Looking Ahead: The 5 Forces That Will Shape Engagement, Culture and Leadership

Looking back over the past year, you might be struck by the sheer volume of stories about hybrid working, burnout, trust, AI and economic pressure. But when you step back and consider them together, a much clearer picture emerges. One that reveals the deeper forces shaping how people feel about work, and what leaders will need to pay attention to in 2026.

In this special solo episode of Sticky From The Inside, Andy Goram explores the underlying currents that sit beneath the headlines. Yes, we talk about return-to-office tensions, the rise in burnout, and AI’s quiet spread across workplaces. But these aren’t isolated issues. They’re connected, and they’re telling us something important about the state of work today.

Drawing on a year of cultural insights, research and real-world observations, Andy introduces five forces he believes will shape engagement, culture and leadership in the year ahead. From the growing urgency around work design, to the shift from engagement as feedback to engagement as shared power, to the rising importance of trust, human-fluent AI leadership, and belonging as a stabilising force.

If you’re leading people, shaping culture, or simply trying to make work a healthier, more human experience, this episode offers a grounded and connected view of what’s really happening and why leaders can’t afford to think about these forces in isolation.

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Key Takeaways

• Work Design becomes a core leadership discipline. Sustainable performance will depend less on location and more on designing work that people can realistically deliver without burning out.
• Engagement shifts from measuring feelings to sharing power. People want influence, not just surveys. Organisations that involve employees meaningfully will see stronger commitment and trust.
• Trust becomes the currency of effective leadership. In an environment of economic squeeze and organisational change, trust is fragile — and leaders will need to earn it through clarity, consistency and honesty.
• Leaders must be both AI-literate and human-fluent. AI is entering the workplace faster than governance can keep up. The leaders who succeed will understand technology and know how to support people through it.
• Belonging and psychological safety become strategic stabilisers. In pressured systems, belonging is not a soft concept, it’s the foundation for resilience, creativity and high performance.

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Key Moments

The key moments in this episode are:

0:01:13 – Looking back to understand the year ahead 0:02:04 – Why the headlines don’t tell the full story 0:03:01 – The workplace stories shaping today’s backdrop 0:06:17 – Engagement falls, burnout rises, and tolerance shifts 0:09:24 – Trust under pressure and the rise of employee voice 0:12:56 – AI adoption grows from the bottom up 0:16:09 – Economic pressures and their cultural impact 0:21:10 – Introducing the five forces shaping 2026 0:21:23 – Force One: Work design steps into the spotlight 0:22:30 – Forces Two to Five: Power, trust, AI and belonging 0:27:07 – A challenge for leaders in the year ahead

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Join The Conversation Find Andy Goram on LinkedIn here Listen to the Podcast on YouTube here Follow the Podcast on Instagram here Follow the Podcast on Twitter here Follow the Podcast on Facebook here Check out the Bizjuicer website here Get a free consultation with Andy here Check out the Bizjuicer blog here Download the podcast here ----more---- Useful Links Gallup State of the Global Workforce here Read Inspiring Workplaces' take on the survey here Read The Autonomy Institute's piece on the 4-Day Week here Read The Guardian's piece on the 4-Day Week here Read Microsoft's view on AI at work here Read Peoplescout.com's article on Mental Health at work

(00:39):
This podcast is for all those who believe that's something worth going after and would like a little help and guidance in achieving that.
Each episode we dive into the topics that can help create what I call stickier businesses, the sort of businesses where people thrive and love to work and where more customers stay with you and recommend you to others because they love what you do and why you do it.

(01:04):
So if you want to take the tricky out of being sticky, listen on.
Okay then, hello there.
Andy here and welcome to this special end-of-year solo episode of Sticky from the Inside.
No guests today, just me looking at what I think is going to shape the world of work in the coming years or so.

(01:26):
Now, next year I intend to start running a weekly one-minute culture and leadership
news roundup called The Sticky Minute and by way of researching that, over the past
year I've been digging into the culture news and seeing what that piece of content might
look like and what's fascinating is that when you zoom out and look at the various stories and

(01:50):
themes that I've seen across the whole year, to my mind it looks like a much bigger story starts
to emerge and that's a story about the ongoing tug-of-war between flexibility and control.
It's about a workforce that is tired, moving towards burnout evenly, not inherently lazy.

(02:12):
A growing need for trust, honesty and integrity from leaders and the arrival of AI in the workplace, whether we are ready for it or not.
Now, today I'm going to look back at these stories and pull together, I think, the biggest story of this backdrop over the last year or so and hopefully use them to make some sense of where I think work is heading in 2026 and beyond.

(02:39):
To help us do that, I've picked out some stories that I think start to point the way towards some of these important things for the years ahead.
Let's start with one theme that I think just refuses to go away, the good old return to office debate and a few stories caught my eye here.

(03:00):
Firstly, one of the major stories that happened stateside that I think exemplified this struggle was AT&T's move to centralised offices and mandate relocation.
They closed 22 help centres and moved staff in a six hubs and that was on top of an earlier reduction from 300 offices down to nine and a five-day in-office requirement.

(03:26):
Now, the official language here was about market-based performance, but if I'm honest, I'm not even sure what that means.
But I think the message that was heard by employees was, we want control back.
Now, keep that in your mind and moving closer to home, in Northern Ireland, the civil service introduced a new hybrid working policy.

(03:52):
Civil servants now need to spend at least 40% of their week, which is a minimum of two days, in the office.
And then another story associated with working time, the amount of time we spend working.
Gallup showed remote capable workers are logging fewer hours than pre-pandemic, something like 42.9 hours a week now versus 44.1 back in 2019.

(04:22):
But we haven't seen a productivity collapse with that.
Moving that on, there's the four-day week.
The UK's large four-day week trial of 61 companies, which covers around 2,900 workers, reported improved wellbeing, lower turnover, and in many cases, equal or better productivity, with the majority of firms sticking with it a year later.

(04:52):
Now, by early 2025, more than 200 UK companies employing over 5,000 people had made a four-day week permanent with no loss of pay, particularly in sectors like marketing, tech, and social care.
So if we think about all these stories, on one hand, we've got tightening control over where we work.

(05:17):
On the other hand, we've got experiments reducing the time we work and yet still getting results.
So what does that tell us going into 2026?
Well, for me, the message is this.
The old model of five days, nine to five in the office as a default, I think is actively being challenged.

(05:40):
But a lot of leadership teams and organizations still feel safer pulling the levers of presence than redesigning work around outcomes and autonomy.
If you lead people, I think one big question for 2026 is this.
Am I using flexibility as a strategic lever for performance and engagement or am I just trying to put the genie back in the bottle?

(06:07):
Worth thinking about.
Let's move on and think about how people are feeling at work.
Gallup's State of the Global Workforce report shows that global employee engagement fell to around 21% in 2024.
That's only the second time in 12 years that engagement has dropped.

(06:31):
And now, roughly, a staggering eight out of 10 people are still not engaged at work.
Now, they estimate that this low engagement costs the global economy about $8.9 trillion.
That's about 9% of global GDP.
So when we talk about engagement, we're not talking about some fluffy nice to have.

(06:56):
We're talking about a serious drag on performance.
Now, layered on top of that is this topic of burnout.
Mental Health UK's burnout report found that less than a third of workers said their organisation had clear plans in place to spot and prevent chronic stress.

(07:17):
And around 71% might not be adequately supported by their employer.
Now, other data made available this year shows that being mandated back to a fixed location is a real stressor.
No surprise, maybe.
Over a quarter of workers say being forced back to a fixed base has caused stress that may contribute to burnout.

(07:41):
And that number has been stubbornly high over the most recent years.
We can even see it in our Google search behaviour.
Global searches for burnout signs and symptoms were up 50% in 2024, which tells you just how many people are quietly asking themselves, is this what I'm feeling normal?
Or am I burning out or something?

(08:04):
So we've got engagement sliding, burnout rising, and this renewed push for control and presence from some organisations.
The temptation I think is for some businesses to say, well, look, people just don't want to work as hard anymore.
Something's changed.
But doesn't the data tell us a different story?

(08:25):
Hours worked are down a bit, yes, but not dramatically.
It's not like productivity has fallen off a cliff or something.
Perhaps what has changed is people's tolerance for nonsense, for meaningless work, for poor leadership and environments that just grind them down.
Going into 2026, my sense is that workload, autonomy, and psychological safety are going to be far bigger drivers of engagement than ping pong tables and recognising National Pizza Day in the office.

(09:00):
I believe the organisations that help people work sustainably, and by that, I mean communicate clear priorities, are realistic about capacity, give permission to say, no, these are the guys who will see engagement rise, even if they're the ones with the fancy headline policies plastered all over LinkedIn and the news.

(09:24):
And another huge theme this year has been trust.
It's been a big topic for me on the podcast and whilst working with clients, who we trust, who we don't, and why that is, coupled with another big theme running through the news, which has been the strength or importance of employee voice.
Let's start with trust, shall we?

(09:46):
The 2024 Edelman Trust at Work report found that my employer is still the most trusted institution.
Around 79% of employees say they trust their employer.
That's ahead of governments, NGOs, and the media.
So even in a pretty noisy, polarised world, employees still look to their employer as an island of civility and a credible source of information.

(10:13):
But the coastline of that island, I think, is starting to erode.
The 2025 Edelman Trust barometer showed a marked erosion of trust in CEOs and authority figures.
Around 70% of people now believe government officials, business leaders, and journalists deliberately mislead them.

(10:36):
And trust in my employer has slipped slightly from 79% to around 76%.
So people still want to trust their employer, but maybe they're getting a bit more sceptical.
At the same time, we've seen a wave of labour activity and organising.

(10:58):
Let's take a look at Starbucks stateside as an example.
In early 2024, Starbucks and the Workers' United Union agreed to work on a framework for labour agreements and resolving disputes, which was a significant shift after years of tension.
But by late 2024 into early 2025, Reuters was still reporting multi-city strikes, demands for better pay and scheduling, and ongoing accusations of union busting and retaliation.

(11:30):
And it's not just Starbucks.
There have been strikes, union drives, and collective action in tech, retail, logistics, health and education.
All the places where people feel the intense gap between corporate messaging and the day-to-day reality.
So what's the pattern?
Well, trust in big leadership is, I think, under pressure.

(11:54):
Trust in my employer is still relatively high, but starting to look a little bit fragile.
And employees are far more willing to organise, speak up, and push back when they feel ignored.
If your engagement strategy is basically, well, we send a survey once a year and we'll maybe hold a couple of town halls throughout, I don't think that is going to be great.

(12:19):
I think 2026 is likely to be an uncomfortable year for you.
Going forward, the organisations that I think will win will be the ones that treat employee voice as a strategic asset, not a risk to be managed and mitigated against, that closes the loop between what is actually said and what happens, and focuses on building trust, not through big statements, but through small consistent acts of integrity that align to the espoused values of an organisation.

(12:55):
Now, we can't talk about the future of work without introducing the subject of AI.
Microsoft's Work Trend Index has been saying for a while that was the year AI at work got real, with around 75% of global knowledge workers, that's those people pay to think rather than just do, using generative AI.

(13:23):
And that usage almost doubling in just six months at one point, and I wonder whether that was everybody creating a blister pack doll of themselves.
You remember that trend?
Whatever.
The interesting bit is that a lot of that AI adoption didn't start with a CIO in an organisation.
It started with individual employees drowning under email, chat functions, and meetings trying to claw back some sort of time.

(13:48):
If we fast forward to late 2025, now seeing the rise of what Microsoft calls shadow AI.
A report in the UK recently suggested about 71% of workers are using unapproved consumer AI tools at work, often weekly, to help with communication, document creation, and even financial tasks.

(14:11):
Now, on the upside, Microsoft estimates that AI could be saving billions of hours a year globally.
But on the downside, using random tools with company data is a security and privacy nightmare just waiting to happen.
So what's really going on?
It feels to me like employees are saying the volume and complexity of work is unsustainable.

(14:37):
I'm going to use whatever tools I can to cope.
And that leaders are saying AI is a business imperative, but we're not sure we fully trust it or know how to govern it.
In some of the stories I've researched and conversations I've had on this podcast, we've seen AI being used to automate help desk tickets, summarize calls, and even analyze stories at scale, whether it's customers or employees, to pick up on emotion and themes that traditional surveys may miss.

(15:12):
So as we look forward to 2026, I don't think the question is, will AI be in your workplace?
It already is.
The real questions to answer are, do you have a human-centered AI strategy that your people understand?
Are you using AI to take the grind out of work or to squeeze more out of people?

(15:34):
And are you involving employees in designing how AI is used or just announcing tools from on high?
Because from an engagement and culture perspective, that's the difference between my company is using AI to help me do my very best work and my company is using AI to watch me, replace me, and squeeze me out.

(15:57):
Now, before we look ahead to 2026 in full, I want to pause and talk about something very real, very immediate, and very close to home for those of us in the UK.
The economics of employing people has changed dramatically, and it's reshaping culture and the experience in ways I don't think we can afford to ignore.

(16:20):
So let's start with a big one.
This year saw the biggest ever increase in the national living wage since it was introduced.
It rose by 9.8%, going from £10.42 to £11.44 an hour.
For 18 to 20-year-olds, the increase was even bigger, 14.8%. The apprenticeship rate jumped from 21% from £5.28 to £6.40. Now, for some sectors like hospitality, retail, and social care, this is monumental.

(16:57):
Labour costs can account for a huge 40, even 60% of total operating costs in some of these places.
Now, for employees, it's a win.
For businesses, especially those managing low margins, it's a proper squeeze.
And what's the impact on culture?
Well, some companies have responded by freezing recruitment.

(17:19):
Some are not recruiting younger, inexperienced people because they now cost the same as someone with more experience.
Others have reduced hours, trimmed benefits, or redesigned roles, which often means doing more with less.
But some, to their credit, have used this as a catalyst to rethink work, roles, progression, and productivity.

(17:42):
But I guess the point is this.
When wage rises aren't matched by investment in workload, systems, or staffing, the employee experience gets harder, not better.
You can pay someone £11.44 an hour, but if the job becomes 25% more pressured because the headcount's been cut, nobody feels like they've won, and they're less likely to stick about.

(18:06):
Then there's the impact of higher employer national insurance contributions.
In April 2024, employer national insurance contributions increased quietly, but significantly, particularly affecting earnings above certain thresholds.
Now, even with some cuts to employee NI, the employer side stayed high.

(18:29):
And the combined effect is that people are more expensive to employ at every level, in every sector.
Now, some organizations have managed to absorb that cost, but many haven't been able to.
And as a result, I think what we're seeing, if I interpret the data correctly, is slower pay progression internally, fewer promotions without a restructure, more scrutiny over value-add that's contained in roles, and more reluctant investment in people development unless the ROI is clear and quick, which it isn't always.

(19:05):
And that has real cultural implications, because when budgets tighten, the first things often cut are training, well-being support, recognition, and career development pathways, which, ironically, are among the very things that create engagement.
Then we have the issues of business rates, inflation, and the cost of living backdrop.

(19:29):
The UK has been dealing with higher business rates for many high street and hospitality operators, rising energy costs still elevated compared to pre-2020, massively increased food and drink costs, and inflation that, though easing, has left a long-term hangover in pricing and wages.
Now, all of this puts businesses in a right old bind.

(19:52):
On the one hand, employees might say, look, our living costs are up, we need more financial support.
What businesses say, our costs are up too, and we need more productivity and more from you.
And the gap between those two realities is where culture gets strained.
Then we've had a whole bunch of policy uncertainty.

(20:15):
Across 2024 to 2025, we've seen policy changes that have created confusion, including reversals and re-reversals of IR35 interpretations, shifting guidance on hybrid working expectations, changing investment incentives, and ongoing sector-specific rules affecting care, logistics, gaming, and hospitality.

(20:36):
For organizations, that does nothing but create uncertainty.
And for employees, it creates inconsistency.
And inconsistency is the enemy of trust.
So when we look at all of that, the global trends, the UK cost pressures, the shifting economics of work, what does it actually mean for the future?

(20:59):
Well, when you zoom out, I think there are five big forces shaping employee engagement, leadership, and workplace culture in the years ahead.
And I think these are the deeper currents running underneath everything we've talked about in this episode so far.
Number one, work design will become the defining leadership discipline.

(21:22):
The tug of war over hybrid four-day weeks and working hours is but one part of it.
When you layer in the reality of rising labor costs, constrained recruitment, do more with less pressure, it becomes clear that how we design work will matter more than where work happens going forwards.

(21:44):
In 2026, leadership teams who will win will be those who I think can strip away low-value tasks, really clarify priorities, not just merge everything into bigger but fewer projects.
Those that can redesign roles for sustainability and use autonomy as a performance tool, not a perk.

(22:08):
Those organizations who just continue to tighten the screws to protect margin will, I think, and I'm afraid, continue to burn talent and trust faster than they can replace it.
Number two, engagement will shift from measuring feelings to sharing power.

(22:29):
We've reached a point where annual engagement surveys, especially in cost-pressured environments, can feel performative unless leaders actually act on them.
Employees will not be satisfied any longer with just being asked and then seeing no results.
They want to be involved.
In a high wage, high cost, high intensity climate, the engagement question can quite easily change from how do you feel about work to how much influence do you have over the work you do.

(23:01):
If headcount is tight, workloads are high, and progression is slower, then shared power, and by that I mean involvement in scheduling, autonomy, and agency in delivery, co-creating improvements, they become the main levers left.
That's where we'll see more ownership and collective agency in what we do.

(23:26):
Number three, trust will be the ultimate differentiator in a squeezed system.
Globally, trust in CEOs and institutions is falling.
In the UK, policy flip-flops, inconsistent hybrid expectations, and a cost of living strain have all widened the gap between employer intentions and employee experience.

(23:48):
An inconsistency, whether economic or behavioral, is, as I said earlier, the enemy of trust.
In my opinion, in 2026, winning organizations will be marked by leaders who say the difficult stuff out loud, like, we can't hire any more people right now, and here's why.

(24:09):
Those people who can explain trade-offs honestly, who can make it as clear as why we're not doing something as they are about why we are doing something.
Those people who can involve their teams early and follow through on the very small things relentlessly.

(24:29):
When budgets tighten, trust becomes the most meaningful currency in the workplace, and I think this is going to continue.
Number four, leaders will need to be both AI literate and human fluent, especially when development budgets shrink.
AI adoption is going to accelerate, not slow down.

(24:50):
I think we all know that.
And ironically, as labor gets more expensive, the pressure to automate increases.
But here's the catch.
Many organizations will be cutting training, progression, and well-being support, the very things that make people feel seen and valued.
So, the effective leader in the years ahead needs to be able to help teams experiment safely with AI, remove admin through automation, and increase the human skills that AI can't replicate.

(25:28):
That's how to use and develop empathy, fairness, judgment, clarity, bringing in coaching skills, being able to give both focus and stretch, and create psychologically safe environments to work in.
If development budgets tighten, leaders become the development option.

(25:50):
And the companies that thrive will be those where leadership capability can fill the gap left by shrinking L&D budgets.
Number five, belonging and psychological safety will become strategic, not a soft option.
When financial, operational, and policy pressures rise, belonging becomes the stabilizer.

(26:14):
In 2026 and beyond, belonging and psychological safety, I think, will underpin retention, discretionary effort, innovation, well-being, and the adoption of change.
Now, when we're dealing with slower progression, more pressure, fewer resources, and economic uncertainty, this all heightens people's needs for certainty, fairness, to be seen, and feel safe to be able to speak up.

(26:42):
In squeezed systems, people don't need luxuries.
They need leaders who make work feel safe, sane, and human.
And I believe those environments will outperform the ones who treat belonging as a nice-to-have which has been costed in in the summer picnic.
So look, that's just my opinion based on what I've read, seen, and spoken to people about.

(27:07):
But what do you think?
And out of my five influences on the year ahead, what are you focused on?
How are you and your organization going to show up?
So that's it for this special end-of-year edition of Sticky from the Inside.
Just five themes, five, I think, important themes that are going to shape the world of work in the years to come.

(27:30):
I hope you've enjoyed this.
No guests, no chat, just me sharing my honest thoughts on how we can help everyone have more fulfilling work lives and deliver organizational success.
And I firmly believe that the two are not mutually exclusive.
So whether you've been listening to the long conversations on this podcast, taking the essence of those chats from the Sticky Notes on the Instagram channel, or you've just tripped over this podcast for the first time, thank you for being here.

(27:57):
If you're wrestling with any of these or other engagement, leadership, or culture-related issues, drop me a note or connect with me on LinkedIn.
I'd love to talk about it.
And do look out for the Sticky Minute coming next year, where I try and condense the weekly engagement, culture, and leadership news in a minute-long video.

(28:18):
Now I've said it out loud on here, so at some stage, I'm going to have to do it.
And as far as the podcast goes in 2026, we've already got a fabulous learn-up of brilliant, insightful guests covering everything we could think of in the world of culture, employee engagement, and brilliant leadership.
So I look forward to bringing you those episodes in the coming year.

(28:41):
And finally, I hope you have had a brilliant end to the year and enjoy a cracking start to the new one.
See you soon.
So that concludes today's episode.
I hope you've enjoyed it, found it interesting, and heard something maybe that will help you become a stickier, more successful business from the inside going forward.

(29:06):
If you have, please like, comment, and subscribe.
It really helps.
I'm Andy Goram, and you've been listening to the Sticky from the Inside podcast.
Until next time, thanks for listening.