What businesses can do when employees are happy and leaving

A shift in the labour market and worker sentiment is signalling that employers need to respond in the same way.

In a recent episode of The HR Leader Podcast, Gartner HR director analyst Neal Woolrich explained why employee confidence is on the rise and what this means for management.

According to Woolrich, employee sentiment has dipped in recent years due to stagnant growth in the economy, uncertainty, global shocks, conflict, supply chain disruptions, and the impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce.

As would be expected, this has resulted in low employee mobility and a reluctance to seek other employment opportunities despite any dissatisfaction.

On the other hand, Gartner’s latest Global Talent Monitor has revealed that employee confidence has hit a four-year high, with optimism expressed about the state of the economy and the business environment generally, with more job opportunities translating to a decline in employees staying with their current organisation.

Noting that some of the factors that fuelled caution among employees do remain active, Woolwich said a small increase in stability around the initial shocks is a potential cause.

“While they’re still ongoing, the impact of those disruptions are not quite as pronounced as they were in the past. So even though there’s still some challenges going on, business as usual seems to be returning, and employees seem to be able to take those challenges in their stride, more so today than they were six months, 12 months ago,” he said.

“After a period of caution and employees just sitting on the sidelines, it may also be that, ‘I’ve waited long enough, now’s probably as good as it’s going to get, and now might be a time to make a move’.”

While the findings may be startling for employers, Woolrich noted that intention to move jobs and actively leaving current employment are two different things – and while new job applications increased from 19 per cent at the end of 2025 to 26 per cent in the middle of 2026, turnover rates have not changed at the same rate.

In saying this, there is certainly cause for employers to take steps to address the employee experience, given the number of factors changing modern employment.

Woolrich noted that the focus on the employee experience can get lost, especially in larger, multi-level organisations, and that wellbeing and fulfilment can often be the differentiating factor for many employees.

He urged employers to consider “the value that we provide to employees holistically, not just in rewards and benefits … what is the value that we provide employees in terms of things like flexibility, career opportunities, the purpose that we align our people to? All of those holistic elements of an EVP and the employee experience are really important”.

Woolrich explained that one signal of a leading organisation is the progression of its EVPs, and that what was once just a transactional component has become more of an experience-focused and sometimes negotiable feature.

At the same time, the impact of AI on this area is the removal of information asymmetry.

“Employees used to hold the power in terms of knowledge … employees can reasonably easily find out with a fair degree of confidence what’s being offered in other organisations in terms of pay and benefits and those sort of things,” Woolrich said.

“And that’s why focusing on facts and transparency around the employee experience and EVPs is really important for employers to get on board with.”

Woolrich urged HR to be aware that AI and social media can give rise to deceptive information that can fuel quicker employee mobility or unrealistic demands.

For employees concerned about the impact of AI or general workforce changes, which could lead to seeking out new employment, Woolrich reinforced the importance of trust and transparency.

“Forty per cent of employees are worried that they will be replaced by AI in the next five years. So there is a real concern out there amongst employees, and it’s incumbent upon employers, led by their human resources team, to address that trust challenge head-on,” he said.

“We also need to think about the health of our organisations holistically … how readily we equip our employees to get their work done effectively, the health of our teams in terms of trust, transparency, workflows, and the health at the individual level as well.”

This is especially true for the current labour market, which, as recently covered, can see employees value their everyday experience, wellbeing management and non-monetary incentives where higher salaries aren’t possible.

“In this cost-constrained environment, we really need to think critically about: what are the holistic elements of the employee experience that we can improve?” Woolrich said.

“In this new challenging environment, sometimes we default to business as usual, or our top-down instincts kick in without really consulting employees. So try and take that empathetic, humanistic approach to the employee experience, and that will hold us in good stead in a pretty challenging environment.”

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