Getting your people strategy right in 2026

20 January 2026 / Insight posted in Business Club Ideas

As businesses settle into the 2026 growth plans, the people decisions they make carry great weight. Rising employment costs, persistent skills shortages, increasing employment law obligations and rapid advances in technology are all currently reshaping how organisations think about their workforce.

At the same time, employee voice now plays a significant role in employer reputation, and wellbeing has become a core element of good employer practice.

Against this backdrop, achieving the right balance between skills, capacity and cost has become a defining leadership challenge. At our recent Godalming Business Club discussion, club members explored how organisations can make better and more confident people decisions in 2026. The conversation centred on four practical lenses that can help.

Four practical lenses to help organisations make better people decisions

1. Talent and capability

Finding and developing the right people remains one of the hardest challenges for growing businesses. Instead of searching for the perfect CV, Club members recommended that businesses widen their talent pool and be more strategic about how roles are designed.

Several themes emerged:

• A positive working environment remains one of the strongest recruitment tools. How people are treated affects word of mouth, and who wants to work for you.
• Being clear and honest in external communications matters. Candidates are more attracted to a business when values, development paths and expectations are transparent (and clearly adhered to).
• Hiring for attitude and core capability, then building skills in-house, is often more effective than waiting for a perfect technical match. Similarly, upskilling existing people can be cost-effective.
• Focusing on alternative talent pools like early career routes, apprenticeships, returners and career changers can widen access to scarce skills.

2. Employment costs and compliance

Rising costs and increasingly complex UK employment regulations mean organisations’ people decisions now carry greater financial implications. Club members recommended that leadership teams:

• Invest time to understand the full cost of each role, not just salary. This includes factoring in National Insurance, pensions, benefits, training time, and management overheads, which often remain invisible in hiring decisions.
• Design roles and hours realistically, and utilise outsourcing or interim support where appropriate, to reduce long-term risk when workloads or cash flow are uncertain.
• Consider factors beyond just salary when attracting and retaining staff. Salary sacrifice, healthcare, pension contributions, everyday discount schemes, and share options can sometimes provide greater value at a lower long-term expense.

To prevent workplace disputes, it is important to put the employment basics in writing and use them consistently. Clear contracts, job descriptions, probation processes and performance reviews reduce legal risk and the cost of disputes later.

Another tip was to standardise how decisions are made and documented. Inconsistencies around performance, flexible working, and change are among the biggest causes of employment disputes and unforeseen costs.

3. Technology and workforce change

Technology continues to offer opportunities to improve efficiency and productivity. It also entails costs and potential disruption, particularly when reskilling is required. In some cases, it raises difficult ethical questions where roles change or disappear.

Club members felt the most effective organisations start with the business problem, not the tool, and are clear about the desired business outcome. Whether the aim is efficiency, quality, risk reduction or capacity, this clarity helps businesses avoid adopting technology for its own sake.

For the effective deployment of any technology, Club members emphasised the importance of fostering workforce support. This is aided by:

• Open communication about technology plans, for example, using internal champions and structured training to help people understand what is changing and why.
• Using employee feedback to ensure new systems reflect how people actually work, not just how processes are designed on paper. This can be achieved through surveys, pilots and representative user groups.
• Investing in reskilling early so people feel capable and supported, rather than threatened or left behind.
• Starting small and scaling up. Pilots allow organisations to test the impact before committing to high costs or headcount changes.

When redesigning roles alongside technology, introducing new tools without adjusting workloads or responsibilities often increases pressure rather than reducing it.

It is also important to check legal and ethical implications early. Consultation, data use and fair treatment should be considered before technological changes are implemented.

4. Working life, engagement and retention

Wellbeing and workforce engagement are both core elements of employer reputation and productivity issues. Burnout, unmanaged workload, and disengagement often manifest in errors, absences, and lost output long before people resign.

Club members highlighted simple, low-cost actions that make a difference:

• Clarify expectations about availability, especially in hybrid and remote working. People need to understand when they must be available and when they are genuinely off the clock. This helps reduce burnout and fosters a sense of fairness.
• Train managers to use regular, informal check-ins to spot early signs of pressure, stress or disengagement. These do not need to be formal HR processes. Simple, consistent conversations can prevent issues escalating into absence or disputes.
• Recognise effort and contribution in small, visible ways. Acknowledging progress in team meetings or offering personal thanks can significantly boost morale without incurring additional costs.
• Create safe channels for colleagues to provide feedback and express concerns. Utilise peer support and mentoring to share workload, knowledge, and support across teams cost-effectively.

Given current financial pressures, being honest about what the business can and cannot provide is also crucial. When budgets are tight, clear communication about limitations can maintain employee trust and avoid overpromising on wellbeing initiatives.

Finally, Club members stressed how leaders set the tone in a business. Inconsistent behaviour at the top can quickly undermine trust and wellbeing, no matter how strong the formal policies appear to be. Similarly, any workforce feedback-gathering will only gain trust if leaders visibly act on what they hear.

Bringing the four lenses together

In a year when pressure on margins, skills and leadership time is expected to rise, the quality of people decisions will be vital in determining which businesses grow confidently and which struggle to keep up. Our business club members concluded that the businesses that will perform best will be those who:

• Design roles deliberately rather than stick to the default.
• Use development and progression as retention tools.
• Model future cost pressures early.
• Introduce technology with their people, not to them.
• Treat well-being as part of genuine operational performance, not simply a ‘nice to have’.

Thank you to everyone who contributed such practical tips and insights. If you’re interested in joining us for future Business Club events, please visit our Godalming office page for more information.