I wanted to share that McLean & Company’s 2025 Employee Engagement Trends Report is now live, and it surfaces several emerging risks for organizations navigating workforce uncertainty this year.
Based on responses from over 216,000 employees across 236 organizations, the report reveals:

• Compensation satisfaction remains stagnant at just 51%, despite continued cost-of-living increases. Compensation and benefits remain the lowest-scoring engagement drivers, and employees who feel underpaid are significantly more likely to be actively job hunting.
• Leadership burnout is accelerating. Managers are 1.7x more likely to report high workplace stress compared to individual contributors. While work-life balance satisfaction has improved overall, leaders are seeing no relief—posing a major risk to succession planning and mid-level retention.
• Trust in executive decision-making is slipping. Only 53.2% of employees understand the rationale behind executive decisions, a decline from previous years. Despite increased employee listening efforts, this transparency gap continues to erode trust and engagement.

As economic pressures and workplace transformation continue, these trends reflect growing engagement risks - but also clear opportunities for organizations to act. If you’re working on anything related to workforce strategy, leadership, or retention, I’d be happy to share the full report or connect you with a McLean & Company analyst for further insight.

Would you be interested in taking a closer look or speaking with someone from our research team?