Career Pathing Is a Retention Lever You’re Not Pulling
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager Ask most L&D or HR leaders what keeps them up at night, and retention and engagement are likely near the top of the list. Ask what’s behind those numbers, and the conversation usually turns to compensation, workload, or the quality of managers. But new research from Wiley Workplace Intelligence suggests there’s another piece of the puzzle worth paying attention to. After surveying 1,459
Apple picking or haunted houses?
Watching a football game or reading by the fireplace? Your favorite fall activity might reveal more about how you approach teamwork than you think! You might be a D style if… you love fall football. Do you thrive on the energy and competition of a football game? At work, this could translate into rallying people around a goal, celebrating wins, and keeping momentum going! You might be the person who gets everyone excited about what’s
The Guilt Loop: Why Time Off Doesn’t Always Feel Like Time Off
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager Picture the last time you took a real day off. Maybe you closed your laptop, put your phone in another room, and told yourself you’d earned it. And then, somewhere around 10am, you opened your email anyway. Just to check. Just in case. Before you know it, you’ve responded to emails and chat messages, checked a presentation, and put in an hour of
The Ripple Effect of Stress at Work
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager Have you ever wondered if moods are contagious? Picture it: you walk into the office or fire up the computer on a Monday morning, and your colleagues are happily chatting about their weekends. They have coffee in hand, a smile on their faces, and are excited to start a new day. Suddenly, the stress of an irritating commute or frazzled school drop-off doesn’t
The AI Gap No One is Talking About
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager It feels like not too long ago that Wiley’s Workplace Intelligence research into AI (artificial intelligence) adoption painted a picture of a hesitant but curious workforce that had heard of this new technology but had not had the training or opportunity to start leveraging these tools with any regularity. In contrast, the world of work in 2026 is saturated with news of different
The Quiet Erosion of Hope at Work
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager After what has been a tumultuous few years in the corporate world, many conversations about the employee experience have naturally illuminated where things are broken. Words that have risen to surface include: burnout, disengagement, Quiet Quitting, and The Great Pile-On. The vocabulary of a workforce at its limit. But a different question is worth asking: what about hope? Are people experiencing any joy
The Surprising Truth About Motivation During Uncertainty
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager Alignment. Often thrown around as a corporate buzzword, alignment is the ultimate goal in any organization. Despite its importance, alignment is often seen as a best-case scenario or a nice-to-have (especially during times of uncertainty where high risk-high reward initiatives are more common). Especially in the wildly unstable corporate world of 2026, it’s not uncommon for leaders to move forward before alignment is
Why Higher-Performance Demands Aren’t the Enemy
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager In the wake of The Great Pile-On, managers are left wondering how to lead in a corporate environment that never slows down. They’re balancing overwhelmed teams navigating heavier workloads and decreased flexibility with executive leaders focused on keeping the organization afloat. Does this sound familiar? Wiley Workplace Intelligence wanted to understand how the trends that led to The Great Pile-On (which we explored
The Great Pile-On: When Workloads Rise and Career Growth Stalls
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager Across organizations, a quiet shift is happening that’s hard to define. It may feel like emails and meeting requests are piling up and tasks are no longer fitting the job description. As organizations responded to budget constraints, workforce reductions, and accelerating change in 2025, an important—but less visible—shift began to take hold. Rather than unfolding through large-scale restructurings or formal change initiatives, the
Creating Exceptional Work Cultures: Insights on Leadership and Team Development
In this episode of High Velocity Radio, hosted by Stone Payton, Laura discusses her transition from a corporate career to coaching, focusing on leadership and team development. She emphasizes the importance of emotional intelligence, trust, and psychological safety in creating empowering work cultures. Laura shares insights on using assessments like Everything DiSC® to improve team dynamics and highlights the rewarding aspects of her work, including witnessing clients thrive. The episode underscores the significance of empathy,
HR and L&D Leaders Predict the Top 5 Challenges for 2026
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager 2025 was…a lot. As Wiley’s research revealed many times over the course of the year, employees were struggling. From individual contributors to the C-suite and people managers in between, last year was a doozy. Marked by rapid change, instability, and a slightly dichotomous leap into the future with increasing AI adoption and into the pre-pandemic past with a sweeping move back to the
Top Ten Insights from 2025: Stress, Change, and the Power of People
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager As we reflect on a year when change was constant and pressure was high, one thing became abundantly clear: the workplace isn’t just evolving, it’s being reshaped in real time. Over the last year, Wiley Workplace Intelligence has continued to listen deeply, analyze thoroughly, and translate our learning into practical insights designed to help organizations thrive. Here are the top ten findings from
Performance Starts with People: Unlocking the Human Drivers of Workplace Success
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager In today’s climate of constant change, organizations are striving to stay resilient, innovative, and productive. But according to recent data from Wiley Workplace Intelligence, the key to long-term success isn’t just found in systems or strategy, it’s found in people. How well people work together lies at the heart of every business and is essential to its longevity. Skills once labeled “soft”—like giving
Why Most Employees Aren’t Thriving and What You Can Do About It
Motivation is a magical thing. It’s a sweet spot where people feel compelled to act, driven by the promise of something meaningful, whether that’s a promotion, a sense of purpose, or simply the satisfaction of a job well done. But motivation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s a delicate balance of internal drive and external conditions. And right now, that balance is off. As organizations continue to shift back toward pre-pandemic norms (mandating more in-office
Giving Constructive Feedback
Do Your Managers Struggle to Give Effective Feedback? Empower them with the skills to turn every conversation into an opportunity for growth and engagement. Everything DiSC® Worksmart on Catalyst is an essential tool for managers which helps them tackle real-world challenges in the moment, with confidence. This innovative learning experience combines trusted DiSC® insights with focused, one-hour training sessions, and on-demand action planning to support managers as they address critical issues that impact team performance.
Empowerment is a Leadership Skill
By Janelle Beck, Wiley Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Wiley Research Manager Empowerment is more than a trendy buzzword. Exemplary leaders already know how important it is to match their behavior with their words to Model the Way. Creating a culture of empowerment that drives results is no different. As the world and workplace continue to evolve at a rapid pace, what makes people feel empowered in their organizations, especially in the face
Navigating the AI Era: Five Key Insights for Managing Change
By Janelle Beck, Wiley Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Wiley Research Manager We’ve spent a fair amount of time talking about change over the last few years, and that’s for good reason. After decades in a predictable stasis, the world of work has become about as unpredictable as the weather. One day things are moving towards stability and calm, a “new normal.” Then the markets shift, policies change, and everything swings in a
Rethinking Empowerment: How to Turn Employee Potential into Action
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager Like many aspects of the modern workplace, what was once formulaic and predictable has become more nuanced. As work models, priorities, budgets, and the influence of politics on business continue to evolve, things that were once clear-cut now demand a deeper look and more thoughtful approach. Take empowerment, for example. It used to simply mean that someone had the skills, and the permission,
The Power of Constructive Feedback in Organizational Culture
By Janelle Beck, Wiley Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Wiley Research Manager The world of work is at yet another inflection point. With whiplash-inducing culture changes, priority shifts, and a tense job market keeping everyone holding on to whatever stability they can find, things are feeling…on edge. While giving and receiving feedback may feel like the last thing someone wants to do when their job feels tenuous, learning how to communicate it effectively
Why Constructive Conflict Is Key to Thriving Workplaces
By Janelle Beck, Senior Copy Editor & Tracey Carney EdD, Research Manager Most people spend their lives, especially their professional lives, tiptoeing around conflict. Often thought of as something to be avoided at all costs, conflict gets a bad rap. When handled respectfully, honestly, and with good intentions in an environment of trust, learning how to work through conflict can be the difference between good organizational cultures and those that stew in toxic dynamics, impacting