The confidence gap: Do you really know how valued your employees feel?

• 8.57 is what employers believed employees would rate their sense of value 
• 7.13 is what employees actually rated their sense of value
• 94% of employers believed employees feel highly valued 
• 3% of employers believed employee value is low
• Nearly one in five employees who rate their sense of value at five or below

Seeing everything laid out, the misalignment becomes clear. While leaders believe they're doing enough to make their employees feel valued, many employees quietly disagree.  

There's nothing malicious about this gap. Most employers genuinely care about their people. Many companies are investing in initiatives like flexible working policies and expanded benefits to create a positive workplace culture. 

Unfortunately, good intent doesn't always translate to genuine progress.  

It's common for organisations to rely on: 

• Annual engagement surveys 
• High-level pulse checks 
• Anecdotal feedback from managers 
• Surface indicators like participation rates 

These tools can be helpful to provide snapshots but feeling valued is beyond surveys and feedback. It's about the day-to-day experience of the employee interacting with their leaders and peers and how positive initiatives are integrated. 

When leaders are disconnected from how valued people feel, it increases risk without them even realising. 

The average score of 7.13 hides important disparities. 

Office-based employees report feeling more valued, with an average score of 7.40. For non-office or deskless workers, that drops to 6.46. 

That difference matters. 

Among employees who feel undervalued, 44% of non-office workers say they’re likely to leave in the next 12 months, compared to 38% of office-based employees. 

If your employment experience strategy works well for one team but fails to reach the front line, your culture is fractured in two. 

Employee value by generation 

Millennials report the highest sense of value at 7.58. Gen Z sits slightly above average at 7.25. But for Gen X, that drops sharply to 6.15, before rising slightly to 6.31 for Baby Boomers. 

The bell curve poses an interesting question: are organisations unintentionally prioritising early-career talent over maintaining value for their more experienced employees? 

Employee value by sector  

Sector differences are just as telling. Private sector employees report higher value scores than those in the public sector, where the average drops to 6.65. 

The stats dictate a simple message: value isn't uniform and if leaders rely on overall averages, they risk missing the key areas where dissatisfaction is bubbling. 

It’s tempting to treat feeling valued as a cultural aspiration. But the data tells a more commercial story. 

Twenty-nine percent of employees say they’re likely to seek new employment in 2026. 

Among those who feel undervalued, that jumps to 40%. 

When employees feel like they've exhausted their time with a company, they'll move on – but retention isn't the only impact. 

And the impact doesn’t stop at retention. 

Sixty-one percent of employees say feeling undervalued leads to higher stress and poorer mental wellbeing. Only 42% of employers recognise that connection. 

When there’s a gap between how employees experience work and how leaders perceive that experience, wellbeing initiatives risk becoming reactive instead of preventative. 

Undervaluing people doesn't just wear down morale. It also affects focus, energy resilience and overall: performance. 

One of the most striking findings in the research is that employers and employees largely agree on what drives value. 

Flexible working hours rank highly for both groups. So does support for work-life balance. Financial wellbeing support is a priority. Recognition and reward matter. 

On paper, alignment exists but in practice, the experience doesn’t always land. 

Sixty percent of employees say their benefits package makes them feel valued. Eighty-eight percent of employers believe it does. 

Again, the pattern repeats. 

Awareness is there. Execution is inconsistent. 

This is the action gap. 

So, what do stronger organisations do differently? 

Use data to measure employee value  

First, they treat feeling valued as a measurable, strategic indicator — not a soft metric. 

They look beyond the overall average and segment their data by: 

• Role type 
• Working environment 
• Generation 
• Gender 
• Sector 

They recognise that a 7.13 average score may hide pockets of 5s and 6s that signal risk. 

Move from policy to practice  

Second, they move from policy to practice. 

It’s one thing to offer flexibility. It’s another to build trust and autonomy into leadership behaviour. Employees rank trust and autonomy as the most important driver of feeling valued, ahead of many traditional initiatives. 

Adding more benefits won't solve this but a good manager can. 

Make employee value visible' 

Third, they make value visible. 

Some initiatives can also feel diluted depending on how they're implemented. When benefits are difficult to access or recognition feels generic, it can lessen impact. 

When financial support, recognition and wellbeing resources are centralised and easy to use, employees are more likely to experience them as part of everyday work, not as hidden extras. 

And when employees experience value consistently, leaders gain clearer insight into what’s working and what isn’t. 

If you had to rate how valued your people feel — across every location, generation and role type — how confident would you be? 

Not just the intention behind your strategy but the actual experience of your workforce day-to-day. 

The confidence gap revealed in this research isn't to call out failure or a poor strategy but to highlight the employees lived experience. The goal is to ensure that leaders are aligned with their team. 

Employees have been clear about what helps them feel valued. 

The question now is whether leaders are listening closely enough.