Your 2026 Workplace Outlook for HR
As we step into 2026, it feels like HR is entering a fresh chapter. One that is filled with learning and excitement about what’s possible next. While the past year brought change, it also helped many of us see our work and our impact in new ways. In this article, we’re taking a moment to look back at what 2025 taught us and explore what might be coming in 2026. We hope these insights help you feel more prepared, and inspired, for the year ahead.
What 2025 Taught Us About the Evolving HR Landscape
If 2025 showed us anything, it’s that HR is stepping into a more meaningful and strategic role than ever before. The workplace is shifting and instead of seeing that as a challenge, many HR leaders used it as an opportunity to improve how we support people. With all of this in mind, a handful of shifts stood out this past year.
Retention has become a strategic advantage. In fact, recent research points out that retention has shifted from a secondary metric to “a defining measure of organizational strength”.
Skills mapping and internal mobility are helping organizations uncover and better use the talent already in house. For example, nearly half of organizations say internal mobility is a rising priority.
HR is focusing more on human capability than on just processes. This shift aligns with findings that organizations with strong career-development programs are better at retaining talent and facing disruption.
Employees have made it clear: they want meaning, growth and transparency. According to workplace-trend research, evolving engagement, learning and compensation are key drivers of employee satisfaction and retention.
These lessons remind us that with the right strategy and a people-first mindset, there’s a lot to be optimistic about in the year ahead.
The State of Work Going into 2026
As we head into 2026, HR teams are navigating a workplace that looks and feels very different from even a few years ago. Economic uncertainty, shifting employee expectations, and rapid changes in technology are all shaping how organizations think about talent. At the same time, many employees are choosing stability over risk, which is creating both new challenges and unexpected opportunities for leaders who are ready to take a thoughtful, people-first approach.
These changes may feel complex, but they also highlight an important truth: investing in people has never mattered more. Let’s take a closer look.
The People Opportunity
One of the biggest opportunities for HR in 2026 is already right in front of us: our people. Barb Penney, Mindful HR Services Inc., Career Development Consultant, puts this into perspective. She shares that employees are our greatest asset and can be our competitive edge. She noted that “Employee compensation remains one of the largest lines in the operating budget. And rightly so. It’s your people who impact innovation, service, and results. Skills Council of Canada suggests that a skilled and productive workforce can drive business growth and profitability. They move business forward or become barriers to success.”
Employee Turnover and Our Economic Climate
Penney also points to insights from Deloitte Chief Economist Dawn Desjardins who notes that Canada’s economy is accompanied by a softer labour market and the highest unemployment rate since 2016. This translates to today’s trend where employees are “job hugging” and remaining in current roles out of fear and uncertainty, rather than engagement from challenging and rewarding work.
Talent Management Opportunity
This raises an important question for leaders: what if this period of hesitation is actually an opportunity to help employees grow and thrive at work? Lower movement in the labour market could ease the pressure of turnover costs, which can reach up to 200% of an employee's salary, and even give organizations the chance to strengthen their internal succession pipeline. Penney encourages leaders to see this moment as a chance to pause and reflect on how they’re supporting their people as we move into 2026.
She explains it well “For employers, this presents an often-overlooked opportunity. When employees choose to stay, organizations can either maintain the status quo or seize the moment to invest in their people’s growth. Supporting career and leadership development during this time can deepen engagement, enhance confidence, and strengthen internal mobility.”
Career development invites employees to explore their professional journey, reflecting on past experiences, clarifying current strengths, and envisioning future possibilities, which feeds in nicely to succession planning.
HR Enters a Global Era
While supporting internal talent is a major opportunity for 2026, HR leaders also need to keep an eye on the wider forces shaping the world of work.
Basil Onyia, Mindful HR Services Inc., HR Consultant, captures this shift well. His perspective highlights why HR must think beyond local practices and begin building strategies that stand strong in a global environment.
He shares that as organizations look toward 2026, HR leaders are navigating a landscape where global forces and technological acceleration intersect more intensely than ever before. Over the past year, geopolitical instability, shifting trade relationships and the continued re-configuration of global supply chains have influenced everything from talent mobility to workforce planning. These dynamics reinforce a critical lesson from 2025: localized HR strategies are no longer sufficient. Organizations need globally informed, future-ready frameworks that can withstand rapid disruption.
Technology’s Growing Influence on People Strategy
Onyia also highlights the growing role of technology in shaping how HR plans for the future. AI has become a central driver of that shift. What we saw in 2025 was not just increased adoption, but a clearer understanding of where automation enhances work, and where human judgment remains irreplaceable. The rapid evolution of generative and agentic AI has heightened the need for continuous reskilling, ethical governance, and transparent communication with employees. In 2026, the most successful organizations will be the ones that pair technological advancement with intentional investment in human capability, ensuring employees feel supported and empowered to use technology rather than displaced.
Building Teams for a Borderless Workplace
Onyia also reminds us that the future of work isn’t limited by geography anymore. Skills-based hiring will continue to expand, but now with a global orientation: valuing cross-cultural fluency, digital agility, and adaptive leadership. As work becomes more borderless, organizations will need to cultivate teams that can collaborate seamlessly across geographies, time-zones, and cultural norms. This shift also elevates the importance of psychological safety and inclusive leadership as foundational elements of global team performance.
Perhaps the clearest takeaway from 2025 is that employees want stability, clarity, and meaningful growth, especially during uncertain times. HR’s evolving mandate in 2026 will be to create transparent career pathways, embed learning into daily workflows, and equip leaders to manage complexity with empathy and confidence.
In many ways, 2026 marks HR’s transition into a truly global era. Organizations that recognize the interconnectedness of their people, systems, and external environment will be best positioned to lead.
What HR Leaders Need to Prepare For in 2026 (and Beyond)
Invest in people as a strategic asset
Embrace skills-based and agile planning
Align HR with global and tech-driven realities
Build stability, meaning, and a culture of growth
Measure what truly matters
Pulling together everything we’ve covered, here some important areas HR leaders should focus on as we head into 2026:
1. Invest in people as a strategic asset
When employees choose to stay, the most meaningful step an organization can take is to invest in their growth. When people feel encouraged to develop and stretch their abilities, the entire workplace becomes stronger. As Barb Penney reminds us, it’s the people inside an organization who ultimately drive progress and shape the results that matter.
2. Embrace skills-based and agile planning
Embracing a skills-based and flexible approach to planning means looking beyond job titles and focusing on the abilities your organization will need in the years ahead. When HR understands the skills that matter most for the future, it becomes easier to guide development and create pathways that help people move where they’re needed. This kind of planning keeps the workforce adaptable and ready for whatever changes come next.
3. Align HR with global and tech-driven realities
Technology (especially AI) and globalization aren’t separate from HR. As Basil Onyia pointed out, you need frameworks and policies that recognize cross-border work, digital fluency, inclusive leadership and ethical governance.
4. Build stability, meaning, and a culture of growth
With the labour market staying cautious, employees are looking for a stronger sense of clarity and connection in their work. When organizations help people understand where they can grow and create an environment where learning and support are part of everyday life, engagement naturally strengthens. A workplace culture that prioritizes this kind of clarity and care has become one of the most meaningful advantages an organization can offer.
5. Measure what truly matters
HR’s role is expanding from tracking activities to demonstrating meaningful outcomes. When organizations look closely at how people develop and move within the company, it becomes easier to highlight the strategic impact HR brings to overall business performance.
Summary
As we move toward 2026, one message stands out: the future of HR depends on people. The past year showed how valuable it is to invest in the talent already inside the organization and how real development thrives when employees feel genuinely supported. As expectations shift, HR’s focus is widening beyond local concerns to broader, organization-wide impact.
Barb Penney and Basil Onyia’s reflections show two important sides of HR’s opportunity in 2026. One side focuses on people and the way growth can strengthen commitment and connection at work. The other side focuses on a global view that helps organizations respond to change with steady leadership. Together, these ideas point to a year ahead where HR can guide real progress.
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