New analytics push, Aon’s Employee Sentiment Study becomes a flagship HR tool

Edited by ad hoc news Flagship & Bestseller Desk. Reviewed before publication on 06/15/2026 at 10:41 PM ET. Details in the imprint.

Aon’s 2025 Employee Sentiment Study has quietly turned into a flagship analytics product for HR and rewards leaders, combining a global survey, data dashboards and advisory support to give companies a structured view of what their employees really think about work, pay and wellbeing. Rather than a one-off white paper, Aon positions the study as part of a recurring insight platform that organizations can embed into their annual planning cycles, with findings that feed into decisions on pay budgets, benefit design and workforce strategy.

How Aon’s Employee Sentiment Study is built and what it covers

The 2025 Employee Sentiment Study is based on a global survey of workers that tracks attitudes to topics such as engagement, intent to stay, financial security, mental health and perceptions of leadership effectiveness. The product packaging goes beyond the public report: participating employers can access segmented results, tailored benchmarks by industry and region, and optional consulting support to translate the numbers into concrete HR actions, according to Aon’s official study description on its 2025 Employee Sentiment Study page.

Aon emphasizes that the study is designed to catch early warning signs in key risk areas, such as burnout and resignation risk, before they appear in lagging indicators like turnover or absenteeism. The framework groups findings into practical pillars that HR teams can align with existing programs, for example linking wellbeing-related sentiment to benefit usage patterns or tying perceptions of pay fairness to compensation review cycles. For large employers that already run their own engagement surveys, Aon markets the study as a way to benchmark internal scores against broader labor market trends, complementing rather than replacing in-house tools.

In the latest iteration, the study also examines how different segments of the workforce - by generation, job family or work arrangement - experience the same organization differently. This allows HR leaders to drill down into high-risk groups, such as early-career employees or frontline staff, and to compare their sentiment to that of managers or hybrid workers, which Aon argues is essential for targeting retention interventions efficiently. The analytics are supported by data visualization tools that present the results in dashboards, charts and heatmaps so that non-technical executives can quickly grasp where sentiment is improving or deteriorating.

Beyond the employee-side survey, insights from the study are increasingly cross-referenced with other Aon research, such as its polling of UK Local Government Pension Scheme funds, where nearly three-quarters of respondents reported resourcing issues. By linking workforce sentiment with data on organizational capacity constraints, Aon aims to show how people risks and operational risks intersect, giving corporate clients a more integrated view of how staffing challenges and employee perceptions may affect service quality and financial performance. This integrated risk-and-people positioning underscores why the firm treats the Employee Sentiment Study as a core product within its broader advisory portfolio.

Positioning in Aon’s product portfolio and relevance for clients

Within Aon’s human capital practice, the Employee Sentiment Study sits alongside its pay surveys, benefits benchmarking and talent consulting services as a data-driven entry point for client discussions. The product is designed to generate a structured set of findings that can lead directly into workshops, scenario modeling or broader transformation projects, allowing Aon to connect relatively low-cost survey work with higher-value advisory engagements.

The firm markets the study in particular to HR leaders at large enterprises that are under pressure to show measurable progress on engagement and wellbeing indicators, including those linked to environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting. Because the survey is refreshed annually, Aon highlights its ability to track trends over multiple years, helping employers see whether investments in flexible work policies, mental health support or pay transparency are actually shifting employee perceptions. For companies that operate across several countries, the product’s international scope also allows comparison of sentiment patterns between regions, such as North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, making it useful for global HR and rewards functions.

In Aon’s broader strategy, the Employee Sentiment Study supports the company’s framing around “making better decisions” through analytics and modeling. On its careers and corporate messaging pages, Aon consistently stresses that it brings data and advisory together to help clients address complex challenges in areas like risk, health and wealth, and the sentiment product is an example of that approach applied to workforce issues, as described on the firm’s early-careers and corporate information site. For institutional investors evaluating Aon’s service mix, the recurring nature of such analytic products can be attractive because they can embed the firm deeper into client decision cycles and support more predictable advisory revenue.

To manage legal and technology risks around how survey data is processed, Aon references its governance frameworks for artificial intelligence and data usage, such as the contractual Artificial Intelligence Schedule that outlines responsibilities and restrictions when the firm applies AI tools in client work. While the Employee Sentiment Study is fundamentally a survey-and-analytics product rather than a standalone software platform, documentation like the AI Schedule shows how Aon packages risk controls alongside its advisory offerings, an important point for corporate buyers that need assurance on privacy and compliance, as detailed in the company’s Artificial Intelligence Schedule documentation.

Within Aon’s diversified portfolio of risk, reinsurance and human capital services, the Employee Sentiment Study is a relatively small line compared to core insurance broking or reinsurance, but it aligns with management’s push into analytics-heavy, higher-margin advisory solutions. The company is publicly listed and its shares, trading under ISIN IE00BLP1U151, are listed on the NYSE in New York; Aon’s stock traded around the mid-$300 range in recent sessions, according to recent US market data.

This article was a.i.-assisted and editorially reviewed. Product information without warranty; prices and availability may change at short notice. Not investment advice and not a buy or sell recommendation. Trading involves risk up to and including the total loss of invested capital.