What the data from Omnia’s 2026 Talent Trends report tells us about trust, consistency, and the new rules of engagement.
Employee engagement is one of the most discussed (and often misunderstood) topics in the workplace. Organizations know engaged employees are more productive, more committed, and more likely to contribute to long-term success. Yet as workplaces continue to evolve and employees face increasing uncertainty, maintaining engagement has become more challenging than ever.
According to Gallup, global employee engagement is at its lowest point since 2020. This time, however, there is no global pandemic to blame.
Instead, many employees are on high alert. They’re watching to see if leadership follows through on commitments. Listening for whether feedback actually leads to change. Deciding, quietly, whether this is still the right place to invest their time, energy, and talent.
This shift changes the way leaders should think about engagement. Perks, recognition programs, and pulse surveys still have value. But in 2026, the foundation of engagement isn’t enthusiasm. It’s trust.
What’s the Difference Between Engagement and Motivation?
Motivation and engagement are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing.
Motivation is internal. It’s the drive to accomplish something, overcome a challenge, or pursue a goal.
Engagement is relational. It reflects how connected an employee feels to their work, their team, and the organization.
An employee can be highly motivated while simultaneously feeling disconnected from their employer. In those situations, motivation gets redirected. Sometimes that energy goes toward achieving ambitious goals at work. Other times, it goes toward finding an opportunity elsewhere.
Understanding this distinction helps explain a growing trend that emerged throughout Omnia’s 2026 Talent Trends survey.
The Rise of Conditional Engagement
More than 36% of organizations surveyed reported increased turnover year over year, nearly double the rate reported in 2025. Equally telling, however, was the fact that 26.5% of respondents weren’t sure whether turnover had increased at all.
Meanwhile, one-third of organizations reported frequent internal mobility, with employees transferring between teams or roles rather than leaving the organization altogether.
At first glance, internal movement may appear to be a positive retention story. In some cases, it is. But it can also signal something more subtle.
Employees aren’t necessarily disengaged. They’re evaluating.
They’re testing whether the issue is their manager, their team, or the organization itself. They’re deciding whether leadership is trustworthy, whether opportunities are distributed fairly, and whether their concerns are being heard.
This is what conditional engagement looks like.
Conditional engagement exists between commitment and disengagement. Employees continue to perform, contribute, and meet expectations, but they’ve become cautious about how much of themselves they’re willing to invest. Their engagement is no longer automatic. It’s dependent on what they observe leadership doing next.
In other words, they’re collecting data on you.
Visibility Gaps Are a Trust Problem
The challenge is that many organizations have limited visibility into what employees are actually experiencing.
More than 40% of organizations in Omnia’s survey reported that they do not consistently conduct employee surveys or collect exit interview data. As a result, much of what leaders believe they know about retention, engagement, and workplace culture remains incomplete.
For employees, the absence of a feedback process sends a message of its own. When no one asks for input, people often assume no one wants it.
That assumption quietly erodes trust.
Of course, collecting feedback is only part of the equation. Employees quickly recognize the difference between organizations that genuinely listen and those that simply gather information.
When feedback is requested but never acknowledged, discussed, or acted upon, trust often declines further. The effort without the follow-through can feel performative rather than meaningful.
Consider the employee perspective. Workloads are increasing, uncertainty is high, and a respected colleague leaves the organization. Employees know why that person left. The departing employee certainly knows why. Yet leadership never addresses it, asks questions, or communicates lessons learned.
The silence creates a vacuum, and people naturally fill that vacuum with assumptions.
What Trust Looks Like Day to Day
Trust is rarely built through a single company-wide initiative. More often, especially within small and mid-sized organizations, it is built through everyday interactions between managers and employees.
Employees pay attention to:
- Whether feedback is solicited and acknowledged.
- Whether feedback leads to visible action, even small improvements.
- Whether opportunities are distributed fairly.
- Whether leaders explain the reasoning behind important decisions.
- Whether commitments are kept.
- Whether expectations remain consistent during stressful periods.
When these behaviors are inconsistent, engagement becomes inconsistent as well. One employee feels supported while another feels overlooked. One employee sees opportunity while another sees favoritism.
Over time, those perceptions influence retention, performance, and culture.
Engagement isn’t earned once. It’s renewed every time a leader either builds trust or spends it.
Engagement Is Personal
While trust is universal, the way trust is built is not.
Different employees experience confidence, security, recognition, and support in different ways.
An employee who is naturally analytical and process-oriented may need clear expectations, consistency, and evidence before feeling confident in leadership decisions. Someone who is highly independent may build trust when given autonomy and opportunities to innovate. An employee who values relationships and collaboration may interpret a lack of communication very differently than someone who prefers minimal oversight.
Understanding these differences gives managers a significant advantage.
When leaders understand what motivates people, what creates friction for them, and how they prefer to communicate, engagement becomes more than a broad organizational initiative. It becomes a practical, individualized leadership strategy.
This is where behavioral insight can play an important role. Used as a coaching and development tool, behavioral assessments can help managers better understand their employees and create the consistency that trust requires.
Questions Every Manager Should Be Asking
Building trust doesn’t necessarily require a new engagement program. It often starts with asking better questions.
Consider the following:
- When an employee shares a concern or suggestion, what typically happens next?
- How confident are you that your team understands the reasoning behind decisions that affect them?
- Are development opportunities distributed consistently across the team?
- If you made a commitment to an employee in the last 90 days, did you follow through?
- Would your employees describe your leadership behavior as consistent, even during stressful periods?
These questions serve as useful diagnostic tools. If any of the answers give you pause, that’s valuable information.
The Bottom Line
The data in Omnia’s 2026 Talent Trends report points to a clear conclusion: trust is increasingly becoming the foundation of employee engagement.
Employees remain engaged when they believe their contributions matter, when they see leaders follow through, and when they trust that speaking up will make a difference.
The organizations that close the engagement gap this year won’t do it through better perks alone. They’ll do it by creating leadership cultures that are transparent, consistent, and worthy of employee trust.
Because in today’s workplace, employees aren’t simply deciding whether they like their jobs.
They’re deciding whether they believe in the people leading them.
Want to see where your team stands?
Download the full 2026 Omnia Talent Trends Report, or contact us today to explore how Omnia’s behavioral assessment can help managers build the trust that keeps employees engaged, growing, and committed to organizational success.
