The Robert Walters 2026 Talent Trends report states that “Understanding talent trends is essential for organisations navigating today’s fast-changing workforce. Each year, shifting employee expectations, evolving hiring models and advances in technology reshape how businesses attract, engage and retain people. If you’re managing a remote or hybrid team, there are x3 specific trends within the report that we think you need to be aware of and mange for you and your distributed team to thrive.
Most of this research is global, but if you’re running a remote or hybrid team in an Irish SME, it maps very closely to what we see here on the ground. We know because we hear it directly. Through conversations with hundreds of Irish employers and insights from leaders going through our training programmes. Real world challenges that employees, managers and businesses are dealing with right now.
1) “Quiet cracking” and the engagement recession
The report introduces a concept called “quiet cracking.” It’s not the same as quiet quitting, where someone deliberately checks out. Quiet cracking is subtler. The person keeps showing up. They’re still in the meetings, still responding to messages. But underneath, they’re slowly fracturing under the weight of pressure, unclear expectations, and the feeling that no one is really paying attention.
20% of workers experience it frequently or constantly. 78% of managers say they’ve noticed a productivity drain linked to individual disengagement in the last 12 months.
Left unaddressed, it spreads. The report calls this the “engagement recession.” Teams lose momentum. Collaboration drops off. Even the good performers start to wobble.
Now picture that playing out in a distributed team. In an office, you can see the signs. Someone who’s gone quiet, who used to contribute in meetings and now just sits on mute. In a remote or hybrid setting? That person can disappear into the noise for weeks before anyone notices. The gap between what’s actually happening and what the manager thinks is happening gets very wide, very quickly.
Grow Remote Opinion: This isn’t a problem that office mandates are going to fix. You can’t proximity your way out of disengagement. The managers who catch this early are the ones who’ve built real habits around connection, who ask the right questions, and who’ve created enough trust that people will actually tell them when something’s wrong. That’s a skill. It’s not something most people were ever formally taught.
2) The EQ gap is real, and it’s bigger in distributed teams
The report’s section on emotional intelligence (EQ) is one of the more below the line challenges that businesses are facing.
For a co-located manager, some of the EQ work happens naturally. You pick up on body language. You notice who’s distracted, who’s energised, who needs a conversation after the meeting. Remote and hybrid leaders don’t have those defaults. They have to be intentional about all of it. Every check-in, every one-to-one, every moment where someone needs to feel seen has to be designed into how they work, not picked up by accident.
71% of employers say EQ matters more than IQ. 90% of top performers display high emotional intelligence. And yet only 13% of organisations provide any form of EQ training.
When EQ training is rare across the board, and the environment strips away the natural cues that help even an untrained manager pick things up, you’re asking people to lead with one hand tied behind their backs.
Grow Remote Opinion: We’ve now trained over 1,000 Irish managers and EQ comes up constantly, not as a concept but as a practical gap. Leaders tell us they didn’t realise how much they were relying on physical presence to read their teams until it was gone. The good news is it’s trainable. The leaders who come through our programme leave with habits and frameworks that replace what proximity used to do for free.
3) 85% of professionals are considering a career move in 2026
The report’s section on career cushioning rounds out the picture. Career cushioning is when employees quietly start building a safety net. They’re updating their CVs, having conversations with recruiters, doing a course on their own time. Not because they’ve decided to leave, but because they’re not sure they can rely on where they are.
The research shows 68% of workers are already doing some version of this. And 85% are considering a move this year.
The report is clear about what drives it: poor communication, no career clarity, and leadership that doesn’t inspire confidence. Those three things hit differently when you’re working remotely. When you’re not physically present, it’s easier to feel like you don’t matter, like you’re not on anyone’s radar, like the organisation’s direction doesn’t include you. A good remote leader closes that gap intentionally. A lot of managers just don’t know how yet.
Grow Remote Opinion: 85% is a harsh number but it doesn’t surprise us. What we hear from leaders on the ground is that people aren’t always leaving because the work is bad. They’re leaving because they experience low job satisfaction or engagement. You can’t solve this by being a good manager in a meeting once a week. It has to be built into how you lead every day. That’s the leadership culture we help define and shape.
The common thread
These aren’t three separate problems. They’re the same problem showing up in different ways. Organisations have adopted remote and hybrid working without equipping their managers to actually lead in that environment. The policy changed. The capability didn’t keep up.
That’s what our “Lead From Anywhere” was built to address.
An 8-week, fully funded online leadership programme for current and aspiring managers of remote and hybrid teams. Practical learning, peer to peer conversations and frameworks that participants can apply directly to their own teams, from day one.
We’ve trained over 1,000 managers across Irish SMEs and global companies. Over 90% went on to implement new leadership initiatives with their teams. Over 80% said they felt noticeably more confident in handling the real challenges of remote work.
The next cohort starts 28th May 2026 and registration closes on 21st May. Places are limited, and it costs nothing. €1,350 value, €0 cost to your organisation or your managers.
If you recognise or want to prepare for any of the challenges above , this is a practical place to start.
If you’d like more information, you can view a course brochure here or book a call with Ciara our Learner Success Manager here for a 1:1 chat.
If you just want to secure a space click below and register your interest before 21st May 👇
https://growremote.ie/lead-from-anywhere/
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About Grow Remote
Our mission is to solve the challenges of remote work in order to unlock social, economic and environmental change for individuals, employers and local communities.
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