropped nine points, from 31% to 22%, Gallup’s research found. Nonmanager engagement stayed low but constant, dipping from 20% in 2022, to 18% in 2023 and 2024, then slightly rebounding to 19% in 2025.

Despite the global downturn, engagement in the U.S. and Canada held steady and remained among the highest, according to the report.

Worldwide, employee engagement is eight percentage points higher than it was in Gallup’s first measurement in 2009, and five points higher than it was a decade ago, indicating that “for millions of workers, the workplace has improved,” the report said.

Yet, the downturn in overall engagement as well as manager engagement specifically is cause for concern, Gallup emphasized.

One reason is because managers “play a pivotal role in emerging workplace trends, including artificial intelligence adoption,” per the report.

“Businesses are investing heavily in AI, but the results are not showing up in the bottom line. Gallup’s data points to an answer the corporate world has largely ignored: the manager,” Gallup CEO Jon Clifton stated in a media release.

The research found that employees who believe their manager supports their team’s use of AI are 8.7 times more likely to strongly agree AI has transformed how much work gets done in their business and 7.4 times as likely to find that AI gives them more opportunities to do what they do best daily, Gallup said.

“In organizations investing in AI, the strongest predictor of employee adoption, aside from technical integration, is whether their manager actively champions it. Even the most sophisticated neutral network cannot overcome an indifferent team leader,” Clifton wrote in the report’s introduction.

However, there is a troublesome disconnect between how managers and employees perceive manager support, according to an October 2025 report from the American Management Association.

An AMA survey of more than 1,300 workers worldwide found that while 59% of managers believe their engagement increased during the past year, 80% of employees said it stagnated or declined. 

Managers think they’re stepping up, but employees don’t see it, AMA’s CEO said. Closing the gap requires sharper communication, stronger coaching and intentional collaboration, he stressed.

But recent reductions in middle management make that difficult, an August 2025 report from workforce communication platform Firstup revealed.

Having fewer direct managers puts pressure on workplace communication — as well as on organizational productivity and the employee experience — because front-line workers depend on direct managers as their primary source of company information, clarity and support, Firstup explained. Employees reported that since layoffs, managers seem stretched thin and less accessible.

Companies that communicate clearly defined performance criteria are better able to provide clear employee expectations, improve engagement, up productivity, give fairer evaluations and reinforce organizational culture, according to findings from HR research and advisory firm McLean & Co.

McLean’s latest report found that employees who understand their job expectations were 8.6 times more likely to be engaged in their work. Nonetheless, many companies “struggle to define criteria that reflect today's work realities and support fair, effective talent decisions,” per the report.

The research cited data from McLean's HR Trends Survey 2025, which found that organizations that didn’t provide positive employee experiences saw voluntary turnover rates that were 40% higher than those who did. Meanwhile, the HR Trends Survey 2026 found that employees in these organizations were 1.27 times more likely to say they had higher stress levels.

The new research found that when performance criteria was not clearly defined, it undermined the overall employee experience, lowering trust and upping employee stress. Yet despite organizational efforts to update performance management criteria, McLean said that many organizations still used overly generic and complex criteria or relied on criteria that didn’t align with how employees actually accomplished their tasks.

"Performance criteria should aim to make success clearer, not more complicated," Leann Schneider, director of HR research and advisory services at McLean & Company, said in a statement. “HR leaders need to define expectations that reflect both outcomes and behaviors, keep the number of criteria focused, and ensure employees can see how their work connects to broader organizational goals."

HR respondents who said their department's effectiveness in performance management was high were 4.7 times more likely to report having an “effective” employee engagement strategy, McLean said, citing data from its HR Management and Governance Survey.

Meanwhile, the latest research found that when performance criteria wasn’t on point, it hurt trust, created confusion and made it more difficult for companies to evaluate employees in a way that felt “fair, focused and credible.” 

In order to create a better performance criteria, McLean suggested that HR leaders focus on organizational context and operational realities when evaluating employees. The report also suggested using tailored assessments that consider specific goals, expectations, skills and company values. Finally, McLean said it was important to weigh criteria and determine what mattered most, while also ensuring that managers had the tools to explain any changes, address potential resistance and process employee feedback.

“When criteria are grounded in role realities and reinforced through communication, feedback, and coaching, organizations are better positioned to support employee growth and make performance management more effective," Justine Czencz, manager of HR research and advisory services at McLean, said in a statement.

A recent study by Cornell University researchers found that employees preferred narrative-only feedback and considered it the fairest form of performance evaluation. That report said that providing narrative-only feedback also gave employees a better understanding of how to improve their performance.

More workers are struggling than thriving in their lives for the first time since Gallup began tracking the life evaluation of the U.S. workforce, according to the global analytics and advisory firm. 

Just 28% of workers say now is a good time to find a quality job, Gallup also found — a precipitous drop from mid-2022, when 70% of workers said the same. 

Relatedly, worker engagement has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, with 31% of workers reporting feeling engaged. The conditions have coalesced to result in a workforce that is “restless but largely immobile,” Gallup said.

While self-evaluation of thriving and outlook on the job market has dropped across the board, certain groups have been more heavily represented among those feeling the pain.

Federal workers, for example, “stand out for the severity and speed of their decline,” Gallup said. In 2022, 60% of federal employees reported they were thriving — six points higher than the average worker’s reported 54%. By 2025, their rate of thriving dropped 12 points to 48%. Average workers also reported a 48% rate of thriving last year, but their drop was a comparative six points.

More educated workers are also more pessimistic, Gallup said — a finding that “could reflect white-collar hiring slowdowns and layoffs in professional sectors.” Prior to 2025, workers with college degrees consistently reported that it was a “good time” to find a job in larger numbers than those without. Last year, that pattern reversed sharply, with only 19% of college-educated workers reporting such by the end of the year, compared to 35% of workers without college degrees.

Younger workers were more pessimistic about the job market as well; Generation Z and millennial workers are the most pessimistic, with 19% and 24% reporting it is a “good time” to find a job, respectively, followed by Generation X (33%) and baby boomers (42%). 

Gallup’s findings track with a broader unease among workers about the implications of AI adoption in the workplace alongside a struggling economy. Layoffs in technology, spurred in part by AI adoption, have hurt confidence among tech industry workers, Glassdoor previously found. Meanwhile, more Gen Z workers have begun exploring blue-collar roles — regardless of education level — in search of a job less likely to be replaced with artificial intelligence. 

The downshift in engagement and rise in pessimism aligns with Glassdoor’s November assessment that power has now shifted toward employers, with layoff anxiety high and workers losing faith in their leaders.