What is your workforce looking for in 2026?

1. What major shifts do you see shaping the workforce by 2026 — and how should companies be preparing now?

By 2026, we’ll see three big shifts: a more fluid, skills-based labor market, an AI-augmented workplace, and a workforce that is less willing to tolerate misalignment between their values and their employer’s. Title and tenure are mattering less; skills, impact, and learning velocity are mattering more. Companies should start building around skills, not seats: map critical skills, invest in upskilling and reskilling, and make internal mobility easier than leaving. Leaders also need to clarify where AI will support work, where human judgment remains essential, and how people will be trained for that new balance.

Younger generations want to know specifically what they need to do to get promoted – and what that promotional track looks like.  Getting clear on job descriptions, in performance conversations and in your day to day leadership will pay dividends in loyalty and clarity to team members.  I always say “Clear is Kind” when it comes to best practices in leadership.

2. How are candidate expectations evolving beyond salary and benefits?

Salary gets you into the conversation; the experience and culture close the deal. Candidates are asking: What does my day actually feel like here? Will my manager develop me or just direct me? Is there flexibility in how I deliver results? Do I see people like me thriving at senior levels? They’re looking for clear growth paths, supportive leadership, flexibility, mental health support, meaningful work, and transparency about workload and expectations. Total rewards now includes time, autonomy, and wellbeing — not just money.

Employer dress codes also come into conversation.  Since the pandemic, dress codes have gotten much more relaxed.  Some of our clients have a dress code of ‘dress for the day’ which is well received by new employees and allows autonomy for the employee.

3. What role will flexibility play in how companies attract and retain top talent over the next two years?

Flexibility will be a make-or-break differentiator, especially for high performers and hard-to-fill roles. Most candidates aren’t demanding full freedom; they’re asking for reasonable control over when, where, and how they do focused work. The companies winning talent are defining flexibility in terms of outcomes, not hours: clear goals, clear accountability, and room for adults to manage their own time. Rigid, one-size-fits-all policies will quietly lose strong candidates to employers who operate with more trust and pragmatism.  Employers offering a hybrid work environment (vs. 5 days in the office) have the advantage over more rigid policies.  In fact, for non-executive level positions, 5 days in the office is often a barrier to finding great talent.

4. Are younger generations redefining what “career growth” looks like — and how should leaders respond?

Yes. For many younger professionals, growth is less about climbing a straight ladder and more about collecting meaningful experiences and skills. They define progress through stretch assignments, new responsibilities, lateral moves that broaden their toolkit, visible recognition, and work that aligns with their values. Leaders should respond by making growth visible and concrete: show sample career paths, explain what “ready for the next step” looks like, and create smaller steps between roles instead of long plateaus. Most importantly, managers should have ongoing career conversations, not just annual reviews.

Younger generations want to know specifically what they need to do to get promoted – and what that promotional track looks like.  Getting clear on job descriptions, in performance conversations and in your day-to-day leadership will pay dividends in loyalty and clarity to team members.  I always say “Clear is Kind” when it comes to best practices in leadership.

5. How should companies balance in-office culture with the rising demand for hybrid or remote options?

This isn’t an either/or issue. The real question is: What work is best done together, and what work is best done alone? High-performing organizations are designing in-office days with purpose — collaboration, innovation, relationship-building, and mentoring — while protecting focus time for deep individual work, often at home. They also communicate clearly about why their model exists and apply it consistently. Culture is not the building; it’s how people treat each other and how decisions get made. The office should be used strategically for connection, and hybrid/remote options should be used strategically for focus and flexibility.

6. What’s the biggest disconnect you’re seeing between what employers think workers want and what they actually want?

Employers often assume the answer is “pay more.” Compensation matters, but the biggest gaps show up in communication, workload, and leadership quality. Employees want realistic workloads, supportive managers, clear expectations, and flexibility that’s applied fairly. Employers sometimes underestimate how much one poor manager or one unclear policy can outweigh a competitive pay package.

If you do not focus on your employer brand, now is the time to start building that brand.  Your Employer brand is the reputation your company has as a place to work — both internally with employees and externally with candidates. It reflects what people believe they will experience if they join your company: the culture, leadership style, values, growth opportunities, and overall employee experience.

A strong employer brand answers three questions for the market:

1. What is it like to work here?
2. What do we stand for?
3. Why should a great candidate choose us over someone else?

It’s shaped by everything from manager behavior, communication, and flexibility policies to candidate experience, online reviews, and how aligned your culture is with what you say publicly. For companies competing for top talent — especially in a tight market — employer brand is often the deciding factor when salary and benefits are similar.

7. How important will purpose, DEI, and social impact be to candidates making career decisions in 2026?

These factors will continue to grow in importance — but only if they’re authentic. Candidates quickly spot performative statements that don’t align with day-to-day reality. By 2026, more candidates will ask about representation in leadership, how decisions are made when values and profit conflict, and whether people feel safe speaking up. Purpose, DEI, and social impact won’t replace pay and a strong role fit, but they increasingly become deciding factors between similar offers — and meaningful reasons people stay.

8. With AI and automation growing, what skills will be most in demand — and how should leaders start investing in them now?

AI will automate tasks, not leadership. The skills rising in value include critical thinking, problem solving, communication, storytelling, relationship-building, influence, change agility, and a learning mindset. Data and AI literacy are also becoming foundational — not to code, but to ask the right questions and use tools responsibly. Leaders should begin upskilling their current teams now through practical training, cross-functional projects, reverse mentoring, and clear expectations that continual learning is part of the job.  As a leader, realize that younger generations have stronger tech skills than older generations and each generation can learn from the other.

9. How can leadership teams future-proof their organizations by listening more closely to employee feedback today?

Start by making it safe to tell the truth. Employees won’t give real feedback if they believe it will be ignored or used against them. Effective approaches include short, frequent pulse surveys; closing the loop by communicating what’s changing (and why); structured listening sessions across levels; and watching behavioral data such as turnover spikes, internal transfers, or time-to-fill roles. Future-proofing is less about predicting every trend and more about staying adaptable because you’re actually hearing your people.

10. What advice do you have for founders and CEOs who want to stay competitive in the talent market — but don’t know where to start?

Begin with three steps. First, get honest about your reality: Why do people leave, and why do candidates decline offers? What do exit interviews and internal feedback actually say? Second, focus on one or two strategic talent priorities instead of trying to fix everything at once — for example, becoming known for flexible high-performance roles for working parents or being the strongest place in the region for early-career talent to grow. Third, invest in your managers. They are the talent brand. The way they coach, communicate, set expectations, and handle flexibility is the everyday experience employees talk about and candidates hear about. You don’t need to be perfect — you need to be clear, consistent, and intentional about the workplace you’re building.