This year’s report dives into the key factors causing low employee engagement and offers a blueprint to create thriving cultures by championing inspiration, hope, and inclusivity

Today, O.C. Tanner, the global leader in employee recognition and workplace culture solutions, released its annual 2026 Global Culture Report at the company’s annual Influence Greatness Conference. Now in its eighth year, the report examines the main stressors fueling workplace disengagement and combines employee sentiment with actionable insights to arm organizations with strategies to reconnect employees, spark hope and inspiration, and build high-performing teams.

Based on data gathered from 38,929 employees, leaders, HR practitioners, and executives across 23 countries, the report analyzes the need to transform the workplace from a place of depletion into a source of inspiration as employees battle the mounting pressures of modern life. It breaks down how organizations can spark inspiration among teams, harness hope to empower employees, and foster inclusivity and transparency to build high-performing cultures where employees thrive.

“Amid economic uncertainty, changing market expectations, and rapidly expanding technologies, employees are experiencing an epidemic of hopelessness about their futures,” said Gary Beckstrand, Vice President of the O.C. Tanner Institute. “Through our research, we found that the antidote to hopelessness is inspiration, and organizations can transform hope into an active process through strong leadership support and purposeful recognition."

The research highlights several key trends: employees are lacking inspiration, they demand transparency at all levels, and high-performing cultures can only exist sustainably with equally high support. Key findings include:

• Inspiration boosts engagement and creates thriving cultures: Inspiration is not a fleeting, uncontrollable feeling, and it can be produced through meaningful interactions with leaders and coworkers. When employees feel inspired, they are 6x more likely to produce great work and 14x more likely to want to stay with the organization.
• Practicing active hope in the workplace enables innovation: Organizations can move hope from a passive wish to an active process by encouraging realistic goal setting empowered by leaders and peers. When employees have a strong sense of hope, they are 5x more likely to innovate and 7x more likely to be engaged.
• Inclusion becomes a cultural pillar when it’s a regular, everyday practice: Companies can foster cultures of inclusion by focusing on why every employee matters. When companies practice the five behaviors that support inclusive teams, employees are 7x more likely to feel they belong and 9x more likely to feel a sense of community.
• Pair high support with high expectations for healthy, profitable cultures: High expectations and mental wellbeing can coexist at work, but leaders must adequately support their employees to foster healthy performance through meaningful recognition. Highly supported employees see lower odds of probable depression (-47%), probable anxiety (-44%), and burnout (-88%).
• Transparency at every level enhances workplace culture and trust: Employees crave transparency in day-to-day work, not just around major organizational decisions. When organizations practice transparency at every level, employees are 5x more likely to feel respect from the organization, and odds of probable depression decrease 40%.

“The emphasis on high performance in a time of great change has never been more intense,” says Mindi Cox, Chief People and Marketing Officer. “This research comes at a critical time when organizations are asking for more and employees are sharing the conditions they need to give it – when high expectations meet high support, everyone thrives. The 2026 Global Culture Report helps organizations understand how inspiration, hope, transparency, and inclusion work in tandem to create healthy, thriving cultures that encourage innovation and profitability.”

To learn more about how businesses can effectively tailor their recognition and rewards programs to create inspiring workplace cultures and to download the full report, please visit: www.octanner.com/global-culture-report.

About O.C. Tanner

O.C. Tanner is the global leader in software and services that improve workplace culture through meaningful employee recognition experiences. Our Culture Cloud employee recognition platform helps millions of people thrive at work. Our team of more than 1,500 programmers, researchers, designers, client professionals, and craftspeople hail from 58 countries and speak 62 languages. Together, we create the technology, tools, and awards that help our clients shape productive work environments, drive innovation, and fuel positive business results. Learn more at octanner.com.

Research Methodology

The O.C. Tanner Institute uses multiple research methods to support the Global Culture Report, including interviews, focus groups, cross-sectional surveys, and a longitudinal survey.

Qualitative findings came from 18 focus groups among employees, leaders, and HR practitioners of larger organizations. The focus groups and additional interviews were held throughout 2024 and 2025, each representing various types of employers and industries, including both private and public entities.

Quantitative findings came from online survey interviews administered to employees across Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The total sample size was 38,929 workers, drawn from companies with more than 500 employees. The O.C. Tanner Institute collected and analyzed all survey data. This sample is sufficient to generate meaningful conclusions about the cultures of organizations in the included countries. However, because the study does not include population data, the results are subject to statistical errors customarily associated with sample-based information. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from the O.C. Tanner Institute.

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