State of the Christian Workplace 2026 Report Highlights Positive Improvement in Employee Engagement

(Mercer Island, WA)—The State of the Christian Workplace 2026 report provides insights into employee engagement and workplace health in Christian-led workplaces. The report represents the voices of more than 40,000 employees serving in over 400 Christian organizations.

In 2025, a majority of employees (61%) reported being engaged in their work, the highest level in 15 years of comparable data. These employees are not just present; they are invested. In addition, Best Christian Workplaces research shows engaged employees deliver a 33% productivity lift overall for an organization. Employee engagement is a capacity multiplier.

Christian-led organizations report engagement levels nearly twice that of the U.S. workforce overall, and Best Christian Workplaces’ data shows engagement increases as organizations commit to regular assessment of employee engagement over time.

Jay Bransford, President & CEO of Best Christian Workplaces, emphasizes the importance of workplace health: “This year, we invited 40,137 employees across 441 Christian-led organizations to provide feedback on their workplace culture. Their feedback reveals a simple but powerful reality: the reach of an organization’s mission rises or falls with the engagement of its people. Engaged employees bring energy, enthusiasm, commitment, and passion that directly fuel Kingdom impact. To that end, we invite every Christian-led organization to join together in the call to create workplace cultures that set the standard as the best, most effective places to work in the world.”

The State of the Christian Workplace 2026 report highlights the financial, missional, and human benefits of employee engagement. It offers practical information about what matters most to employees in today’s workplace. In addition to descriptive data, the report describes key barriers to engagement and offers leaders insight into steps they can take to increase employee engagement in their own organizations.

Best Christian Workplaces’ Employee Engagement Survey is a proprietary, research-based tool for assessing workplace health. As a leader in the study of employee engagement, Best Christian Workplaces has more than two decades of experience and a robust data set that includes anonymous feedback from thousands of employees in Christian-led workplaces. The size of the data set allows statistically reliable categorization by different types of organizations.

Included in the report are the following categories:

• Churches
• Parachurch and Missions
• Rescue Missions
• Family Services
• Christian Schools (K-12)
• Higher Education
• Businesses
• Other Nonprofits

Ministry Partners who use the research-based Employee Engagement Survey have access to their own data and can also see how they compare to their peers. Those who commit to an annual survey of employee engagement can track improvement over time and see greater benefits from workplace health. Experienced Best Christian Workplaces consultants help Ministry Partners interpret their results and develop action plans to improve workplace health.

Learn more about the attributes of a flourishing workplace by reading the State of the Christian Workplace 2026 report. Then listen to the voices of your own employees through an Employee Engagement Survey, and commit to action that improves workplace health.

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Media Contact

Robert Wachter

Global Marketing Director

rwachter@workplaces.org

206.979.7593

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About Best Christian Workplaces

We equip and inspire Christian leaders to build an engaged, flourishing workplace. We believe that Christian-led workplaces can set the standard as the best, most effective places to work in the world. Our proven three-phase process of Discover, Build, and Grow takes the guesswork out of building a flourishing workplace culture. Best Christian Workplaces is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and was founded in 2002.

Best Christian Workplaces

www.workplaces.org

info@workplaces.org

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