Facing Down Fear in the New Year

Talk to business leaders, and most say their organizations will grow next year. But ask employees, and you get a different story: Many think the sky could soon be falling.

In a worrisome result, some 81% of workers in a recent survey say they’re afraid they might lose their jobs in 2026. For leaders trying to implement and eke profits out of a once-in-a-generation technology, it’s yet another challenge. Keeping workers focused when they are so anxious is no easy task for managers or the C-suite, say experts. “Fear and ambiguity can be very destabilizing, and a huge distraction from the job,” says Tamara Rodman, a Korn Ferry senior client partner in the firm’s Culture, Change and Communications practice. 

Employees have plenty of reasons to feel anxious. Inflation remains an issue, particularly for big-ticket items such as healthcare and housing. Salary growth, after accelerating in the early 2020s, has flattened. There’s plenty of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, too. Meanwhile, AI looms over everything, replacing some roles and threatening to take away a lot more. The result:  People are hugging their current jobs, with the nation’s quit rate at its lowest level since May 2020. That in itself is a potentially huge issue for leaders, because most successful firms need a baseline level of turnover in order to make room for talent with new viewpoints and innovations.

It’s not as if leaders are brimming with confidence about their own near-term prospects, either. In Korn Ferry’s latest Global Total Rewards Pulse survey, 60% of respondents said they expect their organization to grow at least moderately in 2026. But 46% said their organization had already reduced, or plans to reduce, its total rewards budget due to the economic environment. “There’s a slight decrease in optimism versus when we asked that question in July,” says Tom McMullen, Korn Ferry senior client partner and leader in the firm’s North America Total Rewards expertise group.

Meanwhile, US manufacturers have been consistently pessimistic about their businesses for the last eight months. The last time they were so discouraged for so long was during the pandemic. Many leaders also are afraid that massive investments in AI, which many have committed to, won’t pay off, or at least not anytime soon. Only 21% of AI projects scale to a level that generates meaningful return on investment, according to recent research.

Experts point to a variety of ways CEOs and other leaders can help reduce workers’ fears. At the very top is acknowledging those anxieties. Bosses can then lay out the data or facts that give them cause for optimism. Such discussions also can help to create a sense of camaraderie, says Cheryl D’Cruz-Young, senior client partner in Korn Ferry’s Global Energy practice. “Tell people what we can do working together to achieve goals,” she says.

By providing regular feedback, managers can also help to allay the concerns of employees whose performance is good. “Workers need to know if they’re among the lower performers on the team,” says JP Sniffen, practice leader of Korn Ferry’s Military Center of Expertise, who recommends consistent, direct conversations about performance. This feedback should be a normal part of the week-to-week flow, he says, but it becomes even more important in the event of layoffs: Should these occur, low performers won’t be caught unawares, and high performers can rest secure in their positions. 

Learn more about Korn Ferry’s Employee Experience capabilities. 

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