Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2026: What UK Employers Need to Know

Gallup has just released its State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report; the world’s largest ongoing study of the employee experience, covering hundreds of millions of workers across more than 160 countries. The findings are stark, and if you’re responsible for people at a UK organisation, they deserve your full attention.

Here’s our read on what the data means and what it tells employers about where to focus right now.

The engagement crisis is getting worse

Global employee engagement fell for the second consecutive year in 2025, dropping to just 20%, its lowest level since 2020. That means four in five employees worldwide are either not engaged or actively disengaged from their work.

Gallup estimates that low engagement now costs the world economy approximately $10 trillion in lost productivity annually, around 9% of global GDP.

For UK employers specifically, the Europe regional data is sobering. Europe ranks dead last globally at just 12% engaged; lower than Sub-Saharan Africa, lower than Southeast Asia, lower than every other region on earth. No region increased engagement in 2025.

The instinct many organisations have; to treat engagement as a nice-to-have or a survey exercise — is increasingly indefensible when the productivity cost is this visible.

The manager problem is the real story

The most important finding in this year’s report isn’t the headline engagement number. It’s what’s happening to managers.

Since 2022, global manager engagement has dropped nine points, from 31% to 22%. The biggest single-year fall was 2024 to 2025, a five-point decline. Managers used to enjoy what Gallup calls an “engagement premium”, they were more engaged than the people they led. That advantage has now almost entirely disappeared.

This matters for two reasons. First, manager engagement is the single strongest predictor of team engagement. Disengaged managers lead disengaged teams — consistently, across every region, every industry, every organisation size. Second, disengaged managers are also more stressed: 45% of managers experience daily stress, compared to 39% of individual contributors. They’re carrying more while feeling less supported.

Gallup’s data shows that in best-practice organisations, 79% of managers are engaged — nearly quadruple the global average of 22%. The gap between best and worst isn’t explained by industry or geography. It’s explained by whether organisations treat manager engagement as a strategic priority or an afterthought.

Wellbeing improved, but barely, and from a low base

There is one piece of genuinely positive news. Global employee thriving improved for the first time in three years, rising one point to 34% in 2025. But read that figure carefully: 56% of the global workforce is still struggling, and 9% is suffering. Daily stress remains at 40%, nine percentage points higher than it was in 2009.

The data also shows a telling pattern by work location. Hybrid workers report the highest levels of thriving (45%), while on-site non-remote-capable workers are lowest (32%). The flexibility to control when and how you work remains one of the most consistent wellbeing drivers in Gallup’s data.

What this means for UK employers

Three things stand out from this year’s report that should directly shape people strategy in 2026.

Team-level action beats company-level programmes. Gallup is explicit: engagement occurs at the team level, not the organisational level. A company-wide engagement survey tells you there’s a problem. What actually moves the needle is what happens in individual teams, how managers behave, whether colleagues feel connected, whether work feels meaningful day to day. Initiatives that operate at the team level consistently outperform those that operate at the organisational level.

Manager wellbeing is now a strategic risk. The collapse in manager engagement isn’t a soft HR issue, it’s a direct driver of the engagement numbers organisations are trying to improve. If managers are burned out, under-supported, and disengaged, no amount of investment in employee benefits will compensate. The organisations that outperform in engagement (79% manager engagement vs 22% globally) have made manager wellbeing a distinct strategic priority.

The connection and health deficit is measurable and addressable. Loneliness among workers sits at 22% globally and is rising. Physical inactivity, chronic stress, and social disconnection are not separate problems — they are interconnected drivers of the same disengagement crisis Gallup is measuring. Addressing them requires a proactive, preventative approach to employee health, one that builds healthy habits, daily social connection, and sustained motivation before people reach crisis point.

The case for preventative health as an engagement strategy

Gallup’s data makes the strongest possible case for preventative employee health investment, not reactive support like EAPs, but proactive programmes that build physical health, social connection, and daily positive habit formation across the whole workforce.

The engagement, wellbeing, and stress figures in this report are lagging indicators. They measure what happens when organisations wait for problems to develop. The organisations that outperform, Gallup’s best-practice group with 79% manager engagement — are investing upstream, before the crisis arrives.

Preventative health programmes that combine physical activity, social connection, gamification, and meaningful rewards address the root causes of the disengagement Gallup is measuring: inactivity, isolation, low morale, and a lack of visible organisational investment in people. The ROI is not abstract — it shows up in the absence rates, engagement scores, and turnover figures that HR teams track quarterly.

GoJoe clients including NatWest, Centrica, Hilti, and Almac Group— have demonstrated measurable outcomes: NatWest reduced absenteeism by 10%, Centrica reversed a 15-month trend of declining team cohesion, and 70% of participants across the platform report improved wellbeing within two weeks. These are the kinds of outcomes that move Gallup’s metrics.

GoJoe is a preventative employee health platform that tackles engagement, wellbeing, and inactivity through gamified health programmes, social connection features, and a global rewards marketplace — built for the whole workforce, not just the already-active. Talk to the team about what GoJoe could do for your organisation →

Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report. All statistics cited are Gallup’s own data. Read the full report →