Forty-nine percent of employees strongly agree they know what is expected of them at work, up from 47% last year. This comes as welcome news after 2025, when Gallup reported that the largest five-year declines in engagement were in employees’ clarity of expectations and feeling cared about at work. Yet overall employee engagement remained unchanged, and fewer employees say their opinions count or that they feel connected to their organization's purpose. Clarity of expectations is foundational to building highly engaged teams. Without it, employees lack a shared standard for success. The recent increase moves in the right direction, but employee clarity remains well below the 61% peak in 2015. Knowing what's expected at work is a foundational element, but just one part of building an engaged workforce. The strongest workplaces create provide employees with clarity and connection by helping employees understand what's expected in their roles, feel like their opinions are heard and see how their work contributes to the larger purpose. Explore Gallup's latest findings: https://lnkd.in/g-u-S5_5
The contrast is telling, Gallup. Employees can become clearer about the task while becoming more detached from the experience of doing it. AI may improve execution, but a workplace can become more efficient without becoming more engaging.
Clarity is often talked about as an individual employee experience: Do I know what’s expected of me? I think there’s another side to clarity that’s just as important, which is that clarity creates the conditions for collaboration and buy-in. When people understand what success looks like, how their work connects to others, and where the team is ultimately trying to go, it becomes much easier to collaborate. People can make decisions with greater confidence, understand where their responsibilities intersect with others, and contribute in ways that move the broader goal forward. And I think that’s where buy-in starts. People are much more likely to support a strategy when they understand not just what they’re being asked to do, but why it matters and how their contribution fits into the bigger picture. Clarity isn’t about giving people more direction or telling them exactly how to do their jobs. It’s about creating a shared understanding of where we’re going, what success looks like, and then giving people the space to help get there. That kind of clarity doesn’t just improve engagement. It builds alignment, collaboration, and genuine buy-in.
I come across this again and again in real life work situations. Mis-matched expectations lead to frustration and disengagement. Leaders don't set out to be unclear. They are often unaware that there is a gap between how clear we think we are and what was understood. It is key to check in and listen without making others wrong for not having "got it"
I would link the difference between the 2015 results and the most recent ones also to the fact that uncertainty is now everywhere. Employers and managers are not necessarily less willing to communicate clearly and directly; rather, predictability is much harder to provide today than it was ten years ago.
Clarity of expectations creates direction, but engagement also depends on whether people can influence how the work gets done. When clarity rises without voice or connection, what leadership practice tends to close that gap fastest?
Thank you Gallup for sharing the report and consistently exploring the key factors boosting employee engagement. Latest research indicates that employees who are actively supported by their manager in use of AI have an engagement rate of 48%, surpassing the median results with 18% difference. However, Employee Engagement Remains low (31% on average in H1) as AI Adoption is accelerating globally. Leaders who are able to address this gap, especially for the 18% of the actively disengaged employees could help their organisations to grow faster than industry peers.
The most interesting finding here may be what didn’t make the difference. Simply giving people access to new technology was not associated with higher engagement. The gap appeared when employees understood how it fitted into their work, what was expected of them and had active support from their managers. Gallup found 15 percentage points higher engagement where there was a clear implementation plan, while employees with active manager support reported 48% engagement compared with 30% without it. (Gallup.com) That points to something broader than technology adoption. Introducing a new capability into a company inevitably changes the work around it: who does what, where judgment is still required, what decisions can move elsewhere, how responsibilities change and how performance is defined. If those questions remain unanswered, the technology may be new while the way the company operates remains exactly the same. Change becomes meaningful when the architecture of the work changes with it. Lena Theodorakatou ⭕ Organizational Architect
The split is the useful part - clarity rose, while "my opinions count" fell. Clarity can be issued top-down. The other two can't. In our cohorts that gap shows up as managers who brief well and ask badly.
Less than 50% of employees know what’s expected of them. I may be oversimplifying it, but there seems to be a pretty easy fix here. What am I missing?