Homebase releases 2026 Local Workplace Pulse alongside its third-annual Top Local Workplace Awards, celebrating small business owners, managers and employees during National Small Business Week

SAN FRANCISCO: Homebase, the AI-powered platform for small business payroll, team management, and hiring, today released the 2026 Homebase Local Workplace Pulse, new research based on a survey of 1,250 small business owners, managers, and hourly employees. The report examines what makes employees proud to work for small businesses, what entices them to take or leave jobs, and how owners and managers use AI to take on time-consuming and repetitive operational work, to invest more time into their team and communities.

This research arrives alongside Homebase’s third-annual Top Local Workplace Awards, a recognition program honoring over 55,000 small businesses for being great places to work and making teams feel valued and connected. Together with the 2026 Homebase Local Workplace Pulse, the awards demonstrate what it takes to build a small business that keeps hourly workers engaged and excited against a backdrop of economic uncertainty and a tighter job market.

Key findings from the Homebase Local Workplace Pulse include:

“Small businesses are where work becomes personal. You’re not just another employee, but part of a team, a community, and a place that knows your name,” said John Waldmann, Co-founder and CEO of Homebase. “Our latest data shows just how strong that pride still is, and our Top Local Workplace Awards bring it to life, recognizing the owners who are building cultures where people feel valued, connected, and excited to show up. These teams are proving that when you invest in people, you create workplaces where people choose to stay and grow.”

​To learn more about the Homebase Top Local Workplace Awards and this year’s winners, visit https://www.joinhomebase.com/awards. For a deeper look into the 2026 Homebase Local Workplace Pulse, visit https://joinhomebase.com/blog/local-workplace-pulse.

Report Methodology

The 2026 Homebase Local Workplace Pulse is based on a third-party survey of 1,250 small business employees over the age of 18 in the United States employed at or running small businesses across industries including food and beverage, retail, healthcare, construction, education, manufacturing, and hospitality. The survey was fielded in April 2026. Where noted, data is compared to Homebase's 2024 Small Business Fulfillment Index, conducted in March 2024 via survey to 1,290 active Homebase customers.

Awards Methodology

Through a proprietary scoring system, the team evaluated 150k+ businesses in the Homebase network, analyzing more than 1 billion data points to identify the Top Local Workplaces of the year.

About Homebase

Our mission is to make small business teams unstoppable.

Homebase is the AI-powered platform for hourly teams, with employee scheduling, time clocks, payroll, hiring, communication, HR, and more. More than 150,000 small businesses rely on Homebase to make work radically easy and give their teams superpowers. As the leader in small business team management, Homebase tracked 1+ billion hours for 3.5+ million workers last year. Homebase was named a 2024 Fast Company’s Brands That Matter, a 2025 Webby Award winner, and a 2025 Fast Company’s Most Innovative Workplaces North America winner.

Homebase also earned recognition from top reviewers, including “Best Payroll for Hourly Teams (2024)” by USA Today, “Best Payroll for Small Business (2024)” by CNN Underscored, and “Best Small Business Payroll (2025)” by U.S. News & World Report.

Homebase is based in San Francisco, Houston, Denver, and Toronto. We are backed by leading venture investors L Catterton Growth, Emerson Collective, Notable Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Baseline Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, Bedrock Capital, and PLUS Capital.

Fonte: Business Wire