H/Advisors’ Leading without a Landing surveyed more than 600 senior leaders globally. The IoIC’s IC Index 2026 surveyed 5,000 UK employees. Together, they tell a striking story about how change is being led – and experienced – right now.
Change has never felt more personal – or confusing
In our research, 45% of UK leaders consider job security to be employees’ number one concern during change – higher than any other market we surveyed.
The IC Index suggests this anxiety is well-founded. Over half of employees report that a restructure has taken place in the past year (up 12 points on 2024), while more than a third say redundancies have occurred (also up 12 points).
But as change accelerates clarity is diminishing. Our research identified “lack of employee understanding” as one of the biggest barriers to successful change. The IC Index confirms the scale of the problem:
- Only 16% of employees agree that there’s clarity about what they’re supposed to do differently during change
- Just 25% say that the reasons behind the change are clear
This mismatch is striking. As organisations move faster and take more disruptive decisions, they must provide the clarity employees need to make sense of them.
AI anxiety is a distinctly British concern
In our research, 48% of UK leaders identified technology as a top challenge for their organisation (versus 36% globally). Yet this doesn’t translate into an appetite for innovation. When we asked leaders to identify their organisational priorities, “Innovation and R&D” ranked seventh in the UK, compared to joint-third globally. “Cost-efficiency measures” ranked joint-third in the UK – versus joint-eighth globally.
The implication is clear: in the UK, technology is regarded as a tool for streamlining, rather than a driver of breakthrough innovation.
The IC Index captures how this plays out on the frontline:
- Only 35% of UK employees agree that AI is being used to solve “the right problems” in their organisation
- Just 36% feel that their leaders have clearly explained how AI will be used
- Only 32% agree that their employer has clearly communicated how they are expected to use AI in their role
Strikingly, confidence is far lower within UK-only organisations (with just 28% believing that AI is used to solve the right problems) than among UK-based employees of international organisations (42%).
The conclusion is hard to ignore: UK leaders have shaped an AI narrative defined by pressure and pragmatism rather than possibility – and it’s eroding motivation and trust.
Effective change communication depends on understanding, not toolkits
Our survey was clear: what helps leaders lead change effectively is better understanding of the strategy and rationale. Toolkits ranked last.
Toolkits have value, but only once leaders grasp the “why” behind a change. Without this, a toolkit is reduced to a script, communication becomes performative, and trust erodes.
The IC Index suggests that this understanding isn’t being built. The extent to which managers feel equipped to lead conversations with their teams has fallen by four points since last year.
At the same time, the Index points to the conditions that build leaders’ confidence. Creating dedicated time for managers to prepare, and providing them with communications training, generates the highest confidence in their ability to deliver messages. And when managers can adapt communications in their own words, employees are more positive about relevance, more likely to be advocates, and more likely to rate the communication as “excellent.”
The cost of the clarity gap
The story these two studies tell is consistent: across UK organisations, change is happening more frequently, more visibly, and with greater consequence – but without the clarity, connection, and understanding needed to support it.
Change only delivers value when employees act on it. Without understanding, they can’t. The result: transformation underdelivers and business results fail to materialise. Companies that close this gap won’t just land the message. They’ll land the change.
The research
Leading without a Landing – H/Advisors’ global study of 600+ senior leaders on the new reality of organisational change. Read the full report here
IC Index 2026: The reality check – The Institute of Internal Communication’s annual benchmark of internal communication and employee sentiment, surveying 5,000 UK employees. Read the full report here