ADP: Workforce Anxiety Rises as 22% of Employees Feel Secure

Employees across the globe are feeling insecure about their job security, as only 22% of workers strongly agreed that their job is safe from elimination, according to new research from ADP.

In the company’s latest report, Today at Work 2026, Issue 1, ADP found that lower-paid repetitive task workers and employees at the bottom of the management hierarchy were found to have the highest levels of anxiety around job security. 

Employees who believed that they had the skills needed to advance in their careers were five times more likely to feel secure in their role, and those who felt their employer invested in their skills development were 5.3 times more likely to feel secure.

“Where we are today is that AI is entering a workforce that is anxious,” Jay Caldwell, ADP Chief Talent Officer, said exclusively to HR Chief Magazine. “And the importance for HR professionals right now is not as much about the technology. 

“It's more around how we lead through technology, how we bring our own workforce along on the transformation that comes with that. So, skill development is important.”

Jay continues to state that HR leaders also need to "think like marketers", in terms of promoting loudly and asking: ‘How are we investing in skills?’ 

“Very often that kind of falls behind the wayside,” he adds. “Historically, you’ll offer skill development programs, and adoptions have been low. So HR has to think very carefully about how to make it valuable, clear, and create the space in the organisation for people to spend the time to invest in themselves.”

Additionally, Jay encourages “tried and true change leadership,” as he explains that leadership roles within every organisation are “only getting harder in this transformation”.

Businesses must therefore invest in the skills of leaders to help them “lead change,” such as discussing fear with their team openly. 

He highlights: “I think naturally, leaders struggle with these types of things, because they feel risky, but this is the moment to lean into that or help their team understand, ‘here's how your job might be reshaped or here’s how it will shift and how we’ll support you in the transition.’ And being very clear on the why.”

The generational divide for AI

The survey findings reveal a significant generational divide in how employees of different generations experience their working lives. 

Older workers, in particular, appear to be navigating a more fragile relationship with work, as they were the generation most likely to question the relevance of their skills, while reporting the lowest levels of support from colleagues and employers. 

Yet despite these concerns, older employees reported lower levels of day‑to‑day stress than their younger counterparts – suggesting that experience may offer perspective even when confidence is wavering.

On the other hand, employees aged 26 and under expressed optimism about their prospects and strong confidence in the value of their training and skills. For them, work is less a source of doubt and more a landscape of possibility.

For Jay, this opens “a big opportunity for mentoring” across generations – traditionally known as reverse mentoring. 

“I've never seen such good evidence for it [reverse mentoring] right now because we have an early workforce that's more AI native, particularly those that will be coming out of college in the next 4 years.”

The generational divide for AI

There is also an emerging AI productivity paradox, according to ADP. 

This is generated by employees who use AI heavily, and report many of the hallmarks of a healthy work experience, such as higher engagement, lower stress and a more positive view of their teams. 

Yet, despite these advantages, they’re more likely to question their own output. 

“The piece around productivity is a bit counterintuitive, actually, because I think AI intends to make you more productive,” Jay shares. “So it's fascinating to see the feeling of less productivity as AI is coming in.”

For Jay, there are a few key reasons for this, such as the traditional change code that employees experience when they’re adopting new things, causing their productivity to dip.

Daily AI users were four times more likely than non‑users to say they were performing below their potential, suggesting that the more people integrate AI into their routines, the more sharply they feel the gap between what they are achieving and what they believe they could achieve.

Part of this is encouraging organisations to shift from productivity based on volume to value. 

“This is a big shift within an organisation,” Jay tells HR Chief Magazine. “What that means is less around the production of work in the following era and more towards strategic contribution, making great decisions for long-range impact instead of short-term productivity.”

Businesses must therefore “reframe the mindset of what productivity means” and ensure that this new definition is fully embedded in their performance management systems. 

Retraining managers is, therefore, becoming essential – not only to help them rethink how they set goals and define the priorities or outcomes their teams should focus on, but also to shift long‑standing assumptions about performance. 

Jay concludes: “Working in more behavioural measurements and observation instead of performance management systems. Looking at things like decision quality, judgment, and collaboration should be critical factors as we think about measuring performance at the end of the day within an organisation.”