Ireland’s HR and Leadership Priorities in 2026 with Alison Hodgson

Want a clear view of where HR in Ireland is heading and how to prepare your team for what’s next? Bill Banham sits down with Alison Hodgson, Market Director at CIPD Ireland, to map the practical priorities that will define people leadership in 2026: target operating models tuned to strategy, a smarter approach to productivity in hybrid work, cultures that enable creativity, and talent systems built on lifelong learning.

Alison shares why operating models belong at the top of every HR agenda, walking through how structure, role design, skills, and workflows must link to the “book of work.” We dive into the messy middle of performance and productivity, where outcomes matter more than presenteeism and thoughtful in-person moments can supercharge collaboration. We also dig into Ireland’s unique context—an agile, open economy balancing flexible work with rising commute costs—and how that shapes retention, skills development, and the everyday realities of leading teams.

A major focus is capability building beyond HR. With a vast population of non-HR people managers in SMEs, CIPD’s group affiliate access and AI-powered resource hub equip managers with templates, playbooks, and just-in-time guidance for performance reviews, tough conversations, and change. We spotlight the Feb 13th CIPD HR Awards in Ireland, where standout entries demonstrate data-driven baselines, measurable impact, and sustained outcomes—and note the streamlined pathway to the global People Management Awards. Plus, we preview the April conference on people, purpose, and performance, featuring case studies, international voices, and practical tools you can put to work.

If you care about building resilient teams, narrowing skills gaps, and turning culture into a real performance advantage, you’ll find tactics and examples you can use today. Subscribe, share with your HR peers, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway—what’s your top HR priority for 2026?

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Ireland Focus
• 2:02 Alison’s Path To CIPD Leadership
• 3:05 Four Priorities For HR In 2026
• 6:56 Performance Versus Productivity
• 9:20 Culture And Talent As A System
• 12:30 Growth Vision For CIPD Ireland
• 16:50 Equipping People Managers At Scale
• 20:50 Ireland’s Skills Gaps And Hybrid Reality

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:02

Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts, and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media, and visit hrgazette.com.

SPEAKER_01: 0:26

Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello, listeners. This is your host today, Bill Bannham. And in this episode, we're heading to Ireland to explore what's next for the people profession at a time when disruption, skills, challenges, and changing expectations at work are reshaping how organizations are operating. And joining me on the show today for the first time is a pretty cool person. I think actually my first call that I had with her only last week was probably the best call I've had this month so far. She's that cool. Her name is Alison Hodgson. She is the market director for Ireland at the CIPD. And Alison joined the CIPD from RSM Ireland, where she was a consulting partner for transformation HR and Change. A chartered champion of the CIPD, Alison has worked across multiple sectors from retail and technology to telecoms, financial services, and semi-state organizations. And her expertise spans everything. She's a pretty clever lady, but specifically HR, LD, and organizational development. And in this conversation, listeners, we're going to look at how the CIPD is supporting HR and people leaders in Ireland through research, policy, member engagement, and capability building, while keeping a close eye on the big themes of skills, flexible working, and well-being. We'll also preview what excellence in HR looks like right now and give a little spotlight on the CIPD HR Awards in Ireland, which is taking place in February 2026, which is when this episode is going to drop. Alison, how are you doing? Welcome to the show today.

SPEAKER_02: 2:01

Oh, thanks, Bill. It's great to be here with you.

SPEAKER_01: 2:04

Let's get straight into it then. You've you've moved from a consulting partner role, leading transformation, HR, and change at RSM Island, as I mentioned just a moment ago, into the market director role at CIPD Island. What drew you to that opportunity and what feels most urgent right now for the profession? Gosh, that's a big question to start with.

SPEAKER_02: 2:24

Yeah, yeah. Look, it was a really big personal decision for me to leave industry after, you know, a couple of decades as a HR practitioner across several industry sectors when this role came about. Um, it kind of was my dream job though. Um, and it was it it it was uh a departure from industry and from being a practitioner, but into what I absolutely love and believe in, which is advocating for the profession and the sector. Um, so look, as you know, the CIPD has been around for over 100 years in the UK, in Ireland it's been here for nearly 50 years. We've got um 6,500 members in Ireland, and globally we've got 165,000 members. Um, and you know, what's HR in the year 2026? Well, I suppose I would describe it as four you know, four priorities in a wider context of geopolitical uncertainty, pace of change, legislative change, and technological advances. And I suppose the first one really is a HR professional uh is is always considering uh what's called fondly as Tom, the target operating model. So, how should the organization that you're working in, how should we arrange ourselves, how should we structure the way we do what we do, how should we design our jobs, how should we design our workflows in order to achieve our book of work and the strategy and the purpose and the goals of the organization that that you're operating in? That's probably the trickiest job of any HR practitioner because you're balancing budget with headcount, with capability, with strategy, with skills gap, with market demands, uh, with what you've got internally, with your talent management processes, with your learning and development, with with your recruitment and talent acquisition partners. So it's a really complex um with multi-variable exercise that's very live and is never done. So the Tom is always on your to-do list, uh, so to speak, as a HR practitioner. Just very quickly, the other three priorities that I see are the debate around performance versus productivity, and that really comes from you know the new ways of working around return to office, hybrid working, flexible working, distributed located teams, um technological advances such as AI, and what does it mean to be high performing versus highly productive? And I suppose how I would describe that challenge is there's a lot more to being productive than just ticking off the items on your task list. Um, so it's about culture, creativity, collaboration, co-creation, all things that can only be done when humans meet in person. I think the third priority right now is around culture and building enabling cultures and being clear about as organizations, what what are your values and what culture do you want as an organization, and then making sure that everybody understands that and knows what part they can play in that. And then the last piece is around talent management, lifelong learning, um, succession planning, um, and and consistently looking at the skills that are needed and the capability that is needed in every organization to deliver your your book of work and your strategy. And that's all within the context of changing legislative landscapes and advances in technology and ways of working.

SPEAKER_00: 6:08

Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at hrgazette.com. And now back to the show.

SPEAKER_01: 6:24

Wonderful answer. Best thing about the answer was an apology for um our listeners who can't see the video here. Um, but the best thing about the answer was the cameo from Allison's dog towards the end. There, that's a beautiful, beautiful picture.

SPEAKER_02: 6:39

He concurs completely, doesn't he?

SPEAKER_01: 6:41

He does. He's completely on board with everything. I think he's a bit skeptical about the possibilities of AI from that look he gave.

SPEAKER_02: 6:49

I'm not sure he wants to return to the office either, Bill. You know, I think he might be wrong.

SPEAKER_01: 6:55

He's a remote dog. There we go. Um okay, so um, as I mentioned in my intro, uh I I that you you had the best impact on me of any call that I've had in January. It's been a great month so far. I've had lots of calls. You are clearly a warm and gregarious person. Um, part of your still fairly newish role at CIPD is the relationship building peace, get it spreading the spreading the word and supporting the growth of the organization. What does growth mean in practice for CIPD Island? So in terms of membership, influence, capability, building, partnerships, something broader. Can you can you give us an overview?

SPEAKER_02: 7:32

Well, look, uh in short, it means all of those things. And you know, when you're talking about growth in a not-for-profit um organisation, it's always tricky, isn't it? Because, you know, we are not for profit, but we're not for loss either. And so we do have a financial margin that we need to make on some of our commercial products and service offerings, and that margin that we make then gets invested back in to the membership, and that allows us to serve our members, represent them, be at the stakeholder tables, engaging with the government uh representatives to make sure that the employer's share of voice is there, omnipresent and loud and clear. So, you know, for me it's about growing membership, making sure that we continue to invite uh all HR professionals to be included, and there's another market that we want to invite in, and that is the people manager market. So when you look at the Ireland economy here, the small to medium enterprise market, um 99.8% of enterprises in Ireland are small to medium, and they employ over 66% of the working population here in Ireland. And within that market segment, so to speak, um, is a very large tranche of professionals who are not HR, but they have got responsibility and accountability for line management and people management. And when I, you know, when I was joining the organisation last year, I wanted to be able to size that market so that I could show the opportunity to the organisation in terms of what was there for the taking, so to speak. And it's kind of a difficult market to size, as you might imagine, but I suppose the most valid source I could find was Statista.com. And they size that market. So that is professionals in Ireland who are not HR and have got responsibility for people online management. Statistica.com sizes that market at anywhere between 280,000 and 400,000 professionals in Ireland. So that is a very large segment of the population, a very large demographic that have got direct responsibility and impact on the quality of working lives for everybody here. So if I look, if I step back and look at the purpose of the CIPD, which is to champion better work and working lives, then a line manager plays a huge part in that whole equation. So one of the things that we're doing as an organization, CIPD, globally is we have got what's called a group affiliate subscription, and that is to give access to our thought leadership, content, resources, materials, frameworks, templates, guidance documents, um, you know, questions and answers, you know, tools for people managers who are dealing with the challenges of what it is to manage people on a day-to-day basis. So if you're a manager and you're not a HR person, you you can log on to and you're going into you're going into a meeting and it might be a performance review, it might be a tricky conversation, it might be around an organization change that's in the offing that will have an impact on an individual's role, or you might be checking in on culture and engagement. You can log on to our resource hub and you can ask a question, and it's AI powered, and so you will get a curated answer to the prompt and the question that you ask. Um and it give it'll give you those those templates and those frameworks that will enable you and empower you to have a more effective, more impactful engagement and interaction with with the person that you're responsible for. So to me, you know, the CIPD, I really believe in professional bodies, and we are the professional body for the world of HR. I really believe in giving back and paying forward to the HR profession, but I actually really believe in in our purpose, which is about advocating for better work and working lives.

SPEAKER_01: 11:45

Okay, love that. I would just add um earlier today, uh, we posted on LinkedIn that the HR chat show has been again listed as a top uh resource, a top HR podcast. Um, guess who else is on that list of top HR podcasts for 2026? CIPD. So check out those as a resource as well. And there will of course be links in the show notes to the CIPD resources listers. Um Alison, skills is one of the key agendas that CIPD is focusing on. Where are Irish organizations most at risk right now in terms of maybe skill shortages, skills mismatches, retention, uh pace of reskilling? Give us your take.

SPEAKER_02: 12:26

You know, most organisations are reporting skills shortages. Um, and it's tricky, isn't it? Because the skills economy is about future-proofing your organization to make sure that you can, as best as you can, see around those corners in terms of what will you as an organization need in terms of capability and skills to be able to deliver your strategy, your book of work, your goals and your objectives. And you know, when I look at HR, when I started 30 odd years ago, it was literally tea and tissues. It was very it was a very transactional function where, for example, you were focused on the number of hours that you scheduled on a roster. Fast forward 30 odd years, you're now not obsessed with the numbers of hours scheduled on a roster. But what you are obsessed with is the capability that you have at any one given time in order to deliver what you need to deliver. So that's that's how I would sum up the transformation of HR and the skills economy today. And you know, when I look at Irish organizations, um I think we're we're, you know, as an economy, I think we're pretty leading edge in terms of future-proofing ourselves. We are an open economy, we are agile, we are flexible, um, we uh we we have embraced um definitely the you know the great thing that the pandemic gave us was true flexible working, absolutely true flexible working. And as you know, as a country and as a culture um here, I think we have embraced that. Um, you know, the skills and the reason I bring that up is because there's a big debate here around return to office uh versus hybrid working, and that brings in the debate I talked earlier about one of the priorities being performance versus productivity, and you know, where is the Venn diagram across those those two dimensions? And it's tricky, isn't it? You know, we've got an infrastructure problem here in Ireland where commuting to work um is taking longer than it used to do, it's costing more than it did, and where does that impact skill shortages um and organisations' ability to retain the talent that they need? So when I look at our HR survey practices, one of the top four reasons uh for for changing jobs and for looking to change jobs was the cost of living and commute, and both of those are are integrated and intertwined really. So it's um it's a complex multi multi-factoral dimension, really, that I think again will continue to always be live and always be on our to-do lists.

SPEAKER_01: 15:23

I'd like to now focus on uh the HR Awards 2026 in Ireland, which are taking place in early February. Um, listen, Alison was so kind, she said, Bill, we should come along to this as just a short flight. I can't make it. I'm I'm very upset that I can't make it.

SPEAKER_02: 15:41

Ben's coming, Ben is coming.

SPEAKER_01: 15:43

Ben's coming. Ben, Ben, who was our final guest on the on the pod uh in uh of 2025, uh hit the co-organiser of Disrupt Dublin along with me and Ivan. So Ben's coming and he can take lots of photos of him having a wonderful time to make me jealous.

SPEAKER_02: 15:58

But you've I've got in your diary or annual conference, haven't you, on the 16th of April?

SPEAKER_01: 16:02

Uh it's it's it's it's I'm planning on getting there if I can. Yes. If not, Ben will be coming.

SPEAKER_02: 16:10

The cameo of Ben. Great.

SPEAKER_01: 16:13

Um, okay. Well, let's not forget to mention the conference in April as well. But um, let's just briefly focus on the awards, if that's okay. So uh the CIPD HR Awards 2026 in Ireland take place in Creb. What do you think these awards represent for the profession and what patterns is your team seeing in the types of work being recognised? So, in terms of strategy, leadership, innovation, impact, and so on.

SPEAKER_02: 16:35

I think um what is always uh very energizing and reassuring about the CIPD in Ireland HR awards is that all of the entrants are really clear about what their business challenge was. Um they're really good at demonstrating um the capability of being data-driven, um, that they establish baselines and they track the impact and the sustainable nature of the interventions and the actions that they have taken. Um there are some pretty progressive stuff there um and it's it's cross-sector. We had um we had entries this year from sectors that that have that that we've not that not have not been represented before. Um so that's what's good. And of course, this year for the first time, um the winners in the Ireland uh CIPD awards get an automatic entry into the global CIPD people management awards. Um so we've re-engineered the awards this year to align the categories with the global awards, so the work doesn't have to be done again, the work is already done, and it is just literally cut and paste, and you hit submit and you've entered, so to speak. Um, so we're we're very we're very pleased about that. Um uh and we're very much looking forward to a day of celebration. So it's on Friday the 13th of February. Um, it's a lunch um that for the most part goes into the evening as well, as you might imagine, with the celebrations. Um, but it's it's always great to, it's a great learning um event as well, because you hear what's going on in all sorts of different categories and sectors from what you've entered. Um, and from uh from a judge's perspective, so I've been a judge for many years. This year, obviously, I sat the other side of the table, but the judges always tell us how enjoyable, um how enjoyable that they find the whole exercise of judging, um, and how important it is actually for them to pay back and play a part.

SPEAKER_01: 18:37

Okay, that sounds fantastic. So you could win an award in Ireland and you could be a global winner, what's not to love. Um Allison, tell us a bit more about your your conference in April. Why should people go along to that?

SPEAKER_02: 18:52

Yeah, so it is the theme of back to the data-driven um business imperative um uh fit, you know, uh golden thread that I like to link through everything that we do. So I'm not a big fan of HR just for HR's sake. I think that's one of my pet hates, and it always has been. Um so our conference is uh people, purpose, and performance. Um, and we are literally our goal is to present real and relevant case studies, examples, thought leadership, content, material, resources from our exhibitors, and from our partners, and from our members. Um, and it's in the RDS on the 16th of April. We've got some international speakers as well as some Ireland success stories, as well as some thought leadership and uh and an exhibition hall, um, which hopefully you will get to experience yourself, Bill, because it's one of those immersive um uh experiential events uh that that we like to think is flagship.

SPEAKER_01: 19:56

Okay, there you go, listeners. Be there or be a record. Angle. Uh, before we wrap up for today, you and I are originally connected because uh myself with a couple of others are uh relaunching the disrupt series in Dublin, which I'm delighted about.

SPEAKER_02: 20:11

Delighted about Bill.

SPEAKER_01: 20:13

And and you are so kind with by responding and um CIPD are supporting us. You guys are sending uh Linda. Uh Linda Linda Waters is gonna be one of the one of the speakers, um, along with uh John. Uh John Kennedy, who is the Vice Chair of CIPD Island National Committee.

SPEAKER_02: 20:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 20:33

Oh, and chair next year. Oh, there we go, there we go. Um Alison, you're you're you're so busy and important. You've got to be somewhere else on that particular day. So I'm gonna I'm gonna hound you until we get you on stage, perhaps for the next one in this side.

SPEAKER_02: 20:44

You're very kind, you're very kind.

SPEAKER_01: 20:46

Um so yeah, listen, I'll I'll add a I'll add a link in the show notes to to that event as well, so you can see Linda and John and um maybe up to about a dozen other speakers at that event. That just leaves me to say for today though, Alison. I think you're awesome. Um keep being you doing what you're doing. Thank you very much for being my guest.

SPEAKER_02: 21:03

Thanks, Bill. It's it's honestly been a pleasure and great to connect and uh wishing you every success with the Disrupt HR series. I think it's I think it's great, and I'm delighted to see you back on the shores of Ireland.

SPEAKER_01: 21:18

And listeners, as always, until next time, happy working.

SPEAKER_03: 21:25

Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show if you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette? And remember, for what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media, and visit hrgazette.com.