For WorldatWork Members
- 2026 Priorities of Total Rewards Leaders, research
- Two TR Leaders Provide a Personal Take on Their 2026 Priorities, Workspan Daily Plus+ article
- From Compensation to Collaboration and Connection, Workspan Magazine article
For Everyone
- What Are the Most Draft-Worthy Total Rewards Skills? Workspan Daily article
- Alignment, Market Competitiveness Are TR Leaders’ Top 2026 Priorities, Workspan Daily article
- Certified Compensation Professional, certification
- Understanding the Total Rewards Regulatory Landscape, course
Employment website LinkedIn recently released its 2026 Skills on the Rise in Human Resources list, highlighting the 10 fastest-growing skills HR professionals should be investing in to get ahead in today’s world of work.
The list includes:
- Employment law and compliance
- Artificial intelligence (AI) literacy
- Client prospecting
- Operational efficiency
- Data analytics
- End-to-end recruitment
- New-hire training
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Organizational change management
- Culture development
The list suggests that as the HR landscape rapidly evolves, so do the skill sets needed for success. For example, AI literacy (No. 2) and operational efficiency (No. 4) showcase how HR teams are leveraging new tools to optimize processes and maximize their impact. Meanwhile, organizational change management (No. 9) and culture development (No. 10) underscore the role these professionals play in helping their organizations navigate broader workplace changes. The top skill, employment law and compliance, reflects the increased need for the profession to understand the influx of regulatory, legislative and legal activity occurring in the U.S. and abroad, and then ensuring corporate employment practices (e.g., wages, employee records management) account for and align with those actions.
LinkedIn measured the year-over-year growth of skills based on two pillars: skill acquisition and hiring success. Skill acquisition measures the growth of a given skill being added to member profiles. Hiring success measures the growth of a given skill possessed by members who have been hired in the past year. Growth rates for all metrics were measured by comparing LinkedIn data from Dec. 1, 2024, to Nov. 30, 2025, to the same period in the previous year.
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Editor’s Note: Additional Content
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