CliQ People Index – July 2026
WHAT’S INSIDE
CliQ People Index · July 2026 · Issue 01
How the workforce is really feeling
The CliQ People Index is a monthly read on how employees talk about work when no one from HR is in the room. This issue, negative sentiment leads at 38% — and it clusters in a telling place: the mechanisms companies run at employees (workload, surveys, leadership) draw the sharpest criticism, while the structures employees build with each other (mentorship, community) draw the most warmth.
This month, workers are sending a clear signal to their employers: nobody trusts the employee survey. Our data shows employee surveys are common during the summer months, but sentiment continues to trend extremely negative. Not only do employees distrust the survey’s anonymity outright, many feel their responses will be actively used against them if the results aren’t favorable to the company or their direct managers. What’s more, employees continue to feel that survey results lead to little or no action, even when they are actively and directly voicing exactly what they need. HR leaders aren’t usually the blocker to implementing the changes employees need — what’s clear is that employees strongly distrust leadership to make the right decisions, something we’ve seen specifically in our bi-annual Employer Pulse Index, where average CEO sentiment has taken a sharp downturn over the past several years in most industries.
This month at a glance
Share of employee posts analyzed across the period.
Sentiment over time
Negative sentiment has held a stubborn floor near 40% since early June, while positivity swings week to week — the workforce’s mood is less about hitting new lows than about a persistent, low-grade discontent that isn’t lifting.
What’s driving it, by theme
The mood isn’t uniform — it’s a tale of two workplaces. Workload and burnout (90% negative) and the employee survey (62% negative) are the pain centers, with leadership close behind. Meanwhile mentorship and community are the brightest spots employees have, and career talk skews aspirational rather than angry.
The net view: what employees love and resent
Stripping each theme to a single number — positive share minus negative share — sorts the workplace into what earns goodwill and what burns it. Mentorship and community sit firmly in the green; the survey, pay, and workload sit deep in the red.
Net sentiment = positive share − negative share, per theme.
The divergence that matters
Sentiment doesn’t split by whether people like their job — it splits by who owns the mechanism. The instruments leadership controls draw skepticism; the structures employees build with each other draw warmth. For people leaders, that’s a map: it shows which levers have lost the workforce’s trust, and which still have it.
- Workload & burnout — 90% negative, the sharpest of any theme.
- The employee survey — 62% negative: anonymity doubts, results that vanish into a meeting.
- Leadership — 47% negative: managers described as “deaf to their actual needs.”
- Community & ERGs — 53% positive: “community,” “support,” “almost completely positive.”
- Mentorship — 45% positive and only 10% negative: skill-building that surfaces future managers.
- Career growth — more aspirational than angry: mostly people mapping a way forward.
The three pillars, scored
Measured against the three pillars that define modern employee development — skills, career, and community — sentiment is net positive in all three. The development-and-community layer is where goodwill still lives, even as the survey-and-workload climate around it runs negative.
Net sentiment (positive − negative share) within each pillar’s themes.
Rebuild the mechanisms employees actually trust
Skills, career, and community are where goodwill still lives. See how MentorcliQ’s platform turns those signals into action.
Request a demoIn their own words
The survey isn’t trusted
“The only response he got on it was ‘just run your employee survey responses through AI, it reads like a bad Tripadvisor review.’”
“You might be surprised how much people hate their managers for being completely deaf to their actual needs. Some recent surveys show over 70% are dissatisfied…”
The career ladder has no rungs
“There is literally no training / structure in place for employee development or career progression upwards… when I asked for points to achieve to get a promotion, my manager didn’t really know what to say.”
What actually works: community & mentorship
“There is a Neurodivergent Employee Resource Group that has provided information, community, and support for me and other neurodivergent colleagues.”
“We implemented a mentoring program for new sellers… partnered with a seasoned seller… This has helped us identify the next managers.”
What it means for people leaders
This month’s signal is a roadmap. Employees are telling you which levers have lost their trust — workload, the survey, the invisible career path — and which still have it: community, mentorship, coaching managers. Rebuilding confidence won’t come from another survey; it comes from the mechanisms employees already praise: structured mentorship, visible career pathways, and real community. That is the connective tissue MentorcliQ’s Career, Skills, and Community pillars are built to restore.
Turn this month’s signal into next month’s progress
MentorcliQ helps people leaders rebuild trust through structured mentorship, visible career pathways, and real community.
Request a demoPart of the CliQ index family — CliQ People Index (employee sentiment, monthly) · CliQ Employer Pulse Index (employer & CEO ratings, bi-annual) · Impact Report (Fortune 500 industry trends, annual).
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