Getting ahead: What HR leaders need to anticipate now

Key takeaways

• Psychological safety is becoming a competitive advantage.
• Strong leadership capability is a critical driver of employee wellbeing.
• Responsible use of AI requires organisations to rethink job design.
• Prevention, resilience and human connection are shaping the future of workplace wellbeing.

Today’s workplace is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, 73 per cent of senior decision-makers say their roles have become more complex since 2020, with emerging technologies such as AI and digital transformation cited as the primary reason why. 

This is creating a growing gap between what employees need to thrive and what many workplaces were originally designed to support. Importantly, it’s having a direct impact on employee wellbeing: 

“Twenty seven per cent of employees today feel helpless. That means not having the feeling of agency or self-efficacy to change their situation, to change their life, to move forward in a productive way.”

- Paula Allen, TELUS Health’s Global Leader of Research and Insights.

According to McKinsey’s 2026 State of Organizations report, executives cite productivity as their primary challenge and 43 per cent say it’s their top priority. What’s more, the TELUS Mental Health Index (MHI) found that 25 per cent of workers in the U.K. report that their mental health is negatively affecting productivity (Q1 2026). 

As wellbeing continues to evolve from a benefits conversation into a business strategy, HR leaders have an opportunity to help shape workplaces that are healthier, more resilient and better equipped for the future. 

Here are six wellbeing trends HR leaders should prepare for in the second half of 2026 and beyond.

1. Psychological safety will become a defining factor of successful workplaces

“The psychological safety that we bring to the workplace is probably the number one thing that’s going to make the difference between successful and unsuccessful workplaces going forward,” Paula explains.  “Why? Because it’s fundamental to optimal productivity and essential to resilience during the current fast pace of change.”

Psychological safety has important implications for employee wellbeing. Younger workers, managers and parents, for example, are more likely to express concerns about stigma when accessing mental health resources, and when employees don’t feel safe discussing mental health challenges, issues often go unaddressed until they become more severe (MHI, Q1 2026).

Just as importantly, psychological safety helps organisations improve adaptability. “When a person or group is psychologically unsafe, change will be less successful and could be damaging,” states Paula. “When going through change, organisations need mind share from employees to ensure your organisation makes the right decisions in uncharted waters. It also needs focus and energy as there are typically higher demands for a period of time. None of this happens without safety.”

To help foster greater psychological safety across your organisation, empower managers to:

• Facilitate open dialogue. Train managers to ask better questions, invite diverse viewpoints and respond constructively when employees raise concerns.
• Reduce stigma around mental health. Normalise conversations about mental wellbeing through leadership role-modelling and visible support resources.
• Measure psychological safety regularly. Include questions related to trust, belonging and speaking up in employee listening programmes to identify risks before they become larger organisational challenges.

2. Strong leadership is quickly becoming a wellbeing strategy

Nearly one in ten employees report senior leadership has been less supportive of work-life balance over the past year, and this group has a mental health score at least seven points lower than the national average (MHI, Q4 2025).

“We found five things that really make a difference when it comes to leadership,” explains Paula. First and foremost, the strongest leaders are team-oriented, fostering collaboration rather than competition. They’re also inclusive and participative, helping employees feel a sense of belonging. Most importantly, exceptional leaders demonstrate empathy and kindness. “The best leaders are those that inspire and guide employees with a clear sense of purpose,” says Paula, “and they make decisions so employees don’t have undue uncertainty.”

To help managers lead effectively, HR leaders should:

• Treat leadership development as an important wellbeing initiative. Embed empathy, communication, inclusion and coaching skills into leadership development programmes.
• Measure leadership behaviours. Evaluate managers on how they support team wellbeing, collaboration and belonging alongside traditional performance metrics.
• Equip managers for change. Provide leaders with practical tools to help support employees through periods of uncertainty and increased workload.

3. Psychosocial risk management is under greater scrutiny

Organisations have long understood the importance of managing physical workplace hazards. Increasingly, the same expectations are being applied to psychological hazards.

“Psychosocial risk management is already in UK legislation,” explains Paula. “Several countries have this kind of legislation. It makes sense since we saw the massive benefits for workers, businesses and economies with physical safety legislation, but the risk of our time relates to unhelpful psychological strain.” 

The Australian government, for example, amended the Model Codes of Practice back in 2023, which details psychosocial safety requirements in the workplace. In France, companies are required to manage workplace stress under legislation that provides guidance on preventing and reducing mental health difficulties, namely through determining responsibilities.

As expectations evolve, so too does the role of HR, and leading organisations are proactively identifying and reducing the workplace conditions that contribute to mental health challenges arising in the first place.

To help prepare for this, HR leaders should:

• Assess psychosocial risks regularly. Evaluate workload, role clarity, organisational change and other workplace factors that may impact employee wellbeing.
• Address root-cause issues. Focus on improving work design and organisational practices alongside employee support programmes.
• Embed wellbeing into business decisions. Consider the psychological impact of restructures, technology rollouts and other major organisational changes before they’re implemented.

4. Rethinking job design is vital to removing uncertainty around AI

As repetitive tasks become increasingly automated, employees will spend more time on work that requires judgement and emotional intelligence. According to Paula Allen, that makes thoughtful job design more important than ever.

“The real challenge with AI isn’t the technology itself,” explains Paula. “It’s that as routine work disappears, we need to redesign jobs with people’s health in mind and avoid creating demands that are cognitively unsustainable.”

Organisations also need to be mindful of employees becoming “bored out.” Similar to “burnout” in the way it shows itself, being “bored out” is where work becomes too repetitive, lacks purpose or fails to provide enough meaningful challenge. 

For HR leaders, rethinking job design means:

• Redesigning roles alongside AI adoption. Ensure responsibilities evolve as technology changes, rather than simply adding new demands to existing jobs.
• Balancing challenge with recovery. Build opportunities for respite into the workday so employees can sustain performance over time.
• Monitoring workload and job quality. Regularly assess whether the use of AI is creating roles that are meaningful, manageable and aligned with employee wellbeing.

5. Rising isolation and anxiety increases the need for connection and compassion

According to Mental Health Index data, anxiety and isolation have been the lowest mental health sub-scores for more than three years in a row, with 33 per cent of workers feeling anxious and 32 per cent feeling isolated (Q1 2026).

“For several years now, these two things have been the most significant drivers of poor mental health,” says Paula Allen. “When you think about isolation, it’s a world-wide health issue, and flagged as such by the World Health Organization. Isolation impacts your physical health, it impacts your mental health. We, as human beings, need trusted connections with other people to thrive.”

To help overcome this, organizations need to create cultures where employees feel trusted, and where they can experience a sense of belonging. “If you have that sense of trust and belonging, your stress can be measured as going down,” Paula explains. “Your anxiety, even in high-anxiety situations, measurably goes down.” 

To get ahead of this trend, HR leaders should:

• Foster meaningful connection. Create opportunities for employees to build relationships, collaborate and develop a stronger sense of belonging.
• Build flexibility into the employee experience. Recognize the growing and psychologically isolating demands employees face both inside and outside of work, particularly caregivers.
• Lead with trust and compassion. Equip leaders to create healthy environments where employees feel valued, understood and able to do their best work.

6. Prevention and resilience is replacing reactive wellbeing approaches

The future of workplace wellbeing is about helping employees build resilience before they reach a breaking point in their mental health.

“What predicts how you deal with a stressful situation better than anything else are your experiences before and the support you feel during the stressor,” explains Paula.

The important thing here is finding employee health and wellbeing solutions that help your organization shift from reactive crisis management support to more proactive and preventive wellbeing approaches. “We want to prevent what we can prevent,” states Paula. “That means making sure that we’re communicating to people how to self-care, but also creating environments where we’re not creating any damage.”

The opportunity for HR leaders is to:

• Invest in prevention and not just intervention. Provide employees with the tools, education and resources to build resilience before challenges arise.
• Create healthier work environments. Design policies, workloads and workplace practices that support long-term wellbeing rather than contribute to unnecessary stress.
• Measure wellbeing proactively. Use employee listening and wellbeing data to identify emerging risks for groups early and intervene before they escalate.

Leading the next chapter of wellbeing

The future of work will continue to bring new challenges, but with it comes new opportunities for HR leaders to reshape how work can help support both people and performance. 

“Every person has risks,” Paula shares, “and you never know really when a risk is going to show its impact until it does.”

Ultimately, organizations that proactively prepare for these trends will be better positioned to navigate change, strengthen organizational resilience and create environments where employees can thrive. “It’s not just about the strategy and the spreadsheets and the paper,” Paula concludes. “It’s about how you manage yourself and how you show up in the workplace.”

2026 TELUS Mental Health Barometer

Explore evidence-based findings, actions and insights to help you reshape your organisation's wellbeing strategy. This annual report offer leaders a clear picture of workplace challenges over time and how to address them.

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Frequently asked questions

Why is workplace wellbeing becoming a strategic priority for HR leaders?

Employee wellbeing has a direct impact on productivity, engagement, retention and organisational resilience, making it a core business priority rather than simply an employee benefit.

What is psychosocial risk in the workplace?

Psychosocial risk refers to workplace conditions (such as excessive workload, poorly managed change, unclear roles or low autonomy) that can negatively affect employees’ mental health and wellbeing.

How can HR leaders improve psychological safety?

By equipping managers to encourage open dialogue, reducing stigma around mental health and regularly measuring trust, belonging and employees’ willingness to speak up.

How is AI changing workplace wellbeing?

As AI automates routine work, organisations need to redesign jobs to ensure workloads remain sustainable and supportive of employee wellbeing.

Why is prevention more effective than reactive wellbeing support?

Building resilience and creating healthy work environments before problems arise can help reduce mental health risks and enable employees to better navigate future challenges.