Employee motivation in the UK and Europe has been in decline for several years with a growing disconnect between effort and recognition.
Employee experience and people analytics platform Culture Amp has released data that, it claims, shows that recognition is at a five-year low, and employees feel less visible in organisations’ performance review process.
Although employees still believed in the value of their work, their motivation was being eroded. This could suggest a lack of meaningful feedback from line managers and unclear pathways to high performance, said researchers.
This data was drawn from Culture Amp’s latest industry benchmarks, gleaned from millions of responses worldwide to help understand organisational culture and performance.
Engagement
Exclusive: Gen Z has strong work ethic, study shows
UK employers seek more in-office working to boost engagement
Employees drawn into unethical practices by immoral workplace cultures
The data found that only 69% of employees felt appropriately recognised, and just 60% believed the right people were rewarded – marking a five-year low.
Analysis also found that confidence in performance reviews was weakening. Employee agreement that performance reviews accurately reflected their employees’ efforts fell from 77% in 2022 to only 70% in 2024.
Culture Amp said the top three global drivers of motivation for employees were: knowing they can develop at their current company; having leaders communicating a motivating vision; and having confidence in the leaders at the company.
Analysing 22,594 comments from 2,806 companies worldwide, researchers found that even those facing limited career progression opportunities still appreciated on-the-job learning. Employees viewed workplace challenges as growth opportunities and demonstrated strong self-determination in driving their own development.
“In today’s resource-constrained macroeconomic environment, intrinsic motivation remained high,” the report claimed, adding that “what’s missing is stronger extrinsic support from companies.”
Leaders ought to reflect on the fact that many employees don’t lack ambition; they lack clarity, the analysis continued. “Without a defined pathway to high performance, they’re left trying to decode what really sets top performers apart. Leaders should ensure feedback includes specific examples of what ‘great’ looks like – not just what needs fixing.”
What the data shows is that, on the one hand this is a difficult economic context, but on the other that employees are tired, feel under-appreciated” – Daniel Gualdino, Culture Amp
While managers often provide task-level feedback, leaders set the tone for what is valued and rewarded. If organisations want to develop high performers, leaders must ensure that feedback prioritises strategic thinking, innovation, and impact—rather than just technical execution.
In the UK specifically engagement fell 1% to 65%.
Every six months, Culture Amp refreshes its benchmarks and analyses newly collected data from its customers. It said that the benchmark research drew from 1.4 billion answered questions examining trends across 62 million surveys from 8,200 global companies. It added this approach allowed it to track shifts in workplace dynamics over time, uncovering emerging patterns in employee engagement, motivation, and team collaboration.
Comment and interpretation of data
Arne Sjostrom, regional director of people science at Culture Amp (Emea), said: “Despite the stability in commitment scores, leaders who believe they have the situation under control may be misled. Motivation is closely linked to productivity, and if organisations fail to adapt, they risk experiencing a great resignation 2.0 with talent leaving as soon as new opportunities arise.
“To combat this trend, leaders … need to recognise employees’ contributions, invest in their development, including on-the-job-learning, and engage them with a compelling vision for the future and a clear path forward.”
Many employees were impacted more than once by redundancies – which can trigger job security fears going forward and impact their motivation”
Daniel Gualdino, senior people scientist, Culture Amp, said employee engagement levels improved during the pandemic, but had since fallen.
“The drop in scores in motivation, recognition, and engagement are a more direct consequence of the economy taking a turn for the worse in 2022 with mass redundancies impacting many industries,” he said.
“Many employees were impacted more than once by redundancies – which can trigger job security fears going forward and impact their motivation – and for the ones that kept their jobs they saw their teams and budgets shrink and were told to ‘do more with less’. Which also led to increased risk of burnout, especially across the manager population.”
Gualdino added that lack of stability was now a persistent problem. “The last three years have been full of change and uncertainty, and human beings don’t like uncertainty, we like routine and clarity,” he said. “However, we’ve been operating in a state of permanent change inside organisations, with competing priorities and limited resources, and outside organisations we’re pressured by high cost of living and inflation. All of these factors contribute to the decline in scores we’re seeing.
“What the data shows is that, on the one hand this is a difficult economic context, but on the other that employees are tired, feel under-appreciated (in terms of recognition, growth and reward), and have a sense that their performance is not measured fairly, and that leaders are rising to the challenge.”
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more human resources jobs
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
