We welcome guest contributions from HR leaders and experts, provided the content aligns with our editorial themes and adheres to our style guide.
If you would like to write for HRZone, please continue reading to understand what we look for in guest articles.
What we’re looking for in 2026
Our 2025 audience research revealed that HR professionals are overwhelmed by generic content and struggle to find practical depth. They don’t need more thought leadership, but they do want to know what actually works.
Based on this research, we prioritise content that:
- Starts with a real problem and shows how organisations solved it
- Includes what didn’t work, not just polished success stories
- Provides frameworks, tools, or approaches that readers can use and adapt
- Features peer insights from practitioners, not just expert commentary
- Demonstrates depth over breadth
What we REALLY want to feature are the stories and experiences of HR leaders themselves. You may have experimented with a new approach, worked through a people problem, or be in the midst of a change journey. If you have learnings to share with your HR peers, whether named or anonymous, we would love to hear from you.
We’re actively reducing:
- Generic thought leadership without practical application
- Content that could be written by AI without specific examples
- Theory without real-world context
Core editorial themes
Based on our audience research, these are the challenges our HR readers are looking to address:
Workplace culture and employee engagement
- Culture change: real stories, lessons learned, what failed
- Driving engagement with budget constraints
- Measuring culture authentically
- Moving from culture statements to lived reality
Developing leaders and managers
- Developing managers who can handle complexity
- Leading multi-generational teams
- Manager capability in handling difficult conversations
- Strengthening leadership pipelines
- Upward coaching and influencing senior leaders
Organisational change and transformation
- Managing change fatigue
- Building change capability at scale
- Communicating change effectively
- Leading transformation under budget constraints
- HR’s role in driving strategic change
Budget constraints and demonstrating ROI
- Doing more with less: practical strategies
- Managing the balance between operational and strategic HR work
- Building business cases for HR initiatives
- Demonstrating HR’s commercial impact
- Strategic prioritisation under financial pressure
Pay, reward and benefits strategy
- Competitive reward on limited budgets
- Pay transparency and its implications
- Benefits personalisation at scale
- Retaining talent without constant pay increases
- Total rewards communication
UK employment law and compliance
- Employment Rights Bill implications
- Practical compliance guidance
- Tribunal results: Real-world cautionary tales
- Navigating regulatory changes
- Risk management
Strategic HR capabilities
- Building business acumen in HR
- Moving from operational to strategic
- HR’s credibility and influence
- Balancing operational demands with strategic priorities
- Data literacy for HR professionals
- Peer learning: how other CHROs/Heads of HR approach challenges
AI adoption and workforce implications
We want pragmatic guidance, not hype:
- What’s actually working: specific AI use cases in HR
- AI implementation challenges and how to overcome them
- Skills mapping for an AI-augmented workforce
- Risk and ethics: what can go wrong
- Reducing operational burden with AI (realistic expectations)
- Maintaining human judgement in AI-assisted HR
Performance management
- Moving beyond annual reviews
- Continuous feedback that actually works
- Difficult performance conversations
- Linking performance to business outcomes
- Managing underperformance effectively
Retention and employee attrition
- Understanding why people really leave
- Retention strategies that don’t rely on pay
- Identifying flight risks early
- Exit interview insights that lead to action
Upskilling and reskilling
- Skills-based workforce development
- Learning at scale with limited resources
- Personalised learning pathways
- Skills agility for uncertain futures
- Continuous learning cultures
Employee wellbeing and mental health
- Creating wellbeing strategies that improve performance
- Financial wellbeing in the cost-of-living crisis
- Supporting employees with complex, chronic health conditions
- Preventing burnout (not just managing it)
- Mental health support that’s accessible
- HR professional wellbeing: supporting those who support others
Attracting talent
- Talent acquisition in competitive markets
- AI in recruitment: Success and failure stories
- Employer branding and attraction strategies
- Diverse talent pipelines
HR technology and systems
- Choosing and implementing HR tech
- Integration challenges
- Getting value from existing systems
- Data-driven HR (making it practical)
- Beyond the hype: What’s genuinely achievable with AI solutions
Equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging
- Response to DEI pushback
- Data-informed EDI strategy
- Intersectionality in practice
- Addressing systemic bias
- Inclusive recruitment and progression
Future of work
- Workforce planning for uncertainty
- Succession planning in volatile times
- New ways of working (four-day weeks, RTO, flexibility)
- Job redesign for wellbeing and purpose
Current trends and news responses
We welcome articles that explore the HR/L&D impact of current affairs with practical guidance, such as:
- State of economy and workforce implications
- Employment legislation changes (with implementation guidance)
- High-profile workplace issues or toxic culture exposés
- Marginalisation and prejudice affecting underrepresented groups
- Industry-specific disruption (tech layoffs, sector consolidation, etc.)
- Political and regulatory changes affecting work
For news responses: We value analysis that goes beyond commentary to provide actionable guidance.
Content formats:
Our audience research shows HR professionals are seeking in-depth guidance, real-world stories and updates on new research findings. These are the content formats we accept:
- Case studies and organisational examples
- Research findings and data-driven insights
- Long-form guides and frameworks
- Legislative and compliance updates
- HR leader perspectives
- Thought leadership that offers a genuinely fresh opinion
For more details on our content formats, see our style guide.
How to pitch us
Before you pitch
Ask yourself:
- Does this start with a specific, relatable problem?
- Do I have a real-world example or case study?
- Can I show what actually worked (and what didn’t)?
- Is this actionable – can readers apply this?
- Am I sharing something genuinely new or providing fresh perspective?
What to include in your pitch
Email editor@hrzone.com with:
- Working title
- Author details (name, role, organisation, credentials)
- Content type (case study, guide, research insight, practitioner perspective – see style guide)
- Problem you’re addressing: What challenge does this solve?
- Synopsis (100-200 words): What’s the core insight or story?
- What makes this different: Why hasn’t this been said before?
- Real-world examples: Which organisations/situations will you reference?
- Proposed deadline