Dive Brief:
- In an era of persistent volatility and accelerating change, HR professionals must reinvent their operating model to future-proof themselves from irrelevancy, according to Mercer’s Global Talent Trends for 2026.
- More than a third (35%) of 1,650 HR leaders and 30% of 825 C-suite leaders surveyed globally across 16 industries and 16 geographies, including the U.S., said reinventing the HR model is a priority this year, the professional services and HR consulting firm reported.
- Under the new model, HR shifts from being a service provider to the architect of work itself, meaning that HR must redesign work and how it’s performed so that humans and technology function as one system from the start, the report explained.
Dive Insight:
C-suite leaders see HR technology as the driving force behind enterprise-wide transformation, according to the Mercer survey. In two years’ time, 44% of executives want fully integrated HR technology, while 36% expect to see it delivering transformation, the survey found.
However, this won’t happen if AI is bolted onto outdated, existing processes, the report stressed. “Rather than instructing AI to follow a process designed for humans — a waste of technology’s capabilities — [HR must] rethink the process itself,” Mercer advised.
Along these lines, HR must also do away with silos, which AI renders useless, starting with its relationship to IT, the report emphasized.
“Workforce strategy is technology strategy (and vice versa) with HR and IT acting as one seamless system,” Mercer said.
Importantly, HR must be embedded in strategic decision-making in order for the organization to evolve at the speed of change and C-suiters to realize their expectation of exponential growth, the firm added.
The survey found that 76% of executives who reported their organization has an embedded HR function said their business is resilient and can withstand unforeseen challenges compared to 62% of enterprises overall; 78% of those executives said their business is well-placed to compete for top talent.
HR leaders find themselves in the middle of a profound workforce transformation, with AI at the heart of the change, Gartner analysts wrote in a March 2 op-ed to HR Dive. Yet, the future of HR “will be defined by those who can blend human expertise with machine intelligence,” they said.
Although employment law, compliance and AI literacy remain the fastest growing skill set for HR professionals, according to LinkedIn’s recent Skills on the Rise report, proficiency at change management is critical, the platform’s chief people officer said. “Implementing AI, restructuring teams, shifting how work gets done — none of it works without bringing people along,” she noted.
HR and the C-suite must also come together around the use of AI tools, particularly regarding hiring, an AMS report released in January said. Without a coordinated approach, organizations risk falling behind in a competitive talent market, the CEO of the talent strategy firm cautioned.