Inside the People operating systems of nearly 2,000 companies running performance, engagement, and HRIS as one discipline — not three.
The leading People teams in 2026 stopped treating reviews as an annual event and engagement as a survey. They built one system on top of unified people data and let AI do the work that used to live in spreadsheets and managers' heads. This benchmark unpacks the patterns separating those teams from the rest.
The People function is splitting in two. One half is still running annual cycles, sentiment surveys, and disconnected HRIS modules. The other half has unified the data, automated the cycles, and turned managers from a bottleneck into a leverage point. The benchmark draws the line.
of US employees report being actively engaged at work — a 12-year low. The teams reversing it are the ones running engagement continuously, not quarterly.
of the variance in team engagement is explained by the manager. The teams investing in manager performance see retention compound where peers see churn.
average HR tools per company at 2,000+ headcount. The teams consolidating onto unified people data move faster and build AI that actually works.
Sources: Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2025; Gallup Q12 manager research; HR Tech Stack Survey 2025. Benchmark dataset: 1,940 companies analyzed Q1 2026.
112 pages. Four function playbooks — CHRO, Head of People Ops, VP Talent Development, Head of Total Rewards. The full operating system behind the People teams running performance, engagement, and HRIS as one discipline, including the AI patterns that turn the system from a reporting layer into a working tool.
Get the ReportThe People teams in the top quartile aren't doing more — they're operating on different assumptions. Three shifts separate them from everyone else, and the report unpacks each with the data behind it.
The annual review is a relic. The teams gaining ground are running goal check-ins, peer feedback, and 1:1s on a continuous cadence — and using AI to compose summaries managers used to write by hand on a Friday afternoon.
Performance, engagement, and HRIS were three buying decisions and three integrations. The teams that consolidated onto unified people data moved 4x faster on the AI work — because the AI finally has the context to be useful. Disconnected systems mean shallow models.
The biggest unlock isn't a new survey methodology — it's giving managers the AI assist they actually need: meeting summaries, feedback drafts, calibration prep, performance signal. Top teams don't just measure managers; they make them better.
The report's organized around three roles that share one outcome — a People system that compounds across performance, engagement, and HRIS. Each section reads cleanly on its own, with the patterns, plays, and quiet anti-patterns mapped to the work that role actually owns.
Where People programs drift from business strategy, and how leading CHROs realign without slowing the field. Includes the four conversations Jenny Podewils ran with peer Co-CEOs and CHROs heading into 2026 planning.
What separates People programs that compound from programs that hit the same engagement floor every year. Goals, feedback, 1:1s, reviews, surveys, comp — mapped against the operations and analytics layer that actually moves them.
People analytics that holds up when the CFO asks the second question. Definitions, governance, and the data infrastructure choices that make the difference between a People function that drives planning and one that gets cut from it.
The companies running People & Performance at scale don't share an industry, a size, or a stage. They share a discipline. A representative cross-section of the dataset behind the report.
Customer roster representative. Logos shown as wordmarks for portfolio rendering; replace with brand assets at deploy.
112 pages. Four function playbooks. The patterns and anti-patterns that separate the People teams setting the pace from the ones still running annual cycles and disconnected stacks.
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