What Should HR’s Priorities Be for 2026?

Leading from Anywhere: Driving Results in the Age of Distributed Work

i4cp’s global study, led by renowned thought leader Rob Cross, presents a new way of thinking about leadership and how to drastically increase productivity and performance.

The leadership crisis is real.

Discover how traditional leadership models are breaking under the weight of distributed work – and what top companies are doing differently.

i4cp’s latest executive brief reveals:

• Why leadership burnout is rising – and what to do about it.

• How distributed work requires a comprehensive, new approach to leadership.

• Why improving the performance of lower-quartile leaders can drive a 32% productivity jump.

 Download the executive brief to see the study’s four key findings – and the six capabilities that drive leadership effectiveness in distributed work..

🚀 HR Trend Spotlight: What Should HR’s Priorities Be for 2026?

As HR looks ahead to 2026, one priority stands clearly above many others: harnessing AI to elevate HR’s role from administrative to strategic. Organizations are pushing to embed AI into recruitment, performance, learning, and talent planning so that HR becomes a force multiplier rather than a cost center. The challenge lies in integrating intelligence with human judgment—AI should assist, not replace, human insight. Read more.

🎧 HR Insights: Routinizing Change over Inspiring It

Gartner reports that inspiring change is often not enough. Only about 32% of leaders globally succeed at real, sustainable change adoption in their organizations. The key is to turn change into routine — embed it into everyday processes so that employees don’t see it as a disruption or a one-off mandate. Change must be incremental, predictable, and reinforced, not a splashy event.

💡 HR Tips & Tricks

Tip of the Day: Implement a “micro-pulse guardrail” in new HR programs. After launching any initiative (onboarding, learning, etc.), insert a short 1–3 question micro-pulse survey at an early point (say, two weeks in) to detect pain points, confusion, or friction. Use those responses to course-correct before the next phase.

Trick of the Day: Use a decision ledger for HR leadership decisions. For every strategic HR decision (like new policy, tool adoption, org change), record the assumption(s) that drove it, the decision made, and a follow-up “check” date (e.g. 6 months later) to compare actuals vs assumptions. Over time, this ledger becomes a powerful learning bank of what works, what fails, and why — sharpening decision quality.

🧾 HR Case Files - Sage’s Acquisition of Criterion HCM

Sage, known for accounting and business software, recently acquired Criterion HCM to strengthen its human capital management capabilities. The acquisition is aimed at giving mid-sized businesses a unified, AI-driven platform combining payroll, core HR, and talent engagement. As Sage integrates Criterion, it will face questions around migration, data consolidation, change management, and trust among users as traditional HR systems shift toward more intelligent architectures.

Key Takeaways

• Integration of systems is as critical as the acquisition itself.

• User adoption and trust will make or break value.

• Data migration and system transition need strong governance.

• Mid-market firms expect intuitive, low-friction experience.

• AI must be reliable, transparent, and human-supportive.

🧰 HR Toolbox

Stay equipped with the latest HR events and resources.

Resource of the Day

A recent doctoral study emphasizes that successful hybrid or remote work models depend on three interconnected layers: the organizational design, the supervisor-employee relationship, and the employee’s own self-management approach. If any one of these layers is misaligned (for example, the org is still built for office presence), tweaking remote work policies alone will fail. This offers HR a framework to test which layer needs adjustment when hybrid work stumbles.

Event of the Day

The Gartner HR Symposium / Xpo will run from October 27 to 29, 2025, in Orlando. This is one of the largest gatherings of senior HR and talent executives, where strategy, AI, leadership, and future-of-work themes are central. Attendees will explore research, case studies, and new vendor innovations.

For event details and registration, visit the website. 

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