How the polycrisis impacts your employer brand

Look for research on what employees want and much is based on key drivers of the internal employee experience, such as work/life balance, career opportunities, job security, work atmosphere, salary and benefits.

Few consider the external environment.

Ultimately employees are people. People are impacted by the polycrisis – that crazy entanglement of interconnected crises locally and globally that have a multiplier effect on each other:

• • Climate and ecological emergencies – global warming, severe weather events, environmental degradation, biodiversity losses

• • Geopolitical conflicts – political instability, armed conflicts and wars (eg Ukraine, Middle East)

• • Economic instability – cost of living, inflation, energy shortages, economic inequality

• • Social strains – global pandemics, immigration, erosion of democracy

• • Technological and systemic risks – data security, artificial intelligence, misinformation

It brings a lot of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity from the outside that builds on what’s already happening on the inside – strategy pushes for growth, cost reduction, efficiency and productivity, organisation and leadership changes, AI implementation, diversity and inclusion changes.

It brings lot of ‘always on’ noise and stimulus, dopamine culture and lack of focus, trust and social cohesion issues and sense of grievance.

And it puts a different emphasis on people’s values and what they need and want from their workplace.

A Workplace Report from the Change Lab indicates that 55% of Australian workers are quietly cracking, experiencing significant internal distress. While maintaining expected performance, workers who are often cracking show dramatically reduced thriving scores and are 6.2 times more likely to experience clinical burnout than those who aren’t.

87% of cracking is driven by the polycrisis, led by cost of living 41.7% and followed by job security fears 19.7%, social division 10.1%, climate change 8.4% and political unrest 7.1%. Workers feel unable to discuss these external pressures at work or that employers cannot address. In comparison, AI tool introduction accounted for 5.8%.

The report offers solutions for organisations to support workers including integrating workplace wellbeing, psychosocial and psychological safety; and leading with HEART – Honouring each other’s feeling; Engaging purposefully in conversations; Appreciating strengths; Reaching out for help; and Taking tiny steps forward together.

Dr John P Kotter has also highlighted the polycrisis in his insights on leadership for an uncertain world. He explains that these real and perceived threats trigger our instinctive fight-or-flight response, and when employees can’t resolve the threat either way, it can tip into a freeze response – leaving people overwhelmed and organisations at risk of paralysis, as he puts it “the last thing you want in an increasingly volatile, fast moving and turbulent world.”

His solution is mobilising the workforce, so that employees at the edges of the organisation are identifying and acting on changes in context, addressing real problems or taking advantage of real opportunities.

People are very aware of the impact the polycrisis has on them and their organisations. For example: 60% worry about international trade and tariff conflicts hurting the company they work for; and 54% worry about losing their job as a result of the recession.

Organisations that want to be human centric, future-facing and driving sustainable growth are putting the policies and practices in place for their people to adapt to the external changes – as individuals and as the organisation.

So how does this impact your employer brand? 

Given that one third of our life is spent at work; that my employer is the most trusted organisation by 79% of respondents and my colleagues and CEO are among the most trusted people (Edelman Trust Barometer 2026): and the impact of the polycrisis on people and organisations is at crisis-level severity.  It would make sense that people want to know how organisations are helping their people cope with polycrisis uncertainty – internally and externally.

Your employer brand is not just externally facing or a campaign for recruitment. It encapsulates what makes your organisation a great place to work where current and future employees can thrive.  Your employer brand is what attracts, retains and engages the people your organisation needs to deliver the business strategy and brand-customer experience.  How your organisation is setup to manage uncertainty for individuals and the organisation as a whole, needs to be communicated to current and prospective employees. 

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Rachel Bevans is Managing Director of The Healthy Brand Company. We deliver research and strategy to develop the employer brand, employee value proposition and employee experience that attracts, retains and engages the people to deliver the strategic plan and brand customer experience. Contact rachel@thehealthybrandcompany.com. 

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Sources:

1. 1. Workplace Report, The Change Lab, 2025
   2. Trust Barometer, Australia, Edelman, 2026
   3. Dr John P Kotter https://www.kotterinc.com/leadership-for-an-uncertain-world/, 2025
   4. Image ID 320198220 | And © Yuri Arcurs | Dreamstime.com

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