Key Focus
Survey results highlighted key focus areas for healthcare quality, accessibility, and affordability. This data offers a foundation from which CEOs, HR leaders, and policymakers can optimize their programs.
The American Heart Association’s 2026 Voice of the Employee Survey reveals a workforce highly motivated to improve its health but constrained in its ability to do so.
Employees are setting goals for exercise, nutrition, sleep, and financial well-being. However, for many, achieving those health goals feels out of reach due to time and financial constraints.
The result is a growing gap between intention and action. Employees are looking to employers to help fill that gap.
In March 2026, the American Heart Association worked with The Harris Poll to survey 2,001 employees who rely on their employers for insurance and wellness benefits.
This survey explores the opinions, perspectives, and self-reported experiences of those employees at this moment in time:
- 95% are actively trying to improve their health and well-being
- 50% report healthcare costs have affected their ability to pay for day-to-day expenses, including food, childcare, and rent
- 47% have stopped or decreased retirement contributions
The findings show motivation is not the issue.
Employees face barriers that make health difficult to sustain: rising healthcare and living costs, caregiving responsibilities, and the structure and intensity of work.
These barriers limit employees’ ability to maintain healthy behaviors, and they are looking to employers for support and guidance.
Notably, the areas employees most want to improve are also where they struggle most. Work-life balance and stress management merge as critical pressure points. Many employees indicate that their job makes it harder to prioritize their health.
To address this, employees are seeking their own solutions and using multiple tools, including AI, to manage their health and navigate benefits. This reflects urgency and unmet needs as employees look for support.
At the same time, 90% of employees would welcome more support from their employer, specifically to manage their health. And they expect that support to be practical, accessible, and embedded in their daily work.
Employees pointed to wide-ranging opportunities for employer support:
- 84% cite challenges navigating employer-provided health benefits
- 28% currently use AI tools, and 73% are interested in more AI-powered health solutions from employers
- 92% believe health and well-being should be supported through day-to-day work practices, not just policies and programs
Organizations that address these barriers and align support with how work actually happens are better positioned to improve well-being, sustain performance, and retain talent.