Securing Corporate Talent with Strategic Hubs

The authors are grateful to Karen Pastakia, Kate Sweeney, Simona Spelman, Costs Briggs, and Nitin Mittal for their time, input, and stable partnership throughout this effort. Special thanks to Catherine Gergen for her reliable research assistance and coordination in writing this Introduction. A special note of recognition is reserved for Ishani Purohit and Olivia Rueger, whose consistent job management stewardship over the previous year managed every moving piece of this reportfrom early preparation through final productionkeeping the team lined up, momentum strong, and execution smooth.

The authors extend thanks to the REM teamMatt Deruntz, Maria Neira, Qiaoli Wang, Manshreya Grover, Nirupam Datta, Charu Ratnu, Santhosh Naidu, Derek Taylor, Marcella Hines, Parag Zalpuri, Chris Tomke, and Luly Castillerofor their unfaltering partnership and behind-the-scenes execution that kept the work moving from draft to delivery. The authors likewise acknowledge the Deloitte Insights teamCorrie Commisso, Hannah Bachman, Annalyn Kurtz, Alexis Werbeck, Jim Slatton, Govindh Raj, and Molly Piersol, and the data visualization team, whose editorial rigor, storytelling craft, and visual clarity honed the narrative and brought the insights to life.

Thank you to the Global Human Capital executive teamKate Sweeney, Kate Morican, Amanda Flouch, Nathalie Vandaele, Jodi Baker Calamai, Dheeraj Sharma, Franz Gilbert, Karen Pastakia, Simona Spelman, Yasushi Muranaka, Tom Alstein, Sebastian Pfeifle, John Brownridge, Kurt Proctor-Parker, Pat Shannon, Andrew Potts, Dahlia Katz, Ava Damri, Kelly Nelson, Joan Pere Salom, Gerhard Botha, and Stuart Scotisfor sponsoring and supporting the international reach of this report.

The authors also extend sincere thanks to the customers who generously shared their time and experiences through interviews conducted for this report. Their honest insights and viewpoints improved our exploration, grounded the thoughtful analysis in real-world truths, and strengthened the relevance and functionality of the findings. Thank you to Lara Martinez Gonzalez, worldwide director of talent intelligence, AstraZeneca; Michelle Robertson, executive board member (worldwide personnels, individuals and culture), Adidas; Emily Bacon, senior supervisor, organization and individuals strategy, Adobe; Zac Parris, former director of organizational effectiveness, Atlassian; Taeko Kawano, executive officer and primary human resources officer, AXA; Justin Zaccaria, chief human resources officer, Bechtel; Matt Schuyler, chief individuals officer, Creative Artists Company (CAA); Megan Bazan, vice president of individuals, Cisco; Charlotte Wolf Tarfa, vice president, worldwide talent technique and succession, Coca-Cola; Melissa Collier, director, modification leadership, Georgia-Pacific; Elise Bathurst, director of people operations, Google; Courtney Gilliland, senior director, United States human resources, Gordon Food Service; Lindsey Taylor, senior director, tactical workforce planning and people analytics, Hewlett Packard Business; Marcia Oglen, senior vice president, business human resources, Highmark Health; Jon Pitts, founder and chief technical officer, Ihp Analytics; Reiko Mukai, primary personnels officer, MetLife Japan; Charlotte Simpson, business officer and head of people and organization, Novartis Japan; Heather Neville, senior vice president, people and locations strategy and operations, Sony Interactive Home Entertainment; Jill Larsen, chief individuals officer, Synopsys; Niki Rose, workforce experience and capability executive, Telstra; Tomoko Adachi, worldwide chief personnels officer, Terumo Corporation; and Michael Ehret, senior vice president and chief individuals officer, Walmart International.

Managing Global Risks in Growth Markets

HR leaders are used to pressure, but in 2026 the rate and complexity of today's difficulties are basically various. Expectations around wellbeing will continue to increase. Overall benefits will become an engine for clearness, consistency and trust. Synthetic intelligence will (and is) improving how work gets done. Employers and employees are shifting to a skills-based work paradigm.

Together, they are redefining what efficient HR leadership needs, typically before companies feel fully prepared. These HR trends reflect more comprehensive shifts in human resources management, HR innovation and labor force strategy.

Below are five HR trends shaping the road in 2026. They are not forecasts or prescriptions, but the signals HR leaders should be taking note of as they evaluate their team's preparedness for what lies ahead. For several years, health and wellbeing has been dealt with as a collection of programs: an EAP here, a wellness effort there, some new benefit included in response to a novel need.

Building High-Performance Global Units for 2026

In its stead, a structural shift is emerging. Health and wellbeing is increasingly operating as organizational infrastructure. It affects how work is created, how managers lead, how sustainable roles feel with time and how resistant teams are under pressure. When wellbeing fails, the results appear across the board in performance, retention and management effectiveness.

When concerns are uncertain and workloads become unsustainable, pressure develops throughout the company. This should consist of the sustainability of HR and individuals leaders themselves.

As HR handles brand-new roles, capacity, focus and assistance for those functions are a vital part of the wellbeing equation. Over the past several years, many companies expanded their benefits and benefits offerings in fast action to changing employee requirements. In 2026, the difficulty has less to do with offering more, and more to do with guaranteeing that what's provided is coherent, reasonable and lined up with how people in fact work and live.

Fragmentation across advantages, compensation, wellbeing and leave can produce confusion, choice fatigue and unequal experiences, even when investments are significant. Employees may have access to more resources than ever yet still lack a clear understanding of the value they're used or how to utilize what's available. This places focus directly on positioning, communication and clearness.

Synthetic intelligence is out of the box and in day-to-day usage. As it spreads out across functions, functions and workflows, HR needs to keep rate with governance.

How Automation Is Redefining Global Talent Operations

Supervisors require guidance on leading groups where human judgment and automated systems converge. For HR, this suggests stepping into a stewardship function that stabilizes innovation with oversight.

When AI is included, HR plays a central role in specifying where automation is suitable, where human judgment is needed and how responsibility is kept across the organization. As technology, automation and brand-new ways of working reshape jobs, traditional role-based workforce planning is no longer the sole lens through which companies personnel and establish talent.

This shift allows companies to react flexibly to change while offering employees visibility into how they can grow within the company. Skills-based methods essentially link business needs and staff member advancement.