CAHRS Top 10 March 2026
- Workforce Planning
Challenges and Solutions
CAHRS
The Workforce Planning Working Group in early December was comprised of CAHRS members gathering to discuss the growing complexity of strategic workforce planning amid volatile business conditions, data limitations, and rapid technological change. Participants highlighted key challenges such as aligning talent strategy with shifting business priorities, gaining leadership buy-in, and balancing analytical rigor with simplicity. Overall, the session underscored the value of peer learning and the need for adaptive, business-integrated workforce planning approaches.
- Board Chairs
The Skills They Need now
Harvard Business Review
Today’s board members need more than executive experience. They must manage complexity —synthesizing ambiguous information and balancing competing stakeholder demands. Strong systems thinking, constructive dissent, and the ability to build consensus are essential. Intellectual curiosity, rigorous preparation, and incisive questioning define effective governance. As expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, sustainability, and geopolitical risk become critical, directors must integrate specialized knowledge while preserving sound collective judgment.
- 2026 HR Benchmarks
Where top Employers are Pulling Ahead
HR Dive
What distinguishes leading organizations in 2026? Top employers are investing heavily in workforce planning, skills development, and AI-enabled HR technologies to gain competitive advantage. They prioritize employee experience, data-driven decisions, and flexible work models to boost retention and productivity. High performers align learning with business strategy, use clearer performance metrics, and modernize compensation and talent systems. Organizations pulling ahead position HR as a strategic growth driver, guided by measurable benchmarks that support transformation and long-term workforce resilience.
- Employee Attrition Predictions
Integrating Machine Learning and Explainable AI
Nature
A machine-learning framework using explainable AI predicts employee attrition with high accuracy and identifies clear drivers of turnover. CAHRS partner company IBM has developed the HR Analytics Employee Attrition & Performance dataset framework, designed to uncover factors influencing employee attrition and provide insights into critical HR questions. The model identifies the relationship between distance from home, job role, and attrition or the comparison of average monthly income across education levels and attrition rates. It moves beyond “black-box” prediction and provides HR teams with actionable insights to design targeted interventions.
Speaking of the forecasting, be sure to check out the “What Does the Future of Cars, Travel, and Work Look Like?” Research Matters podcast with Arthur Wheaton, Director of Labor Studies in the Cornell Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) School.
5. Stabilized Salary Budgets
Employers Focus on pay Strategy for 2026
WTW
Organizations are replacing uniform distribution with strategic allocation — directing budgets toward employees growing skills, contributing to financial outcomes, and demonstrating market impact. With voluntary turnover declining to 10.1%, Human Resources (HR) practitioners should adopt stronger governance around pay decisions, leverage sophisticated market data and segmentation, and address pay compression where most acute. Maximizing impact within budgetary constraints requires targeted retention tactics: enhance employee experience (50%), increase training opportunities (43%), adjust health benefits (42%), offer workplace flexibility (35%), and modify compensation programs (32%).
6. The CHRO Role in 2026
How its Changed
HR Zone
By 2026, the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) role has fundamentally shifted: 86% report the mandate has changed significantly, and nearly half now spend substantial time coaching C-suite peers and leading enterprise transformation. Yet 70% are first-time CHROs, with an average tenure of under five years, creating succession and capability risks at the top of HR. For HR executives, the priority is to build enterprise-level acumen, formalize CHRO succession pipelines, strengthen board exposure, and align scope and compensation with the role's true strategic weight.
For more on what’s to come in the year ahead, take a look at the slides from the annual “What Issues are top of Mind for HR Leaders Heading into 2026?” CAHRScast.
7. Talent in a Globalized World
Four insights on How Countries Compete
Stanford University
In a globalized economy, national competitiveness is increasingly defined by talent strategy. There is no single path to success, leading countries deploy diversified approaches. Advantage stems not only from strong education systems, but also from social capital, including global networks and diaspora engagement. Effective strategies combine domestic talent development, skilled immigration, and talent circulation. Policy coherence and sustained political leadership are critical to long-term results.
8. Earning the Commute
How HR can Help
HR Brew
How can HR leaders make in-office time feel worthwhile as more organizations increase return-to-office expectations in 2026? Rather than mandating attendance, employers must “earn the commute” by creating meaningful reasons for employees to come in — such as collaboration, mentoring, and culture-building activities that cannot be replicated remotely. Workers are more willing to commute when office days are intentional and socially engaging, not filled with virtual meetings.
9. It has Begun
The Great Reinvention of Human Resources
Josh Bersin
HR thought leader Josh Bersin argues that traditional models built around static roles and siloed functions are no longer sufficient. Instead, HR must evolve into a dynamic, data-driven strategic capability focused on workforce intelligence, continuous learning, and organizational agility. Its future lies in integrating talent management, learning, and work design into a unified system that enables business transformation.
10. World Class HRBP Framework
Employee Value Proposition Capabilities
CAHRS
This CAHRScast keynote features long-time CAHRS member Kevin Cox, President, LKC Advisory LLC; Chris Collins, ILR School HR Studies Professor and MILR Program Director; and Brad Bell, William J. Conaty Professor of Strategic Human Resources and CAHRS Director. They discuss the role of Human Resource Business Partners (HRBPs) in building a strong employee value proposition, focusing on how this key HR group can contribute strategically to organizational success and talent attraction and retention.
CAHRS feels so strongly about the importance of the HRBP Role and its strategic importance to the business that it recently unveiled a comprehensive World-Class HRBP Framework to define the role and set a clear standard for what “great” looks like. In this CAHRScast, Kevin, Chris, and Brad provide background to the impetus for this project.