DRAPER, Utah, Aug. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BambooHR®, the leading HR software platform for small and mid-sized businesses, today released its 2026 Employee Happiness Index, finding that employee morale has climbed to its highest first-half level since 2023 after four straight years of decline. The recovery comes with a clear business case attached: companies with an excellent eNPS lose 46% fewer employees than their unhappiest counterparts. But the gains aren’t reaching everyone. Younger workers, mid-tenure employees, and the technology industry are all being left behind.
The 2026 Employee Happiness Index, based on Employee Net Promoter Score® (eNPS) and turnover data from the BambooHR platform, breaks down where employee happiness sits in 2026 and the patterns companies can’t afford to ignore. Behind the headline recovery is a workforce experience that varies by age, gender, tenure, and industry: Gen Z workers remain 17 points less satisfied than their older colleagues, and the technology industry is bucking the recovery trend entirely, sliding from the happiest sector in 2023 to below average today.
In the first half of 2026 (January–June), eNPS rose to 40, up 4.4% year-over-year and marking the strongest first half of the year since 2023. The increase follows an all-time low of 37 in November–December 2024, capping four consecutive years of decline from a 2020 peak of 48.
Key findings from the report include:
- Happy companies retain more talent. BambooHR’s 2026 Employee Happiness Index found that companies with excellent eNPS (50+) lose 46% fewer employees annually than companies with negative eNPS, 40% turnover vs. 58%. For context, an eNPS score above 20 is considered favorable, above 50 is excellent, and scores above 80 are considered world class.
- Small businesses feel the gap most. A negative eNPS drives 18 to 19 percentage points more turnover at companies with 150 or fewer employees, about 14 extra departures a year at a 75-person company.
- The gender happiness gap is narrowing. Men scored 6.6 eNPS points higher than women in H1 2026, down from an 8-point average gap over the prior three years.
- Younger workers are the least satisfied. Employees aged 26–30 posted the lowest eNPS of any age group (31), a 17-point gap from the happiest cohort, ages 51–60 (48).
- Tenure follows a U-curve. New hires average eNPS 51 and 25+ year veterans average 57, while 2–3 year employees hit the low point at 33.
- Tech is the outlier. BambooHR’s data shows Technology fell from the happiest industry in 2023 (eNPS 42) to below average in H1 2026 (eNPS 37), amid the past six months of tech-sector layoffs.
A recovery with uneven reach
“To close the gap you need to understand what’s driving a different experience in the first place,” said Nicole Csiszar, Senior Director of HR Services at BambooHR. “The solution isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s designing experiences that reflect the reality of a diverse workforce rather than an ‘average employee’ who doesn’t really exist.”
The report is based on BambooHR platform data of over 1,400 companies, where findings show early turnover is also costly for unhappy organizations. Companies with a negative eNPS see a 2.7% monthly early-turnover rate, compared to 2.1% for companies with an excellent eNPS, a nearly 30% relative difference. Because employee happiness follows a tenure “U-curve,” with new hires and veteran employees the happiest and 2-to-3-year employees the least satisfied, a revolving door of new hires keeps companies from building the long-tenured, higher-satisfaction workforce that drives happiness gains over time.
Industry and demographic patterns diverge
Beyond the topline recovery, the report finds substantial variation by industry:
- Construction leads all sectors in H1 2026, with an eNPS of 51.
- Finance posted the strongest H1 2026 recovery, up 10.5% year-over-year to an eNPS of 47, though the industry remains vulnerable among its more tenured employees, who report much lower satisfaction levels.
- Restaurant, Food and Beverage remains the lowest-scoring industry, with an eNPS of 34 in H1 2026.
- Healthcare recorded the strongest recovery of any industry on a same-period basis, up 6.5 points (19.4%) from H1 2025 to H1 2026, the largest percentage gain of the eight industries tracked.
- Nonprofits are rebounding from a real trough, with eNPS climbing from a low of 30 in September 2024 to 38 in H1 2026, fully reversing a 2023-to-2024 decline and landing mid-pack among industries tracked.
- Education has been the most stable industry on a full-year basis, showing the smallest movement of any sector tracked.
- Travel/Hospitality declined from full-year 2025 to H1 2026 but saw a 1.7% bump from H1 2025 to H1 2026, pointing to the seasonality of booking and hiring cycles in the sector.
Access the full report at: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/data-at-work/data-stories/employee-satisfaction-survey-2026
Methodology
All source data is from BambooHR’s eNPS platform, gathered between January 2019 and June 2026, and includes more than 1,400 companies, tracking anonymized responses from over 51,000 unique employees since January 2019. Data analyzed includes more than 2.5 million self-reported eNPS scores.
About BambooHR Employee Net Promoter Score® (eNPS)
BambooHR’s employee Net Promoter Score® (eNPS) offering helps organizations quickly understand how employees feel about their workplace. Through regular, confidential feedback collected with a simple, standardized question, leaders can track sentiment over time, spot emerging risks, and benchmark results across teams and locations. Built directly into the BambooHR platform, eNPS pairs with workforce metrics like turnover and tenure to provide a clearer, more actionable view of engagement and retention risk.
Net Promoter, NPS, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered U.S. trademarks, and NetPromoter Score and Net Promoter System are service marks, of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc. and Fred Reichheld.
About BambooHR
BambooHR is a People Intelligence Platform that helps small and mid-sized businesses bring clarity to their workforce and act with confidence. As AI reshapes roles, workflows, and skill requirements, BambooHR enables organizations to understand what matters most and what to do next by unifying their people data into a complete, connected view. The platform brings together core HR, payroll, benefits administration, and talent management with embedded AI, insights, and workflows to simplify people operations and improve decision-making. With more than 30,000 customers in over 190 countries and over 3 million employee records, BambooHR helps leaders align their people, drive growth, increase efficiency, and stay compliant.
For more information, visit www.bamboohr.com.
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