CollectivNews
Welcome to a monthly round-up of information relevant
to comms professionals and everyone interested in the fractional model.
January 2026
Hiring Trends from 2025: How Companies Reset the Talent Playbook for 2026
For many, 2026 is starting with a look backwards, evaluating: what worked, what didn’t, and what has to change now. And talent strategy has moved to the top of that list. Hiring is no longer a predictable, linear function; it’s become a fast-evolving system shaped by rapid skill turnover, hybrid expectations, and the high price of getting a hire wrong.
The trends that defined 2025 didn’t just tweak the process, they rewired the way organizations across industries find, assess, and keep the people they need next:
1. Skills-based (and “promise-based”) hiring is replacing the typical filters.
Companies are dropping degree requirements and leaning less on pedigree. They are hiring more for adjacent capabilities and learning agility, meaning people who can do most of the job now and grow into the rest quickly. The upside is a wider talent pool; the tradeoff is the need for crisp onboarding and managers who are able to ramp new hires up quickly.
2. AI is embedded in the hiring lifecycle. Employers use it to source by skills rather than job titles, automate first-round screenings, draft outreach, summarize interview notes, and protect candidates through identity and scam-prevention checks. The point isn’t to remove humans; it’s to remove friction. Automating top-of-funnel work lets recruiters focus on judgment, relationships, and closing.
3. Internal mobility is becoming the first stop. Instead of defaulting to external searches, organizations are recruiting inward. Internal talent marketplaces, skills inventories, and project-staffing tools help leaders see who can stretch into new roles. In a world where priorities shift quickly, internal mobility is cheaper, faster, and often a better cultural fit.
4. Hybrid and remote work are negotiated baselines. Flexibility is no longer a perk; it’s part of the compensation equation. Knowledge-work roles can default to hybrid, while remote options are used selectively to win specialized talent, recruit nationally, or keep key performers who might otherwise exit. At the same time, firms are tightening “remote-eligible” definitions and updating location-based pay bands. The winners are organizations that pair flexibility with clear expectations.
5. Quality-of-hire outweighs speed-of-hire. After several years of hiring whiplash, employers are shifting from “fill fast” to “fill right.” Structured interviews, sharper success profiles tied to performance, and post-hire feedback loops are becoming standard. Leaders have learned that mismatches cost more than vacancies, so they’re slowing down just enough to protect retention and team health.
6. Pay transparency and total-rewards storytelling are table stakes. Candidates increasingly expect salary ranges up front. Companies are responding with posted bands and clearer logic behind offers to reduce late-stage drop-offs. But compensation alone rarely wins. Total rewards: flexibility, growth pathways, mission, manager quality, benefits, and wellbeing are critical. Candidates not only ask “What will I make?” but also “What will I become here?”
7. “Build, buy, borrow” is the new workforce strategy. Companies balance three levers: build by upskilling internal teams; buy using selective external hiring for must-have expertise; and borrow via fractional leaders, contractors, and project specialists to fill urgent gaps. This mix is especially common in fast-changing functions like communications where speed matters and work is specialized.
The Takeaway: 2025 hiring went wider on who qualifies (skills-first), quicker on early screening (AI), more focused on developing from within (mobility), more human-centered in how offers are shaped (flexibility and transparency), more deliberate about fit (quality-of-hire), and more fluid in resourcing (fractional and project-based).
The advantage won’t come from hiring more people this year, it will come from building the right mix of capabilities, faster than your competitors. Communications is a prime example: the work is increasingly specialized, the stakes are high, and the needs can spike overnight, from reputation and issues management to change, internal engagement, executive visibility, and investor moments.
These shifts all point to the same reality: organizations are redesigning work as much as they’re redesigning hiring. And as roles, expectations, and employee value propositions change, communications becomes the connective tissue that keeps teams aligned, leaders credible, and change initiatives moving.
CommsCollectiv supports that work with seasoned fractional communications leaders who can plug in quickly, whether you need a steady hand for a transition, a specialist for a critical initiative, or added capacity during a peak period. Because in 2026, the ability to scale expertise at speed won’t be a nice-to-have. It will be how the best organizations stay ahead.
What’s in Store for 2026 According to the CollectivCommunity
During our final Caffeine & Camaraderie of the year, participants from our talent pool shared their predictions for 2026, knowing we might publish them. Their only request: a little grace (and forgiveness) if any of these forecasts miss the mark.
Agency consolidation will continue.
Between AI and its still-untapped potential, the rise of specialist boutiques, consultants, and fractional leaders, and ongoing chatter that the traditional agency model is in “serious trouble,” 2026 could be a challenging year for large communications firms.
Authentic voices will eclipse “AI slop.”
The pendulum is swinging away from clearly AI-generated messaging and toward human-generated storytelling. Communicators will increasingly partner with creators and storytellers who can deliver a trusted, distinctive voice.
Video podcasts will become the next talk shows.
Even if many people listen more than they watch, YouTube’s reach and convenience will push more podcasts to go fully visual. And compared with traditional talk shows, podcasts are far easier (and cheaper) to produce.
Humans will supplement AI as “video clippers.”
Hiring people to watch full podcast episodes and pull the best promotional clips is becoming more common. AI tools can help, but they do not always identify the most meaningful or memorable moments.
Resistance to AI will grow, especially among Gen Z.
Recent polling suggests many Gen Zers are thoughtful about when to use AI, citing concerns like energy use and climate impact. Combined with fatigue from low-quality “AI slop,” this may drive renewed interest in original, proprietary work created by people.
A return to analog.
Younger generations may push back on always-on tech, opting for simpler choices, from “dumb” TVs to flip phones and other back-to-basics alternatives.
The push to learn a trade will pick up steam.
Jobs less vulnerable to automation, such as HVAC technicians, carpenters, and plumbers, will continue gaining appeal, with more young people choosing vocational paths and avoiding heavy student debt.
What a Childhood Christmas in Guatemala Taught Me About Work, Purpose and Leadership
By Fernando Vivanco
Chief Communications Officer, Marelli
Every Christmas, I think about a friend from my childhood.
I was 11 years old living in Guatemala. On Christmas morning, after opening gifts, my father and I went for a walk around our neighborhood and ran into one of my best friends. He greeted us with the biggest smile and wished us a Merry Christmas.
His happiness that morning struck me as odd at the time. I knew how poor he was. He and his mother lived in a one-room structure made of cardboard, with a corrugated sheet of metal for a roof, on an empty corner lot. I remember being inside his cardboard house on several occasions and seeing his mother sweep the dirt floor as if it were tile.
He didn’t have a Christmas tree. He didn’t wake up to wrapped gifts. And yet, that Christmas morning he was beaming with genuine joy. For him, Christmas clearly had a higher meaning.
That moment has stayed with me.
While I have not seen him since my childhood, I think of him every Christmas. That experience has contributed to how I understand purpose and work because it echoes many of the values I was raised with.
My parents, both immigrants, worked incredibly hard to provide the basics for our family. What they gave us most wasn’t material. It was work ethic and a belief that life should be grounded in purpose, guided by faith and that success is more than just about ourselves.
My sisters and I learned early that if we wanted something, we had to work for it. I remember pulling weeds for a dollar an hour, collecting aluminum cans at the beach for spending money and selling fruit from neighborhood trees. None of it felt extraordinary at the time.
Those lessons have stayed with me throughout my career.
In many of my corporate communications roles, I haven’t always had large budgets or ideal conditions. But I’ve learned that constraints can sharpen creativity, resourcefulness and scrappiness. I’ve also learned that not all value is visible. Some of the most important contributions in organizations don’t show up neatly in dashboards or job titles. Over time, I’ve tried to lead and communicate in ways that respect people whose impact isn’t always obvious, because dignity and respect are not perks of seniority. They are leadership practices.
Most of all, that Christmas morning taught me that purpose outlasts circumstance. When people understand why their work matters, when it connects to something bigger than themselves, they are more resilient and more committed in how they show up. I’ve seen how purpose sustains people when resources are scarce, change is constant and pressure is high.
As communications leaders, we often focus on strategies and outcomes. Those matter, but culture is often shaped in quieter ways. In how we listen, who we notice and how we treat people when no one is watching.
Every year, I return to that childhood memory. It keeps me grounded in gratitude for what I have, mindful that there are many who do not share the same material blessings. And it reminds me that leadership is defined by the meaning we create, the respect we show others and the impact we leave behind.
The Responsible AI Comms Lab Returns
February 3, 2026
Recent data released by Axios and Gravity Research shows what many of us already feel: AI’s place in the corporate ecosystem has shifted, and communicators are expected to explain it, align teams, and protect reputations despite rising misinformation, uncertainty, and accountability pressures.
This is exactly why we built the Responsible AI Comms Lab. Here’s what a participate in the first cohort had to say: “[The Responsible AI Comms Lab] was probably one of the best things that I did for myself this year. Everything is changing so fast, and it gave me a platform to make sense of it all, gave me a community to sort of kick things around with. It helped me think about it with more rigor as it as it relates to my job and my work.”
— CCO, Major International Media Outlet
If you or your team are shaping your organization’s AI narrative, or about to be, this six-week program with live classes and hands-on learning gives you the framework, guardrails, and tools you’ll need.