"The organisations that succeed in the years ahead will be those that help their employees adapt confidently to change."
- James Tait - Zurich Corporate Risk
Zurich's Global People Resilience Study 2026 has revealed that 50% of UK workers do not have enough savings to act as a financial buffer if their income stops.
The study was developed in collaboration with Oxford Research & Development Partners (Oxford) and based on responses from more than 11,000 workers across 16 countries, including 1,065 in the UK.
The study introduces a new personal resilience index, a framework developed with Oxford to measure resilience and the factors that shape it across the psychological, physical, social, financial and digital domains.
Overall, financial resilience scored as one of the UK's lowest-scoring resilience domains at 3.61, with higher earners scoring 4.19 on the index, compared to lower earners at 3.92.
The UK's overall workforce resilience score sits at 4.04, below the global average of 4.11, with 25% of workers classified as "thriving" and 11% classed as "struggling".
The study found a strong link between resilience and workplace performance. Among UK employees with the highest resilience levels, 88% report good or excellent job performance compared with just 53% of those with low resilience. Globally, resilience was found to be 2.5 times more predictive of job performance than income, suggesting resilience has significant implications for businesses and employers.
Workplace resilience and AI
While UK workers scored strongly on solving difficult problems at 4.12, as well as being open to new experiences and seeking creative solutions, both at 4.06, digital resilience emerged as the UK's weakest domain at 3.59.
Using the index, researchers found that workers who use generative AI most frequently report the highest resilience levels. This correlation remained consistent across all countries, even after accounting for factors such as age, income and education.
Yet despite the growing link between AI use and resilience, only 24% of UK workers report using generative AI daily, compared to 32% globally.
Zurich says the findings build on one of the report's central conclusions: that digital confidence, especially with new technology, cybersecurity and adapting to new tools, is emerging as a critical component of workforce resilience.
As a result, the report highlighted digital confidence as one of the strongest opportunities for the UK to strengthen its overall resilience.
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"As workplaces become increasingly shaped by technological change, the ability to engage confidently with new tools is becoming an important part of resilience," Professor Jan-Emmanuel de Neve, director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford and Oxford Research and Development Partners, said.
"Our research found that people who use AI more frequently also tend to report higher levels of adaptability, optimism and preparedness for change, even after accounting for factors such as age, income and education.
"While we cannot say that AI use directly causes resilience, the findings suggest that AI fluency is emerging as an important marker of workforce readiness. The opportunity for employers is to ensure that access to digital skills and confidence-building is widely shared.
"Otherwise, there is a risk that technological change could widen existing gaps between those who feel equipped to navigate change and those who do not."
James Tait, director of Zurich Corporate Risk, added: "For employers, this isn't really an AI story. It's a people story. The organisations that succeed in the years ahead will be those that help their employees adapt confidently to change.
"Our research suggests digital confidence is becoming an increasingly important part of workforce resilience, yet it's also where UK workers have the greatest room for improvement. That creates a real opportunity for employers to support their people with the skills, tools and confidence they need to thrive in a rapidly changing world.
"Building resilience isn't just good for employees. Highly resilient workers are significantly more likely to report strong performance at work, making resilience an important consideration for organisations looking to build healthier, more productive and more adaptable workforces."
