According to a new report for September 2026 from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index, just 42.9% of employees surveyed had a positive six-month outlook for their employer’s business, down from 44.5% last month.

The data comes from a Glassdoor survey question that asks employees to rate their company’s six-month business outlook as “positive,” “neutral,” or “negative.”

“Over the last year, employee confidence has continued to grind lower as anxiety around job security, economic uncertainty, and inflation mount,” the report states.

It goes on to say that mentions of “recession” in Glassdoor reviews rose 6% year over year, while mentions of “layoffs” rose by 13%, “inflation” by 22%, “uncertainty” by 84% and “AI” by 164%, all of which “point to a rising tide of anxiety among workers.”

Other recent studies, including from Gallup and the American Psychological Association, have similarly found that artificial intelligence is driving American workers’ fears about job security.

Only three industries exhibited increased employee confidence compared with September 2025 (you might be at risk of losing employees to these industries if their skills are transferable:

• pharmaceutical and biotechnology (6.4 percentage points)
• transportation and logistics (3.6 percentage points)
• energy, mining and utilities (1.8 percentage points).

Entry-level employees’ confidence dropped by 4.1 percentage points in the last year, while midlevel employees’ fell 1.9 points. Senior employees’ confidence, however, had an increase of 4.6 points.

“Entry level workers continue to face a difficult job market with limited opportunities,” the report says, “even for the workers who have been able to find a job.”

To mitigate employee anxiety, integrate and focus on organizational effectiveness initiatives. 

What Is Needed to Fix This?

“Everyone wants to succeed personally. And everyone wants to contribute to their company’s success.” 

Organizational development is a structured approach to improving an organization’s effectiveness including its culture, processes, and ability to adapt to change.

While organizational development can involve changes to systems, structures, and processes, people are at the center of successful organizational change.

Organizations today face constant changes in technology, customer expectations, workforce needs, and business strategy. As a result, organizations can’t rely on a one-time strategic plan and expect it to remain effective indefinitely.

Successful organizational development creates an environment where people understand the organization’s direction, have opportunities to contribute, and have the skills and support needed to adapt.

So, what makes organizational development successful?

Here are seven key principles organizations can use to create meaningful, sustainable change.

Key Takeaways

• Organizational development (OD) is a systematic approach to improving how an organization functions, adapts, and develops its people.
• Successful organizational development requires more than a strategic plan. It requires employee involvement, trust, collaboration, continuous learning, and feedback.
• Organizational change is more effective when leaders consider teams and systems—not just individual employees.
• Diversity of thought can strengthen organizational development by bringing different perspectives, experiences, skills, and approaches into decision-making.
• Talent assessments can provide organizations with insight into behaviors, motivators, acumen, emotional intelligence, competencies, and other factors that influence workplace performance.
• The most effective organizational development strategies connect people, culture, teams, leadership, and business goals.

1. Involve Employees in Decision-Making

Organizational development should not be something that happens to employees. It should happen with them.

Historically, strategic planning often happened primarily among senior leaders. Executives developed the plan, managers communicated it, and employees were expected to implement it.

That approach can create a disconnect between organizational strategy and the people responsible for carrying it out.

“Employee involvement creates another path.”

When employees have opportunities to contribute ideas, identify problems, provide feedback, and participate in decisions that affect their work, they can develop a stronger understanding of—and connection to—the organization’s goals.

How To Involve Employees in Organizational Development

Organizations can:

• Ask employees to identify operational challenges.
• Include employees in process-improvement initiatives.
• Create cross-functional working groups.
• Gather feedback before implementing major changes.
• Give employees ownership over areas within their expertise.
• Communicate how employee input influenced decisions.

The objective isn’t to involve every employee in every decision.

Instead, organizations should give people meaningful opportunities to influence the decisions and changes that affect their work.

One solution: Implement Employee Engagement Surveys, sometimes called Employee Pulse Surveys, to identify and track strengths and gaps in Culture, Leadership, Operations, Work Management, Accountability, and Collaboration across organizational groups. The key is to follow-through with tangible change initiatives that address the most critical gaps. The Nielson Group provides design, implementation, administration, data analytics and presentation for employee engagement services.

2. Focus Organizational Change on Teams and Systems

Organizational problems are rarely caused by one person alone.

If a department consistently misses deadlines, for example, the solution may not be to find an individual to blame. The underlying issue could involve unclear priorities, inefficient workflows, communication breakdowns, insufficient resources, competing goals, or unclear responsibilities.

That’s why effective organizational development looks beyond individual performance. The employment engagement survey data can pinpoint with accuracy the early indicators of gaps. Whereas teams are made up of people with individual talent. The most effective teams have the right people in the right seats.

Questions Leaders Can Ask:

• Where are the organization’s recurring bottlenecks?
• Which processes consistently slow teams down?
• Where do communication breakdowns occur?
• Are responsibilities clearly defined?
• Do teams have the resources and skills they need?
• Are different departments working toward competing priorities?
• What systems are making it harder for people to succeed?

Looking at team building, processes, and systems can help organizations identify root causes rather than simply treating symptoms.

In addition to organizational data, talent data can also contribute to this process by helping organizations understand how people and teams naturally communicate, approach work, respond to change, and collaborate.

One solution: The Nielson Group provides team and individual talent assessments. As a certified provider of TTI Success Insights assessments and recognized expert in team development workshop delivery, we give teams a shared language for understanding individual differences and how those differences affect the way a team works together. Team reports bring individual assessment results together, helping teams see collective strengths, areas of alignment, potential gaps, and opportunities for greater collaboration.

Whether you're building a new team, improving an existing team, or integrating a new employee, The Nielson Group provides the insights to help people understand themselves and each other.

3. Build Trust Across the Organization

Trust is foundational to organizational development.

Employees are more likely to contribute ideas, communicate problems, collaborate with colleagues, and participate in change when they believe their organization and leaders will respond constructively.