HR Strategy in Transforming Organisations
The future of work is now; the ability of your organisation to survive and thrive will be determined by how you anticipate and respond to these changes affecting the world of work today.
Learn more4 ways the workplace will change in 2026
In the age of AI, managing and nurturing human resources will be vital to success.
In 30 seconds
Work will be redesigned at a systemic level for greater clarity, collaboration and capabilities-building. Hybrid will finally settle.
Leaders will push for greater productivity while employees will need to be reassured that their humanness is still valued.
AI will augment human skills, not replace them. HR will increasingly be able to leverage data in decision-making.
Since I began studying, writing and teaching about the future of work decades ago, the role of the HR function and leadership have become increasingly central. Here’s what I expect to happen over the coming year
1. Refined working practices will boost productivity
Many organisations are entering the year facing economic headwinds, in a context of global uncertainty. The early promises of AI have yet to be fully realised and there are still challenges around hybrid working, with some organisations embracing it fully and others insisting their staff return to the office.
Leaders will be looking to find ways to unlock higher productivity, while the labour market will feel unusually static. With a frozen jobs market for recent graduates, fewer people will want to take risks by moving roles. This means organisations will need work hard to engage, develop and re-energise the talent they already have.
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“Organisations will need work hard to engage, develop and re-energise the talent they already have.”
These pressures will force a shift from tactical fixes to systemic redesign. Productivity in 2026 won’t be driven by longer hours or tighter oversight, but by redesigning work for clarity, collaboration and capability-building.
Leaders will need to closely scrutinise how teams work, how decisions are made and how technology is embedded. Success will depend on rebuilding working practices, combining human energy and empathy with the cognitive capabilities of AI to create a more stable, productive rhythm of work.
2. AI will augment, not substitute, human activity
This year, we will see a shift in AI usage, from experimentation to examination. Instead of simply deploying tools, leaders will focus on the questions they must ask to ensure AI genuinely improves work.
The key issue is no longer technological capability, it’s organisational intentionality. Executives will increasingly be asking where AI truly adds value, and how it changes the flow of work. What human capabilities — judgement, creativity, empathy — must be protected or amplified? How do roles and team norms need to evolve? Employees continue to be both excited and anxious, especially about keeping up.
2026 will be when we move toward augmentation rather than substitution. AI will become a team capability, not just something that individuals are experimenting with, and teams will develop shared norms about when and how it should be used.
Employees are still nervous about their positions: the organisations that thrive will be those that help people work with AI in ways that feel fair, human and sustainable.
3. Hybrid work will stabilise
The push-and-pull between leaders who want more office presence and employees who value flexibility will give way to clearer expectations that satisfy both sides. The most successful organisations will define the moments that genuinely benefit from people being physically in the same place, such as onboarding, collaboration, complex problem-solving and relationship-building.
In turn, employees will increasingly appreciate that connection and visibility matter for their learning and progression. Common ground will emerge through transparent team-level agreements that make expectations explicit and predictable. In contrast, those organisations that rely on rigid mandates will continue to see friction.
4. HR will increasingly use data
The greatest challenge will be how to build a productive organisation when AI potential is high, but the supporting data and systems are still uneven. Senior executives are increasingly making data-driven decisions to run the business. Finance has robust, reliable data on money. HR, however, often lacks the equivalent data on people — and that gap is becoming unsustainable.
In 2026, HR will turn decisively toward data analytics because without accurate, timely people data, AI cannot deliver the productivity gains that leaders expect. HR teams will need to invest in better systems, stronger analytics capability and more rigorous ways of measuring skills, performance, engagement and work patterns.
At the same time, they must navigate an increasingly diverse, multi-generational workforce with varying needs, expectations and rhythms of contribution. The combination of demographic complexity and rising expectations for evidence-based decisions means people analytics are no longer optional but essential.
Those who embrace this will help their organisations unlock meaningful productivity gains. Those who don’t, risk falling behind.
Key takeaways
Strengthen your data foundations for AI-enabled productivity. AI will only be able to improve work if it’s fed accurate insights.
Design work for a multi-generational workforce. Twentysomething employees now have colleagues in their seventies. Respect their differing needs and contributions.
Create environments where human capabilities can flourish. Judgement, cooperation, discernment, calm, adventure and intimacy will become even more essential.
A version of this article originally appeared in Forbes