
Employee sentiment improved in September
Real estate is at its lowest level since June 2023.
Mary Hayes, Ph.D. • Jared Northup
September 15, 2026

Mary Hayes, Ph.D.

Director of Research, People & Performance
Mary Hayes earned her doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her master's degree in educational psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was focused on qualitative, quantitative, and psychometrics methodology, with additional work in survey research methodology. Both of Mary's degrees focus on the psychology of people and how these people flourish through positive psychology.
Beginning in 2005, she worked with the Marcus Buckingham Co. in the development of the StandOut Assessment and other StandOut tools and resources, assuming the role of senior researcher in 2015 and research director of People and Performance in 2018.
Mary's research focuses on engagement, turnover, knowledge worker performance, and workplace teams. She has designed reliable and valid tools to help people get more out of their work experience. As a practitioner-scientist, she taps the best of both worlds to make a difference for knowledge workers, focusing on sound research to help organizations understand the relationships between employee engagement and performance, engagement and turnover, and other relevant workplace issues.

Real estate is at its lowest level since June 2023.
Mary Hayes, Ph.D. • Jared Northup
September 15, 2026

Accommodation and food services showed the biggest decline.
Mary Hayes, Ph.D. • Jared Northup
August 18, 2026

Education led the decline, and more than half of the sectors we track lost ground. Manufacturing and retail trade bucked the trend.
Mary Hayes, Ph.D. • Jared Northup
July 21, 2026