WorkBuzz today released its Future of Work Report 2026, revealing that a lack of investment and confidence in HR is worsening the UK’s employee engagement and wellbeing crisis.
The Report examines the pressures and challenges facing HR professionals as they adapt to the ever-evolving world of work, with responses gathered from 367 senior executives and HR professionals across a range of U.K. industry.
“Employee engagement has stagnated over the past year, and wellbeing remains a major concern,” says Steven Frost, CEO and founder of employee engagement specialist, WorkBuzz. “Our report shows that underinvestment in HR is a key factor. Leaders are pushing for higher performance, but HR teams face rising workloads, shrinking resources, and unrealistic expectations. HR is at breaking point, and it’s reflected in falling engagement levels.”
Only a third of HR professionals feel that engagement in their organisation has improved over the past 12 months. This is compared to 58% a year ago. Plus, 16% feel that engagement has got worse – 4% higher than last year. Employee wellbeing has improved in just a quarter of U.K. organisations.
HR professionals admit that they’re struggling to make a difference with such limited support and investment from the leadership team. 65% of HR professionals say they have too much to do, and 60% state that they haven’t enough people in the HR team to do the work. Only 11% of HR teams have grown this past year.
A growing misalignment between HR and Executive teams is further impacting employee engagement, with an inability ‘to see eye-to-eye’ impacting progress. The Report reveals that where HR and leadership aren’t aligned in their approach, and a lack of trust between the teams exists, fewer than 10% of these organisations have seen an improvement in engagement over the past 12 months, and almost 50% report a decline.
Frost adds, “If leaders want to seriously address employee engagement and wellbeing, they must not only give HR teams the support they need, but must ensure HR is bought into the business’s vision, together with the leadership team’s ability to deliver it. Sidelining HR’s role while cutting its resources isn’t just short-sighted, it’s bad for business.”
WorkBuzz’s Future of Work 2026 Report can be downloaded at www.workbuzz.com/research-ebooks/people-priorities-future-of-work-2026
