Gartner Identifies the Top Future of Work Trends for CHROs in 2026
The top nine future of work trends for HR leaders this year are:
1. Reductions in Force (RIFs) Before Reality
In 2026, CHROs must deliver any layoffs in a human-centric way that does not harm the organization’s employment brand. Longer term, CHROs must lead “talent remix” efforts to ensure the size and structure of the current workforce can effectively and sustainably support their organization’s strategic goals.
2. Organizations Face Culture Dissonance Amid Performance Pressure
“This is leading to cultural dissonance – when culture no longer reflects the reality of work. As a result, we’re seeing “regrettable retention,” where disengaged employees remain in their role, and damage to the employment brand, both of which threaten CEOs’ performance ambitions,” said Kaelyn Lowmaster, Director in the Gartner HR practice. “This year, the most successful CHROs will be clear and explicit about the reality of their employee value proposition (EVP), including what they expect from employees (output, hours, location, etc.) in return.”
3. AI’s Biggest Hidden Cost: Employees’ Mental Fitness
4. AI Workslop Becomes Organizations’ Top Productivity Drain
“In 2026, the best CHROs will focus on saving employees effort, not just time, by aiming AI at the most arduous, friction-filled moments in employee work, rather than quick wins,” said McRae. “Effort, rather than time spend, is the most reliable indicator CHROs should use to understand where AI should reshape work and provide value.”
5. Employers Reverse the Candidate Fraud Arms Race
This leaves organizations faced with an overburdened and fraud-ridden process at the very moment recruiting headcount is under increased scrutiny. CHROs in 2026 will increase the value of the human in recruiting workflows by combining “high touch” approaches (in-person interviews, experiential skills assessment) with emerging AI tools.
6. Corporate Espionage Moves from the Pages of Fiction to Our Payrolls
HR must increase its role in protecting organizational security in 2026. In addition to organizations’ more intensive cybersecurity efforts, CHROs will need to invest heavily in the behavioral and motivational side of addressing and identifying sources of insider threats.
7. Tech-to-Trades Career Paths Blossom
This year, retraining and apprenticeship programs will emerge to help digital workers transition into skilled trade professions. CHROs must be proactive both in planning to retain their key digital talent, offering reskilling support where appropriate, and building new pipelines for skilled trade roles, potentially in collaboration with industry partners.
8. Process Pros, Not Tech Prodigies, Unlock AI Value
The most successful organizations in 2026 will prioritize finding work process experts — employees whose creativity and systems thinking allow them to redesign entire processes, not just optimize individual tasks. CHROs should update their recruiting processes to prioritize AI judgement and critical thinking over technical skill. They should also tap leaders to establish an employee working group to identify processes, not just tasks, that can be redesigned using AI.
9. Employees Get Paid for Training Their Digital Doppelgangers
Digitally replicating employees – specifically the knowledge, habits, and individual behaviors that make them successful – opens uncharted territory in terms of compensation. Employees will demand to be paid, not just for training AI tools, but for the ongoing use of their digital likeness long after they’ve left the organization. The best organizations will update their AI governance to protect and reward employees’ likeness as AI is increasingly shaped in their image.
