2026 Humans at Work Barometer
Elevating Humans in an Era of Disruption
Organizations are performing. Their people are under pressure. That's the central tension in this year's Humans at Work Barometer — Workhuman's annual global study of 6,024 employees across 10 countries — and it runs through every finding in the data.
51% of workers feel more pressure than they did a year ago. 48% end most working days mentally exhausted. Nearly half say work used to be a better experience than it is today. And behind all of it: a recognition system most organizations have significantly underbuilt, a manager capacity crisis hiding in plain sight, and an AI readiness gap that widens dramatically the further you move from the executive suite.
The good news is that workers know what helps. They believe in recognition. They want to grow. They're motivated at nearly identical rates whether they sit at a desk or work on the frontline. The organizations that will perform best are those that can see their people clearly enough to act on that.
Download the full report to find:
- A global scorecard across five key workplace factors and ten countries
- What workers believe recognition does for them, vs. how often they get it
- The gap between leadership and worker experience of work and AI transformation
- The impact of the manager capacity crisis
- Where frontline workers are being left behind
- Why service milestones are a missed moment, and what helps them land