The 2026 Healthcare Employee Recognition Report
The 30% Gap: Why Healthcare Workers Feel Valued by Managers, Not by Organisations
With 18% of healthcare workers and 17% of nurses leaving their roles in the past year, the disconnect between local appreciation and organisational recognition is a risk leaders cannot afford to ignore. This report breaks down five evidence-based findings:
1. The Recognition Gap
Why 72.83% of staff feel valued by their manager—but only 42.95% feel valued by their organisation.
2. The Clinical Divide
Why clinical staff lag behind non-clinical peers on recognition, voice, and wellbeing.
3. Retention and Safety
The link between recognition, learning culture, and whether nurses stay.
4. Adult Social Care
Recognition challenges in a sector needing over 400,000 replacement workers by 2035.
5. What Effective Recognition Looks Like
Five principles that make appreciation meaningful across every role and shift.
What’s inside the full report:
- 2025 NHS Staff Survey analysis (766,285 responses)
- Perceptyx 2026 healthcare benchmark data
- Press Ganey Nurse Experience 2025 retention findings
- UK Government adult social care workforce projections
- 30/60/90-day recognition action plan
- Measurement framework for recognition ROI