Trusted, but Not Recommended: Ukrainian Companies’ Average eNPS Stands at -15

Employees in Ukraine trust their colleagues and company leadership, yet this does not translate into a willingness to recommend their employer to others. In particular, the employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) in Ukraine remains in negative territory, with significant regional differences.

Employee loyalty: more people would not recommend their company than would recommend it

How likely is an employee to recommend their company as a good place to work? Only 26% of surveyed employees are promoters — those most likely to do so. Meanwhile, 41% are detractors, meaning they are unlikely to recommend their company. Another 33% take a neutral position. As a result, eNPS, calculated as the difference between the share of promoters and detractors, stands at -15%.

This figure appears contradictory given that trust generally remains present within teams working in Ukraine: 58% of respondents trust their colleagues, while 56% trust company leadership. In other words, low loyalty towards companies is partly offset by strong internal support within teams rather than by satisfaction with the company as an employer overall.

Mental health: a zone of silence employees hesitate to break

Only 16% of surveyed employees have access to psychological support at their company, while 58% report that such support is unavailable. Another 26% do not even know whether this option exists. At the same time, one in five respondents, or 20%, does not feel psychologically safe at work — meaning they cannot openly speak about their condition without risking negative consequences.

Together, these figures form a clear picture: where there is neither support nor a sense of safety, the topic of mental health is simply not raised. Silence then becomes a separate problem that exists alongside stress and burnout, rather than being their direct consequence.

In the context of war, as mental well-being becomes an increasingly sensitive and important part of working life for Ukrainians, this silence around psychological support further undermines employees’ willingness to recommend their company as a good place to work.

What employees want from an “ideal” employer

The idea of an “ideal” organisation remains fairly pragmatic: decent pay comes first at 63%, followed by a flexible work model at 37% and a positive, flexible environment at 35%.

Notably, compared with the previous wave, the importance of almost all “inspirational” characteristics of an ideal employer has declined, including opportunities for professional development, career growth and inspiring leaders. At the same time, demand for work flexibility has grown significantly. In other words, employees increasingly expect less active career guidance from companies and more basic stability and flexibility.

Understanding this shift in expectations gives employers a clear point of reference for building loyalty: investment should focus less on large-scale development programmes and more on the factors that directly shape employees’ day-to-day experience.

“Our study shows that employee loyalty in Ukraine today rests on simple things: a manager people trust, the ability to speak about one’s condition without fear of consequences, decent pay and flexibility. Where trust in leadership is higher, employees are also more willing to recommend their company. At the same time, in companies where mental health remains a taboo topic, trust erodes silently, and HR only finds out when an employee has already submitted their resignation. For Ukrainians, psychological resilience is now a matter of survival. Employers who ignore this gradually lose their most valuable asset — trust, and eventually their people,” comments Evgeniya Blyznyuk, sociologist, founder and CEO of Gradus.

The full version of the report is available on a commercial basis. Please submit a request via the form below.

The study was conducted by Gradus using a self-administered questionnaire in the Gradus mobile app. The target audience was men and women aged 18–60 who work full-time or part-time and live in cities with a population of over 50,000 people, excluding temporarily occupied territories and areas of active hostilities. The fieldwork period was 10–31 March 2026. The sample size was 1,200 respondents.