The State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report focuses on "The Human Side of the AI Revolution" and provides comprehensive insights into employee engagement, wellbeing, and workplace dynamics across global regions.
The 2026 edition finds that global employee engagement fell to 20% in 2025, its lowest level since 2020, costing the world economy an estimated $10 trillion in lost productivity.
Key global themes
The continuing engagement crisis
Organizations worldwide face an ongoing challenge with employee engagement, as the report documents "The Engagement Slump Continues". This persistent decline affects workplaces across continents and represents a universal concern for business leaders navigating today's complex work environment.
The changing nature of management
The report reveals a significant shift captured in "The Shrinking Perk of Being a Manager", indicating that traditional advantages of management roles are diminishing globally. This trend suggests that the value proposition of leadership positions is being redefined across different cultural and economic contexts.
Global employee wellbeing
Using a life evaluation scale, the report categorizes employees as thriving, struggling, or suffering. The findings are sobering: only 34% of employees globally are thriving, while 56% are struggling and 9% are suffering. This data underscores a worldwide wellbeing crisis that transcends geographic boundaries.
“For the first time since Gallup began tracking the life evaluation of the U.S. workforce, more workers report struggling in their lives (49%) than thriving (46%): a stark reversal from 2022 and 2023 when more than half of employees were classified as thriving. This is coupled with U.S. worker engagement dropping to the lowest level on record in the past decade at 31% engaged employees.” –Gallup
The report shows that global employee wellbeing improved for the first time in three years in 2025, offering a cautiously optimistic signal after years of decline.
The emotional dimensions of work
"Managing the Emotional Workplace" emerges as a critical focus area, recognizing that employees’ emotional needs must be addressed regardless of location or culture. Globally, 23% of employees experience daily sadness, while 22% report daily loneliness.
A particularly concerning finding is the generational divide: employees under 35 report significantly higher rates of both sadness (28%) and loneliness (26%) compared to older workers. This pattern appears consistent across regions, suggesting that younger workers face unique challenges in today’s workplace environment.
In the U.S., Gallup found that 51% of employees are seeking or watching for a new job – but confidence in the job market is at an all-time low, with 72% of employees saying it’s a bad time to find a new job. College-educated populations are the most pessimistic, with only 19% agreeing that it’s a “good time to find a quality job” – as well as only one in five Gen Z employees.
Transformation through technology
The report addresses "The Future of Jobs", examining how AI and technological advancement are fundamentally reshaping work across industries and nations. This transformation affects workers from manufacturing floors in Asia to service sectors in Europe, from emerging markets to developed economies.
Strategic Implications
This 2026 report serves as an essential resource for understanding universal workplace challenges during the AI revolution. The data reveals that despite cultural, economic, and geographic differences, organizations worldwide share common struggles with engagement, wellbeing, and the emotional dimensions of work. For leaders managing international teams or operating across borders, these insights provide a foundation for developing strategies that address the human side of technological transformation on a truly global scale.
Turning insights into action
With the context that Gallup is giving us it becomes all the more important that we look for ways to help the real humans that work with and for us. In our Building Human Workplaces report, we found that addressing four key areas can help combat disengagement, reduce turnover and improve overall employee wellbeing:
1. Be transparent: Employees are 80% more likely to trust their organization when they receive clear and transparent communication.
2. Give managers the time, tools and training they deserve: Only 44% of managers worldwide have received management training – and employees feel this lack of preparation. Better support for managers will yield better management and better results.
3. Connect and engage through recognition technology: 78% of employees agree that recognition is valuable, even without an attached reward – and 75% say that receiving recognition motivates them to work harder.
4. Make wellbeing a real priority: HR leaders rank employee wellbeing as a top-three concern in 2026. With disengagement at all-time highs around the globe, it’s time to provide tangible benefits that help.
Learn more about how Reward Gateway | Edenred’s employee experience solutions can help you boost employee engagement, wellbeing and happiness in your organization and make your corner of the world a better place to work.
