Qualtrics research finds top employee experience trends for 2025

Today’s employees would like to get back on task. Years of chaotic workplace changes — think hybrid working arrangements and tracking multiple projects across different platforms — have employees yearning for a simpler, productive 9-to-5 arrangement, according to the sixth annual Employee Experience Trends Report from Qualtrics, a Provo-based experience management platform. The report draws on insights from more than 35,000 employees in 23 countries around the world.

According to the report, the five employee experience trends for 2025 are:

• 2025’s best employers will make work less chaotic: The pace of change is putting pressure on employees and they need organizational support to stay engaged and maintain their well-being.

Amid rapid change to the workplace, employees are more engaged when their employer’s culture and processes empower them and make it easier to do their jobs. A culture of continuous improvement is the strongest predictor of employee well-being, yet it’s trailing as one of the lowest-rated metrics among global employees.

Nearly 40 percent of employees report feeling pressure to be more productive. The pressure primarily comes from trying to keep up with the pace of change, as well as the overall economic environment and strategic changes to the business. When employees feel pressure, they are less engaged and their well-being suffers.

“Over the past several years, we’ve seen that engagement and well-being are highest when employees feel proud of their organization’s impact on customers and supported in adapting to change.” said Benjamin Granger, chief workplace psychologist at Qualtrics. “In general, humans are excellent at adapting to change, as long as they have support. Increased pressure to be productive must be met with increased organizational support and communication if organizations are to uphold their end of the new psychological contract between employee and employer.”

• Young employees are surprisingly optimistic — for now: Workers under 25 years old are highly engaged and have a positive outlook on the success of their company as well as their own careers. They are bringing highly engaged, optimistic energy to work. They want to drive change and have an overall positive outlook on their company’s future, as well as their own. But don’t count on them for the long run: The one metric where young workers trail older generations is their intent to stay with a company for three or more years, even when they feel their employer exceeds their expectations.

Some of this could be due to typical demographic patterns. Young people may be more flexible about making major life changes more frequently.

“When leaders accept stereotypes about young employees being lazy, entitled or disengaged, they do their organizations a disservice. Crushing the optimism young workers bring into the workplace is far from productive, especially when it can be easily nurtured, bringing out creativity and new ideas for innovation,” according to Granger. “Offering them opportunities to share their ideas and stretch their skills can win over talented workers early in their careers and create lasting goodwill toward the company, even after they eventually depart.”

• Employee experiences are being ruined by entry and exit: Employees rank the application and interview process as the worst part of the employee journey, risking company reputations. Employees who have been with their current company for less than six months don’t plan to stay long-term. More than half of these new employees (56 percent) plan to leave within three years, compared with just 34 percent of more tenured workers.

Why? Because companies are souring their new employees’ morale before they even start by providing poor job candidate experience. In fact, the candidate experience is rated lowest among several significant phases in the employee journey, such as onboarding, changing roles or applying for a promotion.

At the other end of an employee’s time with a company, the exit experience was also poor. While departed employees are no longer active with a company, their final impression can become the lens through which they view their entire experience.

• Prioritizing short-term gains are costing you long-term trust: While most employees believe in the competence and integrity of their senior leaders, just 56 percent believe they would prioritize employee well-being above short-term gains. Business leaders are challenged by an uneven global economy and declining customer loyalty, but the long-term success of the company is at risk if they overlook the importance of employee trust.

“Trust is the glue that holds people within organizations together, but it is often harder to earn and maintain during times of disruption and uncertainty,” said Granger. “Most leaders are comfortable tracking operational metrics, but the ones who earn employee trust go further to monitor how employees feel, and double down on trust-building behavior and communication during challenging times.”

• Your people are outpacing you on AI: Employees are outpacing their employers on AI adoption, as enablement lags. Nearly half of employees say their organizations don’t provide AI enablement and training, and a similar share say their company has no clear AI guidelines, ethics or principles — or they are unaware they exist.

Meanwhile, nearly a third of employees who use AI at work are using tools that they found themselves, as opposed to tools provided by the company, meaning they likely have not been approved by IT or security teams and may not have safeguards to protect company or customer data. Nearly half (45 percent) of employees say they are using AI daily or weekly, and employees who use AI regularly are more positive about its potential for their job than employees who rarely use it.

“There’s a growing desire and readiness among workers to leverage AI, even if it isn’t explicitly supported by the company,” said Granger. “This introduces significant risks to employees, customers and organizations alike. Many workers are already looking for opportunities to use AI to augment their work and it is far better for organizational leaders to lean in and provide approved tools and clear guidance to gain the benefits of these technologies without putting the company or customers at risk.”