As we approach 2026, we’re seeing several emerging and evolving priorities shaping how organisations think about people, performance, and potential. Based on what we’re hearing from HR leaders, and what’s surfacing in real-world implementations, here are six trends we believe will define talent management over the coming year — along with actions you can take to stay ahead.
In 2025 we saw a surge of interest in using talent-data more intelligently — not simply as a record-keeping or time-saving tool but as a source of actionable insight.
In 2026, the shift continues — with organisations leaning into predictive analytics and forecasting:
What’s changing:
Talent data is increasingly used not just to review past performance but to forecast future potential, identify who might thrive in evolving roles, and spotlight learning gaps before they impact delivery.
There’s a stronger demand for analytics that can surface patterns — for example around engagement, retention, skills gaps, or resourcing risks — in a way that supports proactive decision-making.
Actions to take:
Assess whether your current HR or talent-management system supports forecasting, not just reporting. Ask whether the platform can show predictive trends (e.g. turnover risk, skills supply vs demand, internal mobility heatmaps).
Embed data-led insight into key talent processes — succession planning, career-pathing, workforce planning — rather than letting them sit in silos. There is a strong connection between employee enagement in the well-being domain and flight risk within Sucession Planning.
Invest in data governance and ethics. As predictive analytics become more powerful, ensure fairness, transparency and privacy remain at the heart of your approach.
As workplaces continue to evolve, rigid leadership- or learning-development programmes are increasingly being outpaced by change. This echoes the concerns raised about traditional leadership development methods.
What’s shifting:
The old model of “set programmes for everyone” is giving way to adaptive, personalised development. Organisations are recognising that what leaders and teams need tomorrow may not match the competencies they demand today.
There’s growing interest in micro-learning, modular training, and just-in-time skill development — matched to current needs rather than assumed, long-term ones.
Actions to take:
Build a dynamic skills framework that can evolve as business needs change. Engage employees in updating their own skills profiles.
Move away from mandatory “one-size-fits-all” programmes. Offer flexible, role- or project-based learning opportunities. Use built-in AI to generate learning and develop suggestions that suit the individual, the feedback they have been given, their career aspirations, their current skill set, and your organisation's preferred learning model (e.g 70:20:10). The combination means that it can work for everyone.
Encourage a culture of continuous feedback and learning. Promote regular check-ins, coaching, and informal development rather than relying solely on formal training cycles.
While 2025 emphasised shifting organisational culture towards employee centricity — giving individuals control over their review processes, feedback, and career development.
Heading into 2026, we expect organisations will go further — placing greater emphasis on the overall “employee experience,” including psychological safety, well-being, belonging, and meaningful work.
What’s emerging:
Employee engagement will be complemented (or in some cases, replaced) by holistic “experience” metrics — how people feel about working for you as their manager and the organisation, not just how they perform.
There will be a growing focus on mental health, resilience, and sustainable change — particularly in sectors facing constant disruption or rapid change.
Organisations will increasingly experiment with “pulse surveys,” real-time feedback tools, and more frequent informal check-ins rather than bulk annual or bi-annual reviews.
Actions to take:
Expand your definition of “talent management” to include employee well-being and psychological safety.
Implement tools or processes for regular, lightweight feedback or “pulse-check” conversations.
Create structures that allow individuals to influence their own work experience — for example through flexible working patterns, career autonomy, or choice in projects. Use the analytics that can identify the actively (and more increasingly) passively disengaged. This latter group can be a really chalenging blind spot.
With external hiring still challenging across many sectors — and talent shortages persisting — 2026 is likely to see yet more emphasis on growing internally and enabling people to move across roles. This builds on previous calls to focus on skills (not just jobs) and to map career paths beyond rigid structures.
The shift:
Organisations will increasingly view the workforce as a fluid pool of talent: people are no longer tied to a single “job”, but possess overlapping skillsets, latent potential, and mobility.
Internal mobility will be marketed as a benefit — not just a resource tactic — contributing to retention, engagement, and development.
Skills inventories, self-managed profiles, skills gained outside the organisation in past roles and industries, and transparent career-path mapping will become core to updated approaches to talent management.
Actions to take:
Introduce or promote a skills-inventory tool that employees update themselves — capturing skills gained formally, informally, outside work, or in prior employers.
Publicise internal mobility opportunities and career paths within your organisation, including non-traditional or lateral moves.
Align skills-management, succession planning, and career mapping — so that internal mobility becomes part of talent strategy, not an afterthought.
Organisations are facing an era of ongoing transformation — whether due to technology, shifting markets, economic pressures, or evolving employee expectations. The “change fatigue” identified in 2025 remains relevant.
What’s needed:
Resilience — for individuals, teams and the organisation as a whole.
A shift away from one-off change programmes toward embedding transformation capacity: building agility, adaptability, and continuous improvement into how people work.
Support structures that empower employees to lead and own change, rather than react to top-down mandates.
Actions to take:
Prioritise transparent communication around change. Keep people informed and involved.
Embed change-support tools — e.g. personal development, training, feedback, and flexibility — into your ongoing processes.
Encourage ownership: enable people to shape their career, development and role evolution — and to influence how change is implemented.
As organisations increasingly lean on technology — from data analytics to AI-driven insights — 2026 will likely bring heightened attention to ethics, fairness, and the social impact of talent management practices. This echoes the commitment shown recently by Head Light in rolling out ethically governed AI features.
What to watch for:
Ethical oversight and transparency around the use of AI and analytics in talent decisions — avoiding bias, ensuring consent, and maintaining fairness. Consent is important here. It is a key part of ISO 42001, the new governance standard for AI.
Growing interest in environment, social and governance (ESG) aspects of employment — how organisations treat people, promote inclusion, fairness, and wellbeing.
More explicit alignment between talent management and organisational values/mission — embedding ethics and purpose into talent systems.
Actions to take:
Review the ethical, fairness and compliance features of any HR/talent platform you use — especially if it uses AI or predictive analytics.
Ensure that talent-management decisions — promotions, development, mobility — are transparent and subject to human oversight. Implement guard rails and keep people accountable.
Align people-management practices with your organisation’s values, and openly communicate to employees how decisions are made, data is used, and their development is supported.
2026 promises to be a defining year in which talent management evolves from a set of processes into a truly strategic — and human — discipline.
If you’re ready to reflect on where you are now, and explore what a future-proof, ethical and people-centric talent strategy could look like, we’d be happy to help.
Let’s build a talent-ready, resilient, and engaged workforce — together.