HR Statistics You Need to Know in 2026

Wed 03 Jun 2026

Angela Tracey-Brown

Product Manager - CMI & CIPD

Two professionals collaborating at a desk with a laptop in a modern office, discussing work and reviewing HR statistics together.

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Human resources sits at the centre of how organisations attract, develop and retain the people they need to succeed.

The data around the profession is changing fast, and keeping up with it matters whether you are building a career in HR, writing about the world of work, or making decisions about your workforce.

This guide brings together the most important HR statistics for 2026, covering employee engagement, retention, hybrid working, AI in HR and HR outsourcing. All figures are drawn from primary research, government bodies and recognised industry sources, with links to the originals at the end of the article.

Employee engagement statistics

Despite a modest recovery, UK engagement levels remain among the lowest in the developed world and the cost to businesses is measurable.

Only 10% of UK employees are fully engaged at work, with 90% described as disengaged or actively disengaged.
Overall UK engagement rose 3% to 65% in 2025, its first increase since the pandemic, but the UK still sits in the bottom 39% globally.
Poor engagement is costing the UK economy an estimated £293.5 billion a year in lost productivity, up from £257 billion in the previous year's report.
Employees in hybrid organisations score 6% higher on engagement than the UK average; those mandated back to the office full-time score 7% lower.
Global employee engagement fell to 20% in 2025, down from 21% in 2024 and 23% in 2023, with experts expecting only marginal growth without stronger development, leadership capability and wellbeing support.

Employee retention statistics

UK attrition is rising and the financial cost of losing talent is significant, yet the majority of departures are preventable.

The average attrition rate across UK tech companies in 2025 was 19%, above the European tech average of 17.4% and representing an 11% increase from 2024.
A quarter (24%) of UK workers want to move jobs in 2026, driven primarily by feeling underpaid (36%), with lack of recognition and a sense it is time to move on tied as the next most-cited reasons.
Replacing an employee typically costs between 50% and 200% of their annual salary, with the upper end of that range applying to senior or specialist roles.
With a great manager and leader in place, employees' commitment to stay is 94%. A poor manager with a poor leader reduces that to 19%.
Three in four employee departures in 2025 were preventable with better leadership, development and work-life balance, based on analysis of over 120,000 exit interviews.

Hybrid working statistics

Hybrid working has become a structural feature of the UK labour market, and the data now reflects a settled pattern that HR professionals need to understand and manage.

28% of working adults in Great Britain worked in a hybrid pattern between January and March 2025, a figure that has gradually risen since March 2022.
74% of UK organisations had hybrid working in place in 2025, down slightly from 84% in 2023.
80% of employees say working flexibly has had a positive impact on their quality of life, while a third believe it has positively affected their career.
Around 1.1 million workers left their jobs in the year to early 2025 due to a lack of flexible working.
71% of employees consider a flexible working pattern important when considering a new role, and 69% say the ability to work remotely is important.
People with degree-level qualifications are around ten times more likely to work hybrid than those without qualifications (41% versus 4%).

For more detail on this topic, our UK remote and hybrid workforce statistics article covers the latest ONS and CIPD data in full.

AI in HR statistics

AI adoption in HR is accelerating. The figures below reflect both the pace of change and the considerable variation in how organisations are approaching it.

39% of HR functions currently have AI adopted, based on a survey of 1,908 HR professionals.
The leading areas for AI adoption in HR are recruiting (27%), HR technology (21%), learning and development (17%) and employee experience (14%).
48% of large businesses are already using agentic AI, compared to 25% of midsized businesses and just 4% of small businesses. Chief HR Officers project 327% growth in AI agent adoption by 2027.
92% of CHROs anticipate that AI will be further integrated into the workforce in 2026, with 87% forecasting greater adoption of AI within HR processes, up from 83% in 2025.
17% of UK employers say AI will cause their headcount to decrease in the next 12 months, with almost two thirds (62%) of those employers believing that clerical, junior managerial, professional or administrative roles are most at risk.

HR outsourcing statistics

HR outsourcing has grown steadily and is now a mainstream strategic choice for organisations of all sizes, not just a cost-cutting measure.

The global HR outsourcing market was valued at approximately $47.2 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $72.4 billion by 2033, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 5.5%.
Around 62% of companies worldwide outsource at least one HR function, with benefits administration (54%) and payroll processing (53%) historically the most commonly outsourced tasks.
Companies that outsource one or more HR functions typically save 20 to 40% compared to those managing all HR functions in-house.

Human resources industry statistics

The HR profession is growing in size and influence, while facing pressure to demonstrate strategic value and adapt to rapid change.

The HR profession in the UK grew by 42% between 2011 and 2021, four times faster than the wider workforce, which grew by just 10%.
89% of HR professionals say their leadership views HR as essential to organisational success, and 53% now report directly to the CEO.
Over 20,000 senior people professional job adverts posted between July 2017 and July 2022 asked for CIPD certification, reflecting how central professional qualifications remain to career progression in HR.
The UK HR provision industry reached an estimated value of £2.3 billion in 2025, having grown 7.9% in that year alone after several years of flatter growth.

Employment law and compliance statistics

Employment law reform is adding significant compliance pressure to UK HR teams in 2026, with the Employment Rights Act introducing the most sweeping changes in a generation.

84% of UK organisations say their employment costs have risen following changes to employer National Insurance contributions in April 2025.
Only 57% of private sector employers planned to recruit in the three months to autumn 2025, down from 65% in autumn 2024, reflecting muted confidence in the hiring market.
18% of employers have experienced an increase in flexible working requests since the introduction of the day one right to request flexible working under the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023.
30% of employees say they would not feel comfortable requesting formal flexible working, despite having the legal right to do so from day one of employment.
Around seven in 10 employers (72%) believe rises to the National Living Wage in April 2026 will increase their employment costs.

What the HR statistics tell us for 2026

Taken together, these human resources statistics describe a profession that is more important than ever, facing more complexity than ever. Rising employment costs, legislative reform, growing AI adoption and persistent engagement and retention challenges are all converging at the same time.

The organisations best placed to respond are those with qualified, confident HR professionals who understand both the strategic and operational demands of the role. That foundation starts with the right training and qualifications.

How MOL Learn can strengthen your HR team

MOL Learn has been helping organisations develop their HR capability for over 40 years. As a CIPD Platinum centre and trusted training partner to over half of the FTSE 100, MOL delivers flexible, results-driven professional qualifications across HR, learning and development, and management and leadership.

Our programmes are designed to be immediately applicable in the workplace, fitting around the demands of a full-time role, and can be tailored to align with an organisation's specific development goals. Whether you are looking to upskill your HR team, support people into management or build a stronger internal L&D function, MOL provides the qualifications and expert support to make it happen.

Reach out to our team now to learn more about our HR courses and L&D courses.

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