9 workplace trends to look out for in 2026

With only a month left in the year, now is the best opportunity for HR departments to get up to date on the nine trends projected to take over the workplace in 2026.

Every year, new trends emerge, and those who hop on them quickly are the ones who reap the greatest benefit.

Based on its findings, HR tech provider Deel revealed nine trends that could shake up the workforce in 2026.

The Great Flattening

This trend breaks down the traditional corporate hierarchy model.

Urging the “middlemen” to cut costs and increase efficiencies, companies are increasingly handing the reins over to employees, giving them more “freedom to shine”, Deel said.

However, the tech company left us with an important consideration: “Will this move lead to a more efficient and empowered team, or just create more chaos?”

Emotional salary

A challenging labour market and companies with fewer financial resources for hiring mean that pay rises are not always possible. Amid a company’s aims to retrain and attract top talent, emotional salary may be the newest solution to leaner hiring budgets, Deel found.

Today, companies will need to offer more than just a paycheck. For this trend, a comprehensive package that meets the diverse needs of all employees is becoming a more prevalent offering, the tech company highlighted.

The trend very well might be “the most valuable raise employers can offer”, it said.

Job hugging

For those of you who are not aware of “job hugging”, think: a complete reversal of the “job hopping” trend – that is job hugging.

This phenomenon consists of workers “hugging” their roles out of fear, not loyalty – often driven by multiple factors, including the high cost of living and a hyper-competitive job market.

“This phenomenon is a direct response to a shaky economy, highlighting a new workplace reality where stability has become more valuable than career advancement,” the tech company said.

It called it “the ultimate shift from ambition to security”.

Keeper test

First popularised by Netflix, this trend poses one question: “If one of your team members were to quit, would you fight to keep them?” the tech company said.

It said that this “keeper test” has the potential to invoke a whole new wave of workplace drama.

It is a “high-stakes” trend that allows companies to “cut through the noise” to focus on top talent – a simple but career-changing strategy, it noted.

Culture rot

The tech company likened “culture rot” to a “silent killer of company morale”.

A trend that sees an otherwise healthy and functioning work environment “slowly decaying from the inside out”, which it noted, is often left unnoticed by leaders.

This deterioration of a company’s culture can lead to high employee turnover and low morale, Deel said, manifesting as a lack of trust and communication between teams.

It stated: “In the end, it’s proof that [the] company’s values are just for show.”

Microshifting

Adding to the growing emphasis on flexibility seen across the workforce, “microshifting” reduces the traditional nine-to-five into “bite-sized chunks” for a smoother flow between job and life, the tech company said.

It defined this trend as the swapping of rigid schedules for “short, focused bursts of work”.

This makes space for “school runs, workouts, or simply catching your breath – a smarter balance for the modern workday”, it said.

Conscious unbossing

For this trend, Gen Z employees are choosing to say “no” to taking on traditional management roles and rejecting the pipeline of “climbing the corporate ladder and taking on the stress of being a boss”, Deel outlined.

Instead, Gen Zs that are “conscious unbossing” are opting for a better work/life balance, by finding their own ways of influencing, minus the burnout, it said.

The tech company stressed that this new trend means that companies need to rethink their leadership pipeline to cater for this “fundamental shift” in what success looks like.

Resilience sprints

Wellbeing has been a hot topic for a while now, so while companies are holding mindfulness sessions, a new type of session has emerged.

“Resilience sprints” are brief, periodic meetings in which the team “shares losses, lessons learned, or small victories”, the tech company described.

These sessions will give teams the opportunity to generate empathy and joint adaptability, it said, especially in the face of sudden changes, such as product failure or a customer crisis. “This is a preventative approach to avoiding collective burnout,” it said.

LinkedIn envy

If professional FOMO were a real thing, this trend pretty much encapsulates it.

Deel said: “You know that feeling when you’re scrolling through LinkedIn and everyone seems to be getting promoted, launching a new start-up, or closing a huge deal – except for you? That’s ‘LinkedIn envy’.”

This trend captures the feelings of inadequacy and jealousy that arise from doomscrolling LinkedIn, and seeing the professional highlight reel of others on the platform, it said.

It said that this trend is “a reminder that while social media showcases everyone’s wins, it rarely reveals the struggles behind the scenes”.

Shannon Karaka (pictured), head of HR tech company Deel in Australia, found that these trends have the potential to “reshape the HR landscape”.

He said: “From alternative work models to cutting-edge productivity strategies, these developments will fundamentally change our point of view on work and collaboration.”