As 2025 closes, HR leaders are planning for a year of rapid change. The global data, including Gartner’s 2026 Top Priorities for CHROs, paints a clear picture: HR must balance growth and efficiency while adapting to AI, hybrid work, and wellbeing expectations that continue to evolve.
Here are K3 HR’s Top 3 Trends shaping the year ahead.
1. Hybrid Work and the ‘Why’ Behind Office Requirements
Flexible work isn’t fading, it’s maturing. A recent Westpac Australia Fair Work Commission case overturned an employer’s refusal of a remote-work request because the company couldn’t demonstrate clear, evidence-based reasons for requiring office attendance.
While New Zealand’s legal framework is different, our courts often track similar reasoning. Employers should review their policies now:
What are your genuine, operational reasons for in-person work?
Can you evidence the benefits for collaboration, safety, or service delivery?
Are the expectations applied consistently?
“Because that’s how we’ve always done it” isn’t enough anymore. Transparent, defendable reasoning will be essential if, or when, NZ case law follows suit.
2. Wellbeing Beyond Sick Leave
Employee wellbeing has moved beyond EAP posters and sick-leave entitlements. According to Gartner, organisations that actively embed culture into daily work see up to a 34 % boost in performance.
That means connecting wellbeing to job design, workload management, and leadership behaviours, not treating it as an add-on.
3. AI and People Analytics Come of Age
AI is reshaping HR faster than any previous technology shift. Used wisely, it can deliver real-time insights into attendance, turnover, and workforce capacity. But it also raises new questions about ethics, bias, and trust.
The best HR teams will treat AI as a partner, not a threat, enhancing human judgment rather than replacing it.
Summary
2026 will reward organisations that combine data-driven decisions with human-centred leadership. Whether through flexible work, wellbeing strategy, or AI integration, HR’s challenge is clear: be both innovative and authentic.
