Workforce risk is rising and it’s measurable

Yet many organizations are still treating these signals as isolated HR issues rather than connected enterprise risks.

The data is already pointing in a clear direction. Korn Ferry’s 2026 HR Trends research highlights a growing friction: only 19% of employees report being satisfied with full-time on-site requirements. Simultaneously, 82% of CEOs anticipate AI-driven workforce shifts over the next three years.

Individually, these are policy or technology shifts that appear manageable.

Together, they introduce material risk across:

Engagement: The "quiet" withdrawal of discretionary effort.
Leadership Continuity: Losing the "messy" institutional knowledge that AI can’t replicate.
Agility: A workforce that is "waiting for the shoes to drop" rather than leaning into innovation.

In my experience reading the "unspoken" dynamics of leadership teams, I’ve seen how "predictable" surprises happen. They occur when the executive leadership team sees a technology roadmap, but fails to see the human friction that slows it down.

Human capital optimization is the art of identifying these connected risks before they impact the P&L. It’s about moving from "assuming" readiness to "measuring" it.

As you look at your 2026 goals, which workforce risks are being actively quantified as business risks, and which are still being categorized as "HR concerns"?