New findings* show that levels of commitment to employers have decreased by nearly a third (32.5%) since before the pandemic. In 2019, the average level of commitment to employers, as stated by respondents, was 43% compared to just 29% from those in 2021. Inpulse’s surveys reach thousands of employees across the UK and globally*.

The data also shows that employee happiness has decreased by 75% since 2019 while employee anxiety has shot up by 78% for those who answered surveys where these emotions were included. Employee motivation also dropped by nearly a fifth over the past two years, from an average score of 21% to 17% in 2021.

Matt Stephens, Founder and CEO of Inpulse, said: “For the past year, we’ve seen how the impacts of COVID-19 have taken a toll on employee anxiety and stress levels. But we are now seeing the fallout of this – how employee emotions are having a direct impact on employee connection, focus and loyalty to businesses. Worryingly, despite the incredibly high anxiety levels employees are feeling, negative employee emotions are still increasing and levels of commitment, motivation and focus are falling”.

Insight from the survey data appears to show that stress levels in the UK are less than in other regions. In the UK, stress levels increased by 23%, compared to a 39% increase for global respondents.

Stephens explained: “Though at first glance the data suggests that UK businesses are currently handling employee stress better than their foreign counterparts, in reality, UK stress levels were already higher than the global average pre-pandemic. In 2019, UK stress levels sat at 22% compared to just 18% for global respondents. Because of this, even with this smaller increase, UK stress levels are still 2 percentage points higher than global levels in 2021.

“We can see from this that businesses really are experiencing negative emotions like never before and employers must take care to address the burnout and resilience problems of their workforces by accurately measuring and responding to employee sentiments. Without a timely response, these problems will detrimentally impact engagement, productivity, absence, and retention.”

*from Inpulse