Nearly 90% of HR leaders evaluating technology in 2026 plan to replace their Core HR and Payroll systems.

In a mature market, replacement is rarely about chasing innovation—it is typically about fixing what isn’t working.

The top reasons for switching vendors include:

• Lack of functionality
• Poor support
• Inadequate reporting

These themes have persisted for years, suggesting an uncomfortable truth:

The HRIS selection process needs to better reflect both immediate functionality requirements and the needs of a growing organization, to reduce the need of switching solutions again in the near future.

Insight: Core HR replacement continues to be less about transformative HR strategy and more about fixing what is broken.

Talent Acquisition & Assessment: Hiring Less, Betting More on Precision

• 77% plan to add or replace their ATS
• 73% are prioritizing performance management

At first glance, this appears contradictory. Hiring is expected to slow and voluntary turnover is stabilizing—conditions that typically suppress recruiting investment.

Instead, Talent Acquisition is the only category that saw increased planned investment versus early 2025, rising by 9%.

Why?

Because hiring fewer people raises the cost and exposure of making bad hiring decisions.

Three structural forces are reshaping recruiting:

• Top performers are staying put
• Applicant volume is exploding
• AI is fueling a surge in fake and scam applications

Talent acquisition has quietly shifted from a capacity problem to a quality and fraud‑detection problem.

Vendors that can reduce friction, strengthen employer brand, and filter talent intelligently are moving from operational tools to strategic assets.

Insight: Organizations may hire fewer employees in 2026—but they intend to hire far more carefully.

Performance Management Is Becoming a Workforce Decision Engine

Prioritizing performance management investment hints at a deeper philosophical shift.

Historically positioned as a development tool, these platforms are increasingly supporting:

• Accountability
• Talent calibration
• Workforce optimization

In some organizations, performance systems are becoming infrastructure for difficult decisions—including who stays during periods of uncertainty.

Insight: Performance management is evolving from a coaching system into a clarity system.

Workforce Management: Prioritizing ROI Discipline

70% of HR leaders are prioritizing workforce management technologies.

Unlike many HR platforms, the value here is immediate and measurable. I refer to Workforce Management (timekeeping & employee scheduling) as the ROI Kings of HR Tech.

When organizations need to show the impact of their technology investments, workforce management provides hard‑dollar insights such as:

• Demand‑aligned scheduling
• Labor cost control
• Pay accuracy

Insight: When budgets tighten, bottom‑line impact beats visionary technology.

Employee Experience & Development: Declining Strategic Priority

• Engagement — 55% plan to add or replace their an employee engagement system
• Learning — 52% are prioritizing learning management

Just a few years ago, these categories dominated HR agendas.

Today, they remain important—but fewer leaders view them as urgent.

The workplace power dynamic has shifted, and many organizations are reallocating investment toward technologies tied more directly to operational performance.

Yet demographics suggest this may be temporary.

As Baby Boomers continue exiting the workforce, structural labor tightening is likely to return engagement, reskilling, and internal mobility to the strategic forefront.

Insight: Short‑term deprioritization should not be mistaken for long‑term irrelevance.

One Important Caveat

In our research, we captured HR leaders priorities within the context of replacing their HRIS/HCM suite.

A core replacement naturally creates momentum to adopt adjacent modules from the same vendor.

This means the data reflects both intentional buying decisions and suite‑driven adoption.

What it does not fully capture is demand for best‑of‑breed solutions—including stand‑alone talent acquisition, leave management, analytics, specialized compliance platforms, and more—that add value to an organization’s existing HRIS suite instead of requiring a full suite replacement.

Final Thought

Potentially the most surprising insight from the HR leader 2026 priorities is the elevated focus on Talent Acquisition.

Despite slower hiring forecasts, the pressure to secure high‑quality talent has not eased.

If anything, organizations are shifting from volume hiring to precision hiring.

Overall, 2026 HR Leader technology investment trends emerge:

• Invest in technology that reduces risk.
• Prioritize tools that improve decision quality.
• Favor platforms with measurable business impact.

2026 is lining up to be a year where HR tech strategy is less about sweeping transformation and more about operational clarity, risk management, and actionable insight.