O.C. Tanner Report Links Recognition, Trust and Employee Growth to Performance
Four Priorities for Workplace Culture
Engagement, Well-Being and Measurement
Publisher and Methodology
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Organizations seeking stronger performance should build compassion into workplace policies, provide meaningful employee growth, demonstrate trust through everyday actions, and recognize employees throughout the innovation process, according to the O.C. Tanner Institute’s 2027 Global Culture Report. Employee engagement and well-being are important themes and outcomes across the research. Impact measurement receives attention through quantified findings and recommendations to measure workplace practices, but it is not identified as a separate major trend or presented as a financial return-on-investment framework.
Four Priorities for Workplace Culture
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The report’s organizational compassion chapter argues that care must extend beyond individual managers to company policies, workload decisions and consistent support. Protecting employee capacity is associated with 87% lower odds of burnout. Recognition should communicate appreciation for employees’ contributions while acknowledging their needs and limits. In growth cultures, development involves more than training employees to produce more. The institute emphasizes a partnership that advances employees’ capabilities, opportunities and personal success alongside organizational goals. Employees may resist upskilling when they perceive it primarily as another demand on already stretched teams.
The active trust findings underscore the importance of transparency, reliability, accountability and care during change. Only 31% of surveyed employees report trusting AI, while 60% say technology increases their cognitive workload. The report recommends involving employees in technology decisions and maintaining accessible human support.
For innovation, organizations should give employees time and support to develop, share and implement ideas. Recognition should acknowledge effort at each stage, including experiments that fail, rather than reward only successful results.
Engagement, Well-Being and Measurement
Engagement and well-being are substantive concerns throughout the report, although neither is a standalone chapter. Its recommendations connect workload protection, employee development, trust and recognition with healthier, more engaged workplaces. Measurement also appears explicitly: the institute recommends measuring compassion in practice and treating trust as a measurable organizational capability. These emphases support evaluating workplace impact, but the report’s primary purpose is to identify cultural practices associated with stronger employee and business outcomes.
Publisher and Methodology
The research was conducted by the O.C. Tanner Institute, which collected and analyzed online survey responses from 25,832 workers at organizations with at least 500 employees across 23 countries. Its methodology includes cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys, interviews, and 24 focus groups involving employees, leaders and HR practitioners. Focus groups and additional interviews took place during 2025 and 2026. The methodology credits the institute rather than individual authors. Reported statistical associations should not be interpreted as guaranteed causal effects or audited financial returns.
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