Hello Community,

We’ve just read a report revealing that the American people's predictions for 2026 are considerably more negative than they were for 2025. Employment, taxes, and economic prosperity show double-digit declines. 

Disengagement is growing, especially among managers and Gen Z and Millennial employees. Only 20% of employees strongly agree that the way organizations manage performance helps them do outstanding work. Among CHROs, that number drops to 2%.

What really caught our attention is what employees say would help them:

Especially for small and medium-sized businesses, staying afloat and growing will depend on quickly adapting to changing conditions and redesigning workflows to realign and maintain a real-time pulse on employees' performance.

The question is, do our organizations have what it takes to be that agile?

🗞️ In case you missed it: The Strategic AI Leadership in Business Certificate Program is starting in a few days! You can still enroll here.

If agility is the question, performance is the lever. Let’s start by rethinking how performance systems actually operate inside fast-moving organizations

Agility depends on a small set of conditions that performance systems must support. In fast-growth SMBs, these conditions are under pressure.

A weekly or monthly feedback rhythm can sound unrealistic when managers are already stretched. It becomes practical when AI is used as an assistant inside the performance system.

AI can gather performance signals across tools, summarize progress over time, and help managers prepare for conversations. It can document outcomes, suggest follow-ups, and build a shared feedback repository that is always evolving and available. This reduces the effort around performance conversations. Managers spend less time reconstructing the past and more time supporting progress.

If you are rethinking performance management, Workleap has created the Performance Maturity Assessment to help you step back and get a clear view of how performance is managed in your organization today, the current gaps, and what needs to change to support a more continuous, rhythm-based approach.

👉 Explore the Performance Maturity Assessment

Performance is only one piece of the puzzle. If you’re thinking about alignment, execution, and culture more broadly, we've gathered insights from leaders who are facing the same challenges.

The summit was absolutely fantastic! And if you missed a panel or couldn’t attend it live, no worries! Everything has been recorded.

The session videos cover business and people strategy, workforce planning, organizational readiness, people analytics, culture, trust, and performance systems across the three-day program.

Now you can watch all the post-event recordings at the Hacking HR LAB!

We’ve turned the key insights from the summit into a practical eBook you can use as a reference long after the sessions. It brings together the most important ideas across alignment, execution, and decision-making, along with reflection questions and tools to help translate insights into action.

📙 Download the eBook here

Performance? Check. Culture strategy? Check. Now let’s talk about the topic quietly rewriting everyone’s job descriptions…

Why AI Strategy Is HR’s Next Leadership Test

So yes, one of the things HR will be measured by is its ability to shape how humans and AI create value together. That requires strategic AI leadership, not surface-level tool adoption.

In a few days, we are kicking off the Strategic AI Leadership in Business Certificate Program, a 5-week LIVE, online certificate program that will equip you with the skills to lead AI Integration efforts, build a governance framework, and work with cross-functional teams to ensure AI is used safely, ethically, and responsibly. ▶️ Learn more and enroll here

And today, we are sharing BIG NEWS that makes us feel so proud of our community…

We are ecstatic!

⭐ The First Global Capability Framework for HR is LIVE!

This is not a vendor model or a consultant’s point of view. It is the product of collective effort from more than a hundred HR professionals who came together to define, with precision, what HR capability actually means.

It defines the capability boundaries and shared language to assess, develop, and grow HR professionals. Throughout this year, we will align our certificates, certifications, and learning experiences to this Framework. It will be reviewed twice a year and open to ongoing community contributions.

You can use it in your organization today! Access is free.

The Framework defines the standards. Now it’s time to build the skills that bring those standards to life 😊

ALL these Certificate Programs are included in our Premium Membership.

▶️ To check out the syllabi and enroll, log in to the Hacking HR LAB and visit the Learning Center / Certificate Programs

💬 Do you have questions about team memberships? Connect with Assia, our new Growth Director. Connect with Assia on LinkedIn. Email her at [email protected]

😂 Nothing to see here. Everything is fine

Take 10% off! Mugs that say what you really mean in meetings, t-shirts that speak fluent burnout, or digital checklists, ebooks, and templates that might actually save your sanity.

👉 Visit our store

Thousands of HR executives will gather at these upcoming summits in 2026 to shape the future of work:

If your company provides solutions in HR tech, benefits, people analytics, DEI, or workforce strategy, these events are your opportunity to connect with the exact decision-makers who control HR budgets and are actively searching for partners.

👉 Book an Intro Call with Laurie Baggarly: [email protected] to explore sponsorships and secure visibility at the summits where HR leaders are making buying decisions.