Engagement holds steady as AI, management models and remote work evolve

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This blog post presents key findings from a recent survey conducted by 451 Research from S&P Global Energy, based on responses from full-time employees in the United States. The data captures employee sentiment at a moment defined by economic uncertainty, accelerating adoption of AI-enabled tools and ongoing experimentation with organizational and work models.

The following highlights provide both a retrospective view of how employees experienced work in 2025 and a set of leading indicators for the year ahead. Taken together, they point to a workforce that remains broadly engaged, but increasingly selective about the conditions that sustain that engagement — particularly belonging, clarity of leadership, and meaningful connection in distributed environments.

The Take

Employee engagement – which encompasses employees’ regard toward, motivation for and commitment to their employing organization and the work they do – remained resilient in 2025. Engagement reached its highest level since this study began, even as organizations navigated structural change, AI adoption and constrained labor mobility. This resilience, however, was not evenly distributed nor accidental. Engagement is increasingly anchored less in traditional managerial oversight or physical proximity, and more in employees’ sense of belonging, alignment with organizational values and confidence that their organization is investing in them as people, not just as workers.

At the same time, the data suggests emerging fault lines. Managerial roles are being stretched and redefined, remote work patterns are fragmenting visibility and connection, and AI is beginning to introduce both optimism and anxiety into the employee experience. While none of these dynamics has yet undermined engagement at scale, they are reshaping the mechanisms through which engagement is built and sustained. Organizations that fail to adapt risk eroding one of their most durable advantages: a committed and stable workforce.

Summary of findings

Engagement shows persistent strength, driven by belonging and alignment. Employee engagement is a bright spot in our 2025 survey, reaching its highest level since the inception of this research:

This upward trajectory runs counter to dominant narratives of widespread burnout and declining loyalty, suggesting that engagement has proven more durable than many anticipated.

What stands out most is the set of factors driving this elevated engagement. Employees who report feeling a strong sense of belonging — a belief that they are part of a community where they are seen, valued and connected — are among the most highly engaged. The sense that their employer genuinely cares about their happiness at work also plays a central role, as does alignment with organizational values. In a broader environment dominated by narratives of burnout, declining loyalty and economic pressure, these findings offer a countercurrent: Rather than disengaging in response to external stressors, many employees appear to be deepening their attachment to employers that foster connection and provide clarity of purpose. This signals that belonging and alignment have become not only emotional drivers but strategic differentiators as organizations compete for commitment and continuity.

AI and flatter structures reduce the managerial footprint. Employee perceptions of management reveal a role under pressure. As organizations flatten hierarchies and adopt AI-enabled workflows, the foundations of traditional management — visibility, interpersonal reinforcement and direct coordination — are weakening. Fewer than half of employees believe their manager values their feedback (49%) or cares about their general well-being (48%), signaling strain in the relational aspects of management.

Yet dissatisfaction with management is not universal. Most employees (55%) report being satisfied with management overall, and another 21% say they are satisfied with their direct manager but have concerns about senior leadership. This split highlights a paradox: Managers remain a stabilizing presence, even as their ability to influence outcomes becomes less visible and more constrained.

Organizational design plays a critical role in shaping these perceptions. In hierarchical organizations, 86% of employees agree that leaders demonstrate that people are important to company success. That percentage rises modestly among those with divisional models (89%) and increases sharply in less hierarchical structures — reaching 96% among network-based organizations and 100% among those with flat structures. As AI accelerates execution and coordination, legitimacy stems less from hierarchical authority and more from transparency, clarity and system design. In flatter models, where expectations of managerial intervention are lower and processes are more explicit, leadership may appear more people-focused precisely because responsibility is less personalized and more structural.

These shifts carry implications for leadership development and succession. With 70% of respondents noting they have direct reports — and a significant share overseeing large teams — the traditional managerial pipeline may narrow even as the need for new forms of leadership capability grows.

Attrition remains low, but motivations to leave highlight important retention levers. The labor market in 2025 was characterized by limited movement, contributing to unusually low attrition intent. Most surveyed employees (85%) say they rarely consider leaving their organization, and 89% expect to still be with their employer in two years. These figures suggest a workforce that is stable and, in many cases, content to remain in place — at least in the near term.

However, stability should not be mistaken for immunity. When asked what would prompt them to leave, compensation emerges as the most powerful trigger: 52% say they would consider changing employers for a 10% pay increase, and 45% cite better overall pay and benefits as a motivator. Beyond compensation, employees point to improved work-life balance (35%) and stronger development and career growth opportunities (28%). While financial security remains central, employees are also signaling a desire for sustainability and long-term progression.

Belonging again emerges as a critical moderating force. Only 23% of employees who report a strong sense of belonging say they would consider leaving for a 10% raise — less than half the rate of the overall population. In an environment where compensation flexibility is constrained, culture and connection represent some of the most effective levers organizations have to preserve retention and stability heading into 2026.

Variation in remote work complicates engagement and connection. Remote and hybrid work remain firmly embedded, but unevenly experienced. In our 2025 survey, 49% of employees say they work on-site, 33% have hybrid work arrangements, and 18% are fully remote. Beneath these top-line figures, adoption varies sharply by role and seniority: Non-managerial employees are most likely to work remotely (24%), while remote work declines among managers (17%) and senior management (10%), before rising again at the C-suite level (19%). Office attendance spans a broad continuum, from employees who never enter an office (10%) to those on-site full-time (27%). Physical proximity to managers mirrors this dispersion: 23% of employees are always colocated with their direct manager, while 16% never are.

This variability has tangible implications for engagement. Among employees who have shifted to hybrid or remote work, one-fourth report that alignment and connection have become more difficult. This is a notable risk given that belonging and values alignment are among the strongest drivers of engagement. As proximity and informal interaction decline, sustaining engagement increasingly depends on intentional operating models, clearer expectations and digital structures that reinforce connection. Without deliberate intervention, uneven remote work patterns may quietly erode the conditions that underpin engagement, even as flexibility remains highly valued.

Employee sentiment toward AI is cautious but not yet corrosive. Perceptions regardingAI have not yet emerged as a direct driver of engagement, suggesting employee concerns have not reached a level that materially undermines commitment or motivation. That said, apprehension is building. Forty percent of employees report being somewhat or very concerned about losing their job to AI, and 44% are concerned about their role changing due to AI-driven automation.

Concerns are most pronounced in organizations perceived as early adopters of new technology, where fears of job displacement are higher than in more conservative environments. At the same time, employees recognize potential upside.

For now, AI represents a latent fault line rather than an immediate threat to engagement. How organizations communicate, govern and support AI adoption will determine whether it becomes a source of empowerment — or anxiety — in the year ahead.

HR Transformation: from Compliance to Culture Architect

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