Transformation is everywhere—new tech, rising expectations, and shifting ideas about what people want from work. But beneath all that noise, are we really making progress?
Keynote: People Priorities – The Future of Work 2026
Panel: Striking the Balance Between Human & Tech – How Organisations Are Adopting AI
Panel: Communication – The Undervalued Pillar of Culture & Employee Experience
Product Spotlight: Perspectives – Built for the Future of Work
Reimagining Employee Listening: Introducing Dialogue with Nationwide
Workshop: The Power of Personalisation at Work – Job Crafting for Growth, Performance & Wellbeing
Drawing on the latest WorkBuzz Future of Work 2026 report, this opening keynote set the stage for a year defined by tension—between performance pressures and the need to protect wellbeing, between organisational change and employees’ declining resilience, and between the excitement around AI and the reality of slow adoption.
With engagement stagnating and only 33% of organisations reporting improvement this year , the keynote explores why alignment between HR and the executive team has become one of the most powerful differentiators of positive culture, wellbeing, and performance. It’s a call to action for HR to step forward with confidence, reshape priorities, and influence the future of work with clarity and courage.
AI was one of the most talked-about topics in this year's research—and yet only 15% of HR leaders rank it as a top priority, with most organisations still in early experimentation phase . This panel brought the data to life with real stories of opportunity, fear, excitement, and ethical considerations from HR leaders navigating AI adoption.
Speakers shared the challenges of limited internal expertise, data-privacy concerns, generational gaps, and the misunderstood role of AI in improving—not replacing—the human experience at work. This session spotlights the delicate balance between innovation and empathy, reinforcing the need for HR to lead responsibly and avoid becoming the “continuation-of-missing-out” function in a rapidly evolving landscape .
Despite its critical role in trust, clarity, and organisational alignment, internal communication ranks near the bottom of HR priorities this year at just 5%. Yet the evidence is clear: where communication is effective, confidence in leadership is 58 points higher and engagement is far more likely to improve.
This panel explored why communication remains overlooked and how leaders, line managers, and comms teams can bridge the gap between intention and impact. Drawing on field examples—from franchise networks to large hospitality operators—the session revealed how clear, honest, multi-channel communication strengthens culture, reduces noise, and creates the connection employees are desperately asking leaders to deliver.
As organisations grapple with complex workforce realities—diverse demographics, frontline challenges, dwindling trust, and limited HR capacity—Perspectives represents a step-change in how leaders understand the true employee experience.
Built on WorkBuzz’s storytelling philosophy and backed by cognitive psychology research, Perspectives transforms raw data into authentic, narrative-driven insights conveyed through custom avatars that reflect an organisation’s language, culture, and context. This session demonstrated how Perspectives accelerates sense-making, strengthens executive conversations, elevates trust, and helps organisations bring the “why behind the data” to life—at pace and at scale.
Traditional surveys remain essential, but today’s employees also expect quicker, more conversational ways to share what’s on their mind. Enter Dialogue, WorkBuzz’s newest innovation—co-created with partners like Nationwide—to unlock instant, unscripted employee feedback through video, voice, text, or QR-enabled prompts.
This session explores how Dialogue captures the “real moments” that matter, closes feedback loops in days instead of weeks, and provides AI-generated summaries that give managers actionable insights without the admin burden. With trust and participation declining when follow-up is slow or inconsistent, Dialogue represents a modern, human, and immediate approach to colleague listening.
As workloads intensify and resilience declines, employees are increasingly seeking autonomy, purpose, and roles that reflect their strengths and motivations. This hands-on workshop introduces job crafting as a practical, evidence-based approach to redesigning work at an individual and team level—enhancing performance while protecting wellbeing.
Aligning with insights from the wellbeing roundtable, which highlighted burnout, psychological safety, and intergenerational expectations as major challenges , the session guides participants through tools to personalise roles, increase energy, and create conditions where people feel they can grow, contribute, and thrive.
