Employee engagement remained steady across global organizations in 2025, but a new report warns these figures may mask emerging workplace risks. McLean & Company’s Employee Engagement Trends Report 2026 shows that while 79.7 per cent of workers expect to stay with their organization a year from now, key drivers of productivity, retention, and strategic execution are not improving compared to last year’s research.

Insights from more than 254,000 employees across 240 organizations worldwide reveal weak scores in compensation, career development, collaboration, stress, and coaching.

Total compensation remains the lowest-scoring driver at 52 per cent, career advancement and development sits at 58.3 per cent, and 40 per cent report higher job-related stress. Only 23 per cent rate leaders as highly effective at coaching employees.

The findings suggest organizations have not yet strengthened the conditions that sustain employee engagement, which can have broader competitive impacts externally.
“Employee engagement may be stable, but stability can be misleading,” says Amanda Chaitnarine, senior director, Human Resources Diagnostics, at McLean & Company. “Without strengthening the core drivers behind engagement, organizations risk plateauing performance instead of improving it. HR leaders need to move beyond measurement and focus on targeted action.”

To drive measurable outcomes, the report recommends five targeted actions:

• Prioritize employee experience as a driver of productivity, performance, and retention;
• Strengthen career development pathways to improve engagement and reduce turnover risk;
• Align total rewards strategies with employee expectations to address ongoing compensation concerns;
• Improve cross-functional collaboration by addressing communication gaps and enabling better teamwork; and
• Build leadership capability in coaching and feedback to better support employee growth and development.