Key Employee Experience Trends for 2026 — and How to Prioritize
Part of a series | 2026 HR Trends Series
HR leaders can balance rapid AI-driven change with human-centered employee experience strategies, focusing on skills-based work, strategic workforce planning, AI as augmentation and well-being.
There's a paradox confronting HR leaders in 2025: Balance the rapid evolution of technology while supporting the humans who make the organization run. As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes everything from hiring to performance management, the real question is how to harness it to create workplaces that feel less like algorithms and more like communities. In our 2026 HR trends guidebook, we explore what this means for compliance, people and technology. This article is the third in a three-part series that dives deeper into each of these areas.
In this article, employee experience strategy takes center stage. These are the key trends every HR leader needs to pay attention to in 2026.
Skills inventories are reshaping job design
Two factors are compelling leaders to consider how their workforces can be more efficient: a focus on skills in hiring and development and the rise of AI taking on routine tasks. While organizations of all sizes agree that skills development is important, ADP's 2025 HR trends study found that 65% of midsized and large organizations face obstacles in providing skills development opportunities for employees.
People leaders are examining the critical competencies necessary for each role. This inventory of skills and technology is helping them inform job redesign and determine the most suitable locations for talent, while managing costs, talent availability and business needs.
"While larger organizations with greater financial resources and advanced data-driven insights have been the first to adopt strategic workforce planning and skills-based design to align their talent supply with organizational goals, small and midsized organizations can and should also consider implementing these practices on a scale that's realistic for them," said Asal Naraghi, global innovation leader of future of work, ADP. "Doing so will significantly enhance their efficiencies and overall success."
Strategic workforce planning is aligning people with business goals
The goal of strategic workforce planning is to empower everyone to work more effectively. As the skills landscape changes due to AI, 84% of large organizations agree that using AI can help streamline processes but will not replace employees, while McKinsey research revealed that up to 30% of current worked hours could potentially be automated by 2030.
Skills-based approaches create datasets leaders can use to better align people strategies with organizational goals. On a micro level, this allows leaders to better match people and tasks with unique strengths while offloading routine work to AI. On a macro level, strategic workforce planning helps organizations become more agile, matching workers with tasks without the constraints of traditional job titles or locations.
AI is creating a mixed employee experience
AI's evolution within the workplace is affecting how people interact, solve problems and feel about work through experiences tailored to each person. From a business perspective, excitement toward AI is significant, with 66% of large organizations extremely excited about AI opportunities, compared to 47% of midsized organizations and 33% of small organizations, according to ADP's 2025 Market Pulse. That said:
"We're still in the early days of understanding AI's full impact and potential," said Jason Delserro, division vice president of human resources, ADP. "Expecting immediate, massive productivity gains simply because employees have access to AI tools risks creating unrealistic pressures on both the technology and, more importantly, your people."
Experts suggest reframing team-based approaches to AI as augmentation rather than automation. This framing encourages employees to engage more deeply with meaningful work by positioning AI tools as enhancements. Fostering AI literacy and a collaborative mindset among your people requires intentional training, conversations and continued reinforcement from leaders who teach by example.
"Integrating AI technology into daily workflows helps employees use it effectively, supporting real productivity gains," said Tiffany Davis, chief inclusion and diversity officer at ADP. "For example, if an employee uses a call summarization tool, they'll have more capacity to concentrate on the caller than if they had to take notes manually. In this way, AI becomes a facilitator of human connection, highlighting the true benefit of this technology."
Organizations are affirming their commitment to employee well-being
Well-being remains an important consideration for small, midsized and large employers. ADP's 2025 HR trends study found that nearly all large organizations feel responsible for ensuring employee well-being — 94% for physical health, 93% for mental health, and 86% for financial well-being. Findings for small and midsized employers were similar.
However, survey data reveals a significant gap between organizations that have a strong sense of responsibility and those that have confidence in their ability to offer the benefits and resources needed to enhance well-being.
To bridge this gap, organizations must build a culture that embodies a strong sense of responsibility. This involves not only recognizing the importance of access to resources and benefits, but also actively implementing and strengthening programs that support physical, mental and financial health. Organizations that get this right may observe better outcomes across employee health, engagement and productivity.
People still matter most
When you get your people strategy right, the rest falls into place: Top talent wants to work for your organization, your best employees actually stay and thrive, teams hit their stride and innovation stops being a buzzword. When organizations make that happen, they win. HR leaders who crack this code — by treating people strategy as a secret weapon rather than a checkbox — will own their sectors in the years ahead.
What if your people strategy could help you build a more sustainable business?
Dive deeper
Download the complete HR trends 2026 guidebook to explore how innovation is reshaping the people strategy, compliance and technology in the workplace.
