What’s on the Workforce Horizon? Six Strategic HR Moves for NZ Businesses in 2026
As we close out 2025 and look ahead to the new year, one thing keeps coming up in conversations with business leaders across Aotearoa:
“We know change is coming but how do we plan for it when so much feels uncertain?”
From demographic shifts to AI-driven transformation, it's clear the demands on our workforce are evolving fast. But you don’t need to predict the future to prepare for it. You just need to act on what’s already taking shape.
Here are six strategic HR moves we believe every employer should be considering in 2026 to build a stronger, more future-ready team.
1. Plan for an Ageing Workforce
New Zealand’s working population is ageing. More people are heading into retirement, and fewer younger workers are stepping in to replace them. This creates clear challenges, including the risk of losing institutional knowledge and leaving leadership gaps unfilled.
What you can do:
Review your workforce by age and critical roles.
Identify areas where experience is concentrated in one person or team.
Create mentoring opportunities and knowledge-transfer processes.
Offer flexible arrangements to retain older workers longer.
The more proactive you are in managing this shift, the more stable your business will be in the years ahead. It’s a key part of long-term workforce planning.
2. Don’t Over‑rely on Migration
Recent shifts in net migration have exposed how volatile the flow of offshore talent can be, as well as how readily our homegrown talent can up and leave for overseas opportunities. If your strategy still assumes that international recruitment can consistently solve skills shortages, it's time to widen your approach.
What you can do:
Strengthen internal development pathways so you can promote from within.
Focus on talent retention, especially in hard-to-fill roles.
Bring return-to-work candidates (like caregivers) back into your pipeline.
Refine your employer brand to attract and keep local talent.
Bringing talent in from overseas will always have a role to play for New Zealand businesses, but relying on it as your only resourcing lever is no longer realistic. Resilience means building talent from within, something we regularly support clients with.
3. Redesign Jobs for a Human + Tech Future
AI is already reshaping how people work, but the story so far seems to be less about job losses and more about job redesign. When automation takes care of repetitive or admin-heavy tasks, people are free to focus on the work that really matters: communication, creativity, judgement and innovation.
Yet, while AI adoption rates are steeply rising among NZ businesses, there are those who are still a bit reluctant to onboard artificial intelligence, so to speak. As scary as it sounds, leveraging this technology doesn’t have to mean placing your future in its hands; just lightening your and you team’s workload!
What you can do:
Identify manual processes that could be simplified or automated.
Train teams to use new tools confidently and safely.
Refresh job descriptions to reflect updated responsibilities.
Redesign roles to elevate human strengths, not replace them.
We help many of our clients navigate this shift through tailored advice and hands-on HR consulting, with an eye toward sustainable role structures and tech-enabled productivity.
4. Upskill the People You Already Have
One key insight shaping future planning: around 80% of the talent New Zealand will need in 2030 is already in the labour market now. That means the fastest, most cost-effective way to fill future capability gaps is to invest in your current team.
What you can do:
Map current capability against what your business will need in the next 2–5 years.
Build team-based development plans that align with real goals.
Offer micro-learning and mentoring to embed learning into the flow of work.
Make growth part of your culture and not just an HR initiative.
Whether delivered in-house or via an outsourced HR solution (yes, like us for example), upskilling is not just strategic. It’s practical, budget-friendly, and proven to improve engagement and performance.
5. Rebuild Your Early-Career Pipeline
NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) rates are climbing. That means more young people are struggling to enter the workforce, and fewer are being nurtured into long-term careers.
This has implications for every sector. If we don’t support early-career talent now, we risk long-term skill shortages that can’t be solved overnight.
What you can do:
Strip unnecessary “experience required” criteria from junior roles.
Offer clear, structured pathways from entry-level to progression.
Pair new hires with mentors and buddies to help them settle in.
Connect work to purpose, not just output.
We often support employers to design these pipelines as part of our services, especially in industries where turnover or ageing demographics pose a risk to continuity.
6. Be Ready for a Two‑Speed Labour Market
One of the more complex dynamics emerging in 2025 is what economists call a two-speed labour market. We’re entering a phase where some sectors are shrinking and restructuring, while others remain desperate for skilled staff. This uneven landscape creates challenges (and opportunities) for resourcing.
What you can do:
Rethink your hiring lens. Can you retrain candidates from other sectors?
Explore untapped talent pools like career shifters, mature workers, or part-timers.
Consider partnerships to build shared training pathways.
Equip managers to lead through ambiguity with clear frameworks and support.
A flexible, values-based approach to hiring and team design gives you an edge in a market that’s moving at two speeds.
Where to Start
Start with what you know, focus on the people you already have, and build outward from there.
At Core HR, we recommend anchoring your approach with three principles:
Retention before recruitment: Value the people already on your team.
Capability over credentials: Prioritise learning ability, not just qualifications.
Plan with heart and clarity: Combine practical planning with empathy and responsiveness.
And if this is all sounding like a lot to do on your own, we are always here to help! Commitment-free.