{"id":1847,"date":"2026-01-05T17:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/?p=1847"},"modified":"2026-01-15T17:11:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T16:11:50","slug":"2026-is-here-hr-is-no-longer-a-function-it-is-stewardship-and-orchestration-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/?p=1847&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"2026 is here. HR is no longer a function. It is stewardship and orchestration."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p id=\"ember331\">I am not an HR manager. But I work daily with HR leaders, boards and innovators across sectors. And as 2026 unfolds, one thing becomes impossible to ignore: the numbers are forcing a shift in what HR actually is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember332\">Some signals that keep coming back, across reports and boardrooms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>In the Netherlands, labor market <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbs.nl\/nl-nl\/visualisaties\/dashboard-arbeidsmarkt\/spanning-op-de-arbeidsmarkt?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">tension eased slightly in 2025<\/a>, yet we still sit close to a 1:1 ratio between vacancies and jobseekers. <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/eurostat\/statistics-explained\/index.php?title=Job_vacancy_statistics\">In the EU<\/a>, the Netherlands remains among the countries with the highest vacancy rates. Structural scarcity did not disappear.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Internal mobility <a href=\"https:\/\/learning.linkedin.com\/content\/dam\/me\/business\/en-us\/amp\/learning-solutions\/images\/wlr-2024\/LinkedIn-Workplace-Learning-Report-2024.pdf\">is widely recognized<\/a> as the solution, but only a minority of employees believe they can realistically move internally. The gap between strategy and lived experience remains large.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gallup.com\/workplace\/697904\/state-of-the-global-workplace-global-data.aspx\">Employee engagement in Europe<\/a> (13%) stays stubbornly low compared to the global average. At the same time, stress and burnout complaints remain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbs.nl\/nl-nl\/nieuws\/2025\/46\/bijna-1-op-de-6-werknemers-heeft-stressvol-werk\">high (1 out of 6 workers)<\/a>, especially in knowledge-intensive sectors. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rivm.nl\/mentale-gezondheid\/monitor\/werkenden\/burn-out-klachten\">RIVM<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gartner.com\/en\/newsroom\/press-releases\/2024-02-27-gartner-finds-38-percent-hr-leaders-piloting-generative-ai?\">AI adoption in HR<\/a> accelerated rapidly in 2024 and 2025 (38%). Many organizations are piloting GenAI. Yet only a small share of HR leaders believe managers are actually equipped to use AI responsibly and effectively (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gartner.com\/en\/newsroom\/press-releases\/2025-10-08-gartner-research-finds-only-8-percent-of-hr-leaders-believe-their-managers-have-the-skills-to-effectively-use-ai\">8%<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember334\">Put together, this points to one conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember335\"><strong><em>HR cannot stay focused on managing processes while work itself is changing shape.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember336\">What I see emerging is a shift from HR as a function to HR as <strong>stewardship and orchestration<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Stewardship over how work is organized, not just who fills which role<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Orchestration of skills, development and mobility, instead of static job architectures<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Stewardship over fair, explainable decision-making as AI enters the core of HR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Orchestration of perspective and movement, not just policies and frameworks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember338\">What seems to work in practice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Designing work around skills and tasks, not job titles<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Making internal mobility a default path instead of an exception<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Letting AI support judgment, with clear boundaries and ownership<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Translating purpose into concrete choices about work, capacity and development<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember340\">What does not work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Adding yet another tool to an already fragmented HR landscape<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Talking about engagement without changing how work is allocated<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Introducing AI without clarity on values, accountability and governance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember342\">If 2025 was the year of experimenting, 2026 feels like the year of choosing direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember343\">Not the question: what can AI do for HR? But the harder one: what kind of work do we want to enable, and what role should HR take in shaping that system?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember344\">If HR steps into stewardship and orchestration here, this decade can unlock enormous human potential. If not, we risk optimizing a model that no longer fits the reality of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"ember345\">Curious to hear from my network: where do you feel HR most needs to step into stewardship as 2026 unfolds?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am not an HR manager. But I work daily with HR leaders, boards and innovators across sectors. And as 2026 unfolds, one thing becomes impossible to ignore: the numbers are forcing a shift in what HR actually is. Some signals that keep coming back, across reports and boardrooms: Put together, this points to one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,32,17],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1847"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1850,"href":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions\/1850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenswaling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}