MEGHAN STETTLER: Welcome everyone to O.C. Tanner's webinar, Amplify the Performance Power of Culture: Regional Insights from our 2027 Global Culture Report.
I'm Meghan Stettler, Director at the O.C. Tanner Institute. For those who may be unfamiliar with our organisation more broadly, O.C. Tanner is the global leader in employee recognition and workplace culture solutions. Our Culture Cloud platforms help companies recognise more people more often in more meaningful ways across 180 countries.
Amazing. Well, we are excited to dive deep into the regional nuances of our findings today. But before we begin, a couple of housekeeping items. First, this webinar is SHRM and HRCI certified for credit. Those codes will be available at the end of the webinar.
Second, this roundtable discussion you're watching right now is pre recorded for time zone purposes, but our local teams are here live to answer any questions or comments in the chat.
And a final but important note, while we'll be highlighting regional insights, this session is not intended for comparison or benchmarking against regions. It's really important to understand these insights in context so we can better understand how to cultivate success across a multinational diverse workplace.
Okay. Let's begin.
Now many of you know I travel and speak around the world and as I talk with a variety of leaders, it's clear that many are struggling with the same challenge. We are all under pressure to perform in conditions that never stand still. Markets shifting overnight, technology is evolving faster than human capabilities, customer expectations keep rising, and leaders are on the line to navigate all of this with the same or even fewer dwindling resources.
But I think we're at a point where we need to realise that change is no longer an event.
It's not the disruption that we prepare for, manage through, and then eventually recover from. Change is just our new operating environment.
But what I'm finding is that many organisations are trying to control change and try to get back to an essence of stability with some temporary solutions. And so they're adding on new programmes, new initiatives, new processes, new technologies.
We're trying to meet pressure with addition. And while I think those efforts are very well intended and can be of benefit, every new thing just piles on. So instead of stability, sometimes we get complexity.
And so that led us to ask as a research institute, in a world that never stops, what actually separates organisations that thrive from those that are just trying to keep up?
So we gathered the perspectives of over 28,000 employees and leaders across 23 different countries. And what we found challenged a common assumption.
So despite years of uncertainty, we found that employees are remarkably optimistic. Such a good thing. Right?
They want to contribute. They want to grow. They want to make a very meaningful impact. They're not looking for workplaces that simply help them survive change. They're looking for workplaces that amplify their potential.
That's exactly where the highest performing organisations stood apart. It wasn't something they added at all. It was something they amplified.
They identified the people, practices, experiences that were already creating value and they just expanded their reach and impact. And what happened?
Performance multiplied.
And that led us to another important realisation here that every culture is amplifying something. It could be confidence or fear, trust or doubt, growth, stagnation.
So what are you amplifying?
Because the truth is not everything we amplify actually gets us the outcomes we want. So that's why this year we went deeper to identify the areas of the greatest multiplying power.
And we found that it fundamentally begins with compassion. When people know they're cared for, they have the capacity to succeed and they really understand what's expected of them, they're able to perform their very best work.
And then that compassion fuels growth.
And then when growth is rooted in a mutual partnership, that strengthens trust. And trust in practice unlocks the innovation we're all hoping for.
And innovation drives accelerated performance.
So what starts off as a singular positive experience becomes this powerful multiplier effect. So as leaders, that's really our choice. Do we wanna add or do we wanna amplify? Because I think the future of work isn't something we all wanna brace for.
It's something we need to actively shape by deciding what we are going to amplify. And that's the discussion we're going to lead today.
So I'm very excited to welcome Caroline Alderman out of Europe, Nadia Beedeisen, Manager of Client Strategy out of APAC, Candy Fernandez, Director of People and Great Work in IMEA, and Carlee Sawyer out of Canada representing The Americas.
Thank you all so much for joining me today. I'm excited to have you here.
PANELISTS: Thank you. Thank you, Meghan.
MEGHAN: Well, let's start with compassion. I think a lot of us view compassion as a personality trait, a personal virtue that people either bring to work or they don't.
But in a world of prolonged stress and pressure, the truth is that "many leaders continue to fear that any support they give to their people will come at the direct expense of productivity.
So consciously or unconsciously, they're convinced supporting well-being is a fool's game."
But the real fool's game here is believing that chronic strain has no impact on performance because in fact, over half of our population is suffering burnout.
And they're saying that burnout is greatly diminishing their efficiency. It's hurting their overall performance and it's weakening their ability to serve customers well.
So employees aren't underperforming because they lack the will. They're struggling because burnout isn't just a leadership issue. It's a systems problem. And the reality is that our workplace systems were fundamentally never built to sustain this level of prolonged pressure.
Which is why our research found a very important shift this year. That while organisations themselves can't really feel compassion, they can absolutely decide whether compassionate behaviours are encouraged, modeled and rewarded.
Because when compassion is embedded into an organisation's system, it moves beyond an invisible feeling or a one off experience into an everyday practice that drives that performance while also reducing burnout.
Let me show you what I mean.
So organisational compassion is built across three different pillars.
The first is a foundation of care where compassion is interwoven into the policies, processes, and our decision making. So it's not left to just the discretion of individual leaders.
And when that happens, employees are nine times more likely to be willing to help the organisation succeed.
The second is capacity protection. When organisations treat capacity as a team sport or a shared responsibility, not just an individual burden, the odds of burnout decrease by eighty seven percent.
And lastly, when people have the guidelines, the boundaries, the clear expectations they need, compassion is able to be applied consistently, fairly, equitably, which guards against favoritism as well as protects leaders against compassion fatigue.
And that increases the odds employees perceive their organisation as fair and empathetic by 24 times.
So you can see how all three of these pillars not only autocorrect some of the struggles that employees are having today, but they really amplify their ability to perform sustainably under prolonged pressure.
So let's get into our regional insights here because unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, many organisations around the world are having a hard time systematizing compassion.
We have Europe coming in at 31, Asia Pacific 37, IMEA 62 and The Americas 43. So let me remind you again this is not a comparison. We're here to unpack these nuances on their own terms.
So Carlee, I want to start with you and I want to go deep into these structural factors. What do you think might be contributing to these scores in North America? And where do you find the opportunities for organisations to more fully embed compassion into their systems?
CARLEE SAWYER: You're right, Meghan.
And it's not for a lack of caring leaders. We hopefully all believe that our leaders care about us.
Just performance systems emphasise speed and output, and workload protection remains underdeveloped.
NADIA BEEDEISON: I agree, Carlee. I think the biggest challenges are our ability to protect our capacity and to hold those personal boundaries. We have lean teams, growing workloads, global time zone pressures, constant connectivity expectations, and change. And all of those things together make it really difficult for people to work sustainably.
There's also a cultural lens. So across many parts of Asia, that respect for authority and trying to preserve harmony across a team stops a lot of people from raising these concerns in the first place.
Here in Australia, many of these issues are now recognised as psychosocial hazards through legislation that was introduced last year, shifting this concept of compassion from a culture initiative to a business and risk management requirement.
Organisations really need to design realistic workloads to set clear expectations on work and around after hours contact, creating support systems that help to protect well-being by default.
These measures not only will reduce that psychosocial risk and burnout, but also to create the conditions for people to perform at their best.
CAROLINE ALDERMAN: Well and that's what it's all about, isn't it, Nadia? Helping people perform at their best. And I think in an attempt to do that here in Europe, we've built compassion into policy faster than we've built it into everyday working life.
We also, you know, like you were just mentioning, have strong employee protections and well-being support and safeguards.
But employees clearly looking at these numbers aren't always experiencing that in the way that work gets done every day.
And I think also when compassion depends on maybe who your manager is and how empathetic they are, or how much time they have for you, the employee experience can feel very inconsistent even if organisational compassion is already baked in.
So I think what we're seeing is that organisations that are beginning to close this experience gap are doing so by embedding compassion into manager behaviours, like having better conversations and clearer communication, and really helping leaders make those strategic workload decisions to better protect capacity and through recognising employee contribution.
CANDY FERNANDEZ: You know what? Even though these numbers seem so different from each other, I don't see any difference in the situation with IMEA.
And I think it's because the natural tendency for organisations is to focus on speed and capability and business outcomes. But what often gets overlooked is whether employees have the capacity. Do they have the clarity? Are they given the right support to absorb all of that change?
Now take an example of an employee who's expected to deliver on today's priorities while learning the skills needed for tomorrow.
The challenge here isn't really ambition. It's when we assume that our people can navigate that journey by themselves, all alone.
This is where I think it's really important that we invest as much in the human side of transformation as the business side.
We're experiencing transformation in O.C. Tanner too. The idea is definitely not to slow the pace of change, but rather to build the confidence, build the capability and the capacity that help our people succeed through this. That's intent. That's where compassion now becomes strategic and we can turn change from a source of pressure into a source of growth.
MEGHAN: Yeah, I love that. And we're going to be talking about how compassion fuels growth just coming up. But I just want to double tap on what you all said because I think it's really important to clarify this, that we have to embed organisational compassion, yes, into our systems and policies. But we also need to provide the tools, the resources and the enablement to leaders to bring that to life in the everyday experiences of employees.
That's when compassion really gets the macro and the micro moments. It's a shared opportunity between all of us. And recognition just really helps to amplify this. And why is it?
Because it's a practice of care that reinforces those core elements of organisational compassion.
And when it's done well, it acknowledges accomplishments alongside well-being while also ensuring that it's given fairly and equitably.
So Carlee, we talked a lot in the introduction about security, stability, a lot of change going on, capability, capacity protection. How can recognition really help settle folks here?
CARLEE: Yeah. Just like you mentioned, recognition reinforces organisational compassion by providing employees with that reassurance that they're still valued while expectations, technologies, ways of working continue to evolve.
In environments where employees are being asked to learn new skills, adapt to new systems, navigate ambiguity, all of these things all at the same time, recognition helps reinforce a sense of stability and confidence and belonging.
It reminds people that they're valued not just for what they produce, but the effort, the learning and the adaptability that they demonstrate along the way.
MEGHAN: Yeah. Nadia, can you give us an example out of your region in Asia Pacific?
NADIA: Yeah. Of course. When I read this research initially, one of the companies that jumped out at me as being a prime example of this organisational compassion done well was Insurance Australia Group.
So IAG have been through significant transformation. They have new ways of working, technology changes, role redesigns, shifting customer expectations, and all of those pieces have come together to mean that many employees are adapting faster than they ever have had to before.
What stands out for me is that IAG hasn't approached this simply as a business change challenge. They've approached it as a real human challenge. So rather than expecting people to absorb endless change on their own, IAG have invested in listening, well-being, flexibility, learning opportunities, and leadership support.
They recognise that that goal of high performance isn't about asking people to do more with less.
It's about creating conditions where people can continue to perform sustainably.
At IAG, care shows up not only in those moments of crisis, but in everyday decisions. It's around giving people flexibility when life demands it, investing in their growth, checking how change is affecting their workloads and helping leaders to lead with empathy and transparency.
IAG leads the way with recognition activity and recognition for the right reasons. So it's no surprise when as an organisation, they have so deeply embedded recognition into the culture and really see it as a valuable leader for change.
Gillian Folkes, who's their executive general manager of talent, culture, and inclusion, said this. "While certainly not a silver bullet, recognition has played a significant role in supporting the embedment of our values and behaviours. We continue to listen to the voice of our people, celebrate achievements both big and small, and create meaningful, authentic moments of appreciation at every opportunity."
IAG is a great example of why organisational compassion matters. It's not separate from performance. It's what makes sustainable performance possible.
MEGHAN: Yeah, thank you so much, Nadia. And that's exactly what we see in the numbers in our research. So here's the outcome of embedding recognition as part of that core organisational practice of care.
It increases the odds by 43 times that employees will say the organisation cares about employees, increases the odds of engagement by 31 times and their plan to stay another year by 20 times. Just amazing.
Well, the same conditions that help people sustain performance also help them grow. You heard Candy mentioned that just moments ago.
And in fact, there's an 11 time higher odds of company growth with organisational compassion. And the timing of this really couldn't be more important because competition just continues to intensify.
And as organisations, we need our people to learn faster, adapt wiser, and to build new capabilities.
In fact, the World Economic Forum reports that 63% of organisations see skills gaps as their biggest barrier to the future.
But I think we're all finding that growth stalls when more output is dressed up as opportunity. Or in other words, "when learning is something done to people rather than done with them, resistance is a rational response."
Anybody feeling some resistance to their training and development initiatives? Yeah.
Well, we found that resistance turns to commitment when learning becomes this shared mutual investment where people and organisations can grow together.
In other words, skill building today is feeling very extractive, very one-sided for people. We've heard a lot of that in our focus groups.
But growth cultures offer a holistic partnership that creates the cultural elasticity needed to thrive through change.
Or as my uncle used to always tell my hard headed teenage self, don't be like the old oak tree that's tall, formidable and unshaken but with a gust of wind topples down. You've got to be strong like bamboo. You've got to be flexible, resilient, interconnected with the people and the systems around you. So how do we create bamboo?
Well, our research identified six different elements of a growth culture. The first is employees, we really need to understand what they fundamentally need to grow and feel valued. So through that lens of empathy.
Second, can we have open, clear and easy conversations around growth? Are we able to communicate very easily?
Can we form a sense of community, camaraderie, shared goals and peer learning to help drive growth?
Do people feel like they have the support as well as the opportunity to achieve and apply those new skills?
And lastly, are we viewing everything through the lens of balance between performance and well-being.
So when these six elements are embedded into the everyday employee experience rather than a one off company initiative or training, it really creates the cultural elasticity or the bamboo, right, to face those new challenges with flexibility, innovation and mutual commitment.
And that really increases the odds that employees believe their organisation's approach to growth is healthy and that they're going to have the ability to adapt well when change happens.
Now unfortunately, I think I'm going to begin all of these slides with unfortunately. But our research indicates that organisations and employees alike around the world are fundamentally out of alignment and on a very different page in terms of what growth is meant to be.
So Carlee, I'm coming back to you again with this one. Which of these elements are the hardest for employees to experience in your region? And again, how are organisations working to close those gaps?
CARLEE: From an America's perspective, I would argue that balance is the most difficult element for employees to experience consistently, this magical unicorn of balance that we're all trying to find.
The regional data shows that while purpose, success, and opportunity remain relatively strong, growth culture, trust, and compassion are much weaker.
And organisations across The Americas are facing pressure from changing workforce expectations, increasing complexities, all while employees continue to experience stress and well-being challenges. And this suggests that many employees are being asked to adapt and perform at a high level without always receiving the support that they need to do so sustainably.
Leading organisations in The Americas are moving away from treating growth and performance as purely business outcomes and are instead building systems that support employees throughout these periods of change.
NADIA: I think that piece around the support is really interesting, Carlee. And I think it leans into the opportunity gap. So organisations are trying to provide these varied learning opportunities But employees, particularly those on the front line, the 80% as we call them here, they don't always have clear pathways to put those skills into practice, whether it's part of broadening their contribution in their current role or seeing what's next in their career.
These growth conversations, I think, can feel quite unclear and inconsistent, particularly across diverse markets where we're trying to provide regional consistency and balance that with very different local cultures and operating environments.
CAROLINE: Can I just jump in? Because I think you've hit on something really important, Nadia, with growth feeling unclear. Across Europe, I think one of the biggest challenges is exactly that. It's ambiguity and misalignment around what we mean by growth.
It used to be develop skills, you progress in your career. But now it's develop skills, stay relevant. And those are two very, very different things.
I think organisations are rightly focused on building skills and adaptability because everything in the world is changing so rapidly at the moment. But employees still want to understand how that development translates into opportunity and career progression.
And I think we can make that link better through clear communication. And if we're already having better manager conversations because we're embedding organisational compassion, we can use those as an opportunity to very clearly link the development to the opportunity by talking about things like intentional growth, internal mobility, and project based experiences so that employees see how what they're developing is translating into opportunities for their tomorrow.
CANDY: Yeah, and, I think for IMEA, our struggle is very similar to The Americas. The gap lies for us with balancing performance and well-being.
But in my opinion, that's a work design problem. What we should be focusing on is, one, are we prioritising more aggressively? Well, instead of continuously adding more work, can we help teams decide what to stop? Think about all those non value add meetings that you sit through thinking, Oh, I could be doing something so much more productive right now.
Another thing I would focus on is embedding growth into work instead of adding it on top of work. I mean, come on. We are in the age of AI. Let's use it to take away all that mundane routine and give people an opportunity to grow themselves during their work time.
And, of course, I do wanna talk about recognising not just achievement, but healthy ways of achieving it. Let's celebrate collaboration. Let's celebrate prioritisation or delegation, smart decision making, not just all that heroic effort. Because I think when organisations shift from helping people manage the pressure to redesigning work, co creating goals, people can grow, they can perform and sustain their energy all at the same time.
MEGHAN: Yeah, I love that. It's really creating that sense of community and camaraderie and shared learning as part of that growth journey. You all have hit the nail on the head in terms of opportunity, capacity, support and balance.
I think a lot of this has to do with how we apply everything through the lens of empathy. Do we really understand our people, what their struggles are, what their potential is, and how are we thoughtfully designing a future that works together for both of us.
I think that's where recognition can help reinforce that journey together because recognising effort and achievement builds that mutually beneficial partnership between employees and the organisation.
Caroline, I want to go back to you and your region on this. So who tends to receive recognition for growth and who is most likely to be overlooked? What can organisations do differently there?
CAROLINE: Yeah. It's an interesting one, Meghan. And I don't think what we see in Europe is probably much different than what we'd see in any of the other regions. I think growth recognition tends to focus on big visible moments, you know, big milestones like promotions, leadership programmes, and those big major achievements.
And the people who can often get overlooked are those quietly building capabilities every day, learning new skills, adapting to change, mentoring colleagues, or taking on those stretch assignments. And when those quiet behaviours are recognised, employees see what organisations genuinely value, and they're gonna be more likely to demonstrate those behaviours themselves. This is gonna create a much richer culture of learning and adaptability and contribution.
And above all, I think it sends a really powerful message that growth isn't reserved for promotions or a select few, but it's something that everyone can benefit from.
MEGHAN: Yeah. We're looking at this through the lens of equity and accessibility. And that particularly applies, you know, as Nadia was mentioning to frontline workers. Right? The 80% of the world's workforce that's largely offline, unwired. And so Carlee, I was wondering if you could give us an example of an organisation that's doing this very well for their frontline workers in Canada.
CARLEE: Enbridge has been a valued O.C. Tanner client for many years and continues to do exceptional work through its recognition programme Stellar. With employees spread across North America, including many working in remote locations, Enbridge understands that the importance of ensuring great work never goes unnoticed.
Their recognition strategy helps employees stay connected to the organisation, their teams, and the impact they make every day.
One of the things Enbridge does particularly well is empower leaders to celebrate meaningful contributions.
Through Stellar, leaders can recognise employees in ways that feel personal and memorable, including the ability to create custom Careerscape icons that acknowledge outstanding work on special projects and achievements. One icon from the set that I particularly love is the values icon that all employees receive.
And it's a simple but powerful symbol that reinforces Enbridge's culture and shared purpose. It reminds employees that they are part of something bigger than themselves and connected to a common set of values, regardless of where they work or what role they play.
Enbridge's approach here demonstrates how thoughtful recognition can strengthen culture, create connection, and help employees feel seen, valued, and appreciated across the organisation. And Tyler, here's what Tyler had to say about their Careerscapes.
"Careerscapes and icons are one of our most celebrated elements from the Enbridge recognition programme. Employees are proud to earn and display icons that reflect their growth, contributions, and accomplishments. They amplify our culture by making employee achievements visible and lasting, and they reinforce that Enbridge values not only what employees deliver today, but also their long term development and success."
MEGHAN: Yeah, I love that phrase, long term development and success. And that's really what we're seeing in our data as well. That when recognition is integrated, employees are six times more likely to say that their organisation defines growth holistically. And here's an important one too, that employees are not left behind during growth an 11 times increased odds.
How many of us feel a little unsettled about the future and where we're going? That leaves us right into active trust because growth is only possible when employees trust that they are valued as people, not just producers of work. And again, when that happens, the results just take care of themselves. There's a 24 times higher odds that an organisation will achieve its long term goals with active trust.
But I think for many today, what we're witnessing isn't just fatigue from all the change that we've been talking about in this webinar so far. It's a gradual unraveling of trust and trust in our systems.
This is a rather dark comment, but I'll read it nonetheless because I find that it can ring true. So, "workers increasingly view employers with suspicion rather than loyalty, while organisations treat human capital as a variable expense to be optimized quarterly. This mutual withdrawal threatens organisational capabilities, innovation capacity, and social cohesion. So organisations face a critical choice: accelerate the decoupling or deliberately rebuild relationships around renewed trust and mutual investment."
Now what's making this so challenging today is that employees need fundamentally different things about trust than they did in the past.
In the past, trust was always built on leader capability, expertise, integrity. Today, the trust that employees need is an organisational capability. A trust that creates confidence through the people, practices, and systems that employees rely on most when uncertainty is high.
So in other words, trust is no longer just something leaders earn. It's something that organisations need to actively practice.
So how do we do that? Well, our research identified six core elements of active trust.
The first is transparency and you've heard all of us talk a little bit about transparency through our comments today. But this is about leadership being transparent about the challenges, the opportunities, and the reasons behind change.
Second is reliability. Can employees rely on us, like consistent leadership, policies, systems to say and do what they said they're going to say and do?
Judgment. Do leaders make sound decisions even when sometimes they have incomplete information?
Are we able to take responsibilities as leaders and admit to our mistakes and are they addressed openly and fairly?
And can employees raise concerns, speak honestly and share differing viewpoints? Is there that sense of psychological safety?
And lastly, is all of this rooted in care? Do employees feel valued as a person? And are their leaders genuinely interested in supporting their well-being?
Again, when trust is active, here are the outcomes. There's a 12 times increase that the company is going to be financially stable. Not only that, employees believe that they also have a culture of honesty. And again, that's how you build that mutual trust and performance in tandem.
But as we look across our regions, trust is emerging as the lowest scoring topic of the day, almost rock bottom here.
And AI is really accelerating that challenge. So Caroline, I'm going to start with you out of Europe. Again, not to point fingers here, but you see you kind of have a low score. Where do you see trust being eroded the most with this AI integration? And if leaders could amplify just one element of those six to help employees feel more comfortable and confident about their future, what would it be?
CAROLINE: Absolutely. I mean, and I think it's fair to point a little bit of fingers at this even though I know we're not comparing regions.
It is quite the outlier in this data. And you know, you just mentioned we've been talking about it and I'm going talk about it again. And it's transparency. Employees across Europe increasingly expect transparency and clarity, particularly during periods of transformation.
And I think AI adoption is just a really good example of that. The trust does exist, but employees want to understand how decisions are being made, how AI will be used and what it means for them before they're willing to extend it.
And when it comes to specifically AI integration, again, this this, statistic in trusting, it doesn't really represent how we're feeling about AI across the continent and in The UK because 62% of employees view AI positively at work and 70% believe it actually does improve productivity. But the vast majority of employees across Europe say that AI needs to be carefully managed to protect privacy and ensure transparency.
And so I think that's what needs to be amplified to build that trust is transparency.
CARLEE: Just this feeling of change fatigue and trust is often eroded when employees feel change is happening faster than communication, support, involvement can keep up. Many employees feel they're being asked to adapt before they even fully understand what that change means for their roles, career, their future opportunities.
In Canada specifically, more than half of employees report that they use generative AI at work, but 83% say that they still need more training or guidance.
If leaders can amplify one element to help employees feel more confident about the future, I agree, Caroline, it's 100% transparency.
But also care. In a region where AI adoption, workforce transformation, and economic pressures are occurring simultaneously, transparent communication and treating employees with care helps employees move from uncertainty to understanding and from understanding to trust.
NADIA: I was curious as to how different generation sentiment affects these results. So unfortunately, the research confirmed my hypothesis that that trust sentiment drops after Gen Y, more than halving by the time it gets to Boomers in APAC and The Americas.
And in Europe, the decrease is even more pronounced. IMEA bucks that trend for Gen X, but then drops off dramatically for Boomers.
So my question is, how are we actually being accountable to these generations who are being left behind with these shifts in technology? And how are we actually creating an experience that's inclusive for them in these circumstances as they potentially wind up their careers.
And I think that's a really important consideration.
MEGHAN: Yeah. It obviously dovetails out of what we just talked about. Right? Where it's like if you have growth opportunities where it is a mutual partnership and it's embedded holistically and you recognise along the way people don't feel like they're going to be left behind.
That anxiety, that stress that a lot of us are feeling as we take on in our careers, we become valued part of the organisation and you have this cross functional learning between systems and people and mentoring and new opportunities for development that you wouldn't otherwise if you can leverage these generational strengths together.
I would encourage everyone to go and check out our State of Generations report that Nadia was pulling some things from in addition to what we have here in our Global Culture Report. Candy, can you round us out for this section?
CANDY: For IMEA, the challenge really isn't AI adoption. I think we lead with it. In India, 80% of employees are already using AI at work multiple times a week.
41% of them use it every day. And with the Middle East, that number is as high as 75% outpacing the global average.
Where I see the pressure really on is on care.
Employees want to know, will I have the skills to succeed? Not just are we adopting AI? Will I be supported through the transition? Will my contributions still matter?
But I also see some gaps with reliability and safety maybe because with all of this, they also want to know that the decisions that are made during this change, are they consistent or they are also ever changing? Is it safe to ask questions? Is it safe to learn and maybe not have all the answers all the time?
So from an opportunity, the strongest signal leaders can send to experience care is we're investing in your future, not just in new technology.
People matter as much as progress does. So whether it's re-skilling or coaching or pure learning or career development, ultimately, care is experienced in knowing that the organisation is committed to helping your people succeed in an AI enabled future.
MEGHAN: Yeah, that's a great summation. You know, I've heard a lot of you say our regions have a lot of adoption around AI, people use it frequently.
Here's the truth behind some of those numbers that only 31% actually report trusting AI at the end of the day. We may use it, but we don't trust those systems.
But here's what's also very interesting that 62% of employees say they trust people when they don't trust systems.
And that tells us something really important that we can really leverage these relationships to sustain trust even as technology falls short or maybe, some of these efforts around implementation may fall short.
But when we lose trust in our people and our systems, that's when everything fractures entirely, which really leads me to my next question. And Nadia, I want to point back to you for this one. How do you rebuild trust? What does our research say?
NADIA: Yeah. I think what really stood out to me is that rebuilding trust isn't primarily a communication challenge. It's a behaviour challenge.
The strongest drivers of active trust are leaders taking responsibility, acknowledging when trust has been damaged and actually addressing concerns sincerely and then demonstrating meaningful change.
So perhaps the question isn't, hey, how do we get employees to trust the transformation we're doing? But rather, how are we actively earning trust throughout the transformation?
Because speed might get us implementation, but trust is ultimately what drives adoption.
CAROLINE: I love that, Nadia. And I think that ownership isn't really something that we've talked about yet, and it's a massive part of the equation. Trust is built or rebuilt through evidence, not intent.
And as you mentioned, it grows when employees repeatedly see leaders listening, taking responsibility and following through. And I think it's that ownership and transparency that becomes credibility and it's that credibility that then earns the trust.
CANDY: And to your point, Caroline, on leaders listening, I think trust isn't built because leaders get everything right. It's built when leaders respond well when things don't go as planned.
Now what people wanna see is leaders who listen and take responsibility as well as acknowledge concerns and provide meaningful support because people just want to know they're not navigating the future alone.
MEGHAN: Yeah. One of the things that really helps you feel like you're not in this alone is recognition. So when that is frequent and it's meaningful, it just provides that sense of connection and validation that employees need to build and rebuild trust, the trust that's necessary to help them perform at their best.
So with all of this, Nadia, what are some things we should be considering across change and trust and transformation, AI? What are your thoughts here?
NADIA: Yeah. For me, it raises an interesting question. Are we actually spending as much time helping employees feel recognised and connected through the change as we are focusing on the change itself? Because trust ultimately is not built through grand announcements. It's built through everyday experiences that people have with their leaders and the organisation.
MEGHAN: Now the interesting thing is that it is built in the grand announcements and in the micro experiences people have every day. We need to experience that at all levels.
Candy, can you share a little bit more about an organisation in IMEA that is making trust active through recognition?
CANDY: Well, a great example of an organisation that is intentionally building for the future while keeping people at its centre is Newgen. Now Newgen is a software company serving more than 500 customers across 74 different countries. But they understand that AI isn't just another technology wave. For them, the question goes beyond how do we adopt AI to now, how do we become AI native?
So they're not really embedding AI just into employees work internally, but even into how they deliver value to customers externally.
And what really stands out with Newgen is that early recognition that future readiness isn't just about technology. It's about ensuring that the people are ready for what's next.
And that's exactly the thinking behind their initiative "Ahead of What's Ahead," which is focused on preparing the organisation for evolving customer expectations, new business opportunities in this rapidly changing world of work.
As Kashish shared, "at Newgen, we see recognition as a strategic trust builder in an AI shaped workplace. Ahead of What's Ahead reflects our commitment to preparing both our people and culture for what comes next, while keeping humanity at the centre. We use technology to amplify recognition, but authentic leadership and appreciation make people feel genuinely seen, valued and connected."
I love that because what makes it so powerful is that Newgen realizes that in this ever changing world of work, trust and recognition are foundational to the human experience. So they've built it into their cultural priorities, reinforced it with their leadership principles alongside building an AI enabled workforce. Newgen is using AI to scale the business, but they are using recognition to scale trust.
MEGHAN: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, as you point out, you know, recognition, it really amplifies trust and conditions where trust is in short supply, especially here with AI.
Because look at this, without trust in people or systems, employees are 68% less likely to produce great work. But with recognition, employees are 10 times more likely to trust their colleagues' judgment and 16 times more likely to believe technology reduces risk rather than creates it.
So recognition helps rebuild the confidence in people and systems to help drive that healthy sustainable performance.
Well, we have talked at length today about how compassion creates conditions for growth and how trust gives people and organisations the confidence to progress and now how together they can unlock innovation. But innovation requires something that organisations can struggle to give employees and that's a sense of freedom.
Especially in uncertain times, leaders often respond by tightening control or adding approvals, increasing oversight and reducing any risk of error. And that really feels like the safest pathway forward but our research found the exact opposite.
We gotta let go. And why is that?
Because the controls that are designed to reduce risk are frequently the very barriers that prevent innovation from taking hold in the first place.
Just ask Matt from our focus group. He said this, "companies say they want innovation but then they stay stagnant because it's always worked this way. You have to take chances, many, even small changes to keep up. Employees are the voice because we're living it."
So it's really no surprise that 33% of employees say they're innovators, just a third. But double that say they wish that they were doing more.
Now the good news here is that it feels like a trade off between innovation and control. And that's not what we're recommending at all. It doesn't have to be that. Innovation doesn't require unlimited freedom, budget, resources.
It just requires trust, support, and acknowledgment. And when leaders create an environment where employees are encouraged to think, share, and act, innovation moves from this singular moment where we expect employees to just pull a rabbit out of a hat into a process that's amplified as part of their everyday work.
So let's unpack how the trust index functions. So the first is creative thinking where employees feel empowered to solve problems, generate ideas, improve how their work gets done. And when they have the trust and the autonomy to do that, the odds of thinking creatively improve by nine times.
Next is where employees feel safe sharing ideas or challenging the status quo and seeing their feedback drive actionable change. And when organisations have those clear channels for sharing ideas upward which we can probably say many frontline organisations maybe struggle with, sharing increases by 15 times. So access and channels and communication really matter here.
And lastly, act. Right? Do we have the ability for our people to implement their ideas and overcome obstacles and setbacks? And here's the big one here.
When employees are rewarded for trying new things even if they fail, the odds of acting again increases by seven times.
So cool. And of course, all of this leads to a more adaptable, elastic, innovative organisation where employees are 17 times more ready to solve new problems, save the company money and improve customer satisfaction.
Now here's our last regional glance of the day. So let's get to it with Europe at 26, Asia Pacific 33, IMEA 59 and Americas 37.
So Nadia, coming back to you here.
What major barriers and they could be intentional or unintentional, sometimes we do these things on purpose, sometimes we just don't know what's going on. What exists in your region that are holding people back and what are some recommendations you have for removing some of these barriers?
NADIA: Well, Meghan, I'm fairly confident that the barrier to innovation in the APAC region, at least, is not a lack of ideas. It's the mountains of red tape we've put around those. We have all worked with organisations that talk about being agile, but it takes six approvals to change a sentence in a policy.
CAROLINE: Yeah. I would agree with that, Nadia. Our people have ideas, but I don't think they always feel like they have permission or even know how to act on them.
So to your point, you know, how do we encourage innovation without compromising this red tape? Because in reality, governance, quality, and deadlines, those things are all necessary, but they do create friction, and they get in the way of this, you know, of this think, share, act journey that we want our employees to go on.
And I think one way we can do that is to help organisations be clear about the expectations around innovation in order to encourage it. So really defining what guardrails do actually matter and give employees clarity about where they can challenge assumptions and experiment with new ideas. And that way we're creating confidence to innovate within the boundaries rather than feeling constrained by them.
CANDY: I also think it's in the way innovation has evolved. It isn't a special project or the responsibility of just a few people anymore. Well, in this new world of work, employees are being asked to innovate every day. You're expected to think differently, share what they're learning and continuously adapt how work gets done.
And unfortunately, many of our systems were designed for a slower, more predictable world, that's a challenge.
NADIA: If people understand the organisation's purpose, the values, the risk boundaries in place, can we not trust them to make decisions closer to the work? I think APAC organisations, and it sounds like really the rest of the world, already employ the innovation that they need. The real question is what in your organisation is preventing it from being expressed and acted on?
CARLEE: All valid points. And Nadia, you brought it up again. I think going back to our previous conversation around trust, the solution starts with building trust before asking for innovation. Employees are far more willing to think differently, share ideas, and take action when they believe they'll be supported rather than getting a slap on the wrist if it doesn't work out.
Meghan shared that organisations with active trust are significantly more likely to innovate. So the focus should be on creating environments where experimentation is encouraged, learning is recognised, and employees are involved in shaping change.
When leaders provide clarity, recognise innovative thinking, and make responsible risk taking feel safe, innovation becomes part of everyday work rather than reserved for special initiatives.
MEGHAN: Yeah, I think you bring up such an important point because as we talk about a lot of these barriers, one of the biggest, if not the biggest in each one of these categories is actually the lack of recognition.
So if we are not recognising people for thinking creatively, the odds of them doing that again decreased by ninety three percent. Which means we are already upending our innovation process by not even allowing people to think creatively. They're not going to have actual ideas to share or act upon.
And then sharing, the odds of that go down by 96%. That's the largest in that category. Trying something new, 82%.
I think we've all been there, when we feel like our thoughts don't matter, when what we share is not acknowledged, that you know trying something new. People feel like they live in a zone of failure, right?
They know the stakes are high, the economy is high pressure. And if they don't have that support and that encouragement, and you heard those statistics a little bit earlier, if you recognise people even when they fail, the odds of them acting again increased by seven times.
Again, recognition just helps rewire a lot of what's fundamentally blocking us in our innovation today.
So why does recognition work? Because recognising at each step of the innovation process again encourages that progress and it just helps employees overcome obstacles that they may run into. So Candy, how can leaders better recognise their employees across the think, share, act process?
CANDY: In one, Meghan, I think this innovation process is such a significant journey that leaders can have such an impact on their employees' life cycle.
Look, people need space to think, not just execute. They need confidence that when they share an idea, it will be heard. And they need support to act, to experiment, to learn without feeling that every decision must be right or perfect.
So think for leaders, the opportunity isn't to ask for more innovation, it's to make innovation easier. Remove unnecessary barriers, create learning and support systems around change, and recognise progress along the journey.
When leaders are able to do that, innovation becomes part of the way we work and it just happens every day. It becomes so organic. I think that's what makes it sustainable both for performance and well-being.
NADIA: I agree with that, Candy. I think too often we're celebrating the innovation that succeeds rather than recognising the behaviours that make innovation possible.
It's the visibility that recognition provides not only on what was achieved and what was innovated, but more importantly, how. So the behaviours that led to that innovation that makes a real difference.
MEGHAN: Yeah. I think that's such an important call out. It's not just the results or the outcome or the process. It's really the behaviours that are driving those outcomes and processes in the first place. So, Caroline, can you tell us a little bit more about a company in your region that's doing this well?
CARLOLINE: I can.
A company who is doing this beautifully here in Europe is Johnson Matthey. Johnson Matthey is a science led organisation operating in a very highly regulated industry. So they understand that balance between innovation and governance and quality and risk management that we were talking about better than most.
But Johnson Matthey has been very intentional about creating conditions for innovation to happen.
And they've put a big focus across the entire organisation on becoming more agile and less bureaucratic. And what makes them such a perfect relevant example for this research is that in the Global Culture Report, you know, it shows how innovation doesn't happen in a single breakthrough moment.
And one of the conversations we've been having with Johnson Matthey is how recognition can be used much earlier in the innovation process rather than waiting until a result is delivered. Using these micro moments of recognition helps to move ideas forward.
And it could be anything from someone sharing an idea for improvement to collaborating across functions to solve a problem or taking that pivotal step of turning an idea into an action.
And that is incredibly powerful because for a company like Johnson Matthey, which is focused on continuous improvement, using recognition in this way reinforces the behaviours that they want repeated. And it creates an opportunity to make innovation visible across the whole organisation, which is in turn going to encourage more employees to contribute to innovate as part of their everyday work.
And to echo all of this, we have Jocelyn Wang, the Group Rewards Integration Manager, saying that, "innovation doesn't happen because someone had a great idea. It happens because people feel confident enough to share their ideas, challenge assumptions, and keep experimenting until something works. At Johnson Matthey, we use recognition to reinforce those moments of curiosity, contribution, and experimentation, helping innovation become part of everyday work rather than a single breakthrough event."
And I think that is an excellent way to encourage innovation.
MEGHAN: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I love the statistic coming out of this that employees are 21 times more likely to innovate when they're recognised for each step of that innovation process, think, share, and act, exactly what Johnson Matthey is doing.
Well, as we wrap up, I just wanna thank all of you for joining us, our exceptional panelists, sharing your regional insights.
And I really hope that you can see that growth, compassion, trust and innovation are all achievable and sustainable. High performance happens when organisations support their people as they do great work, day after day, through integrated, personalised, flexible culture by design. And one of the best ways to amplify and design your culture is through recognition.
So a few key takeaways before we wrap up today.
We need to create organisational compassion through frequent, equitable recognition that ensures every employee feels valued, supported, and included.
We need to build a growth culture that's mutually beneficial to employees and the organisation by recognising effort, progress, and milestones and all that behaviours, not just results.
We need to activate trust by recognising employees in meaningful tangible ways that reinforce their value, authenticity, and unique contributions.
And lastly, unlock innovation by recognising every stage of the innovation process regardless of the outcome.
Well, to help you bring these principles to life in your organisation, we have created a brand new leader toolkit. This is a digital resource available on octanner.com to help you enable your leaders to amplify performance through each one of these core findings.
It's interactive, insightful, very actionable, and I hope that it will help you on your path forward.
Feel free to download the Global Culture Report. We got a quick snapshot today. There's so much more to digest in there. And for those who have been waiting, here are the codes for SHRM and HRCI.
Thank you so much again for joining us. Thanks to our panelists and we'll see you back here next year for 2028.
