Australia’s Workforce Under Pressure: What Employee Engagement Tells Us About Trust, Culture and Security

What does employee engagement tell us about the strength and resilience of an organisation?

Drawing on findings from Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026, Tim Slattery and Marina Shteinberg, Co-Founders of Pentagram Advisory, examine the latest Australian employee engagement data and explore what it may tell us about the relationship between employees and their workplaces.

The discussion moves beyond traditional questions of productivity and retention to consider the connections between engagement, trust, the psychological contract and organisational culture — and what these may mean for security.

Organisations can mandate policies, implement controls and monitor compliance. But security also depends on people exercising judgement, speaking up, taking ownership and acting when circumstances demand more than compliance.

We can mandate compliance. We cannot mandate care.

This episode explores why that distinction matters for Boards, executives, security leaders and people leaders — and why employee engagement should also be considered through the lens of organisational resilience and security.

Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026