For HR leaders, this moment carries both urgent risk and opportunity. In terms of risks, current trends on both ends of the talent pipeline threaten leadership continuity, organizational performance, and long-term business success.

On the other hand, HR leaders have the most clarity to anticipate where leadership vulnerabilities will emerge by leveraging visibility into workforce demographics, engagement trends, capability gaps, and succession risks. HR also sits at the intersection of talent strategy and business strategy, giving it the authority and insight needed to redesign roles, reshape career paths, and build modern leadership development systems.

Current leadership shortages are not the result of a single issue but a convergence of trends that are reshaping the future of leadership. In this blog, we will provide clarity on the challenges of succession as well as actionable steps HR leaders can take to bolster pipelines and rethink organizational readiness.

Two Questions to Consider

Before organizations can redesign leadership pipelines for the future, they must first understand the scope of the succession challenge unfolding today. Two equally urgent and interconnected questions must be asked: Who is leaving leadership roles, and who is prepared to step into them? By examining both sides of the equation, HR leaders can more clearly identify where vulnerabilities lie and what strategic interventions are needed to sustain leadership continuity.

1. Who is going to retire? 

A significant percentage of today’s leaders are approaching retirement simultaneously, creating a major drain on institutional knowledge and capability. Since 2020, an estimated 5 million workers have left the labor force, and more than 80 percent were aged 55 or older.

For many organizations, this age group includes long-tenured individual contributors, seasoned managers, and a meaningful portion of director-level leaders. Their accelerated exit is driving critical vacancies and shrinking the leadership depth that organizations rely on.

2. Who is going to replace retirees?

Historically, management was the primary path to advancement, but shifting economic pressures, rising workload demands, and expectations for flexibility and well-being have changed this calculus. Nearly three in four Gen Z professionals prefer to deepen expertise rather than manage others—as a potential means of avoiding stress, limited autonomy, and misalignment with their values.

Another key factor contributing to the lack of interest in leadership roles is the confidence gap in current leaders: Only 46 percent of employees believe their manager is effective, for example. Collectively, these dynamics weaken the leadership pipeline that organizations have traditionally depended on.

Three Ways the Retirement Cliff Is Impacting Traditional Succession Models

To understand the full impact of the retirement cliff, it is important to examine the forces that are transforming leadership transitions. In response to increasingly rapid change, HR leaders are actively engaged in reworking priorities in talent development, employee data analysis, and workforce planning.

1. Retirement timelines are unpredictable

Senior leaders are retiring at uneven rates. In many organizations, some are postponing retirement due to economic uncertainty, while others are exiting early because of burnout or shifting personal priorities. This unpredictability makes it challenging for HR to plan leadership transitions and ensure a strong bench.

2. Mentorship is more necessary than ever

HR once relied on stable hierarchies and gradual leadership turnover. Succession planning focused on identifying a small set of ready-now leaders. But with more frequent and less predictable exits, those models are no longer adequate. New interventions such as long-term mentorship or multilayered leadership development are essential to rework succession and reduce the cost of acquiring talent for retirement-driven vacancies.

3. A leadership readiness strategy is now essential

As patterns of retirement become more volatile, HR must broaden talent identification and evaluate whether leadership roles need to be redesigned. A modernized approach to identifying and developing leaders is necessary to maintain continuity and support organizational performance. Rather than depending on traditional career ladders to naturally create pathways for the next generation of leaders, HR strategy must play a more active role in recognizing the skills and core competencies that the current workforce brings to the table, what needs to be developed, and how that translates to long-term needs.

Engaging the Next Generation

Factors such as hybrid work, artificial intelligence, and rising expectations around purpose and well-being are reshaping what the next generation of leaders wants from their careers. In many organizations, we are seeing that many traditional candidates for future leadership are “consciously stepping off the leadership track,” reflecting skepticism toward roles that feel stressful, inflexible, or disconnected from personal values.

One contributing factor influencing leadership development pipelines is that employees often see leadership experiences as neither motivating nor well supported. Of course, leadership is not for everyone. However, the issue seems to be less about who wants to be a leader and more about the traditional value propositions of organizational leadership, including financial gain and influence.

In fact, many early- and mid-career employees question whether leadership paths conflict with their personal values such as autonomy, meaningful impact, transparency, and well-being. They want roles that allow them to lead through collaboration and expertise—not hierarchy—and it is not clear whether current leadership roles are designed for that priority.

In response, HR leaders should take practical steps to address these concerns, including clarifying leadership role expectations, designing more manageable spans of control, strengthening coaching and development support, and creating pathways that allow for influence without sacrificing balance. These efforts to support future-ready organizations can ensure that leadership roles are motivating, sustainable, and supported by resources that enable leaders to succeed.

Bottom Line: Acting Now Saves Resources in the Long Run

Long-term investment in leadership development has been shown to increase both performance and bottom-line impact. This is particularly true when comparing the cost and performance of internal development to hiring external talent, showing that HR’s greatest source for future leaders already exists within the organization.

Organizations are experimenting with leadership models that better reflect today’s workforce expectations. Some are building dual career ladders that allow high-performers to advance through expertise instead of people management. Others are piloting shared or distributed leadership structures that reduce dependence on overstretched managers and elevate collaborative influence. There is also progress in modernizing manager support systems, such as AI-enabled workflows that reduce administrative burden and leadership training programs designed specifically for frontline supervisors.

These innovations are promising; however, many efforts remain isolated or stuck in the pilot stage. If an organization lacks a cohesive leadership architecture, it will continue to experience an uneven and insufficient leadership pipeline that will be worsened by rising rates of retirement. However, when HR steps into this moment with clarity and intention, the future of organizational leadership can look vastly different from today’s strained reality.

The post Who Will Lead Next? Rethinking the Leadership Pipeline appeared first on Seramount.

Over the past decade, Gen Z has grown to represent 15% of the workforce, and they are projected to make up one-third of it by 2030. Perception gaps between generations affect how decisions are received, how expectations are interpreted, and how efficiently teams collaborate. What sounds “clear enough” to one generation may feel ambiguous or risky to another. For HR leaders, the top priorities are to align expectations so that all employees feel grounded and to provide the structure managers need so their teams can be productive.

Five Interpretations of the Same Workplace 

You never want to assume a colleague’s experience based on age or generation. However, employees in the same generation may share historical touchpoints along the way that shape how they see work.  For example, older employees built their careers in more stable cycles, where pathways and expectations were clearer, while younger employees entered the workforce amid volatility, rapid technological change, and rising costs that pushed major life milestones such as marriage, home buying, and caregiving to later stages of life. These differences influence what employees look for from work and how much context they need to act.

In a recent Seramount study, 44% of the youngest employees said they aspire to become managers but emphasized the need to protect work-life boundaries as they advance. Some specifically said, “I want to have a good work/life balance, and the requirements for advancing go directly against that, therefore making me not want to advance.” Meanwhile, only 27% of their older colleagues expressed interest in supervising others. Across groups, a majority acknowledged that communicating across generations is challenging.

Why All Roads Lead Back to Managers 

Managers sit at the center of shifting expectations, unclear norms, and competing priorities that play out differently for each generation. Regardless of age or tenure, today’s workforce is one of the most disengaged and dissatisfied in decades. In fact, employees with managers 12+ years their senior are three times more likely to feel dissatisfied at work and 1.5 times more likely to report low productivity. In today’s employer-driven market, many employees are staying put, but many of them are not actively engaged in their work. This creates a fragile environment where even small misunderstandings can quickly turn into performance issues or avoidable friction. Yet, managers are expected to keep their teams moving forward even when clarity about what “good” looks like is lacking.

Qualities Employees Most Value in a Manager, by Generation¹

As a result, managers are burning out faster than employees at any other job level. At least 80% report experiencing one or more symptoms of burnout, while fewer than one-third of senior managers feel comfortable speaking about it at work. They’re also leading teams who feel just as stressed: 37% of staff feel so overwhelmed that it hinders their job performance. The good news is that HR leaders can help significantly reduce this pressure.

How Clarity and Consistency Unlock Better Performance

Effectively managing multigenerational teams requires more than navigating preferences across age groups. It requires creating the conditions for consistent execution, no matter how much life circumstances and definitions of “career” may vary. The most effective HR leaders recognize that managers cannot be the sole translators of organizational priorities. Instead, they make team alignment a shared responsibility. 

Three Practices That Help Managers Boost Team Collaboration 

1. Set shared expectations, not individual preferences 
   Many “generational differences” are really inconsistencies in norms. HR can reduce friction by defining what strong communication looks like, how teams escalate decisions, and how priorities should be interpreted across roles. Clear expectations cut down on the need to re-explain and allow managers to focus on moving work forward.
2. Make the “hidden” visible 
   For younger employees, organizational signals carry outsized weight. They want to understand how change affects  their contributions and growth. Regular check-ins and ongoing clarity about the reasoning behind decisions help close interpretation gaps and increase momentum across the team.
3. Give managers structured support 
   Providing consistent language and ready-to-use resources helps managers clearly communicate expectations. These tools remove the guesswork and reduce the amount of time spent explaining or rephrasing guidance.
   
   

When expectations are consistent and managers feel supported, work can move forward at the rate leaders expect. Multigenerational teams become more confident in their interactions, so managers can spend less time translating and more time leading.  To get a fuller view of the forces shaping performance this year, download Seramount’s State of the Workforce report. 

The post The Manager Challenge: Five Generations, One Workforce appeared first on Seramount.

Meanwhile, the expectation to have expertise in the space feels overwhelming, and HR leaders want to ensure their organizations are prepared to get the most out of AI capabilities. Thus, they’re performing due diligence work to avoid the “garbage in, garbage out” problem. For example, a CHRO whose company has partnered with mine, Seramount, said they recently completed creating an AI governance structure. Now, they’re focused on understanding where AI can be deployed and what they can fully automate.

For CHROs, the challenge is clear: cutting through the noise to discern where AI can truly elevate the employee experience, workforce planning and organizational agility. My own reflections tell me this moment is less like a technology race and more like a leadership test. Are we willing to ask the harder questions—not just what AI can do, but what it should do?

Understanding The Hype Cycle

The AI transformation is well underway, but excitement peaked in 2023. Headlines declared the technology would revolutionize business and replace many, if not most, human workers. In just a year, however, sentiment shifted. In 2024, Indeed analysis indicated that there are no skills that an AI could fully take over.

The Hype Cycle, a model developed by Gartner to illustrate the stages of interest and adoption that new technologies typically undergo, serves as a helpful reference for understanding GenAI’s journey. There are five stages: innovation trigger, peak of inflated expectations, trough of disillusionment, slope of enlightenment and plateau of productivity.

In the beginning, new technologies generate substantial excitement and unrealistic expectations. Over time, as real-world applications and limitations become apparent, this enthusiasm tends to wane. Finally, genuine advancements and practical applications emerge, but this outcome can take a long time and effort to reach.

Just as there wasn’t a single rollout of the internet, GenAI isn’t a single technology with a single adoption curve. It’s a series of technologies, so we should expect multiple AI hype cycles with each new advance.

Where Should CHROs Focus During Hype Cycle Swings?

Whether we’re riding a high or navigating a low, there’s real work for HR to do when it comes to GenAI. This moment calls for action on three levels: embedding AI into our own workflows, preparing our people for AI adoption and tracking broader shifts in the labor market.

1. Integrating AI Into Team Workflows

From talent acquisition to performance reviews, there are many ways HR teams can begin leveraging GenAI. But success isn’t about chasing the latest tech. It’s about solving real problems at the department level.

One example is Accenture’s “Feedback Coach” (registration required), a tool that drafts written feedback based on post-project assessments. Embedded in Microsoft Teams and Workday, the Feedback Coach has been used by staff more than 3 million times and has increased input by 89%.

When choosing GenAI tools, follow three key steps: start small, identify practical use cases, then build from there.

2. Organization-Wide AI Readiness

AI enablement can’t be IT’s job alone. According to 2024 Gallup research, few employees feel they have the skills needed to incorporate AI into their day-to-day work. HR leaders need to foster a culture of readiness and ensure employees have the necessary skills to integrate AI into their workflows.

Hearst presents a useful case study in the benefits of customized training around GenAI adoption. The major publisher implemented a function-specific GenAI training program. The initiative trained advertising operations employees on AI technology to streamline their sales and media planning processes. The resulting increase in efficiency and desired outcomes demonstrates that when organizations invest in relevant training, successful adoption is not only possible but attainable.

3. Macro Labor Market Changes

Beyond internal application and employee readiness, CHROs must keep an eye on AI’s impact on skill demand in the market. The real risk now is a skills mismatch. AI will disrupt and displace many jobs, requiring mass reskilling for workers considering industries with more resilient or new AI-driven jobs. As demand for AI-skilled talent continues to rise, HR teams should focus on fostering critical soft skills like leadership, problem-solving and interpersonal skills.

Where We Go From Here

As generative AI continues to evolve, the temptation is to chase the latest tools or mirror competitors moves. But true leadership means resisting the allure of hype and instead grounding decisions in clarity, ethics and long-term value. CHROs are uniquely positioned to lead this discernment—not as technologists, but as stewards of culture, talent and trust.

The choices made today will shape both how organizations leverage AI and how employees experience its impact on their work and well-being. The question is not whether generative AI will transform our world; we know it already is. The question is whether we will meet this moment with foresight, responsibility and a commitment to putting people at the center of progress.

The post CHROs’ Role In Separating Hype From Reality When It Comes To GenAI appeared first on Seramount.

Seramount is proud to support inclusion leaders and their teams as they face these disruptions. To understand where inclusion leaders may need the most support, we analyzed the resources that our partners have returned to again and again.  In this blog, we examine lessons learned from 2025 and how these insights will shape inclusion in 2026.

Overview: 2025 Tested Inclusion like Never Before

For many inclusion, culture, and talent leaders, 2025 opened with uncertainty. The DEI landscape shifted quickly in response to political headwinds, prompting organizations to reevaluate how they communicated and structured their work.

Federal actions heightened compliance concerns, leading some companies to scale back public statements or revise external language. Others adapted terminology while preserving the substance of their efforts. Many organizations maintained their programs internally even as they reduced their visibility externally.

Despite this turbulence, inclusion didn’t diminish—it evolved. Chief Diversity Officers (or those formerly known as) reported strong organizational commitment throughout the year, reinforcing a central truth: Resilient organizations embed inclusion into core business systems, not merely into surface messaging.

Together, these shifts shaped how organizations navigated the year, and they revealed five lessons that will matter even more in 2026.

Five Lessons for Inclusion Leaders from 2025

Lesson 1: Technology Became a Bridge Between DEI and Business Value

Generative AI emerged as one of the year’s most unexpected allies. As detailed in “3 Ways to Leverage Generative AI to Diversify Talent,” leaders used AI to eliminate bias from job descriptions, widen candidate sourcing, and standardize screening. These tools made inclusion scalable and embedded fairness into hiring.

Generative AI was a key tool to take inclusion from being a values statement into being a talent acquisition operational capability by embedding fairness directly into hiring systems.

Leaders looking to experiment with a similar project can:

1. Pilot an AI-based audit of job postings to identify and remove biased language.
2. Maintain human oversight to ensure tools reflect inclusive intent and avoid automated bias.
3. Measure success by tracking growth in applicant diversity without increasing time-to-fill cycles.

Lesson 2: Language Matters; Intent Matters More

The words diversity and equity carried new weight in 2025. As public discourse intensified, many organizations experimented with terms such as belonging, inclusion, or culture. Seramount’s “What’s in a Name?” cautioned that rebranding alone cannot shield an organization from scrutiny or confusion. We found that leaders who succeeded in rebranding efforts were those who explained why these changes were being put into place, not just what was changing.

The most effective leaders focused on clarity and authenticity rather than cosmetic change. Leaders looking to emulate this can:

• Audit DEI communications to ensure every message reflects purpose behind language changes, not the pressures causing the change.
• Be transparent about language shifts, explaining how new terms align with enduring commitments.
• Connect words to action, showing employees how language reflects tangible programs they can trust.

Lesson 3: Political Uncertainty Demands Steady Leadership

There is no doubt that regulations and policy concerns were on every inclusion leader’s mind in 2025. However, there are some strategies moving forward that have proven effective at balancing these forces. In “3 Truths for DEI Leaders Navigating Trump’s Second Term,” Seramount found that many CDOs embraced an “Embassy” mindset: prioritizing internal progress while minimizing external advocacy. Leaders learned that protecting momentum required calm, clear, and coordinated communication.

To maintain momentum under pressure, leaders can:

• Align executive teams on shared messaging so every leader communicates confidence and consistency.
• Keep DEI programs active and visible internally, even when external advocacy pauses.
• Track continuity and morale metrics to ensure employees feel stability amid changing external conditions.

Lesson 4: Inclusion Requires Reimagining Workspaces

The conversation about return-to-office became a proxy for inclusion itself. For many employees, RTO policies determined not just where they worked but whether they felt seen, supported, and able to thrive. Seramount’s “Federal RTO Mandate Sparking Debate? Key Considerations for an Inclusive Return to Office” highlighted how equity is shaped not only by where people work but also by how work policies are designed. We explored how successful inclusion leaders recognized differences in caregiving responsibilities, commute burden, and disability accommodation and used that insight to design flexibility with intention.

Leaders looking to center inclusion in workplace design can:

• Conduct an inclusion audit of hybrid and RTO policies to identify barriers for caregivers, employees with disabilities, and historically excluded talent.
• Gather employee feedback early, using ERGs and pulse surveys to shape decisions.
• Frame flexibility as a performance enabler, not a privilege, to reinforce inclusion through trust and accountability.

Lesson 5: The Core Commitment Holds

The change we saw in 2025 truly tested organizations’ commitment to inclusion. Despite discourse and public backlash for those that broke away from their dedication to inclusion, we saw that most companies stood by their values—they just changed how their business processes met those values. Seramount’s “Charting the Future: DEI Strategies for the Next Four Years” revealed that 74% of CEOs remain highly supportive of this work, and nearly 68% of CDOs expect expanded private-sector action on gender and LGBTQ+ rights. One way many companies sustained their dedication to inclusion was by expanding support for Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). As a result, ERGs became a vital infrastructure in sustaining community and continuity through organizational change.

Inclusion leaders looking to leverage CEO sponsorship and ERG communities to keep culture and connection strong can:

• Reinvest in ERG leadership development to build capability and influence.
• Integrate ERG insights into business decisions, ensuring policies reflect diverse perspectives.
• Track ERG engagement and advancement outcomes as indicators of organizational health.

Looking Ahead to 2026: From Reflection to Renewal

The story of 2025 is one of redesign. Across industries, leaders turned turbulence into innovation, ensuring belonging remained both a value and a practice. As we move into 2026, the opportunity is clear: Embed inclusion at the heart of every strategy, not at its margins.

2025 showed that progress is not linear. Looking ahead, inclusion leaders should focus on resilience, measurement, and strategic partnership to ensure that the path forward can handle new challenges as they arise:

• Stay legally literate, monitoring evolving regulations to clarify which inclusion activities remain low-risk and business-essential.
• Tie outcomes to performance, demonstrating inclusion’s impact through metrics executives already value such as retention, engagement, and productivity.
• Rebuild employee trust through two-way communication efforts such as listening sessions and ERG engagement.
• Strengthen leadership capability, equipping managers at all levels to communicate with transparency and empathy.

When inclusion is woven into everyday practices, it withstands any external climate.

The post Looking Back on 2025: Five Lessons Inclusion Leaders Will Carry Forward appeared first on Seramount.

According to McKinsey’s 2025 “State of AI” report, 78% of organizations document using AI, yet less than 1% consider themselves “mature” in its deployment. Even as adoption rates remain high, a 2025 MIT study found that 95% of GenAI pilots fail to produce meaningful ROI, largely because experimentation never evolves into enterprise-level change. The data is clear: AI adoption is accelerating, but organizational capability is not keeping pace.

HR’s role in AI implementation needs to go beyond calming anxieties that “robots will take our jobs.” The real risk is a growing divide between employees who have AI skills and those who don’t. For HR leaders, this moment presents a critical opportunity: Help employees see AI as a tool that enhances their impact, not one that undermines it.

AI is accelerating and the stakes are rising. But culture—not code—is the secret weapon that keeps transformation on track. Managing AI responsibly means protecting the data that powers change and aligning people and purpose around how it’s used. That alignment now falls squarely to CHROs.

Three Reasons Why AI Efforts Stall

Despite significant investment, most organizations struggle to convert AI ambition into measurable impact. The challenge isn’t the technology—it’s alignment. Leaders can communicate AI’s potential, but employees need clear insight into how that potential affects what they do today, what will be expected tomorrow, and where they fit in the organization’s future. That alignment gap shows up across three persistent barriers.

1. Strategy Without Translation

AI strategies often look compelling on paper, yet employees still ask, “What does this mean for me?” Companies communicate transformation plans, launch new tools, and promote enterprise-wide vision, but employees rarely receive the practical translation they need to change behavior. Many hear about AI in broad terms but cannot see how it integrates into workflows or how their responsibilities will shift. Without that clarity, even well-designed strategies stall. Organizations invest heavily in messaging, yet employees often remain disconnected from the very changes they are expected to adopt.

2. Change Without Trust

Concerns about trust extend far beyond whether employees are using AI appropriately. Increasingly, the deeper question is whether employees trust their organization to use AI fairly, transparently, and in ways that support—not jeopardize—their opportunities. These internal concerns mirror a broader societal trend: Public skepticism in AI still circulates, shaped by constant headlines about biased outputs, misuse of data, and human replacement.

Inside organizations, those same issues show up in tangible ways. Research from the Algorithmic Justice League and Brookings finds that women, people of color, lower-wage earners, and later-career professionals are significantly less likely to receive AI training or be included in early pilots, clear signs of inequitable access. When employees see AI advancement as something happening around them rather than with them, skepticism grows, confidence erodes, and the cultural foundation needed for innovation becomes increasingly fragile.

3. Learning Without Context

Most employees don’t feel prepared for the future of work, not because they resist learning, but because the learning they receive lacks relevance. Here at Seramount, we found that only 23% of employees believe they have the skills they need to integrate AI into their workflow. Simultaneously, only one in five organizations has a defined AI adoption strategy. Managers, too, often lack the tools to model new behaviors or guide their teams through change. Without contextual learning anchored in real work, capability gaps widen and adoption stalls.

These barriers aren’t technical failures. They are cultural ones. And until organizations address the alignment gap between strategy and the human experience of change, AI will continue to advance faster than the culture needed to sustain it.

What Leading CHROs Do Differently: From Technical Rollout to Culture Redesign

AI transformation has become a test of leadership, and CHROs are now the linchpin. They are the only executives with line of sight across trust, culture, workflow friction, skills, manager capability, and workforce risk.

Organizations that break through treat AI adoption as a culture redesign, not a technical rollout. Leading CHROs are shifting their strategies in three ways:

1. They redesign workflows, not just introduce tools. Rather than pushing AI at employees, they co-design new processes that pair human judgment with machine intelligence. The goal isn’t automation—it’s collaboration.
2. They operationalize transparency. Rather than limiting the use of AI to specific pilot groups, they make implementation visible. They open discussion on where it’s used and governed, how decisions are made, and what resources employees have available to them to learn and experiment safely.
3. They build cultures that learn faster than change. Instead of one-off training, they invest in continuous, role-specific upskilling tied to actual workflows. They equip managers to model curiosity, normalize questions, and share what they learn.

Above all, effective HR leaders are partners in AI implementation. They start by listening to their employees—not to check a box, but to diagnose the friction beneath the surface. Scaled listening reveals where trust is fading, where skills gaps persist, and where employees have lost the thread of the “why” behind strategy. That clarity becomes a strategic accelerant: When people understand change and see their role in it, adoption, trust, and innovation rise together.

Bottom Line

AI doesn’t stall because the technology isn’t ready. It stalls because organizations haven’t aligned people, purpose, and culture with the strategy behind it. Employees resist change only when they can’t see where they fit, when the process feels inequitable, or when the “why” behind decisions remains unclear.

CHROs now sit at the center of this alignment challenge, responsible for connecting vision to behavior, strategy to capability, and innovation to trust. It’s a complex mandate that requires both foresight and a strong peer community to navigate what comes next.

Organizations that integrate these capabilities will build a workforce ready not just to adopt AI, but to thrive with it. Those without that alignment risk falling behind—not just in capability, but in credibility.

The post Why Your AI Strategy Needs HR More than Ever appeared first on Seramount.

Numerous factors are contributing to this need for a focus on culture. These three factors stuck out to me: Energy demand is rising, AI is reshaping work, and the talent needed to meet these ambitions is in short supply. These interconnected shifts mean that retention now matters as much as recruitment. With the goal of future-proofing teams and organizations, culture is the mechanism that energy leaders can leverage to strengthen employee engagement, innovation, and collaboration.

This blog outlines reflections and insights from the conference and why Seramount stands ready to help energy organizations design resilient cultures that can successfully navigate the current and upcoming workforce challenges.

The Energy Industry’s Workforce Crisis

Across multiple conference sessions, including a panel of four CEOs, leaders emphasized that the sector is in a “workforce renaissance.” Investment in the sector is growing, and with it innovation is accelerating to meet the moment.

However, this renaissance is threatened by workforce instability. Leaders warned candidly, “We can’t afford to lose talent.”And the CEWD data shows us exactly that.

• Energy employers are expected to hire 32 million people between 2025 and 2035— 15 million replacement workers and 17 million new workers.
• Seventy-six percent of energy and utilities employers are experiencing talent and skill gaps in their current workforce due to the rapid evolution occurring within the sector in response to changing needs.
• Over 75% of organizations have difficulty recruiting for full-time positions, and nearly 50% have had difficulties retaining full-time employees in the past12 months.

Throughout the conference, we learned that energy’s challenges are being shaped by several forces:

1.     Aging Workforce

The energy sector is facing a demographic cliff. A significant portion of today’s workforce is expected to retire within the next 10 years, taking with them institutional knowledge that cannot be quickly replicated. At the same time, the population entering the workforce is smaller than the population exiting it, revealing more than ever the value of retention and knowledge transfer. Accordingly, organizations must recognize that retention, upskilling, and cross-generational knowledge capture are urgent strategic imperatives.

Leaders at the CEWD conference emphasized that workplace culture, especially one grounded in belonging, stability, and purpose, is what keeps experienced workers engaged long enough to support the next generation. By strengthening connections between veteran workers and early-career talent, organizations can protect critical knowledge and stabilize workforce transitions.

Actionable Steps to Combat the Demographic Cliff

• Build structured knowledge-transfer programs where experienced workers mentor newer employees through defined rotational experiences.
• Conduct a retention risk assessment to identify roles or teams most vulnerable to retirement-driven turnover.
• Create “encore career” pathways that allow late-career employees to shift into coaching, training, or advisory roles.

2.     Shifting Talent Pipelines and Growing Skill Gaps

Talent pipelines aren’t disappearing, but they are shifting. There are two major contributing factors: First, young workers are not rejecting energy careers; rather, they simply aren’t exposed to energy careers early enough to understand that energy offers more than just a job. Second, the existing workforce is lacking skills that have been introduced—or demanded—by new technology and evolving operational systems.

In response, organizations need to engage talent earlier and more creatively. At the CEWD conference, several leaders highlighted the importance of high school partnerships, hands-on learning, and compelling mobility stories. Effective pipelines also come from nontraditional sources such as military transition programs, second-chance hiring initiatives, and partnerships with community-based organizations. These novel approaches to inclusive talent development can unlock skilled workers who have historically been overlooked.

Actionable Steps to Prepare the Talent Pipeline

• Build early-career exposure programs with local high schools, dual-enrollment programs, and community colleges focused on energy pathways.
• Expand recruiting partnerships with military bases, workforce reentry programs, and community-based organizations to reach overlooked talent pools.
• Develop clear, visible skill pathways that show workers how to advance from entry-level roles into technical specialist or leadership positions.

3.     Digital Transformation and AI Readiness

Digital tools and AI are reshaping the nature of work across the industry. From predictive maintenance to connected field technologies, workers are being asked to adopt new systems at unprecedented speed. Without transparency and training, these shifts can create uncertainty, especially among frontline teams and supervisors who must explain the changes to their crews.

Organizations must build a workforce culture that is confident, digitally literate, and flexible. Leaders at the conference emphasized that frontline leaders play a critical role in demystifying AI and supporting skill-building. When employers offer transparency about  why technology is changing and how employees can grow with it, their employees can stay engaged rather than becoming fearful.

Actionable Steps to Address Digital Transformation and Readiness

• Map the roles most affected by AI and communicate upcoming technological developments early and clearly.
• Launch a “Digital Essentials” learning pathway that builds confidence in new tools, data systems, and AI-enabled workflows.
• Train frontline leaders to support skill development, and guide teams through digital change.

Looking Ahead: Culture Is Your Most Scalable Advantage

After spending time at CEWD, I have no doubt that we are seeing a renaissance moment for the energy sector, and most companies will likely find themselves at a strategic crossroad. Seramount’s research has found that organizations that invest in people, i.e., workplace culture, with the same zeal and commitment with which they invest in technology will be able to meet the moment much more competitively than those who see culture as an afterthought. 

Culture is not soft. Culture is not secondary. Particularly now, culture will be the foundation of retention and long-term competitiveness in the energy sector. As competition across the sector increases to meet new demands, the organizations that build strong, inclusive cultures today will be the ones that lead the future of energy.

Partner with Seramount to Build a Culture That Attracts and Retains Top Talent

Seramount supports energy organizations in building cultures that strengthen belonging, readiness, and performance. We help leaders:

• Diagnose cultural strengths and gaps for the organization.
• Support frontline leader development and engagement to shape and advocate for culture.
• Share best practices from peers within and outside of the industry.

If your organization is preparing for growth, digital transformation, or workforce transition, Seramount can help build the culture your strategy requires. Reach out to talk to one of our experts!

The post Supporting the Energy Sector’s Workforce Through Culture appeared first on Seramount.

This public debate has collapsed two separate issues—productivity and physical presence—into one narrative. But the evidence tells a far clearer story.

Well-designed hybrid work consistently improves engagement, retention, and, in many cases, productivity itself. Employees report they are able to work more efficiently, protect focus time, and better manage their energy when given flexibility in where and when they work.

For HR leaders, this disconnect presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The debate isn’t really about where people sit; it’s about how organizations define, measure, and experience productivity. And no one is better positioned to lead that redefinition than HR leaders.

Hybrid Didn’t Create a Productivity Problem—It Revealed a Measurement One

Most anxiety surrounding hybrid work stems from measurement systems built for another era. As the research shows, many organizations still rely on legacy metrics—time in seat, output volume, visible activity—systems built for an in-office world that can’t capture how value is created in a distributed one.

When those signals stop working, leaders understandably look for the most visible cue to latch onto, usually attendance. But visibility is not value. And surveillance is not measurement. Monitoring keystrokes, scanning badge data, or tracking idle time won’t restore productivity; it will erode trust.

Research continues to show that cultures built on trust outperform cultures built on visibility. Stanford researchers found that hybrid employees not only maintained productivity but had one-third higher retention rates, a clear sign of what’s possible when autonomy and clarity reinforce one another. When employees feel trusted, engagement rises and teams bring more energy to their work. Strengthening productivity, in other words, comes from setting clearer expectations and building the alignment people need to do their best work.

This is where HR leadership becomes essential: making productivity transparent by defining clear outcomes and the behaviors that drive them, and doing so with employees at the table.

What HR Leaders Must Do Now to Redefine Productivity

Redefining productivity in a hybrid era starts with transparency—making expectations visible, shared, and grounded in how work actually gets done today. Research from Deloitte and RAND shows that sustainable performance comes from clear outcomes supported by engagement, autonomy, and well-being. To sustain excellence within flexible work arrangements, business leaders must redefine productivity through the following interconnected outcomes:

• Business impact measures the results, quality, and innovation that advance strategic goals.
• Collaboration captures how teams connect, share knowledge, and generate new ideas across locations.
• Engagement reflects the energy, focus, and well-being that enable long-term efficiency and effectiveness.

But transparency only works when it’s grounded in employee experience and input. In one mid-size organization we supported, the CEO wanted to make “Boosting Productivity” a top priority for 2026, driven by a lingering belief that performance had never fully recovered post-COVID, even with new tools, hybrid flexibility, and larger teams.

Before introducing any new expectations, leaders needed to understand how these norms would land and what was actually hindering productivity in the day-to-day. With Seramount’s support, they brought roughly 1,000 senior leaders together for an Employee Voice Session to pressure-test a draft of their new “Ways of Working That Strengthen Performance.” Leaders were asked directly: What feels clear? What feels unclear? And what won’t work, given the reality of how your teams operate today?

Instead of resistance, employees surfaced practical friction points—meeting overload, unclear priorities, inconsistent modeling—that would have quietly derailed the rollout. Their input allowed the company to refine expectations around impact, collaboration, and engagement so the standards were clear, usable, and culturally aligned.

This is the work HR must lead: co-creating outcome-based standards and the everyday behaviors that bring them to life. When employees help build the system, expectations gain credibility, trust strengthens, and productivity becomes something people can meaningfully achieve—not something measured through outdated proxies.

The Enablers of a Modern Productivity System

Once productivity standards are clear and co-created, HR leaders must ensure the rest of the system reinforces them.

Managers must lead with consistency, connection, and fairness.

In hybrid environments, proximity should not determine opportunity. Yet research shows remote employees remain less likely to be promoted or recognized. Managers must support their employees by communicating expectations, mitigating bias, and maintaining meaningful weekly conversations that anchor performance and well-being. These habits are what create equitable, high-performing hybrid teams—not physical visibility.

AI must be implemented in ways that protect human engagement.

AI can accelerate output, but research from Nature and the Harvard Business Review shows it can also dampen employees’ sense of ownership and connection if introduced without intention. HR leaders can guide organizations to adopt AI through structured experimentation, transparent communication, and the reinforcement that AI augments—not replaces—human judgment and creativity.

Well-being must be treated as a performance system, not a perk.

Burnout is one of the most expensive drains on productivity. Gallup estimates global burnout costs $8.9 trillion annually. Seramount research shows burned-out employees are 2.6 times more likely to leave. HR leaders can redesign work to sustain energy, protecting focus time, balancing workloads, and supporting caregivers and historically marginalized groups who benefit most from well-designed hybrid flexibility.

These are not “extras”—they are the conditions that enable people to meet the outcome standards business leaders set.

The Step Leaders Still Underestimate: Listening as Strategic Infrastructure

Even the best-defined standards will fail if employees don’t see their experiences reflected in them. What matters isn’t just listening—it’s structured listening that feeds directly into change management. When organizations gather real insight through voice sessions, focused dialogues, and ongoing feedback, then use those insights to shape decisions, productivity stays grounded in reality and employees trust the process.

Listening shows employees they are partners in shaping how work evolves. It reduces skepticism. It surfaces friction early. And it turns productivity from something policed to something co-owned.

Listening is the system that keeps transparency alive.

Redefining Productivity Is HR’s Leadership Mandate

The future of productivity will not be restored by mandates, monitoring, or nostalgia for pre-pandemic norms. It will be shaped by whether organizations define productivity with clarity, measure it transparently, and refine it continuously with their people.

HR leaders are uniquely positioned to lead that shift—not by choosing sides in the hybrid debate, but by establishing the frameworks that move the conversation beyond presence and toward performance.

Hybrid work can expose fractures or fuel transformation. The difference depends on whether HR leads the redefinition—or lets legacy assumptions write the next chapter.

The post The Productivity Strategy That Actually Boosts Performance: Build It with Your People appeared first on Seramount.

Earlier this month, Seramount partnered with Soho House to bring inclusion leaders across industries into community with creatives and artists in LA. Together, they explored how inclusion drives culture and how culture drives innovation, community, and belonging. Their conversations revealed a clear truth: Culture isn’t an outcome; it’s an engine.

The Power of Representation in Storytelling

Stories were the heartbeat of the day. Speakers reflected on how authentic storytelling is both an act of representation and reclamation, emphasizing that when people share their stories, they humanize difference and turn diversity into understanding. Stories define who belongs, which ideas gain momentum, and which values shape collective imagination. Representation in storytelling is not about visibility alone; it’s about shaping connection and context for everyone involved. Many spoke of the courage it takes to move from being the subject of a story to the author of one and shared examples of how they accomplished just that, paving the way for others to do the same. Through it all ran a shared conviction: Stories do more than entertain; they build empathy, community, and trust.

Actionable steps:

• Create internal forums or creative showcases where employees can share lived experiences.
• Embed storytelling into leadership development as a discipline of empathy.
• Use stories to test whether culture statements reflect reality, not aspiration.

The State of Inclusion Today

As the conversation turned to inclusion strategy, two themes arose: exhaustion and renewal. The rapid pace of change around topics such as AI, politics, and demographics presents disruption and opportunity for the workforce and for communities. In response, leaders are calling not for more programs to address these areas but for more clear and focused messaging that provides transparency and connection to employees and peers.

Inclusion must evolve beyond jargon to speak a language that feels accessible and supportive to all throughout the constant state of change. The group agreed that it’s paramount to make inclusion an enterprise capability that empowers everyone. Plain language and integrated metrics will bring inclusion closer to business outcomes and create more sustainable change.

Actionable steps:

• Reframe inclusion messaging in accessible terms (e.g., replace “psychological safety” with “building trust for team success”).
• Integrate inclusion goals with business metrics, not as add-ons but as growth levers.
• Foster cross-functional learning communities where culture, HR, and operations align on shared outcomes.

The Blueprint of Belonging: Designing for Impact

Panelists explored how belonging must move from inspiration to infrastructure and shared how they’ve started this evolution themselves. They shared experiences of redesigning hiring systems, empowering employee resource groups, and reframing inclusion from a side effort into a strategic driver.

The most resonant idea: Belonging begins in community. Culture can’t be engineered through policies alone, particularly in the workplace; it grows through knowledge, engagement, and authentic participation in a shared vision and purpose.

A sustainable culture of belonging depends on systems that reward collaboration, accountability, and alignment to the business and to each other. The panelists reiterated the importance of embedding inclusion into decision-making structures, measuring what truly matters, and creating space for reflection and dialogue.

Actionable steps:

• Design your inclusion ecosystem: formal programs, informal networks, inclusion metrics, and leadership champions.
• Establish regular feedback rituals that surface barriers to belonging.
• Develop a balanced scorecard for culture: one part data, one part narrative.

The Stories We Inherit and the Stories We Create

The final session closed on a powerful note: imagination as a discipline.

Speakers reflected on how creativity can transform not just narratives but systems. One speaker described imagination as “a form of freedom”— a way to resist cynicism and keep possibility alive. Others spoke of the need to guard creative energy fiercely, refusing to let external forces or fatigue drain the capacity to dream.

That same spirit of imagination extends beyond individuals. Every organization lives inside a story. The most inclusive cultures rewrite their narrative through imagination and shared authorship. Storytelling becomes both legacy and action: honoring the past while opening space for new voices.

The conversation moved from theory to practice, with participants exchanging ideas for nurturing collective imagination in their teams. Leaders agreed that imagination is a strategic resource, as vital as capital or data, and that inclusion work is most powerful when it transforms not just policies but how people see themselves at work.

Actionable steps:

• Host cross-generational dialogues that connect origin stories to future aspirations.
• Encourage creative collaborations across departments to reimagine traditions and rituals.
• Recognize employees who embody inclusion through creativity and care.

Final Thoughts

Sustaining cultural momentum requires balance between urgency and patience, data and humanity, imagination and accountability. Culture leaders must prototype inclusion: Test, refine, and scale what resonates.

Culture fuels creativity when inclusion and belonging become a responsibility for and from everyone. The path forward isn’t about defending this work; it’s about expanding creativity, trust, and possibility through collaboration. Leaders who cultivate inclusive imagination will shape workplaces that endure change and inspire innovation.

The post Culture Fuels Creativity: Reimagining Inclusion for a New Era appeared first on Seramount.

A Night to Remember at Cipriani

New York City shimmered on October 23 as leaders, families, and changemakers gathered at Cipriani 42nd Street for the annual Seramount Gala. Beneath its grand tilework and historic arches, the evening celebrated not only excellence but also belonging. Guests enjoyed an immersive experience that included virtual reality headsets offering glimpses of innovation, Ms. Wendy’s whimsical pipe cleaner art that brought smiles across generations, and an exquisite menu that kept conversation flowing late into the night

The night’s most moving moment came as Seramount honored the Working Parents and Caregivers of the Year—individuals whose leadership at work is matched only by their care at home. It was a powerful reminder that progress begins with people who show up for others, day after day.

The Future of Leadership Takes the Stage

As dinner gave way to dialogue, the spotlight turned to a CHRO panel titled “The Future of Leadership: People, Purpose, and Possibility.” Moderated by Sally Amoruso, Chief Partner Officer at EAB, the conversation brought insight and honesty in equal measure.

Panelists Anne Erni (Audible), Tara Favors (Mutual of America), and Sharon Pollard (CloudZero) discussed how leadership itself is evolving — blending data, empathy, and adaptability in ways that redefine what it means to lead well. They spoke about building trust, using analytics to uncover bias, and leading with “radical empathy” in complex times.

It was a candid, inspiring look at where leadership is headed—and how today’s HR visionaries are already shaping that future.

The night concluded with a stunning medley of New York–inspired songs from the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, perfectly capping off an evening of harmony and celebration.

If the Gala was the celebration, the Summit was the think tank—a full day devoted to the next chapter of workplace evolution.

From Celebration to Ideation

The following morning, the energy carried to Convene 360 in Midtown Manhattan for WorkBeyond Summit 2025. The day opened with a Community Impact Breakfast supporting I Got You Girl, part of the NYC Campaign Against Hunger — setting a tone of service and shared purpose.

Under the theme “Future Forward: Inclusion, Innovation, and Impact,” HR, talent, and inclusion professionals spent the day exploring the evolving world of work—from well-being and belonging to technology and transformation.

Rediscovering Our Humanity

Keynote speaker Vanessa Woods, research scientist and author of Survival of the Friendliest, challenged the audience to rethink what truly drives progress.

“Inclusion is an adjective, not a noun,” she shared in her conversation with Subha V. Barry, President of Seramount. Her insight was simple but powerful: humanity has always thrived through cooperation, not competition.

Her words filled the room with quiet conviction—a reminder that empathy and curiosity will define the next era of leadership.

Ideas in Action: The WorkBeyond Idea-thon

The WorkBeyond Idea-thon, led by David Attis (EAB) and Nichelle Wash (Seramount), turned ideas into action. Participants rolled up their sleeves to reimagine workplace challenges using design thinking.

Teams explored themes such as leadership accountability, trust, and cross-functional collaboration. The energy was high—ideas flew, laughter filled the room, and strangers became collaborators. For many attendees from the same organization, it was also a rare chance to work together—something they don’t often get to do since they’re spread across different offices.

Attis summed upped this session best: “To see the future, start looking in the present.”

Insights That Inspire

The afternoon featured sessions on neurodiversity in hiring, AI’s human side, and mental health at work—each offering new ideas for how organizations can thrive in times of change.

Panelists shared strategies that were practical yet deeply human: design workplaces where people feel seen, valued, and empowered to grow. The Summit closed with a lively networking reception, where insights turned into introductions and ideas found their next champions.

The mood? Energized, hopeful, and ready for what’s next.

Looking Ahead

From the Gala’s sparkle to the Summit’s strategy, this year’s events captured the full spirit of Seramount—equal parts elegance and action. Together, they reminded us that the future of work isn’t something to predict; it’s something to design.

To everyone who joined us—sponsors, honorees, speakers, partners, and guests—thank you for making this year one to remember.

We can’t wait to return to New York City on October 22–23, 2026, for another unforgettable celebration of progress, people, and possibility.

Interested in getting involved early? Connect with your Seramount representative to begin planning.We look forward to continuing this work together and celebrating your progress next year.

View all 2025 WorkBeyond photos.

The post A Night of Glamour, a Day of Vision: Highlights from the Seramount Gala and WorkBeyond Summit 2025 appeared first on Seramount.

Proactive Inclusion in a Complex World

Barry shared encouraging data, illustrating how inclusive hiring efforts are paying off. In a study of recruitment practices across the UK, Canada, and India, companies employing “tried-and-true” inclusion tactics – diverse candidate slates, diverse interview panels, mandatory bias training, and targeted sourcing – saw tangible results. In the UK, for example, 50% of new hires this year were women, up from 46% in 2023, with similar rises in Canada (55%, up from 51%) and modest results in India (37%, up from 36%). These upticks in women’s hiring underscore how inclusive talent strategies can drive measurable progress, reinforcing Barry’s point that inclusion can be a competitive advantage in every market. Barry also highlighted partnership as a catalyst for innovation: The StepStone Group, a global leader in digital recruitment and the summit’s host, exemplifies how embedding inclusion at a platform’s core helps connect talent to opportunity at scale. StepStone’s own Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Bianca Stringuini, echoed this vision of inclusion-fueled innovation in her welcome remarks, setting the stage for a day of learning and collaboration.

From Compliance to Influence: Aligning HR Leadership

The first session dug into a foundational question: how can Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs) and Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) join forces to amplify impact? James Cowling-Vega, shared insights from a new Seramount study based on interviews with over 100 CHROs. The research revealed that while most HR leaders support Inclusion in principle, truly integrating inclusion into business strategy requires moving beyond compliance-driven approaches to ones centered on influence and collaboration. Cowling-Vega noted that effective CDO-CHRO partnerships hinge on speaking the language of business outcomes. This theme of “shifting from explaining inclusion to executing with influence” resonated throughout the day. In fact, Seramount’s latest pulse survey found that only 1 in 5 CDOs feel they can effectively influence their C-suite on Inclusion, even as 90% say securing senior leadership buy-in is their top priority. Closing that gap is critical – without the ability to clearly link inclusion to business value, Inclusion efforts risk being sidelined or defunded in today’s environment. Cowling-Vega’s session underscored a clear call to action: HR and Inclusion leaders must continue to evolve from box-checking to business-aligned strategies, using data and influence to embed inclusion into executive agendas.

Moving with Trust in AI

A lively fireside chat on emerging technology examined the cutting-edge of inclusion practice: AI in HR. Nicola Weatherhead, StepStone Group’s VP of Talent Acquisition & People Operations, joined Subha Barry for a candid discussion on the promise and perils of artificial intelligence in people management. Weatherhead, a veteran tech industry people leader, and Barry emphasized moving forward with trust in AI – harnessing AI’s efficiencies in recruiting and talent management while maintaining human oversight and fairness. Attendees openly shared their experiences via live poll: many organizations are still in early exploratory stages of integrating AI in HR, and the top concerns on everyone’s mind are bias, transparency, and compliance with rapidly evolving laws. Weatherhead addressed these head-on, citing the forthcoming EU AI Act as a prime example of why HR leaders must stay proactive. Her guidance: treat AI as a tool to augment, not replace, human judgment, and build diverse teams to vet AI-driven decisions for unintended bias. She described StepStone’s approach to ethical AI – from rigorous bias testing in algorithms to cross-functional governance – as a model of balancing innovation with responsibility. The takeaway was clear: trust and innovation can co-exist. With the right guardrails, AI can help streamline hiring and expand talent pools, but earning employee trust means prioritizing ethics and transparency at every step.

Navigating Legal Headwinds in Inclusion

Legal and regulatory shifts have rocked the Inclusion landscape worldwide, a reality brought to life by Chris Bracebridge, Partner at Covington & Burling LLP and a leader on the firm’s global Inclusion Council. Bracebridge led a session on inclusion under pressure – how recent legal changes demand agile strategies from Inclusion and HR teams. He noted that in just the past 18 months, dramatic changes have altered what’s permissible or practicable in corporate Inclusion programs. From high-profile court decisions on affirmative action in the U.S., to new European regulations like the AI Act and pay transparency directives, to evolving UK compliance requirements – the rules of engagement for Inclusion are being rewritten in real time. Bracebridge broke down these complexities with practical clarity, reassuring leaders that inclusion and compliance are not mutually exclusive. For instance, he pointed out that even amid political pushback, companies can focus on inclusive practices that are universally beneficial, such as mentorship programs or diversity in recruitment, which carry low legal risk but high cultural impact. The key is to stay informed and creative: adjusting language, reframing programs, and doubling down on business relevance can help inclusion initiatives survive external challenges. Bracebridge’s bottom line: Inclusion leaders must become deft navigators of change, influencing stakeholders with both vision and vigilance. His insights – coming from a firm that’s been advising global companies through these storms since 2021 – provided a roadmap for turning legal “disruption into opportunity”, sparking ideas on how to future-proof inclusion efforts.

Macro Trends and Inclusion: An Economist’s View

After lunch, the summit zoomed out to a macro-economic lens, examining how broad labor market trends influence workplace inclusion. Julius Probst, Appcast’s European Labor Economist, presented a data-rich look at the British economy and job market in 2025. Probst, shared sobering statistics: the UK’s unemployment rate has crept up to 4.6%, and job vacancies have declined to their lowest since before the pandemic. After a long post-pandemic boom, Britain’s labor market is edging closer to a downturn, with hiring freezes and lower turnover as economic uncertainty rises. Yet within this challenging climate, there are silver linings for inclusion. Probst noted that a cooling labor market can push employers to focus on quality ofhire over quantity, presenting an opening to double down on inclusive recruitment – reaching talent that may have been overlooked in hyper-competitive Probst added perspective from on-the-ground in the UK: even as overall hiring slows, skills shortages persist in sectors from technology to care services, meaning companies that cast wider nets and invest in upskilling diverse talent will weather the storm better. This economist’s view reinforced a theme from earlier in the day – inclusion as innovation under pressure. When macro headwinds blow, inclusive practices like reskilling, internal mobility, and flexible work can become engines of resilience. The session vividly connected the dots between global trends and daily inclusion work, reminding leaders that Inclusion strategy must flex with economic realities.

Collaborative Solutions: Evolving ERGs and Beyond

Caroline Waters, OBE – a veteran HR executive and Deputy Chair of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission – led an eye-opening breakout session on global demographic shifts and what they mean for inclusion. Co-facilitated by Angela Lacerna, an Associate Director of Partner Development at Seramount, the session challenged participants to think bigger about where talent and consumers will come from in the future.

Waters highlighted several striking facts as signals of a massive demographic transformation unfolding worldwide:

• English speakers on the rise: China is poised to become the largest English-speaking nation in the world.
• Talent pool scale: The top 25% highest-IQ individuals in China outnumber the entire population of North America (and India’s top 28% does as well).
• Workforce surplus: Even if every current U.S. job were transferred to China or India, those countries would still have a huge surplus of workers to spare.
• Skyrocketing birth rates: In the time it takes to read this sentence, dozens of babies are born around the globe – about 38 in the United States, 92 in China, and 241 in India. As Waters put it, “the speed of global diversification is almost too fast to grasp.”
• Shifting majorities: In Birmingham, UK, the balance of demographics flipped within a decade. The city went from roughly 58% White and 42% Black in 2011 to about 49% White and 51% Black in 2021 – a complete reversal of majority and minority representation in just ten years.
• Youth resurgence: In the UK, church attendance among young adults has quadrupled, from only 4% in 2018 to 16% today. This unexpected surge in youth participation is another example of how quickly social trends can turn.

Each of these data points, Waters explained, is more than just a statistic – it’s a wake-up call. Together, they paint a picture of a world where diversity is the new normal on a global scale. Populations and workforces in Asia are booming, educational and linguistic advantages are no longer confined to Western nations, and even local communities are seeing dramatic shifts in composition and behavior. For inclusion strategists, the implication is clear: we must anticipate and embrace a far more diverse future. Inclusion efforts can’t rely on old assumptions about where talent comes from or what “majority” means in any given context. Instead, leaders should prepare for a reality in which the so-called ‘minority’ groups may become majorities (and vice versa), and cultural patterns may shift unexpectedly.

ERGs: From Passion to Strategic Impact

Katie Oertli Mooney, Managing Director at Seramount, shared that even as some organizations pull back on formal DEI programs, employee resource groups (ERGs) remain resilient and continue to evolve. She introduced a new ERG maturity model with two dimensions – operational and impact – urging companies to move beyond grassroots passion to a structured infrastructure with leadership alignment from the top down. On the impact side, Mooney challenged leaders to think past what ERGs do (hosting events or programs) and focus on what they enable for the business and culture. The message was clear: leading organizations treat ERGs not as extracurricular networks, but as strategic partners in driving inclusion and innovation.

Mooney illustrated how high-functioning ERGs serve as pipelines for relationship-building and talent development. ERG leaders and members gain vital experience – from cross-functional collaboration and strategic planning to mentoring others – that hones their business acumen and inclusive leadership skills. These experiences build executive presence and influence among diverse talent, empowering employees to drive cultural fluency across the organization. In short, ERGs can be incubators of future leaders, translating grassroots energy into tangible business capabilities.

Spotlight Stories of Resilience and Innovation

As the summit’s final segment, two industry leaders delivered inspiring spotlight stories illustrating how they are driving inclusion forward in challenging times. Sharlene John, Head of Inclusion, Recruitment and Onboarding at Selfridges, spoke about cultivating talent and culture in the luxury retail sector. John described how Selfridges partners with the King’s Trust to promote internal talent development, creating avenues for underrepresented employees to advance and lead with continued support at the close of the program.

Next, Annika Allen, Head of Inclusion at All3Media, offered a candid look at building inclusion in media and entertainment – an industry known for creative dynamism and, often, systemic inequities. At the summit, Allen spoke passionately about the link between employee well-being and inclusion. In an environment prone to burnout and high stress, All3Media has made employee mental health a pillar of its Inclusion strategy – from inclusive storytelling workshops that give employees a voice, to equitable parental leave and flexible work arrangements. Allen’s core message: creativity and inclusion thrive together when people feel safe, valued, and cared for as whole individuals.

Think Bigger, Act Smarter: What’s Next

After a full day of insights and exchange, the Think Bigger Summit concluded with a unifying call to action. In closing remarks, Subha Barry observed that through every panel, spotlight, and hallway conversation, one theme came up again and again: “This work lives or dies by our ability to influence.” Influence – built on trust, backed by data, and aligned to business priorities – is the linchpin for turning inclusive ideas into sustained action. Barry challenged every leader in attendance to carry the day’s learnings back to their organizations and “engineer influence” for the changes that matter. Some key messages emerged from the summit’s conversations:

• Moving with trust in AI: Leverage AI-driven tools in HR and recruiting, but do so ethically and transparently, addressing biases and ensuring human oversight at each step.
• Inclusion as innovation under pressure: Treat inclusion as a source of innovation and resilience, especially in turbulent times. When under pressure – whether from legal, economic, or social forces – doubling down on Inclusion can reveal new solutions and growth opportunities.
• Shifting from compliance to influence: Evolve from check-the-box diversity compliance toward true influence in the C-suite. Build the business case with data and storytelling, and speak to what drives your particular organization. Inclusion isn’t a “nice-to-have” – it’s a strategic imperative, and it demands the same rigor and buy-in as any core business initiative.
• Evolving ERG maturity and impact: Invest in the maturity of Employee Resource Groups so they become strategic partners in talent development and innovation. Provide ERGs with executive sponsorship, clear objectives, and metrics to showcase impact, moving them from affinity communities to engines of business insight and leadership development.

Looking ahead, Seramount is committed to keeping this momentum going. Seramount’s Global Inclusion Index remains open for organizations to benchmark not just what they say, but what they do, across 29 countries. And the upcoming Global Member Conference will reunite this community to continue the conversation, dive deeper into new research, and turn ideas into action. These efforts are part of Seramount’s broader 2026 thought leadership agenda,  all aimed at one goal: helping inclusion leaders think bigger and act smarter to meet the demands of this changing workplace.

Together, we are turning aspiration into action, and ensuring that inclusion not only keeps pace with change, but drives the innovative workplaces of tomorrow.

The post Strategic Inclusion Under Pressure: Think Bigger Global Summit Highlights appeared first on Seramount.