How leaders can redesign for performance, wellbeing and growth
If the future of work used to feel like a distant thought, 2026 is the year it lands squarely in your inbox. That’s the central message from a recent BI WORLDWIDE webinar with Dr Brad Shuck, Professor and programme director of Human Resource and Organisational Development at the University of Louisville and co-founder of OrgVitals.
Drawing on global research and his work with international organisations across multiple sectors, Dr Shuck highlights five interconnected trends shaping 2026.
They don’t sit in silos, nor do they compete for attention. Instead, they operate as one system under pressure, a system that leaders must now intentionally redesign for performance, wellbeing and growth.
Here are five of the key things that HR and reward leaders must do to keep culture strategic, human-centred and high-performing.
1. Culture, recognition and engagement must be tied to business results
Most organisations have culture programmes, recognition strategies and engagement initiatives already in place. But, according to Dr Schuk, the most expensive programme a company can run is one that isn’t tied to measurable goals and outcomes. It’s important to understand that intent does not equal impact, and initiatives framed as “nice to have” often struggle to scale or secure ongoing investment.
There is a case for treating culture strategy as something that belongs in the boardroom because it links directly to discussions about revenue, risk, innovation and growth.
Recognition offers useful information about how the organisation is functioning that can be used to drive measurable business outcomes. It tells you what behaviours matter most, where performance is accelerating and where capability may be eroding. When organisations move from lacklustre programmes to evidence-based design, culture stops being a narrative and becomes infrastructure.
2. Whole-person health becomes a performance system, not a benefits category
There’s no denying that employee wellbeing has evolved dramatically in recent years, but the next phase is far more holistic. Whole-person health integrates emotional, mental, physical and social wellbeing, which are all as components of sustained high performance.
Emphasis should be put on one core principle: performance is human before it’s operational. When employees are burned out, disengaged or unable to recover properly from work, the cost shows up everywhere. Whether it be in retention rates, creativity, effort, or even psychological safety and team dynamics. It’s important to realise that burnout isn’t a character flaw, but rather a problem of the system’s design.
In high-performing organisations, wellbeing is engineered into the environment, instead of being outsourced to a list of benefits. Workloads, expectations and leadership behaviours become important considerations of the whole system. If people need to ‘recover from work in order to live their lives’, the system itself needs to change.
3. AI shifts from threat to multiplier
Just a few years ago, conversations about AI were dominated by anxiety. Will it replace jobs? Will it remove leadership roles? But Dr Schuk notes that AI anxiety is rarely about technology, but instead about identity and relevance.
In practice, AI is becoming an advantage for those willing to learn. It expands capacity by reducing admin load and enhances ideas that can sometimes be tricky to find. Rather than replacing leaders, AI creates space for them to lead better.
Importantly, employees’ growth in AI capability isn’t a simple task. Everyone is on a steep learning curve. As teams look to blend human judgment with AI intelligence, organisations gain deeper insights, faster strategic clarity and more consistent programme outcomes.
4. The leadership archetype has changed, and so must development
Leadership today is almost a completely different world compared to leadership 15 years ago. Dr Schuk believes that this shift has moved away from control and compliance, and moved towards, trust, clarity and authenticity.
People disengage from work that lacks purpose or environments where they don’t feel they belong. When leaders provide meaning, context and psychological safety, teams move with more intention and less friction.
Dr Schuk describes psychological safety not as comfort, but as the permission to take risks without fear of humiliation. When people ‘shrink’, they eventually speak less, volunteer less and contribute less to their environment. It’s vital for HR and reward leaders to understand that it’s the environment, not the individual sending the message.
5. Learning is the new loyalty
Skills are decaying faster, and inconsistent learning cannot keep pace. Organisations must become a place where learning is encouraged and is done often. They must become places where abilities and strengths are built continuously, and where employees can visualise a future they want to step into.
In a market where compensation is easily matched, learning can become the key difference between keeping an employee for years or losing them to an organisation that is better prepared. It shapes retention, engagement, creativity and innovation.
If organisations want loyalty, they must show employees that they are willing to invest in them, not just to further business goals, but their personal goals. Growth will become the new retention strategy.
Entry-level roles are already beginning to evolve as organisations build talent internally through accelerated apprenticeships and development tracks. And as AI fluency becomes a baseline expectation, curiosity, and learning will shape the leadership pipelines of the future.
Final thoughts
If HR leaders act on these trends now, they’ll create cultures that are not only healthier and more human, but also higher performing. Stronger wellbeing, smarter use of AI, better leadership and continuous learning will not only benefit employees but also help to future proof the business.
Well-established recognition programmes are perfectly positioned to support and drive these emerging trends by evolving into ecosystems that not only reinforce positive behaviours and strengthen their culture over time but also inform leadership decisions, support strategic initiatives, and drive measurable outcomes across the business.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, BI WORLDWIDE
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