Summary: These HR predictions for 2026 suggest that mounting grievances, weakening trust and rising disengagement will test the profession. But there’s hope. Expect better wellbeing support for HR professionals, flatter hierarchies and more experimentation within the profession. AI will reshape workplaces, driving demand for human-centric cultures and challenging traditional change management. New employment laws will stretch training budgets, whilst CHROs step up to lead enterprise transformation. 

A new year brings another opportunity to forecast how work and HR will develop over the months ahead. Following HRZone tradition, we invited our top writers of 2025 to dust off their crystal balls and share their top HR predictions for 2026.

Our experts foresee weakening trust, continued disengagement, and an influx of grievance claims amid a “clusterbomb of challenges” (to borrow the phrase of one of our future-gazers). But there is also a sense of hope. Some thought leaders anticipate better support for the wellbeing of HR professionals themselves, increased experimentation within the profession, and an opportunity to spearhead effective AI transformation.

So, let’s dive in. Here are HRZone’s 10 HR predictions for 2026.

Prediction one: A clusterbomb of challenges will widen the trust gap between leaders and employees

Natasha Johnson, Founder of Organic P&O Solutions

The biggest battleground in 2026’s workplaces won’t be technology or politics, it’ll be the growing trust gap between leaders and their people. The minefield created by AI disruption, skills shortages and cost pressures means that employees increasingly want clarity, consistency and human connection in the workplace. 

Leaders who can’t find a way to communicate how their business will triumph over constant change will lose the trust and confidence of their teams.

Businesses that invest in emotionally intelligent leadership, transparent decision-making and genuine dialogue with employees will be far more likely to weather the storms coming in 2026.

Prediction two: HR professionals will finally get the protection they deserve

Dr Jo Burrell, Clinical Psychologist at Ultimate Resilience

After years of invisible strain, 2026 will mark a turning point in how organisations view and support their HR teams. Research from Ultimate Resilience last year shows that HR professionals who receive proper support have far better mental health and are significantly less likely to consider leaving the profession.

As this evidence becomes widely recognised, we’ll see employers move beyond ad-hoc wellbeing gestures towards more robust, psychologically informed systems of support for HR. This will include structured supervision, clearer emotional-risk safeguards and stronger organisational accountability. This growing recognition will drive meaningful investment in protecting the people who protect everyone else.

Prediction three: HR teams will experience more grievances and harassment claims

Rhys Wyborn, Employment Partner at Shakespeare Martineau

In April 2026, the Employment Rights Bill will expand whistleblowing protections to include sexual harassment disclosures, requiring HR teams to ensure robust, confidential reporting channels are in place. From October 2026, employers will then be liable for harassment by third parties unless they demonstrate proactive prevention measures, meaning organisations will need to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.  

HR will therefore need to update policies, conduct enhanced training, enforce third-party risk assessments, and embed harassment prevention deeply into their culture. This, in turn, will shift protocol from reactive investigations to proactive workplace safeguarding.

Prediction four: The Quiet Cracking trend will continue in 2026, fueled by a tepid job market

Becky Norman, Managing editor, HRZone

The slow job market, which is anticipated to continue into 2026, will fuel rising employee disengagement. People will reluctantly cling to jobs they’d rather bid farewell to, causing job motivation and performance to wither.

As employees feel the pressure to do more with less, due to layoffs, increased workload and friction with AI integration, their sense of purpose at work will likely weaken. As such, the ‘Quiet Cracking’ trend – where employees silently disconnect from work – will unfortunately not be left in 2025. 

To avoid another year of billion-dollar productivity losses, employers need to refine their career progression pathways and development opportunities to help people see their current job as worth investing their energy in. 

Prediction five: In an AI-dominated era, employees will demand a more human-centric workplace 

Gethin Nadin, Chief Innovation Officer at Benefex

In 2026, AI will continue to reshape the workforce, but the people who remain will become more valuable – and more vocal. As machines take on more tasks, employees will expect meaningful investment in wellbeing, health benefits, financial security, and recognition. These won’t be soft expectations. The more AI dominates, the more organisations will be judged by how they support their people.

Employers must offer not just jobs, but life support. Culture will matter more than ever. In a world of fewer humans doing more meaningful work, success will hinge on how well we elevate and care for those who remain.

Prediction six: New employment laws will demand creativity with 2026 training budgets

Claire Taylor-Evans, Partner at Boyes Turner

The Employment Rights Bill marks a significant shift in the employment law landscape, forcing HR to rethink how they maximise 2026 training spend.

As a minimum, managers will need upskilling in performance management while practices such as ‘silent layoffs’ will become far riskier, making redundancy training essential. Recent high-profile sexual harassment cases emphasise the importance of regular, comprehensive training for managers and employees.

With organisations under continued financial pressure, HR leaders will be expected to do more with less. Sourcing and implementing high-quality training programmes will be essential to supporting managers, protecting your business, and staying compliant in a rapidly evolving legal environment.

Prediction seven: HR will become custodians of sense, experimentation and adaptation

Perry Timms and Kirsten Buck of People and Transformational HR

HR will need to strengthen its intersectionality between legacy operations and future prospects, whatever the headwinds or velocity. To do that, we’re backing a prediction that there will be more sense-making and associated experimentation among HR teams.

We can’t properly transform without these smaller pockets of emergence and adaptive application of options. HR isn’t synonymous with this practice, but 2026 will see the profession experiment more with workforce planning, dynamic forms of organisational design, sense-making spaces and coherent deployment of adapted practices.

2026 will therefore see HR being more like change-making hosts for impactful and evidence-revealing experimentation.

Prediction eight: The CHRO will power enterprise AI transformation from the inside out

Kathi Enderes, Global industry analyst and senior VP of research, The Josh Bersin Company

The top-performing CHROs will transform their own HR organisation before taking on the enterprise. One in five have already expanded into AI, strategy, and operations, showing the role is now a strategic business executive. The best will be breaking silos, operating as business leaders, and leveraging AI to augment HR experts.

With just 4.8 years of average tenure, quick wins matter. HR becomes the laboratory. Then, they’ll scale proven approaches to build ‘superworker’ organisations. This will require every HR professional to develop AI fluency, business acumen, and transformational leadership capabilities.

Prediction nine: Hierarchies will flatten as more step back from the leadership ladder

Jessica Brannigan, Head of Enterprise People Science at Culture Amp

Employees are re-evaluating the allure of pursuing a career in leadership. Many are consciously opting out of management tracks (‘conscious un-bossing’), while AI-augmented managers are being expected to do more with less.

In 2026, hierarchies may continue to flatten, with fewer people aspiring to become leaders. But an opportunity will continue to emerge: AI support tools that enable managers to broaden their impact will make leadership more accessible, sustainable and appealing for those who do choose to follow that path.

Prediction 10: Where team members – not leaders – decide how AI is used, organisations will see better outcomes

Quentin Millington, Founder of Marble Brook

Despite the comforting rhetoric, culture change is not ‘driven from the top’. AI raises questions about personal and collective identities and work, so if organisations in 2026 follow the usual ‘change management’ methods, they will cause anxiety, reinforce the status quo and block new ways of working.

In contrast, organisations where managers have the confidence, and skill, to let team members explore how AI fits into their workflows will move more quickly and secure better outcomes. With many hands on deck, participation will also help teams remain in control as new demands emerge.

2026 HR predictions: key takeaways

What can you do with these insights? Here are the actions that matter most as you navigate the year ahead:

• Build trust through transparency. Close the gap between leaders and employees by investing in emotionally intelligent leadership and creating genuine dialogue about how your organisation will handle change.
• Protect your HR team first. Move beyond ad-hoc wellbeing gestures to structured support systems, supervision and clear emotional-risk safeguards for HR professionals.
• Shift from reactive to proactive. With new harassment laws and rising grievances, update your policies, embed prevention into your culture and train managers thoroughly.
• Experiment boldly. Create space for sense-making and test new approaches to workforce planning, AI integration and organisational design.
• Let teams lead AI adoption. Bottom-up exploration will move faster and deliver better outcomes than traditional top-down change management.