- From Day One: People & HR
- Posts
- The HR Identity Crisis
The HR Identity Crisis
From Day One Editors
September 29, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes
A new poll suggests that HR leaders are having an identity crisis, if not an existential one. The 2027 State of People Strategy report from Lattice, the people-management software company, found that 55% of HR leaders globally say they’re considering changing careers. In the U.S., the figure is a bit higher, at 58%.
HR teams are shrinking in size but growing in complexity, and it’s driving many HR leaders to burnout. The never-ending cycle of changes brought on by new technologies—AI, in particular—as well as the department’s growing responsibilities and economic instability, have taken their toll.
Arguably, no other department has undergone such a dramatic evolution in so little time. The evolution from administrator to strategic player took place in less than a decade and has presented new opportunities for specialization as well as business contribution, but it’s also driven many to exhaustion. Thirty-five percent of HR leaders say the department operates in a perpetual state of crisis.
In the past year alone, HR leaders have rolled out AI tools, absorbed new compliance requirements, and been asked to redesign work itself, all without significantly growing their teams. Thanks to all the ways AI is automating and accelerating the daily work of HR, many predict (or at least worry) that HR departments will ultimately shrink in size.
Yet there’s no apparent worry that they will shrink in influence. Instead of adding more jobs, HR leaders are simply creating different ones to shoulder growing responsibilities. Today’s HR departments are filled with technologists, data analysts, and lawyers, transforming what the function looks like from the inside.
Are we leading AI or letting it lead us?
 | Don’t miss our partner Leaderology’s webinar for a fearlessly authentic conversation about what it actually takes to stay human in the age of machines. Join Marissa Waldman, CEO of Leaderology, and Van Jones, CNN commentator, founder of Dream.Org and co-founder of Rapport, for a candid conversation about leading through this moment of change. RSVP here. |
As the HR department has expanded its influence, it has also expanded its role diversity. About ten years ago, tech workers entered HR the department to handle the growing number of digital tools and apps. Then came the analysts who would handle the growing lakes of data collected by those tools. A few years later, attorneys popped up, many of them in the function’s senior-most role.
Maral Kazanjian had spent a career in the general counsel’s office before moving into the chief people officer role, first at WeWork and later at Moody’s, where she is today. Kazanjian told From Day One that she felt she had effectively been moonlighting as an HR professional from her seat as an attorney since employment matters routinely landed on her desk.
The shape of the department is entirely different than it was just a handful of years ago, and hardly recognizable against its 20th-century self. In early 2024, Deloitte heralded the arrival “boundaryless HR,” in which the HR team moves from center of excellence to a function embedded in every team across the organization, “cocreated and integrated with the people, business, and community it serves.”
While the influence of the HR department and its chief executive is certainly widening, its component roles are changing. As influence stretches outward, the department finds itself in need of a greater variety of skills, so new team members are moving in.
Claire Borelli, the CHRO of the retirement services provider TIAA, said during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Philadelphia conference last week that the operationalization of AI is finally giving HR pride of place. “I’ve been in the HR function a really, really long time, and I’ve always felt like, no matter what, we were laggards,” she said. HR was always tasked with reacting to circumstances—Covid, the Great Resignation, return to office—rather than leading the business through them. Now, however, “I feel as though we’re the leader,” Borelli said. “At the end of the day, [AI] is not a technology play, it’s a human-capital play, and I know my CEO is looking to me to understand and help drive the new ways of working.”
As HR industry analyst Josh Bersin told From Day One, “the function is changing across every domain.”
RECENT EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
As workforces become more multigenerational, distributed, and varied in their needs, employers are looking beyond traditional medical and dental offerings to build benefits programs that support workers more holistically. During a fireside chat, Keturah Hallmosley, deputy CHRO at Seattle Children's Hospital, shared how she’s building benefits for the frontline workforce, using worker feedback to shape offerings and exploring creative approaches to wellness. | Ghost jobs, online listings for positions that don’t actually exist or that a company has no immediate intention of filling, are becoming more than an annoyance for job seekers. Applicants may spend hours tailoring applications for roles that were never going to be filled. Companies may post these jobs to build a talent pipeline, signal growth, or meet compliance requirements. But now, ghost jobs may create compliance risks rather than solve them. |
AI is reshaping conversations across the workforce, but those conversations look very different depending on where you sit. A survey of employees conducted by Stephan Meier, author and professor at Columbia Business School, found that 76% of executives reported their employees were enthusiastic about AI adoption. But when those individual contributors were asked, only 31% expressed that enthusiasm. The fear of being replaced by AI continues to be real. | TikTok is bringing most of its U.S. workforce back to the office five days a week, adding another major technology company to the growing list of employers moving away from hybrid work. Beginning in September, most U.S. employees who currently work hybrid schedules will be expected to work from the office every day. The move represents a significant escalation from the hybrid schedules that became standard across much of the tech industry after the pandemic. |
Hiring abroad? The real cost might surprise you
Compensation is just the starting point.
Taxes, benefits, employer contributions, and compliance costs can add up quickly, and vary by country.
Use Oyster’s calculator to estimate what a global hire could really cost, so you can build a more accurate hiring budget and avoid surprises.
Upcoming Webinars
October 6
The pace of change in the workplace hasn't slowed, nor have leaders' expectations that the next strategy, technology, or transformation initiative will finally bring clarity. Instead, many are discovering that uncertainty is not a temporary phase but a permanent leadership condition. Yet much of today's leadership development is still designed for a world that no longer exists. In this webinar, we'll explore why so many leaders feel stuck despite their best efforts and what it takes to lead effectively amid continuous change. Drawing on research and frameworks from Hudson Institute of Coaching, we'll examine how leaders make sense of complexity, identify patterns that may be holding them back, and explore a coaching-informed approach to navigating uncertainty and driving intentional change with greater resilience and clarity.
October 8
The holidays are one of the best times of year to recognize employees and reinforce company culture. Thoughtful traditions can make employees feel genuinely valued long after the season ends. But how can employers create holiday recognition that feels both personal and impactful at scale? In this session, we'll explore how organizations can get holiday recognition right by moving beyond generic gestures and creating personal, meaningful experiences that resonate across the workforce. We'll share practical ideas and real-world examples that organizations can adapt for their own holiday celebrations.
October 15
Managing a foreign national workforce takes more than filing paperwork. It requires a strategic, well-structured program. Join this webinar for a practical look at how HR teams can build an immigration program that is compliant, scalable and easier to manage. Walk away with a framework you can implement immediately—no legal degree required. We'll discuss immigration program management: from reactive to strategic, recruiting and hiring protocols, integrating green card policy into the employee lifecycle, the case for a dedicated internal point person, and more.
October 20
Today's leaders face unprecedented complexity: rapid technological advances, skill obsolescence, and shifting business needs are exposing significant gaps in leadership capability. Subjective nominations and performance reviews often fail to objectively identify and develop leaders equipped with cross-functional and transformational demands. To succeed, leaders need targeted development built on a deep understanding of how they lead, how they’re perceived, and where they can grow. The urgent need to align leadership development with future business realities has never been clearer, especially in an AI-ready future.
October Continued & Beyond
Sponsor Spotlight: Corporate Traditions
Wellness dollars are intended to give workers access to valuable benefits, but too often they go unused. How can organizations make sure those dollars actually reach workers and deliver value? During a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s September virtual conference, Tray Ross, VP of growth at Corporate Traditions, an employee recognition and gifting company, shared how companies can help their employees know about these benefits and how to use them to their advantage. Read the full story here.
Sponsor Spotlight: Cariloop
Nearly one in four adults provides ongoing care for someone they love, says Lisa Leighton, chief commercial officer at Cariloop, making caregiving an increasingly important workforce issue. “Caregiving touches every generation in the workforce,” she said. And because it affects “how employees show up, how they stay at work, how they use their benefits,” she believes this type of support should be more than a niche offering. She sees it as “a fundamental workforce and benefits priority” that cannot be addressed by supporting only one population or need at a time. Read the full story here.
From Day One in a City Near You
Hudson Loft in Downtown LA
Convene at 237 Park Ave.
Union Station on 400 South Houston Street
Convene Hamilton Square
Convene 555 on Broadway
Computer History Museum in Mountain View
McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota
AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center
Convene at 237 Park Ave.
Half-Day Virtual Conferences
Even with tighter budgets and leaner teams, employees are expected to continually deliver. Employers need smart tools and strategies that boost productivity while supporting performance and checking in on employees in ways that feel helpful rather than overbearing. What tools and technologies are proven to help employees work smarter, not harder? How can AI help workers save time on routine tasks so they can focus on what really matters? How can leaders measure productivity in ways that capture quality, creativity, and collaboration, not just hours worked?
Organizations must prepare for a future shaped by new technologies, changing employee expectations, and evolving social and economic trends. Success depends on adapting culture, strategy, and workforce models to thrive. What emerging technologies and workplace models will most impact how work gets done in the next five years? How can organizations build inclusive and resilient cultures that attract and retain diverse talent? How should companies balance automation and human skills to create meaningful and productive work?