Inside Employees’ Minds 2026: Healthcare employees remain under pressure 

Will staff in healthcare keep showing up when coverage is thin, career prospects are slim, and the work keeps changing for the worse? Employers may be about to find out. 

Taking a closer look at data from the healthcare industry in Mercer’s Inside Employees’ Minds 2026 report, we found that while some other sectors like high tech and finance may have seen workforce pressures ease this year, the strain on healthcare workers has reached a breaking point — with many practitioners feeling increased burnout and unable to afford the very care they provide. 

Employees in this year’s data were clear about what must change to make staying a smart choice: they need staffing and schedules they can count on, pay and progression that feel fair, and plain‑language signals about how AI will reshape workflows and which skills will matter next.  

Overall sentiment among healthcare workers has not improved since the last full Inside Employees’ Minds survey in 2023. Only 58% say they feel energized at work, compared with 67% across all industries. Feelings of belonging have also declined more sharply in healthcare than elsewhere, falling eight points since 2023 to 72%, while the all-industry average dipped just one point to 77%.

These gaps matter because they sit alongside high expectations and heavy demands. Healthcare is a sector facing talent shortages, thin margins, rising costs, increased public scrutiny and growing patient needs. In that context, investment in the employee experience often competes with more immediate operational pressures. The result is a workforce that may be deeply committed to care, but increasingly uncertain about whether the system will support them over time.

Financial pressure compounds that uncertainty. Only 65% of healthcare workers say the cost of care does not limit their ability to seek care for themselves or their families, compared with 72% across all industries. For a workforce responsible for delivering care, that affordability gap colors how work is experienced overall. 

Burnout is the shadow we see underscoring this year’s healthcare industry data. As more is asked of clinical and support teams and supports erode, employees describe conditions that typically accompany high levels of stress and lower levels of well-being: heavy workloads, variable schedules, difficulty using paid time off, and ongoing financial strain.  

These are typically not strategic fissures, but operational ones. Employees judge sustainability through everyday experience: whether staffing holds, whether schedules change at the last minute, and whether taking time off creates additional burden for colleagues. Only 61% of healthcare workers say the workload their organization expects for their role is reasonable, and only 47% indicate they can adjust when they start and stop work during the day to accommodate their needs — a number on the decline since 2023. Only 79% of healthcare workers say they are even able to take time off they are owed — and 38% indicate specifically that more time off would most benefit their mental well-being and reduce burnout, a significant increase over the average of 29% across all industries.  

Despite these pressures, many healthcare workers choose to stay with their current employer. In fact, healthcare engagement and intent to remain have stayed relatively resilient versus 2023 — 71% say they are not seriously considering a switch, versus 73% across all industries. 

But the data also indicates there may be limits to that commitment. Only 66% of healthcare workers believe their career goals can be met where they are, a number on the decline from 2023, and below the overall average of 73%. Lower confidence in career progression and declining belonging create a fragile equilibrium: employees continue to show up, but they are watching closely for signals that staying will lead somewhere.

When advancement paths are unclear or progress feels stalled, loyalty becomes provisional rather than durable. Only 67% of healthcare workers said their organization motivates them to give their best, a decline of 6 percentage points since 2023.  

Questions about skills and career progression sit at the center of this tension. While 82% of healthcare workers say they understand the skills they personally need to progress (roughly in line with the all-industry average), that confidence has dropped seven points since 2023.

More importantly, organizational career guidance lags behind individual understanding. Only 61% say their organization or manager provides information on the skills required to advance — down nine points since 2023 and ten points lower than the all-industry figure.

Reward for skills acquisition is also inconsistent. Just 48% of healthcare workers say they are compensated for newly acquired skills, compared with 60% across all industries. In a sector that requires constant certification and upskilling, that disconnect is consequential. Employees describe accumulating credentials without seeing a clear line to new roles, pay progression, or greater autonomy.

As a result, skill development may feel like maintenance rather than momentum. Without visible pathways that link learning to advancement, even a mission-driven workforce  struggles to see a future for itself inside the system.

When it comes to technology, healthcare workers’ concerns differ from those in other industries. Healthcare employees are less likely than the overall workforce to believe new technologies will make their jobs more frustrating or difficult (36% versus 43% overall), and less likely to fear immediate job loss due to AI (46%, down from 60% in 2023, compared with 53% across all industries). They are also less hopeful about the benefits of technology. Less than half in healthcare say new technologies, such as automation, artificial intelligence or robotics, will help make jobs more efficient or effective — which is well below the cross-industry average.

That distinction makes sense in a world where most patient-facing tasks are unlikely to be overtaken by AI. It suggests the dominant question in healthcare is not whether AI will replace people, but how it will reshape or improve the work they do every day.   

Overall, the AI story in healthcare is one of conditional optimism. Employees see potential, particularly where technology supports care delivery. The research suggests that they are more concerned with clarity and fairness — clear role impacts, realistic timelines, and credible skill pathways — than with the technology itself.

With the accelerated pace of AI-driven change, making the case for addressing well-being and mitigating change fatigue becomes even more consequential.

Ultimately, healthcare employers face a work‑design problem.  There is a fundamental and urgent need to reimagine what the healthcare workforce looks like, and rethink jobs going into 2026 and beyond. The work itself must be rethought and paths for growth visible if healthcare organizations expect to keep workers in these roles.

Leaders should consider these steps to address the experience gap before more healthcare workers desert not only their jobs, but perhaps the industry:

• Re-examine how work is structured day to day.
  Start with the fundamentals: coverage models, schedule predictability, and whether paid time off can realistically be taken. These elements set the baseline for the employee experience, and when they are unstable, other investments may not make a difference.
  
  
• Redesign work for the reality of modern care.
  Many healthcare jobs were designed for a different era. As demand rises and technology changes how care is delivered, organizations must rethink how work is bundled into roles, how responsibilities flow across teams, and where specialization or new roles can reduce overload.  
  
  
• Make career pathways easier to see and trust.
  Employees want clarity on how roles connect, what progression looks like, and how newly acquired skills translate into advancement and pay. Large healthcare systems, in particular, have an opportunity to use their scale to create movement without requiring people to leave the organization to grow.
  
  
• Utilize AI to augment the work, not just as a new tool.
  Employees respond best when there is transparency about how roles will evolve, how responsibilities will shift, and what support will be available during transition. Clear sequencing and realistic expectations matter as much as the technology itself. Use AI to support overburdened staff and allow them to practice to the top of their license.
  
  
• Support managers as key explainers during change.
  In environments where priorities are shifting, employees look to their managers for context — how work fits together, what to focus on, and what can wait. Consistent guidance at this level plays a significant role in maintaining trust.
  
  
• Treat affordability as part of the employee experience.
  When healthcare workers struggle to access care themselves, pay, schedules, and benefits take on added weight. Addressing compensation and progression is not only a financial issue; it is central to credibility with the workforce.
  

Healthcare organizations don’t have to navigate these shifts alone. Our Mercer team advises a wide variety of hospital and healthcare systems working through how to redesign roles, clarify career pathways, and adjust operating models so the work of care is more sustainable for the people delivering it. We help leaders examine how workforce strategy, rewards, skills, and work design come together in practice — particularly in environments where pressures are persistent and change is constant. 

If you have one takeaway from this year’s IEM research it should be this: Healthcare workers are prepared to adapt, to learn, and to recommit — but only if they believe that the environment allows them to succeed. Retention in 2026 and beyond will be won not by asking for more sacrifice, but by designing roles, pathways, and workflows that make the work sustainable and the future more visible.