Top Employee Pain Points in 2026: What’s Driving the Great Rethink
The workforce is at a tipping point.
According to Gallup's Employee Retention and Attraction Indicator, 51% of U.S. employees are either actively searching for or watching for new job opportunities as of late 2024, up from 44% in March 2020. But this isn't just another turnover cycle. The reasons employees are reconsidering their choices reveal systemic gaps in how buildings and workplaces deliver experience.
Burnout Has Reached a Six-Year High
American workforce burnout hit its highest level in six years, with 76% of workers reporting some level of burnout and 53% experiencing moderate to severe levels, according to the 2025-2026 Aflac WorkForces Report. The culprit? An always-on culture where 40% of U.S. employees report feeling stressed during much of the workday.
Remote and hybrid workers face an unexpected paradox: they report 20% higher burnout risk than their on-site counterparts. The flexibility meant to improve work-life balance has instead blurred boundaries, with 77% of employees saying AI has added to their workloads rather than relieved them. What was promised as liberation has become digital overload.
The financial toll is staggering. Employee disengagement and burnout costs employers between $3,999 and $20,683 per employee annually, depending on role, according to research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. At a 1,000-person company, that's $5.04 million in annual costs.
Recognition Remains Invisible
Despite years of discussion about employee appreciation, the recognition gap persists. Only 19% of employees say they're recognized weekly, according to the 2025 State of Employee Recognition Report. Yet employees who receive meaningful weekly recognition are 9x more likely to feel a strong sense of belonging and perform at their best.
The consequences are direct: 66% of employees would leave their jobs if they don't feel appreciated, and for 55% of those planning to switch jobs, lack of recognition is the primary driver. Recognition isn't a soft metric. It's retention infrastructure. Companies with strong recognition programs experience 31% lower voluntary turnover.
Career Development is No Longer Optional
An Amazon and Workplace Intelligence survey reveals that 74% of Millennial and Gen Z employees would leave their jobs if they weren't given enough opportunities for skills development. This isn't new, but the urgency has intensified. With 25% of job skills having changed since 2015 and 65% expected to change by 2030, employees feel the pressure to keep learning, while many feel inadequately supported by their employers.
The opportunity for employers is clear: 94% of employees say they'd stay longer at a company that invests in their learning, according to LinkedIn's Workplace Learning Report. Yet many organizations still treat career development as a perk rather than an essential infrastructure.
The Experience Gap in Action
These pain points aren't isolated HR challenges. They're symptoms of a deeper disconnect between what employees expect from their workplace and what most buildings actually deliver. The best properties don't just offer amenities; they offer experiences. They create ecosystems of recognition, growth, and genuine work-life integration.
Buildings that close this Experience Gap provide visible systems for appreciation, embedded learning opportunities, and physical spaces that support genuine disconnection and restoration. They make wellbeing measurable, not aspirational.
The question facing CRE leaders: Are you closing the Experience Gap, or are you losing talent to properties that already have?
Ready to close your Experience Gap? Request a demo of the HqO platform