The 2026 Perceptyx Benchmark Database draws on more than 23 million employee responses collected between 2023 and 2025 across 490 organizations and 113 countries, covering 749 survey items in 20 industries. Engagement held steady through that window and rose one point to 81% in 2025. What changed is the set of factors that sustain it. Static workplace conditions now matter less than how employees experience change, whether they see a path to grow where they are, and whether their managers turn new priorities into daily work.
Overall engagement reached 81% in 2025, a one-point gain, with intent to stay and intrinsic motivation rising by similar margins. Pride held at 83% and remains the highest-scoring component of the engagement index. The trend across the past several years has flattened: after the volatility of 2020 and 2021, year-over-year gains are now a point or less rather than the sharp swings seen earlier. Advocacy is the one component still lagging. It has stabilized at 76%, which means employees who feel positive about their work and plan to stay remain slower to recommend their organization to others. The next round of engagement gains will come from closing that advocacy gap.
Employees who are highly engaged are 1.9 times more likely to say change is handled effectively, the single largest differentiator in the data, even though only 55% of all employees rate change management favorably. Confidence in senior leadership (67% favorable) and the belief that leaders lead change well (61%) follow closely, each making highly engaged employees about 1.7 times more likely to respond favorably. A sense of belonging (75%) and access to career opportunities (65%) round out the top five at 1.6 times each. Four of the five top drivers describe how the organization handles change and what it offers for the future, not day-to-day working conditions.
Feeling valued fell just outside the top five drivers this year, but it separates engaged from disengaged employees more sharply than almost any other item: highly engaged employees are 10 times more likely to feel valued than fully disengaged ones. That experience is not consistent across the workforce. Favorability is highest during an employee's first year at 78%, then drops and settles in the mid-to-high 60s for the rest of their tenure. The gap widens by job level, from 69% among individual contributors to 76% for managers and 87% for executives. Generational differences span only a few points, which indicates feeling valued depends more on an employee's level than on their generation.
Employees who feel supported in adapting to change are more than five times as likely to say change is handled effectively, the widest gap in the entire dataset. The drivers behind that support are specific: leaders leading change well (61% favorable, 3.2 times more likely to respond favorably), opinions being considered (65%, 3.1 times), involvement in decisions that affect their work (68%, 2.6 times), and understanding the reasons behind change (69%, 2.5 times). Those same items are where organizations score lowest, with only 55% of employees rating change management favorably and 61% saying senior leaders lead change well. Communicating updates without inviting input covers the easy half of change and skips the half that decides whether employees adapt.
Confidence in the future is strong at the top and thins at every level below it. More than 90% of executives say they understand organizational goals, feel motivated by the mission, and see how their work connects to outcomes. Optimism about the future reaches 83% among executives but falls to 63% among individual contributors. The belief that senior leaders communicate a clear vision drops from 81% to 67% across the same levels, confidence in senior leadership from 77% to 73%, and the belief that the organization is positioned to compete from 76% to 68%. More grounded items hold up better, with understanding of goals and objectives declining only from 93% to 82%. Employees understand what the organization is trying to do; they are less sure it will get there or that leadership will take them with it.
Optimism about AI is high and evenly held, with about two-thirds of employees believing AI will help their organization stay competitive (67%), improve productivity (65%), and let them focus on more meaningful work (63%). Readiness has not caught up. Only 33% of employees feel well-prepared to use AI tools in their daily work, and only 31% say their organization has a clear plan for increasing AI adoption.
Team-level support lags too, with 41% saying their team encourages experimentation with generative AI. Employees see what AI could do for them and are waiting on direction, hands-on enablement, and a reason to build confidence using it. Organizations that pair the tools with structured learning and manager support will convert that optimism into measured productivity rather than stalled pilots.
Believing career goals are achievable is one of the clearest predictors of engagement, and it rests on more than the existence of opportunities. Access to career opportunities is the strongest single driver, making employees who see room to advance 4.4 times more likely to believe they can reach their goals, though only 65% rate that access favorably. Fairness carries equal weight: the belief that advancement is awarded fairly is also a 4.4-times driver, yet sits at only 57% favorable, the lowest of the group. Feeling valued (69%, 2.2 times), equal opportunity for success (71%, 2.1 times), and the chance to improve skills (77%, 2.0 times) round out the drivers. Growth feels real to employees when opportunity, fair treatment, and skill-building line up; when fairness is missing, visible openings still feel out of reach.
Development sentiment is strongest the day employees arrive and weakest the day they leave. At onboarding, favorability for training sits at 79 to 80% and for growth opportunities at 85%. Skill-building holds up through mid-tenure, peaking around 77%, while perceptions of training quality and growth begin to slip. By exit, training availability has fallen to 59%, satisfaction with training to 56%, and growth opportunities to 51%, with skill development down to 62%. The decline tracks the pace of change in the work itself: when roles shift and expectations rise, development that is not refreshed loses relevance against the job employees are actually doing. Continuous, evolving learning is what keeps that early optimism from turning into a reason to leave.
Managers are the most stable strength in the dataset. More than 80% of employees say their manager keeps commitments (83%) and creates an environment where they can raise concerns (83%), 79% say their manager supports their development, and 77% receive regular feedback, all holding steady over time.
Broader enablement is weaker. Most employees have the information (80%) and resources (77%) they need, but only 68% feel involved in decisions that affect their work. New tools, including AI, reach employees through their manager more than through any rollout plan, which is why involvement and reinforcement at the team level decide whether a new system gets used. Equipping managers to lead through change is the most direct way to turn announced priorities into adopted ones.
The data points people leaders toward three places to act. For engagement, the gain comes from clarity and consistency in leadership during change, since trust in leadership and effective change management are the top differentiators. For change itself, involvement matters more than communication volume, because employees who help shape decisions and understand the reasons behind them are far more likely to say change works. For growth, the task is making advancement visible and fair, since access and fairness are the two strongest drivers of whether employees believe their goals are reachable.
Managers sit at the center of all three, translating direction into daily work, recognizing contributions where feeling valued erodes, and reinforcing development as roles change. HR leaders can support that work by designing development as a continuous system rather than a one-time program, since the lifecycle data shows early enthusiasm fading without reinforcement.
The full 2026 Perceptyx Benchmark Report breaks down each signal with the complete charts, level-by-level comparisons, and the engagement-driver detail behind the headline numbers. You can read the full digital version of the report to see how your workforce compares against 23 million responses across 20 industries. To talk through what the benchmarks mean for your organization and how continuous listening connects to development and measurable behavior change, schedule a demo with the Perceptyx team. For related reading, our analysis of why L&D is central to the employee experience and how development should align with career stage go deeper on the growth and enablement findings above.