Engage Employee Summit 2026: More Listening, Less Friction and Leaders Getting Vulnerable

On 20-21 May, Engage Employee Summit 2026 brought together practitioners from across HR, employee experience, internal communications and people strategy. Across the two days, there was very little theory, and a lot of accountability. At a time when many events...

What’s the Most Overrated Metric in Employee Experience Right Now?

EX measurement has never been more sophisticated – yet many organisations are still tracking the wrong things. We asked four people leaders to name the metric they’d retire, and what they’d replace it with.  AI Adoption for Its Own Sake Arne Sjöström,...

The AI Backlash Arrives: What Meta, Google DeepMind, and Amazon Employees Tell Us About Trust at Work

Meta’s aggressive push to convert its people investment into AI infrastructure is prompting visible revolt. Last week, flyers appeared in meeting rooms, restrooms, and on vending machines encouraging staff to sign a petition. “Don’t want to work at the Employee...

Microsoft’s AI Chief Says AI Will Replace White-Collar Workers in 18 Months

Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of Microsoft AI, told the Financial Times in February that most white-collar work would be fully automated within 12 to 18 months, which generated the usual cycle of alarm and counter-argument. Now, the headlines are circulating once again,...

Job Market Optimism Is Rising in Europe, Gallup Finds. So Why Is Employee Engagement So Low?

Every day, news of another mass layoff hits the headlines. You might expect workers to feel increasingly insecure about the current labour market, given what’s reported on. But, depending on the region you’re looking at, that’s not necessarily the case. In...

Your Employee Experience Roundup: The Manager Crisis, Falling Worker Confidence, and Persistent Perception Gaps

Are leaders and their employees actually working in the same organisation? That’s the question that springs to mind when looking at the key events and research findings of this week. Decision-makers think engagement is rising; employees disagree by 21 percentage points....

Employee Feedback Isn’t the Same as Listening. Four EX Experts Explain the Difference

Nearly three-quarters of leaders believe feedback is acted on in their workplace, yet fewer than half of frontline workers agree. What actually breaks the link between listening and action? And what does closing that gap look like in practice? We...

Worker Confidence Fell for the First Time in Three Years – and Organisations Are Not Tracking It

Worker confidence is falling – both in AI and in organisations’ long-term outlook. But fewer organisations are tracking employee belief, leaving leaders in the dark about how their people actually feel about the future of work. ManpowerGroup’s 2026 Global Talent Barometer,...

Oracle Rejects Laid-Off Workers’ Petition – Some Lost Hundreds of Thousands in Unvested Stock

Oracle has reportedly rejected attempts by former employees to improve their redundancy terms, following a significant workforce reduction earlier this year. The failed public petition – signed by over 90 laid-off staff – has left those affected without the severance improvements...

TTEC Pauses 401(k) Match to Fund AI, as Corporate Benefits Rollbacks Spread

TTEC is the latest company to come under scrutiny for rolling back employee benefits – and this time it is retirement savings taking the hit. The global customer experience services provider has paused its 401(k) match for its 16,000 US...

The Role Nobody Wants: 85% of Employees Have No Interest in Becoming a Manager

The progression from individual contributor to manager used to be the dominant career aspiration. Not anymore. New research from Ipsos Karian and Box, published today, finds only 15% of non-managers think the people manager role looks appealing, raising concerns about the...

Your Employee Experience Roundup: Microsoft’s AI Findings, Deloitte’s Two-Tier Benefits Controversy, and ServiceNow’s Autonomous HR Push

This week’s big research drop is Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index, with findings that point the finger at management for stalling AI progress. Deloitte is under scrutiny for a two-tier benefits decision that’s prompting wider questions about how organisations value...