Author: Samantha Healey
Many organisations are making critical decisions about 2027 right now; allocating budgets, setting priorities, making investment decisions and building roadmaps. Most have a clear picture of what success looks like, whether it's growth targets, transformation programmes, AI roadmaps, workforce strategies or culture change ambitions. But the biggest organisational challenge isn't defining where you want to go, it's having the confidence that your workforce is fully equipped to take you there.
Gallagher's State of the Sector 2026 research uncovered a Readiness Gap: the critical space between ambition and ability. Although that gap may look different from one organisation to the next, it's a classic case of different pressures, same challenge.
Success depends on people
For some organisations, pressure comes from the pace of organisational change constantly reshaping workplaces; like a revolving door of new operating models, restructures and transformation programmes. For others, it stems from the need to attract and retain critical talent in increasingly competitive markets; whether wrestling with employee wellbeing, rising expectations around workplace experience or uncertainty about the impact of AI on roles and ways of working.
While these challenges might look very different on the surface, they often fail for similar reasons.
Even the best laid strategies struggle to gain traction if employees don't understand what's changing (or why), managers aren't equipped to support critical conversations, leaders overestimate how well messages have landed, or different groups within the workforce are experiencing the same initiative in completely different ways.
Most organisations are not in the same place
One of the most interesting findings from this year's research is that readiness isn't a simple question of being prepared or unprepared. When we analysed organisational maturity and risk levels across our data, four distinct readiness profiles emerged:
- Organisations operating in high-pressure environments which have developed the capabilities and confidence to navigate them.
- Organisations facing fewer immediate challenges but lacking the structures, processes and insight needed to prepare for what's coming next.
- Organisations that are overwhelmed by competing priorities.
- Organisations that are making strategic progress but are constrained by capacity and resources.
This indicates that workforce readiness isn't a universal challenge with a universal solution. Different organisations face different barriers, and understanding where your people are today is often the first step towards improving outcomes.
The important takeaway is that there's no single starting point. Every organisation is somewhere on the readiness spectrum. The question isn't whether you're ready or not. The question is: Where are the gaps in confidence around your most important decisions?
The danger of assumptions
The risk lies in the fact that many organisations are making critical decisions, often based on organisational goals rather than workforce realities. Many organisations have a clear view of what they want to achieve. Far fewer have the same level of visibility into whether employees, managers and leaders are equipped, aligned and ready to deliver it.
Our research found:
- 61% have no formal approach to change communication.
- 87% see manager capability as a significant risk.
- Only 15% have an active, socialised employee value proposition.
- Fewer than one in five are satisfied with their ability to personalise communication to different audience groups.
- Only 36% feel AI-ready.
- High-volume environments see a 16% spike in risk of burnout.
None of these issues exist in a silo, all of them contribute to the Readiness Gap. Together, they influence how effectively organisations can deliver change, build trust, engage employees and execute strategy. More importantly, they provide clues about where readiness may be weakest across the workforce and where intervention is likely to have the greatest impact.
Closing the gap starts with visibility
One of the biggest challenges organisations face is believing they know where their problems lie, when, in reality, most only see part of the picture.
The organisations with the biggest budgets or largest teams don't necessarily make the most progress. The most successful organisations have clarity; instead of relying on assumptions, they make decisions based on evidence. They understand where they are today, where resistance or risk is likely to emerge and they can identify which employee groups need support, which managers need equipping and which parts of the strategy are most vulnerable to failure. Rather than treating the workforce as a single audience, they recognise that different groups have different needs, concerns, motivations and levels of readiness.
Visibility provides confidence and helps to direct investment where it matters most. It also allows them to focus effort on the gaps that genuinely threaten business performance.
The pre-2027 opportunity
The encouraging news is that readiness isn't fixed. It's not something organisations either have or, have and it can be improved. The coming months present an opportunity for organisations to take stock before plans become commitments and aspirations become delivery challenges.
Readiness involves understanding where your workforce sits today, identifying the biggest barriers to execution, and strengthening capability, communication, leadership support and employee experience before those gaps become business risks. It's ultimately a people challenge: the more clearly organisations understand the needs, perceptions and experiences of their workforce, the better positioned they are to turn strategy into action.
The organisations that will succeed in 2027 won't necessarily be the ones with the most ambitious plans, they'll be the ones whose people are ready to deliver them.
The most significant readiness risks show up as stalled initiatives, slow adoption, manager uncertainty, employee fatigue and missed outcomes. If you're currently making decisions about 2027, now is the time to identify those risks before they become business problems.
How big is your Readiness Gap?
Find out where your organisation sits today on overall maturity and where you benchmark against others. Register for a Readiness Review and we'll provide you with your own report that identifies potential risks, challenges assumptions and highlights the areas most likely to affect your success in 2027.
Read the full findings from our research in our 2026 Employee Communications Report.
