GoodHabitz has published research showing a wide gap between how managers and employees view workplace change in Europe. It also launched an AI-based training tool called Experts.
The survey, carried out with Markteffect, polled 4,733 employees and managers across eight European markets at organisations with more than 50 staff. It found that 97% of managers said they involved their teams in change initiatives, while only 45% of employees said they were involved.
The findings point to a broader divide in how change is experienced inside companies. While 66% of managers said employees were supported by HR and learning teams during periods of change, only 34% of employees said they felt that support.
Training levels also differed sharply. Managers receive 29% more training than employees to deal with change, reinforcing a pattern in which those leading change say they are prepared while those affected by it say they are not.
Awareness of how companies assess these efforts was also uneven. Some 91% of managers said they measure the success of change initiatives, but only 53% of employees said they knew this was happening.
The study comes as companies across Europe face sustained pressure to adapt their operations. GoodHabitz cited wider market research showing that one in six European companies were under transformation pressure, with uncertainty continuing across sectors.
The gap
The results suggest communication remains a central issue during organisational change. In the survey, 47% of employees identified communication as the most important soft leadership skill, making it one of the clearest areas where managers may need more development.
This mismatch between management intent and employee experience can shape trust inside organisations. Workers who feel excluded from decision-making or unprepared for new processes are less likely to see change programmes as collaborative.
Jochem Goedhals, Director of Studios, GoodHabitz, commented: "This gap between managers and employees won't close itself. Teams need to move through change together."
He added: "The more a manager forces change from the top down without a collaborative approach, the lower the trust and the slower the adaptation. Employees want learning that feels customised to an individual company's problems and concerns."
AI training
Alongside the research, the learning provider introduced Experts, a tool designed to turn internal knowledge into structured training materials. The product is aimed at learning and development teams that want to capture expertise from managers or specialist staff and convert it into learning content for wider use.
The process begins with an internal expert answering 10 to 20 targeted questions in a chat interface over about 15 minutes. The system then produces a training package that can include short videos featuring the expert, summaries, practical dilemmas and tip lists.
Colleagues can review and amend the material before it is added to a central learning library. Employees can then complete the training in around 20 minutes.
The approach is intended to preserve practical knowledge when staff move roles and to help organisations build training around their own context rather than rely on standardised materials. It also positions learning teams as editors and owners of the process, rather than handing full control to automated course generation.
Joost Moerdijk, Co-Founder and Innovator, GoodHabitz, said the product was designed to avoid what he described as generic AI-generated learning content. "Most AI tools coming to L&D do the same thing: prompt in, generic course out. We built Experts to do the opposite. It puts people's intent, experience and expertise at the centre. This ensures that quality is maintained, even when people change jobs. For us, AI plays a supporting role, and the 'new' role of L&D is to take the lead even more."
GoodHabitz operates in 10 international markets and says it serves more than 2,500 clients and over 6 million learners globally. The survey findings and the launch of Experts place the company at the centre of a debate facing many employers: whether AI can help organisations manage change more effectively when staff still say they feel excluded from it.