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HR trends you need to know

The role of HR is expanding faster than most functions can adapt. Technology is reshaping how people work in ways that HR is being asked to govern as well as enable.

Artificial intelligence (AI) sits at the centre of this shift.

According to Gartner's 2026 CHRO Priorities research, based on a survey of 426 HR leaders across 23 industries, AI transformation is the top priority for HR leaders this year. Yet only 21% are closely involved in AI strategy decisions - a significant gap between priority and participation.

Gartner also flags ‘regrettable retention’ as a growing risk: disengaged employees who remain in their roles while quietly damaging culture and employment brand. Identifying these situations requires better data and a shift from reactive HR to proactive workforce management.

Getting the fundamentals right is the most effective response, and that starts with the five practices below.

Human resources: 5 best-practice tips

Effective HR management goes beyond keeping records up to date. Here are five practices that help reduce risk, improve workforce visibility, and support confident decision-making across your organisation

1. Standardise your recruitment and onboarding processes

Inconsistent recruitment processes create compliance risk and uneven candidate experience. When different hiring managers follow different steps, errors creep in and the organisation's exposure grows.

Standardised workflows - from job requisition through to onboarding - ensure the right steps happen every time, regardless of who is running the process. Structured onboarding also affects early retention directly.

New hires who experience a clear, consistent process are more likely to stay and contribute sooner.

AI is beginning to change what standardisation looks like in practice. TechnologyOne's Human Resources includes a Review HR Applications feature that parses resumes, generates candidate summaries, and produces structured interview questions - reducing manual effort and the potential for bias in early-stage screening.

2. Build a single source of truth for workforce data

Fragmented HR data is one of the most common barriers to confident workforce management. When employee records, contracts, and leave history sit across separate systems, basic questions become time-consuming to answer and strategic planning becomes unreliable.

A single, current record of every employee gives HR teams and leaders the visibility they need to manage day-to-day operations and plan ahead. Without it, even straightforward requests from leadership require manual effort before they can be addressed.

GOTAFE experienced this directly before moving to TechnologyOne.

"If, for example, our executive team requested the FTE headcount, we'd have to download, clean, and interpret spreadsheets before we could give an answer," said Lynda Southgate, GOTAFE People and Culture Systems Administrator.

Mornington Peninsula Shire saw similar gains. After consolidating four separate HR and payroll systems into one, the council replaced 20 different forms with a single dynamic form that adjusts based on user input.

3. Automate performance and development workflows

Performance cycles managed through email or shared documents create gaps in visibility and accountability. With informal or inconsistent reviews, it becomes difficult to track development or address disengagement before it becomes a retention problem.

Automated workflows ensure reviews happen on schedule, feedback is captured consistently, and development plans are recorded and tracked over time. As mentioned earlier, Gartner’s report finds ‘regrettable retention’ among disengaged employees as a growing concern for all manner of workforces.

The shift from reactive to proactive HR starts here. When performance data is current and accessible, HR teams can identify issues earlier and act with greater confidence.

4. Use workforce data to inform planning, not just reporting

Most HR teams use data to account for what has already happened - turnover rates, headcount figures, leave balances. That reporting has value, but using data to make decisions about what comes next is a different thing entirely.

The shift toward predictive workforce management means identifying flight risk before someone resigns and planning succession before a gap appears.

Real-time dashboards and analytics surface these signals earlier, when there is still time to act rather than respond.

5. Govern your HR data and AI use deliberately

Without clear policies and oversight, AI can introduce bias, inconsistent decisions, or compliance exposure that is difficult to detect and harder to reverse.

Practical governance means role-based access to sensitive employee data, audit trails on key decisions, and human oversight on AI-assisted outcomes. Gartner research finds that only 1 in 50 AI investments deliver transformational value - the gap is typically governance and process design, not the technology itself.

The stakes are rising at an organisational level too. According to AIHR's 2026 HR Trends report, 48% of FTSE 100 companies now have a Chief AI Officer.

For HR, this means stepping into a stewardship role - ensuring AI tools are fair, auditable, and aligned to the organisation's values before they shape decisions about people.

The #1 tip? Build it all on a single ERP foundation

All five practices above are more effective when HR data and reporting sit within a single integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) environment. When they do, audit trails, performance data, and workforce analytics all draw from the same source - improving confidence in the numbers.

AI adds further value in this context. TechnologyOne's agentic AI product, Plus, is built directly into the ERP environment, allowing HR teams to query workforce data, surface insights, and action tasks using natural language rather than navigating separate screens or waiting on manual reports.

The organisations building HR functions that can keep pace with today's expectations are investing in connected environments where good processes reinforce each other - and an ERP foundation is what makes that possible.